# Should an actor with homophobic views to allowed to play a homosexual character? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517 "2019-03-25T17:57:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/21 "2019-03-26T16:28:33Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > In other cases, you get cis men playing trans women (or cis women playing trans men), despite the fact that there are a number of trans actors who would love to have a big role in some of these films (not to mention it reinforces a bunch of gross stereotypes). This is overly simplistic. Almost all casting decisions come down to money. A super famous actress playing a trans man in a lead role will absolutely draw more patrons than an unknown trans actor would. I’m sure the hypothetical trans actor from the preceding paragraph would _love_ to play the title role, yes, but if you’re putting up millions of dollars of your own money to produce a movie (or play or musical or whatever), then you’re the one that gets to decide if you prefer losing money on social justice or making money with named actors. (Or trying to. Most of the time you’ll lose money no matter what, which is why trying to maximize your chance to make money is a high priority.) > [@bump](#): > > But based on their acting chops, and not anything else. This is so naive as to be meaningless. Acting chops is probably the last criteria for deciding who to cast, and likely is never even brought up. Everyone is talented enough, generally. The things that matter are scheduling, star power, money (quote/rate), chemistry with other actors, easy to work with on set, etc… I mean, imagine a straight role and you have a bunch of straight actors all vying for the role. You don’t really think the role gets awarded to the one with the best chops, do you? Everyone considered is more than talented enough. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/22 "2019-03-26T16:31:10Z")
So you would cast an actor known to be a member of the neo-Nazi party as a Holocaust surviver? Even if he was a well known actor wo would bring in the bucks and was willing to do it for a share of the take? I wouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/23 "2019-03-26T16:52:06Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > So you would cast an actor known to be a member of the neo-Nazi party as a Holocaust surviver? Even if he was a well known actor wo would bring in the bucks and was willing to do it for a share of the take? > > I wouldn’t. I personally wouldn’t hire Mel Gibson to play a Holocaust survivor, but I wouldn’t picket someone who did. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/24 "2019-03-26T17:12:13Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > This is so naive as to be meaningless. Acting chops is probably the last criteria for deciding who to cast, and likely is never even brought up. Everyone is talented enough, generally. The things that matter are scheduling, star power, money (quote/rate), chemistry with other actors, easy to work with on set, etc… > > I mean, imagine a straight role and you have a bunch of straight actors all vying for the role. You don’t really think the role gets awarded to the one with the best chops, do you? Everyone considered is more than talented enough. Whatever… I meant that casting should be done based on practical factors- acting chops was just my shorthand for that. Money, star power, chemistry, etc… are all practical factors. Casting shouldn’t be done to satisfy political purposes- I find it absurd that people get upset that casting directors/filmmakers don’t bend over backward to find people of the exact race/color/orientation that the character in the original source was. But I can see how casting someone whose views are specifically inimical to the character might be detrimental to the portrayal of that character ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/25 "2019-03-26T17:23:46Z")
Ah, gotcha, bump. I misunderstood, and tend to agree with you. This question can be asked from the other direction as well: Would you rather have an actor who isn’t politically correct, or [not make the movie at all](https://www.thewrap.com/rub-tug-future-film-uncertain-after-scarlett-johanssons-exit/)? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/26 "2019-03-26T17:32:10Z")
I’m an actor. I routinely pretend to be people I am not. That’s what acting is. Lately, I’ve been on a streak of playing villains. Despite what some of the lefties here apparently think, I’m actually a pretty nice guy. I do not usually shoot, stab, strangle or otherwise mutilate people that either annoy me or draw my attention. This weekend, I am going to pretend to be someone who does exactly that. I see no reason to apply some sort of bizarre, vaguely method-actingish filter to determine what roles I can accept. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/27 "2019-03-26T18:52:51Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Lately, I’ve been on a streak of playing villains. I see no reason to apply some sort of bizarre, vaguely method-actingish filter to determine what roles I can accept. The difference is that villains choose that path through the world. Race and sexual orientation are with you at birth. I guess the bottom line question for me is, if blackface or yellowface is wrong, why isn’t gayface (I don’t know what term to use here)? I’ll admit that at this point transgendered actors may be in short enough supply that they can’t fill all the roles but I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/28 "2019-03-26T19:18:57Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > I guess the bottom line question for me is, if blackface or yellowface is wrong, why isn’t gayface (I don’t know what term to use here)? I’ll admit that at this point transgendered actors may be in short enough supply that they can’t fill all the roles but I don’t know. Maybe because gayness is not visually apparent? I dunno. A couple of years ago, I was in a play called _Art_. Nothing in the script says whether my character is gay or straight. I chose to think of him as gay, because it fit the character as I understood the script. I don’t think this actually changed the way I portrayed him. His voice and mannerisms were not flamboyant or stereotypical or anything. It was just me internalizing who the character was, if that makes any sense. ---
