So they’re making this movie called Celeste and Jesse Forever. Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg play a divorcing couple trying to remain friends. And Elijah Wood plays—and this is a real quote from the official press on the matter—Jones’s “saucy gay friend.”
Great.
Now, this is not about being anti-queen. Nor is not about “good” or “bad” representations of gay guys. And yes, we know Harvey Fierstein’s famous quote about how visibility is the most important thing of all. And we haven’t seen Wood’s take on “saucy” just yet. So you can call this jumping the gun if you like. But don’t say there’s no reason to worry.
Because we know what we’ve already endured. And their names are Sex and the City 2 and He’s Just Not That Into You and Confessions of a Shopaholic and No Strings Attached and on and on and on. Movies populated by highly specific (yet presented as highly typical) gays whose sole on-screen function is to provide solace, shoe advice, cocktails, cock jokes and sympathy period cramps. Didn’t make up any of that stuff just now, either.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Every male homosexual knows that there are all stripes of gay out there, not just the kind who live to be a pretty young straight woman’s accessory. So here’s hoping that the filmmakers know that too. And if this movie arrives in theaters and turns every fear and suspicious expectation we have on its head, then we’ll take it all back.
In Rock-n-Rolla we got Tom Hardy as a gay that ran with a crew of loutish crime lads. The Jason Statham remake of the Charles Bronson movie The Mechanic delivered a lethal gay hit man. Scott Pilgrim vs The World‘s gay best pal played by Kieran Culkin was one of the coolest screen creations of 2010. Hell, even Dave Matthews in Just Go With It possessed the never-before-known-to-humans-of-any-kind homosexual talent of being able to pick up coconuts with his buttcheeks.
All Wood’s character has to do is skirt the obvious and we’ll be happy. In the meantime the word “saucy” is going to hover over this project like an I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry fart cloud.
Caliban
It *might* be jumping the gun, but “saucy”?! As in, “Don’t get saucy with me, Bearnaise”? Maybe they decided “sassy” was too stereotypical?
Sounds to me like the cineplex in Gay Hell is going to need a new screen because the combination of Elijah Wood and Saucy Gay Friend has me picturing one of those big-eyed Keane paintings doing snaps in a Z-formation. Which is good really, because even in Hell you can only watch “Boat Trip” and “…Chuck and Larry” so many times.
Nat
I’m sorry, but Queerty – Queerty – is lecturing an actor about being saucy? Black hole, meet kettle.
Kieran
Blacks had plenty of “Visibility” in the Hollywood movies of the 1930s. It effectively cemented the “Yes suh, no suh” token black stereotype of the simple-minded, shiftless black man and servile black maids in the minds of generations of white people. Modern day Hollywood seems determined to give the gay community this same type of treatment by continually pushing the effeminate gay stereotype in the minds of straight movie-goers.
Matt
Who cares! Elijah playing gay just fleshes out my fantasy relationship I have with him even further!
Cam
Is he out yet?
Darling Nikki
This just reminded me of that stoooopid Virgin mobile commercial with the “token saucy gay” played by Project Runway vet Nick Verreos, with the dog…I HATE IT.
There isn’t anything wrong with “queeny” behavior if it’s not an affectation. But that commercial….
DarSco
Elijah Wood is a hottie!! He’s just gonna be himself in the movie lol
mattsy
He’s a total fag
Dave White
@Nat: Well, I’m a new writer here at Queerty, so I’m not sure what the site’s reputation has been on this subject in the past, nor what it’s unofficial stance on the ubiquity of “saucy gay friends” on TV and in movies has been to this point. But to clarify my post: visibility is great, of course. But it would be nice if comedy could find a way to move beyond the typical stomping ground of the tired old gay joke.
A good case in point: a recent episode of the new ABC sitcom “Happy Endings,” a show that features an almost “Sarah Silverman Program” type of regular gay character named Max–sloppy, video game playing, etc–focused on one of the female characters getting upset that Max wasn’t fulfilling his gayness duties of gossiping and shopping and grabbing her boobies in a playfully platonic way. So Max went out and found an extra-queeny guy for her to bond with. The guy who played the “new gay bestie” was a hilarious parody of the kind of character we’ve all come to know and the show was a cool commentary on stereotyping and its unintended consequences. The episode wasn’t anti-queen, just anti-business-as-usual.
So yeah, it’ll be nice of this Elijah Wood role could turn that stuff on its head too.
McMike
Yes, Elijah IMO is gay but Queerty needs to stop finding stuff to bitch about.
It is getting very old coming to this website and instead of reading an article about Elijah playing a gay character we get a piece of bitchiness instead.
Cam
@McMike:
The bitchiness is because the “Saucy Gay Friend” is the neutered sexless clown that gays have been relegated to in so many movies.
Jenny
The gay best friend is the new black girlfriend for cinemas straight white leading ladies. Think about it.
For years, nice white woman in cinema had the funky black girl friend on whose shoulder she could try and who would supply a humor (or be the first to die if it’s a horror movie).
Now, we see the rise and prominence of the gay best friend.
Isn’t it nice to be cinemas latest token minority side kick? You’ve come a long way, baby! Oh, that’s right. To add insult to injury, Hollywood prefers to employ straight actors in gay roles. So, gay actors get screwed.
😉
P.S.
Top to Bottom
Somehow, I’m not too worried about this one. I trust Elijah as an actor and think that he’s above playing a stereotypical ‘mo. if he let’s us down, then I’ll get pissy. But I think he has earned the benefit of the doubt.
Steve
Is it just me, or has Queerty gotten a lot whinier since it came back? Archetypes have been used for story telling since the dawn of time, and they will still be used way after we’re all dead and gone.
Matt
Got to disagree, Steve. Quite frankly, Queerty has become more intelligent since it’s “come back”
To speculate how actors will portray a certain role isn’t being “whiny.” It’s investigatory.