# Mainstream movies with gay main characters: how hard could it be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493 "2007-10-29T20:46:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/1 "2007-10-29T20:46:22Z")
_Entertainment, Weakly_ just had a moderately interesting article about _Brokeback Mountain_: namely, that the movie made a bundle despite Hollywood’s fears that it was a gay romance; and that despite _Brokeback_’s success, we still haven’t seen a revolution of filmmaking where the number of gay characters exceed minor background noise. To sum up the major points in the article: television, which has 22 hours to fill each season, handles gay characters at least better, if not well. Television also has a multitude of demographics to target, across multiple channels, on a stable schedule, with a variety of shows. Film, which has 2 hours to capture its audience, sacrifices nuance for plot; and film targets demographics very broadly, across a narrower variety of genres, and so is more inclined to change a main character from gay to straight if having a gay character means risking $50 million in ticket sales. Studios aren’t producing movies with gay characters (unless the movie is **about** gayness, like _Philidelphia_ or _In and Out_ or _The Birdcage_, or, ugh, _I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry_). Studios **say** this is because writers aren’t giving them quality scripts. Writers say they aren’t writing scripts like these, because studios won’t make them: Catch-22. As one quoted writer said, “My favorite genre of movies is movies that get made.” But _Brokeback Mountain_ proved it could be done. So the trick is to come up with a **mainstream movie** that also has a gay main character or two — preferably as something more substantial than the comedy-relief hairdresser! — which straight audiences will shell out money for. Well… we’re the Straight Dope. How hard could it be to come up with a script idea like that? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/2 "2007-10-29T21:17:21Z")
Didn’t _My Best Friend’s Wedding_ have a gay character in a rather large (if supporting) role? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/3 "2007-10-29T21:20:15Z")
[QUOTE=foolsguinea] Didn’t _My Best Friend’s Wedding_ have a gay character in a rather large (if supporting) role? [/QUOTE] Yes. Her friend George as played by the also gay…or perhaps bi, I’m not sure which, Rupert Everett. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/4 "2007-10-29T21:26:49Z")
I think that’s more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than a catch-22 situation. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/5 "2007-10-29T21:26:54Z")
[QUOTE=Fish] _Entertainment, Weakly_ just had a moderately interesting article about _Brokeback Mountain_: namely, that the movie made a bundle despite Hollywood’s fears that it was a gay romance; and that despite _Brokeback_’s success, we still haven’t seen a revolution of filmmaking where the number of gay characters exceed minor background noise. [/QUOTE] Haven’t read the article, but I’m glad it got written, and someone’s paying attention. After Brokeback came out there were predictions that it was some sort of mainstream door opener and we’d see a deluge of high quality, profitable, gay-themed movies. I said “fat chance.” Unfortunately, I was right. We did get _300_ though. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/6 "2007-10-29T21:28:12Z")
Well, all the Harry Potter movies have a gay character in a major supporting role. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/7 "2007-10-29T21:31:39Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Well, all the Harry Potter movies have a gay character in a major supporting role. [/QUOTE] Yes, but JK Rowling kept him in the closet until recently. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/8 "2007-10-29T21:32:18Z")
\*\*Kiss Kiss Bang Bang \*\* paired Robert Downy Jr as a theif/actor teamed up with a gay private eye played by Val Kilmar. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/9 "2007-10-29T21:33:20Z")
Willie Garson is going to be in the film version of “Sex and the City” as is Mario Cantone (who I think was the wedding planner.) It seems to me that there is a detective series where the main character is gay. Why not a standard mystery? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/10 "2007-10-29T21:43:23Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] the also gay…or perhaps bi, I’m not sure which, Rupert Everett. [/QUOTE] Gay. > [@dequixote](#): > > It seems to me that there is a detective series where the main character is gay. Why not a standard mystery? There are a number of LGB (not sure about T, but probably) series out there. One that’s been adapted onto film is the Donald Strachey series, by the gay netwrk here!. There have been two films in the series to date (starring openly gay Chad Allen as Strachey) and a third (and I think perhaps a fourth) is in the works. I’d like to see more mainstream films that simply include LGBT characters as a matter of course, of course (heh) but the reasons we aren’t have already been laid out pretty clearly and it comes down to money. A studio isn’t going to endanger an enormous investment by including material that might provoke a backlash when they can shuttle that sort of thing down to their indie imprint and get the benefit of both the layer of insulation and the credit for making the picture at all. BBM wasn’t a “mainstream” film anyway. Its main producer and US distributor was Focus, the art house imprint of Universal. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/11 "2007-10-29T21:43:35Z")
