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Will an out gay finally win an Oscar for playing a gay character?

By · 12 comments · Updated on January 2, 2024
Andrew Scott, Jodie Foster, Colman Domingo

On January 23rd, check the Weather Channel to see if hell’s frozen over. That’s the day we just might find that a record number of out gay/lesbian actors have been Oscar nominated for gay/lesbian roles. 

I’m specifically speaking about a trio of folks who are already Golden Globe nominated–Andrew Scott for All Of Us Strangers, Colman Domingo for Rustin, and Jodie Foster for Nyad.

A single such instance doesn’t happen very often—let alone three of them–since (as I’ve previously suggested) Oscar prefers straights playing queers, thinking it oh so “brave” of them to do so. In a similar line of thought, Oscar nominees and voters traditionally snub gays playing gays, as if they aren’t really acting. (Remember when Rupert Everett was a lock to get nominated for 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding? He didn’t.) 

The “not really acting” trope is absurd, of course. Wouldn’t that mean a straight playing a straight isn’t acting? Should they take Meryl Streep’s three Oscars away? Besides, Scott playing a guy who settles scores with his dead parents, Domingo portraying a famed civil rights activist in a crisis, and Foster embodying a feisty swimming coach are definitely acting, and very well, thank you. They are certainly not just playing themselves any more than Gary Oldman was doing that, seeing as Churchill was reportedly straight! 

Related:

Why are Oscar voters still afraid of two men having hot, steamy sex?

The Academy’s eagerness to nominate straight actors for LGBTQ roles as long as the characters keep their sex lives strictly PG-13 sends the wrong message.

Best Actor is the only category where someone openly gay was ever nominated for playing a gay character. A year after the Rupert Everett snub was when Sir Ian McKellen got a Best Actor nod for playing director James Whale in Gods and Monsters. It seemed seismic since it never happened before–or again. (Back to supporting: Yes, James Coco was up for 1981’s Only When I Laugh, in which he played a gay actor, but if Coco was gay in real life, he certainly wasn’t out. And Jaye Davidson got nominated for 1992’s The Crying Game, but Jaye is a gay man, not a trans woman like his character.)

In light of that, Bradley Cooper (Maestro) has the edge to win this time—not only because he’s really good as conductor Leonard Bernstein, but because Bernstein was bisexual and Bradley is thought of as straight. (People have short memories and have forgotten the old rumors). Oscar feels that’s capital-A Acting! Let’s not forget that last year’s Best Actor, Brendan Fraser, was also a straight guy playing bi (in The Whale). What’s more, he transformed himself physically (with prosthetics, to look larger), as did Cooper, with that famous new schnozz. There’s also the idea that “This actor hasn’t gotten their due and finally deserves the award,” which sometimes helps—but not always (ask Glenn Close).

Great Scott

At an event for All of Us Strangers, I got to ask gay director/screenwriter Andrew Haigh about this irritating phenomenon, and he agreed with me. “It’s silly,” he said. “Gay actors playing gay parts don’t get enough recognition. There’s nothing I can do about it, and it’s so frustrating. All I can do is keep making the films I make and casting who I want.

“I cast Andrew Scott,” he went on, “because he totally understood the character. We both know what it was like to grow up gay in the 1980s.” “But he’s certainly not playing himself,” I interjected. “Not at all!” assured Haigh. “Every inch of him is acting in this story.”

Said Scott himself the same evening, “Coming from Catholic Ireland, I feel like one of the biggest achievements for me is emancipation from my feelings of shame. My parents were very accepting of me. But the film is about the accidental cruelty of family. I sat them down once and I said, ‘You have to forgive yourself of any negative feelings you had before this conversation, because the media fed people such fear mongering.’” Scott added that his job in Strangers “was to be unfettered and bring as much of my experience to it.” And, dear Oscar voters, that’s what all actors do. You’re taught in acting class to call on your own emotions and experiences as they might relate to your character. And that doesn’t mean you’re not acting!!!

The importance of being Ernest

Meanwhile: Is a gay man somehow behind the creation of another Oscar contender, Killers of the Flower Moon? Well, sort of. All kinds of heteros are involved in the acclaimed film about the murder of Osage members in 1920s Oklahoma—mainly director/cowriter Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro—but late gay screen icon Montgomery Clift also played a role. 

At a promo event I attended, DiCaprio talked about his naively greedy character, Ernest, who loves his Osage wife on some levels, but who’s also following his uncle’s advice to kill her relatives for money. “He’s an unreliable protagonist,” said Leo. “He doesn’t even trust himself.” 

Interestingly, the actor added that Monty Clift’s movies were instrumental in helping him understand the character.

DiCaprio specifically named Red River (a cattle drive western, with Clift taking the reins from tyrannical dad John Wayne), The Heiress (with Clift bamboozling the love-starved title character), and A Place in the Sun (with Clift rising up the ranks of his family company and in the process dumping his plain Jane girlfriend for glittering socialite Liz Taylor). 

“The corruption of the American dream, the lust for life,” is how Leo described these themes. “And the depths you will go the to achieve that.” Yep, that pretty much describes us gays, lol.

Eat drink man woman man

Add another queer-themed movie to the golden roster: Ira Sachs’ Passages—about a gay couple whose relationship is rocked when one of them has an affair with a woman—has been copping notice from various awards groups. It sounds plucked right out of a Moms For Liberty menage! 

At a dinner at the East Village eatery Ella Funt for the Russell Tovey and WePresent doc Life Is Excellent–about late gay artist David Robilliard–I asked Sachs if he faced any resistance to his movie because of the queer theme. “It helps that there’s a woman in it,” he divulged, sincerely. I admitted to him that I found the characters a bit icky, until I realized that was the point and I totally gave in—and he replied, “But they’re sexy and fun too!” 

Sachs will next do a short film concerning late photographer Peter Hujar, as well as a feature about avant-garde musician Arthur Russell. Hujar and Russell—like Robilliard—died of AIDS, and I have to thank Sachs and Tovey for preserving their history.

Wrestle with this

Hunky Zac Efron is terrific as a troubled ’80s wrestler in The Iron Claw.

At a post-screening talk, costar Stanley Simons was asked how the actors all became familiar with each other on the set. “When you’re all oiled up and wearing hot pants,” he replied, bemused, “it’s very easy to get to know each other.” Helleaux!

One more thing…

I hear Bernadette Peters was asked to play a supporting role in Boop! The Musical, the Broadway-bound show about Jazz Age cartoon character Betty Boop. She either couldn’t–or wouldn’t–do it, and that’s good. Bernadette’s been described as an “eternal kewpie doll,” but she’s long proven that there’s a lot more she can boop-boop-ee-do.

Related:

Queer films battle for Oscars! I break it down for you!

Author, columnist, and bon vivant Michael Musto gives his sharp take on this year’s queer crop of Oscar bait.

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