You’ve likely heard by now that actor Lee Pace came out this week in a totally awkward interview with W Magazine.
The film, TV and stage star who is part of the Broadway revival of Angels in America sat down with W where he got a bit testy with the reporter when he was asked about his sexual orientation.
Pace added that he feels it’s important for gay actors to play the gay roles in both plays, but stopped short of labeling himself. He seemed a bit flustered and surprised by the question. “I’ve dated men. I’ve dated women,” he explained. “I don’t know why anyone would care. I’m an actor and I play roles. To be honest, I don’t know what to say—I find your question intrusive.”
Not surprisingly, everyone and their mom had an opinion about the way Pace handled the question.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Some folks sided with him and his request for privacy:
I legit don't care if this is weird on his part, I just want to wrap Lee Pace in bubble wrap and soft blankets and protect him from all too-personal questions and bring him hot chocolate. https://t.co/6HZKtaxX0E
— a cottage in st. mary mead (@hopebordeaux) February 28, 2018
Others were genuinely confused by the news:
Lee Pace wasn't openly bisexual???????
— ????M'Baku Acolyte???? (@MrGreatPerfekt) March 2, 2018
And then there were those who felt the need to correct him:
what lee pace could have said: i'm bisexual. i'm pansexual. i'm queer. sexuality is more fluid. i identify as gay but i have had relationships with women in the past.
what he did say: how dare you ask me about my own sexuality right after i said gay actors should play gay roles— character actress georgie rae (@georgiemorvis) February 28, 2018
Check out some of the other responses people have had…
Oh my god my boyfriend and I were just screaming at each other in the kitchen about Lee Pace versus Sufjan Stevens' contrasting levels of hypocrisy THE CLOSET IS TEARING US ALL APART
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 1, 2018
LEE PACE: gay actors should play gay roles.
INTERVIEWER: you’re in the angels in america revival. u gay?
LEE PACE: HOW DARE YOU!!! pic.twitter.com/XTFby3Mhj4— bobby finger (@bobbyfinger) March 1, 2018
As the Lee Pace Discourse ™ commences I'd like to remind you all that bisexuality, pansexuality & sexual fluidity are real whether you like it or not & that if someone has not yet found an identifier that works for them you need to back up & let them figure it out. https://t.co/yFssWHoiVV
— BringBackLookingHBO (@looking4evah) February 28, 2018
@TheAdvocateMag @leepace I don't see how ANYONE'S sexuality is any of anyone's business, public figure or no. Mr. Pace has good reason to find it intrusive & harassing. It has ZERO impact on him as a person & actor. Respect his right to privacy as you would your OWN. #notyourbiz
— Diana Valko (@Thrandiana) March 2, 2018
This! @leepace has the best attitude about our morbid penchant to continuously box ourselves into boxed labels like a bug display. Plus, it IS intrusive. If someone doesn't offer the info don't ask! https://t.co/UwYow1cnX8
— Souzou Ako (@souzou_no) March 2, 2018
My lust for Lee Pace is unabating. Despite my best efforts, today's headlines have merely exacerbated the situation. Please respect my privacy at this time.
— Gabe Gonzalez (@gaybonez) March 1, 2018
Lee Pace is my favorite actor on the planet. It’s not fair to ask someone who isn’t “out” to label their sexuality. Forcing someone to come out before they’re ready is never okay, and at the end of the day it was a VERY intrusive question. https://t.co/vqCsZqL8Sl
— petty putin ? (@melissarobbins_) March 2, 2018
Lee Pace is bored by your questions. I stan.
— Brandon (@brandonlgtaylor) February 28, 2018
JaredMacBride
Neither my mother nor I have any opinion, except that it is not our concern.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
“Pace added that he feels it’s important for gay actors to play the gay roles in both plays, but stopped short of labeling himself. He seemed a bit flustered and surprised by the question”
Note the lack of direct quotation. And: “He seemed a bit flustered and surprised by the question” is purely subjective. This a former gotcha Gawker writer. Just sayin
Sam6969
I understand we expect a lot from famous people to push forward our visibility, and we would like acceptance go faster. It is rightfully so frustrating and sometimes enraging, as years pass. Though, things are changing slowly at our life scale, but they do at a wider scale, even though, there may be ebb and flow.
Donston
As I said in the previous article, my issue here isn’t his refusal to “identify” himself or go in depth about his personal life but rather that he’s a 40 year old man who has been in the industry for quite a while and who everyone knows has been dating dudes for years. And you’re in an interview talking about gay actors in general. Yet, for some reason he feels supremely offended that someone had the nerve to ask him about himself. Once again, if this stuff really doesn’t matter we need to act like it doesn’t matter. Besides, he’s been around long enough to know better and has been in a glass closet long enough to know how to play the media game better.
