# Straight Actors, Gay Roles **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2000, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093 "2000-09-13T23:13:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DRY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/21 "2000-09-15T04:44:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AWB \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Bricker \* > > \*\*Desdemona must be a different color than Othello. > > \*\* > > I saw a production of Othello with Patrick “Capt. Picard” Stewart as Othello, not in blackface, but with an almost-all black cast. (He and one actress were the only whites.) Fantastic performance! > > They didn’t change any dialog, so the line where Othello says something like “I am black!” was rather strange. \*\* FWIW, the BBC production of Othello had Anthony Hopkins (in blackface) as Othello and Bob “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” Hoskins as Iago. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/22 "2000-09-15T09:41:12Z")
> [@](#): > > But when is it appropriate to worry about race and ethnicity in casting? I know it’s becoming increasingly popular to view casting decisions for Shakespearian plays in a more “colorblind” way. I think this is harder to do with more recent plays (Miller, O’Neill, etc.) since they are often rooted in 20th century settings where race is harder to ignore for contemporary audiences. FWIW, even gender is becoming less of an issue. I recently saw a production of **The Tempest** with Vanessa Redgrave as Prospero, and with no text revisions (she did look quite butch, though) ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/23 "2000-09-15T09:57:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bricker \* > \*\*I saw the same production, AWB, at the Folger 🙂 \*\* Actually, I saw it at the Shakespeare Theatre in DC, on 7th St. NW. Isn’t the Folger on E. Capital? ---
**Author:** ![lucie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed8c4c/32.png) [@lucie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucie)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/24 "2000-09-15T15:53:40Z")
I spent several years in a family theater where the casting was very color-blind and the sexual orientation of the actors was never an issue is casting. I never heard of any audience member having a problem with it at all. The only mention that I even heard about was from a friend of mine who was watching a show in which a family consisted of two blond children, a hispanic mother, and an african-american father. Two elderly ladies seated in front of my friend had a quick conversation when the father came onstage: lady #1: “He’s their father?” lady #2: “Must be from a former marriage”. Considering that these shows played to average Americans in the sticks, one might consider the lack of reaction to mixed-race casting surprising, but I always found people watching live stage to be a whole lot more able to suspend their own reality than a cinema or television audience. Why? I don’t know. Magic of the theater, I guess. Maybe just watching live people (actors) right in front of them who didn’t care about such things brought them into that frame of mind. It’s a pity that people have a hard time seeing an openly gay actor in a straight role, because Rupert Everett would be an incredible James Bond. And Sir Ian McKellen is devastatingly sexy IMHO. I don’t think sexual oreintation should matter. There are rarely any obvious physical clues (none at all in a good actor), unlike race or gender. Regarding the flap over Jonathan Pryce - I thought the character he played in Miss Saigon was written as a Eurasian character, and this was one of the reasons it turned into a big issue. It could have been played by either wiht equal validity. I could be remembering this worng, though. ---
**Author:** ![Iolanthe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7bcc69/32.png) [@Iolanthe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iolanthe)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/25 "2000-09-15T15:56:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AWB \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Bricker \* > > \*\*I saw the same production, AWB, at the Folger 🙂 \*\* > > Actually, I saw it at the Shakespeare Theatre in DC, on 7th St. NW. Isn’t the Folger on E. Capital? \*\* Yep. 201 East Captiol St. The Shakespeare Theatre (7th & D NW,) used to be part of the Folger Shakespeare Library, but they haven’t been for at least 10 years (maybe much longer.) Both the Shakespeare Theatre and the Folger put on shows. (Slightly confusing, I know.) I would have liked to have seen that production of Othello, but the one I want a time machine for is the Othello with Avery Brooks as Othello and Andre Braugher as Iago. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/26 "2000-09-15T16:02:28Z")
Ian McKellen is gay? Blink. I had absolutely no idea, and had never heard this before. That alone should blow a few folks’ stereotypes. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/27 "2000-09-15T16:30:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LaurAnge \* > \*\*White people play white people and so on because no matter how great an actor is, you can’t change your physical appearance. \*\* Tell that to all of us who laughed our asses off when Eddie Murphy played the old Jewish guy in “Coming To America”. And just where do you think they got the Klingon actors to play the parts in Star Trek? It’s called “makeup”. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/28 "2000-09-15T17:23:42Z")
