I think he could do it, I’d like to see it, but there’s no way IN HELL it will happen.
I always thought he’d be perfect as Captain Scarlet. Then I realised that Captain Jack Harkness already is Captain Scarlet, so he’d just be typecast.
I honestly don’t see what the big deal is. Sure, Cap is an American icon, but they’re not making the character gay, and it’s not like Steve Rogers is usually associated with love interests anyway (for those who feel that the suspension of hetero disbelief might be an issue). Will some people make a big deal out of it? Sure. But given that Christian movies big (Chariots of Fire) and small (The End of the Spear) featured true-life Christian characters played by honest-to-goodness openly gay actors with very little negative attention, I doubt most of the movie-going public will care.
I thought the thread was going to be about how people didn’t want a UK actor playing such a distinctly American hero.
But John Barrowman is American, isn’t he? and I think he’d be great…
Nope, he’s British ('though born in Scotland). He just does a very convincing American accent.
Which was what was so amusing about the episodes of *Torchwood *with James Marsters: one was a British actor, faking an American accent, the other was an American actor, faking a British accent.
He does a convincing accent because he lived in America for a considerable chunk of his life.
IIRC, there was some minor concern among evangelicals about Allen playing Nate Saint. It was only because Steve Saint, Nate Saint’s son, expressed his confidence in the casting of Allen being the correct thing for the film that there wasn’t a LOT of negative attention.
NO.
It’s not about him being gay. I like him, he’s a decent guy and he’s easy on the eyes, but he is not that good an actor. His style is too hammy and broad–it works great on Broadway and the campier moments of* Torchwood*, but he just doesn’t have the gravitas to pull off Cap.
After seeing The Dark Knight, my thought: maybe Aaron Eckhart…
His jawline is rather impressive, isn’t it?
In fact, his parents moved to the US when he was 9 years old, so he’s Scotland-born but also (I’m assuming) an American citizen. He lived here from 1976 through 1990.
I was at the panel this came up in. At the con now, actually. It was an out of the blue suggestion - “You’ve played one Captain - what do you think about playing another?” Barrowman said, basically, “Sure, why not.”
It would be interesting. I like how that article says does a good American accent…yeah, that’s actually his accent.
I just watched the BBC show “The Making Of Me” where Barrowman goes around trying to discover what “made” him gay. Fascinating show from a scientific aspect.
But what was truly fascinating from a non-scientific aspect is how when he visits his parents (who live in “the [American] Midwest” - where they have lived since he was 9) he speaks with a perfect Scottish accent. As if they couldn’t understand him if he didn’t. At one point in the show he speaks to them via webcam and he uses the accent then, too. It was weeeeird.
Every so often in his “regular voice” (his American one) something slips in that sounds Scottish. Like Mike Meyers. But otherwise he seems completely American to me.
Why can’t Stephen Colbert be Captain America, though?
Is it kind of like Mel Gibson’s Australian/California accent transitions? But without the anti-semitism? 
Sadly, I doubt this guy will get cast. I think the Hollywood suits will be too afraid of casting a gay man as Cap. Sad, but true. (I know nothing of his work, so I can only say he looks like he could play the part, and I care nothing about his sexuality, naturally).
I really get why gay celebs try to stay in the closet. I guess it is hard for average viewer to accept a homosexual as a straight character. They’ll believe a man can fly, just don’t let that guy be Rupert Everett.
Unless he’s playing Northstar…
Actually, I slip back to my childhood accent (heavy southeastern Wisconsin) when I talk to my mother or sister. My husband definitely notices, and kind of chuckles at me when it happens. My usual accent is more an Upper Midwest blend. I suspect it’s similar for him.