My whole thing has always been I don’t care what you call yourself or what your particular “lifestyle” is. In fact, I really don’t care to know that. It’s just, if you have a real understanding of who you are, all of your nuances, and you know what you want and have been living a certain way for quite some time (including two relationships with dudes that both went on for multiple years) what’s the point of trying to shield that or manipulate that or be uncomfortable with that? It just comes off as something you’re ashamed of.
It’s not really an argument about identity or privacy. It’s more about self-understanding and self-respect.
Creamsicle
To be fair, Pace established his career in a time when coming out meant fewer roles, and especially fewer lead roles. He’s a fantastic actor, and I can see why he would want to limit the kind of pigeon holing that comes with big reveals like not being 100% heterosexual.
I think things are changing, but it’s fucking slow and mainly for actors who are already established. I would probably advise a young actor one the rise and hoping to score leading man roles to stay in the closet, even now. Not for the sake of their safety, but for the sake of the career they want. The only thing that’s going to change that is a lot more openly gay men and women in the business side of TV and Film production. It also requires that TV and Film studios stop trying to please everyone who bothers to write a letter or Facebook post about how scandalized they are at having GAY ACTORS (who would have ever imagined?) on the cast of their favorite shows.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
He’d be getting less hassle if he’d identified as a 5-year-old non-binary transmarsupial and yet somehow, “dated men and dated women” is not good enough and beyond the pale
Donston
I’m actually cool with that quote. If he wanted to leave it at that and go no further then he should have don that. As I said, it’s not about indentity or giving away all your personal life and all of your sense of self. It’s about not living in shame or trying to be manipulative. He had to take it a step forward and come off as offended and taken off-gaurd when he should have known better. That just rang as phony and naive to me. Once again, if he wants to act like it doesn’t matter then act like it doesn’t matter.
Donston
This remains the problem with public figures. It seems to always be either the shaming “I want to be private”/”I don’t want to discuss certain aspects of myself”/”how dare you even ask me things about myself” or it’s people using their “identity” and sexual behavior for self-promotion and social media gets. Rarely is a respectable middle ground found. Or least it’s rarely found in people who are younger than 40.
Sam6969
Donston, as previously suggested, your argument depends greatly on the meaning of the word “gay”, in this reported sentence: “Pace added that he feels it’s important for gay actors to play the gay roles in both plays, but stopped short of labeling himself. ” We actually do not know if “gay” was for him an umbrella term or an exclusive term. From this single word depends our interpretation of him not wanting to be labelled : “[he] stopped short of labeling himself”, writes the journalist himself, which means he was asked to label himself. IF he really felt “a bit flustered” (quoting the journalist and not “supremely offended”, as you wrote), it may be related to something else than shame, such as being fed up with all those limiting labels.
I know straight and straight-bi (not all of them) are more eager to reveal their last male or female fling, but they often do that just to feed their public image. Others, whatever their sexuality do not want to elaborate about their private life. He may be one of them and shame might no be in the equation. We cannot be sure of it. On the other hand, we also have our Adam Rippons, who love to talk about their love interests. So, there are cakes for everyone.
Pace is interviewed quite casually in his farm and he does not have to answer perfectly to all questions. Well, I certainly do not expect people (whether they are in their 40s or not) to be perfect in all circumstances. Media and social networks like to highlight, amplify and make a fuss out of little.
Anyway, all this discussion is based on little and we can carry on speculation a long time like that, withour further explicitation from him 😉
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@D
i suspect (with zero evidence) he decided he wasn’t gonna give that ferret of a journalist THE exclusive (kinda backfired; see ferret) and said just enough to be understood perfectly well enough by any one of good faith or an intact brain stem. I think he’s been setup. Would love to hear the recording of the interview, if there be one
Donston
I really wasn’t talking about the word “gay”. I’m simply talking about not exuding shame or fear. This is a dude who has been living at least a mostly “gay lifestyle” since he got into the industry. His only rumored long-term relationships have been with men. And he’s supposedly currently in a relationship with a guy that’s been going on for over a year. I don’t know. Sometimes I just don’t get people and their motivations. At a certain age and with certain experience and with you having played a ton of queer characters and in an interview talking about gay actors and with you living in a glass closet for many years it just shouldn’t seem like a big deal at some point. And then to make it a big deal and act personally offended does come off as extreme to me. If it’s truly not a big deal and it shouldn’t matter then just act like it’s not a big deal: I’ve dated men and women and I’m currently dating a man. Boom. No “label”. No need to give further insight into your life or the dimensions of your orientation if you don’t want to go there.