People may not have known about Mr. McKellan because he hasn’t been out for very long; I think he officially “came out” in the early 90s. Something of a brouhaha arose when he was knighted a year or two later – apparently he was the first _ **out** _ gay man to be so honored, although hardly the first gay man \. ---
**Author:** ![lucie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed8c4c/32.png) [@lucie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucie)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/29 "2000-09-15T18:33:24Z")
His one-man show, “A Knight Out in Los Angeles” was supposed to have been truly wonderful. I wish I could have gotten tickets for it. He has a wonderful site at [http://www.mckellen.com](http://www.mckellen.com) He actually answers a lot of his online fan mail. Seems like a great guy as well as a good actor ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/30 "2000-09-15T19:37:17Z")
FWIW, Deaf people find it very insulting when hearing actors are hired to portray Deaf roles. There’s been an important movement to get Deaf people to play Deaf. For example, in the Star Trek: TNG episode “Loud As A Whisper”, the Deaf mediator Riva was portrayed by Howie Seago, who is Deaf in real life. ---
**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:** [September 15, 2000, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/31 "2000-09-15T19:55:55Z")
Random thoughts: Thespians? We will have no stereotypes of lisping female gay actors please. The Phantom was played by Robert Guillaume of Benson fame with a white Christine. The theatre got TWO letters of protest. Michael Boatman of Spin City is a straight playing a gay guy. ---
**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:** [September 15, 2000, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/32 "2000-09-15T20:05:23Z")
Well, what about this: if only gays can play gay roles, does that mean that only straights can play straight roles? Also, I think a few years back, there was a uproar, as a local school was doing a stage production of Little Women, and the girl who played Beth was black. I thought that was silly to complain about. It’s a play! If she’s a good actress, who cares? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/33 "2000-09-15T21:43:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lucie \* > \*\*Regarding the flap over Jonathan Pryce - I thought the character he played in Miss Saigon was written as a Eurasian character, and this was one of the reasons it turned into a big issue. It could have been played by either wiht equal validity. I could be remembering this worng, though. \*\* You’re quite right. Pryce played “The Engineer,” a Vietnamese pimp whose bar/whorehouse was the scene of the tongue-in-cheek “Miss Saigon” contest that starts the show. The Engineer is a central figure throughout the show, and one of his numbers - “The American Dream” - makes almost explicit reference to his being Vietnamese. - Rick ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/34 "2000-09-15T23:55:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \* > \*\*FWIW, Deaf people find it very insulting when hearing actors are hired to portray Deaf roles. \*\* It’s worth exactly zip in my book. Since when does any person or group have the right to go through life without being offended or insulted, especially by such trivial crap? Buncha whiners, says I. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2000, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093/35 "2000-09-16T00:27:07Z")
Since actors are by definition being someone different onstage from who they are in their private offstage lives, I don’t think that race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other differences should matter, unless the director is using them to achieve a particular effect. Otherwise, why not have only divorced people play divorced people, only redheads play redheads (no wigs or dye allowed), only people of Greek ancestry play Greeks, only plumbers play plumbers, etc? I personally love to see unusual casting, especially reversals of race or gender. Sometimes such casting helps to bring out previously unexamined elements of the script, or focus the viewer’s attention in a new way. In daytime television, there are a number of cases in which a part has been recast with a person of a different ethnic background, without any changes to the character’s history or behavior. I do understand the concern of deaf actors – it’s more difficult for them to play hearing parts, and so they feel that they are losing work opportunities if deaf characters are played by hearing actors. I think the solution to that problem is for more scripts to include deaf characters, or for parts to be cast without regard to hearing ability, and then played accordingly. Films and television have a terrible record when it comes to the disabled. Of course, historically they also have a bad record when it comes to gay people (although that is slowly changing). But since gay actors have always been able to play straight parts, that hasn’t necessarily been a barrier to their employment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-actors-gay-roles/33093.md?page=1)