death-g-reaper:

ladyoftheunderworld:

lesbuchanan:

bidiotka:

bidiotka:

is anyone else worried that this new ‘only gay actors should play gay characters’ trend can end up being super dangerous and taking us decades back?

for the record i’m not saying i’m for or against it… i’m just trying to wrap my head around it

if we demand that gay characters only be played by gay actors, we’re also taking opportunities away from lgb actors who don’t want to come out. we are also increasing the odds of actors being outed against their will because actors who’ll take on lgb roles will be questioned on their sexuality. also, this could be used as an excuse for straight actors as to why they don’t want to play lgb characters

I feel like people always end up focusing on the wrong thing like the problem isn’t straight people playing gay characters it’s the level of praise they get for it and how they talk about like.. what a brave role it was or something when for gay actors it’s not a role it’s just life

Plus there’s shit like John Barrowman being rejected for a gay role for being “too straight” when he’s literally a gay man and the role ended up going to a straight actor. Like the issue isn’t straight people playing gay characters the issue is that straight people just don’t seem to know how to not be fuckin weird about it

Also I think much more of this energy would be better focused on wanting more queer writers and directors than just actors, and I feel like this gets ignored as they aren’t on screen and obvious, but directors have more control over the finished product than any actor does, which is how you end up with the John Barrowman situation mentioned above.

I feel like it’s mostly a knee jerk to straight cis actors making a big deal of how good at acting they have to be to play something so foreign and strange as a gay person. There’s some straight actors that have played gay characters without backlash because they treated the role as any other and not some challenge they had to overcome.