**Author:** ![pmwgreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@pmwgreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pmwgreen)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/29 "2019-03-26T19:40:47Z")
You’ll be saying SNL cast members shouldn’t be in comedies next. Of course it should be allowed. I don’t think if an actor actually hates something, it generally pays to hire them to portray it, but I keep thinking of exceptions. Werner Klemperer in Hogan’s Heroes comes to mind. Christopher Walken has said in an interview he hates guns, and in King of New York, the director fired guns off camera to get him to flinch properly. It’s been a long time since I saw Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, but I thought the scientist was supposed to be upset about an upsetting situation. I don’t even think a story about a villain who doesn’t want to be villainous is particularly new. And I think there is a Straight Dope column on what to do if an actor playing a smoking role doesn’t actually smoke. On the other hand, Nazis, smoking, shrinking children, etc are all generally frowned upon. I think I would wait for reviews to see if lighting strikes and the film sounds interesting. ---
**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:** [March 26, 2019, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/30 "2019-03-26T21:07:42Z")
> [@pmwgreen](#): > > Of course it should be allowed. I don’t think if an actor actually hates something, it generally pays to hire them to portray it, but I keep thinking of exceptions. Werner Klemperer in Hogan’s Heroes comes to mind. That one proves the opposite of what you’re saying - Klemperer detested Nazis, and only agreed to take the role on the condition that Klink never came out on top at the end of any episode. It’s actually a perfect example of how letting someone portray a thing the actor hates leads to an unfavorable portrayal of that thing. Of course, the entire point of _Hogan’s Heroes_ was to make Nazis look bad, and the point of _The Color Purple_ is not to denigrate queer people, so it’s not a 1-to-1 comparison by any means, and it’s entirely possible for a homophobic actor to put in a strong, positive performance as a homosexual character. But, as far as I’m concerned, the issue isn’t if a homophobe could do a good job in the roll, so much as “Should homophobes be fired just for being homophobes.” And I’m totally okay with that happening. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/31 "2019-03-27T00:35:53Z")
FWIW, I’d be totally cool with firing someone if they’re acting like a homophobic dickweed. > [@Jragon](#): > > You’re kind of missing an avenue of oppression here. It happens quite a bit where minorities get soft-erased where based on a true story films have white people cast to play someone who was originally another race. In other cases, you get cis men playing trans women (or cis women playing trans men), despite the fact that there are a number of trans actors who would love to have a big role in some of these films (not to mention it reinforces a bunch of gross stereotypes). > > The situation isn’t **quite** as dire for gay and lesbian actors as, say, trans actors, but despite the stereotype acting as a field can be fairly conservative in some areas and that often reflects in hiring decisions. > > Now, it’s not that you can’t play across type – gay actors in fact complain about not being able to act in any role that’s not BIG NEON LIGHTS GAY CHARACTER after they come out. But the fact is, straight people, white people, cis people, and so on aren’t exactly as underrepresented as their minority counterparts, and not allowing aspiring minority actors to take roles that represent contributes to minorities not getting roles that portray their group, and then they also often get typecast out of roles that don’t represent their group, effectively cutting them out. > > In some perfect world where everyone is equal, no, straight people playing gay people or vice versa isn’t a problem. The presence of a power dynamic, as well as the volume of representation in each case, in the current cultural context does mean that if you want to fight bias in industry casting, it’s unfortunately going to be more okay to cast a gay actor as straight than a straight actor as gay (or represent a character based on a white historical figure with an actor of color, or have a trans woman play a cis woman, or whatever). > > Adding the homophobia into this just exacerbates the problem because not only is a gay actor not getting a role, they’re just straight up giving it to someone who hates them instead. Not to mention the natural concern that raises about how accurate or kind that portrayal is going to be. Especially if you’re not sure they have any homosexual people with any power on set to call anyone on their shit. I see what you’re saying, I really, really do. And in the case of someone who’s a different race, or cis vs. trans, that would make more sense. But I think this would only cause gay people to get stuck even more as “The GAY Actor”. Sadly, I worry someone might end up getting stuck playing only playing gay roles. I saw a big fuss over an actress being cast as a character because she wasn’t Jewish, and the character’s background was that she was born Jewish. (Or maybe it was vice versa?) How far do we want to take it? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517/32 "2019-03-27T13:20:38Z")
I remember things hitting the fan over the Broadway casting of [Miss Saigon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Saigon#Casting_controversies) > [@](#): > > Miss Saigon has received criticism for what some have perceived as its racist or sexist overtones, including protests regarding its portrayal of Asians and women in general. Originally, Pryce and Burns, white actors playing Eurasian/Asian characters, wore eye prostheses and bronzing cream to make themselves look more Asian,[35] which outraged some who drew comparisons to a “minstrel show”. > > In the London production of Miss Saigon, Lea Salonga originally starred as Kim, with Jonathan Pryce as the Engineer. When the production transferred from London to New York City, the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) refused to allow Pryce, a white actor, to recreate the role of the Eurasian pimp in America. As Alan Eisenberg, executive secretary of Actors’ Equity explained, “The casting of a Caucasian actor made up to appear Asian is an affront to the Asian community. The casting choice is especially disturbing when the casting of an Asian actor, in the role, would be an important and significant opportunity to break the usual pattern of casting Asians in minor roles.” This ruling led to criticism from many, including the British Equity, citing violations of the principles of artistic integrity and freedom. Producer Cameron Mackintosh threatened to cancel the show, despite massive advance ticket sales. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-an-actor-with-homophobic-views-to-allowed-to-play-a-homosexual-character/831517.md?page=1)