Willem Defoe plays a gay FBI agent in _Boondock Saints_. The character’s quite the freak, but he’s incredibly good at his job, and intimidates the hell out of the NYPD detectives assigned to work with him. Not at all a stereotypical gay character, despite the drag scene at the end of the film. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/12 "2007-10-29T21:47:26Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] \*\*Kiss Kiss Bang Bang \*\* paired Robert Downy Jr as a theif/actor teamed up with a gay private eye played by Val Kilmar. [/QUOTE] Really? I thought he was straight, but just liked the way “Gay Perry” sounded so he kept it. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/13 "2007-10-29T21:50:06Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] There are a number of LGB (not sure about T, but probably) series out there. One that’s been adapted onto film is the Donald Strachey series, by the gay netwrk here! [/QUOTE] What’s the gay network called again? My local doesn’t carry it. I do get lots of religious channels though. I get those free. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/14 "2007-10-29T21:51:59Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] Gay. [/QUOTE] I’ve long thought that as well, but Wikipedia says he’s bi, hence my qualification. Ahh, and here is why. > [@wikipedia article on Rupert](#): > > In 2006 Everett published his memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins. In it he revealed he had had a 6-year affair with British television presenter Paula Yates. “I am mystified by my heterosexual affairs — but then I am mystified by most of my relationships," he said, with the article describing him as bisexual as opposed to homosexual.[2] But in a radio show with Jonathan Ross, Everett described his heterosexual affairs as resulting from adventurousness: “I was basically adventurous, I think I wanted to try everything”.[3] [QUOTE=levdrakon] What’s the gay network called again? My local doesn’t carry it. I do get lots of religious channels though. [/QUOTE] LOGO. ---
**Author:** ![Malvert\_P.Redd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Malvert\_P.Redd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malvert_P.Redd)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/15 "2007-10-29T21:58:37Z")
_Top Gun._ I don’t care what you say. When’s the last time you saw male volleyball players behave like that? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/16 "2007-10-29T21:59:57Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] LOGO. [/QUOTE] Any original productions on LOGO worth watching? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/17 "2007-10-29T22:00:37Z")
One movie that tends to get overlooked is [Dog Day Afternoon](http://imdb.com/title/tt0072890/). Sonny (Robert DeNiro), the main character is definitely gay, with a possibly transgender-oriented (still male, but desiring a sex-change) lover. Their homosexuality is a side topic to the main story - the bank robbery - and not the primary focus of the film. The story could easily have been altered to downplay Sonny’s sexuality and still have essentially the same movie. (Kudos to Sydney Lumet for not hiding the sexuality of his protagonist.) ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/18 "2007-10-29T22:06:49Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] Any original productions on LOGO worth watching? [/QUOTE] Honestly, I don’t watch it often. It’s on the digital cable which we only have a box for in the living room and since I’m on the computer in the bedroom most of the time, that’s the TV I usually watch. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Noah’s Ark though. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/19 "2007-10-29T22:11:14Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] What’s the gay network called again? [/QUOTE] There are two in the US, [Logo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_%28TV_channel%29) (the sucky one) and [here!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here%21) (the slightly less sucky one). Logo has more resources because it’s a Viacom property although from what I hear from people involved with various productions the budgets are pretty miniscule. They used to play a lot of repeats of cancelled CBS series like _Some of my Best Friends_ but those have been more or less phased out. Logo edits for commercials and for content, which makes them suck by definition. And they’re oddly inconsistent about how they edit. For instance, they mute the word “shit” in the feature films they show but they don’t mute it from Queer as Folk repeats. I think about canceling it every time I pay my cable bill, but they pop just enough original programming of interest (_The Big Gay Sketch Show_ and _Rick and Steve, The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World_ for instance) to keep me reeled in. They’re supposedly developing a reality series around Lance Bass, so that ought to be good for any number of laughs. here! relies on its distribution network partners for much of its content so there are a lot of foreign films. The channel is available either by subscription or VOD depending on the provider (mine is VOD). I get mine VOD, so I get about four new films per week (although the library is fairly small and the rotation is swift). here! also has a number of original series, including the great gothic-soap-opera-with-bunches-of-nudity _Dante’s Cove_, and original films for the American market including the aforementioned Donald Strachey series. ---
**Author:** ![Malvert\_P.Redd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Malvert\_P.Redd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malvert_P.Redd)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493/20 "2007-10-29T22:11:40Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] One movie that tends to get overlooked is [Dog Day Afternoon](http://imdb.com/title/tt0072890/). Sonny (Robert DeNiro), the main character is definitely gay, with a possibly transgender-oriented (still male, but desiring a sex-change) lover. [/QUOTE] cough_Al Pacino_cough [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mainstream-movies-with-gay-main-characters-how-hard-could-it-be/424493.md?page=2)