But maybe he was mistaken about what the nature of the interview would be and then was made to sound worse in the write-up. We all know the media is full of just as many a-holes as Hollywood. Ultimately, I don’t really care about Lee Pace himself or this interview. I just tend to look at the bigger picture.
Donston
Once again, I want to emphasis the issue I have is not that he won’t “label” himself. I actually find that refreshing. But it would be nice if so many people obsessed with non-conforming didn’t also have the tendency of being mealy-mouthed or didn’t exude a certain type of shame.
The dude has been with a guy for past two years. Yet, he’s scared to just say that. Beyond that, the only long term relationships he’s had have been with men. Yet, he’s unsuccessfully tried to shield that. He’s participated in a ton of queer projects and is currently promoting one and was talking about gay actors for goodness’ sake. It would nice for someone to be legitimately straight-forward and nonchalant while also not allowing themselves to get caught up in the “identity game”. That would be a great combo. But we just don’t see that. You can’t say “it shouldn’t matter” yet still get offended and act as if it matters a whole lot. Like, what are you holding onto at this point? It’s just kinda lame to me to be 40, have everybody know what’s up, yet you still feel a need to play these types of games and are still this self-conscious, especially since he’s no A-list-er.
DCguy
I got sick of the B.S. of glass closet representatives like formerly Anderson Cooper or Sean Hayes claiming that it’s “Offensive” to ask about their lgbt identification.
It’s only “Offensive” if they think that being lgbt is shameful or an insult.
Jessical Alba or Zoe Saldana don’t get “Offended” if people ask about their race in relegation to movie roles. John Cho specifically talks about wanting to represent Asian actors…. But now, any question about who Pace is….AFTER he said gay actors should play the role he’s playing, is offensive.
Man, that Hollywood shame spiral still really has a grip on these people.
StupidBoy
I thought that when it was “breaking news” that David Hyde Pierce and Sean Hayes came out. Each time, I thought, “They were IN?” Who knew?
riddleusthat
This is the the same interviewer who outed Anderson Cooper and who admitted he was trying to catch him in a gotcha. Notice how he “paraphrases” that lee said it’s important that gay people play gay characters. I’m sure this ex-gawker and current real housewives recapper asked him if it was important if gay people played gay characters. Then “caught” him by pointedly asking if he was gay himself.
Seems more of a set up. I don’t trust this ADMITTED weasel interviewer to have accurately represented the situation. I very much doubt lee, who consistently avoids discussing sexuality outside of the characters he’s played, would set himself up. He’s not a fucking idiot.
And the interviewer actually admitted he had a plan for asking him! He said “it didn’t go as planned”, so from the jump he was going to ask lee about his sexuality and force an answer from him.
Interviewer is charletan, begging for attention. Lee didn’t want to discuss, and now the entirety of planet earth is discussing.
dean089
My opinion is that it’s nobody’s f*cking business. Gay people are always talking about acceptance but we are so often the very last people to offer any.
Donston
I completely agree that in theory it’s “no one’s business”. It’s still disappointing that someone who is 40 and who has been living a pretty “gay lifestyle” for many, many years and has only had long term relationships with dudes and is in a relationship with a dude still comes off fidgety and cagey. You can come off self-assured and confident without giving away your whole life. I don’t care to know his business or “identifying”. His discomfort and defensiveness is what’s disappointing. And it’s a discomfort and shame many gay and gay-leaning people still exude. That’s the problem.
Donston
Everyone has the right to their privacy, to not divulge too much of themselves and their lives, to come out whenever they feel, and to identify as something if they choose to. However, the flipside of that is if you’ve been living in a glass closet for many, many years it’s gonna exude a certain amount of gay shame and manipulation. That’s inevitable. The problem I have with Pace was not his somewhat evasiveness but rather his cliches and his defensiveness. Despite all the supposed “progress” this is still so frequent in people who should have matured past that point. He probably would have been better off just saying ,”I don’t discuss my love life”. Once again, it’s disappointing more than anything else. He’s at least not likely another Kevin Spacey.
I also try to tell myself that we don’t know someone’s history or what’s going on in their heads or their priorities.
Jaxton
Lee Pace has been refreshing in a world dulled by identity politics and its rules and regulations..
Puckersnique
It was a completely valid follow up question from a journalistic stand point. He may have trapped himself unintentionally, but that doesn’t mean the interviewer was out of line. He stated that gay actors should play gay roles while starring in “Angels in America”. I’ll go one better and say that if the interviewer hadn’t followed up with the “So, are you gay” question, then they wouldn’t have been doing their job.