“I would never want to tell a story that really should be told by somebody who’s lived that experience. Having said that, it’s a slippery slope conversation because that means I could never play another straight character if I’m going to hold everyone to the letter of this particular law. I think it’s such a grey area. There are ways for men to tell women’s stories, or ways for women to tell men’s stories. But we need to have our finger on the pulse and actually have to care. You kind of know where you’re allowed. I mean, if you’re telling a story about a community and they’re not welcoming to you, then f*ck off. But if they are, and you’re becoming an ally and a part of it and there’s something that drove you there in the first place that makes you uniquely endowed with a perspective that might be worthwhile, there’s nothing wrong with learning about each other. And therefore helping each other tell stories.”–Actress Kristen Stewart, to Variety weighing in on why Hollywood should not have to cast openly queer actors as queer characters. Stewart also defended the casting of her Happiest Season co-star, Mackenzie Davis, as a lesbian in the film.
Liquid Silver
Duh. Because we’re going to decide which stories are valid and which are…not. One guess whose are not.
It’s kind of a moot point. Hyper-specialization is going to lead to…not choosing the best “actor” for the job, but choosing the best background fit. Half the time the production will be not that great, audiences won’t respond, and it won’t make the holy buck. Production companies won’t bother a second time and will head back to the big names.
Roy Ajax
She doesn’t “slam” forced casting. The whole point of acting is pretending to be someone different. What’s next? Only real super heros can play in Marvel movies?
MacAdvisor
I can live with that rule as it would drastically limit the Marvel movies produced and redirected capital to better movies.
trsxyz
Haa-haa! Exactly…
Donston
Kristen gives a reasoned answer. In an ideal world she’d be entirely correct. But this isn’t an ideal world. It is complete nonsense to only expect “queers” to play “queers”. It also doesn’t make sense. People can identify as whatever. Fluidity and contractions are a thing. And you never know anyone’s real life experience or where they actually are in the gender, sexual, romantic, emotional, commitment spectrum. All you know is what these actors present to the public. It is indeed a slippery slope. On the other hand, the industry is so heavy with biased casting, hetero pressures, internalized phobias, glass ceilings and shallow lip service.
It’s a nuanced issue. And anyone who can’t see it as a nuanced issue is either ignorant or an a-hole.
Jake123
I agree with her.
Cam
Every single time this story gets brought up we have established Hollywood folks screaming that this will be a slippery slope.
Except people have been screaming about this for over a decade and not only hasn’t it become a slippery slope, there are still hardly any openly LGBTQ actors because outside of Ryan Murphy or Greg Berlanti, people won’t hire them.
Stewart came out AFTER she achieve massive success in Twilight and already had movie deals waiting.
Until I see a line of straight actors on unemployment because of them not getting roles in the 2 movies a year that feature LGBTQ characters I’ll not be clutching pearls over this.
BaltoSteve
What they all fail to take into account, even Kristen, is that she has been playing a straight version of herself, UNTIL she came out. It is a disingenuous argument. How many cis-gendered straight actors had to pose and play a gay version of themselves most of their lives to fit in? When critical thinking is applied, this argument about gay actors not having the life experience to play straight characters is ridiculous.
Cam
@BaltoSteve
So true, the entire Twilight series was emotional porn for young straight girls.
Dymension
That’s a funny concept. Last time I checked, actors are always telling stories they haven’t lived. It’s called ACTING. You needn’t have experienced it to be able to act it.