Straight Actor + Gay Role = New Blackface? — Page 2

Not sure which I dislike more, the minstrally Gay roles or the overly pandering ones like Greg Kinnear gave in As Good As It Gets.
Sort of opposite sides of a coin like Will and Jack in Will and Grace (a show I despised btw).

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^ I think it's funny when they have to make sure that a straight actor is 'comfortable' with gay material. I've had to play some intimate scenes with men and no director has ever asked me if I'm 'comfortable' with it.

An actor playing a gay character can be done in a heightened, vaudeville type style which it might be argued is an analog of blackface.

But it has nothing whatsoever to do with the sexuality of the actor in question. There was a time when black actors played in blackface (see Minstrel Man). There was also a time when gay actors played gay men as a comic comment on us v. them (or a closeted "us" v. them) (see The Nance).

A portrayal of a gay man can ring false, overplayed for comic impact, a play on stereotypes, and, as a general proposition, it has nothing to do with the performer being straight or gay. As it happens, although I had issues with Behind the Candelabra, I would not describe Douglas's or Damon's performances in this way. I thought they both did a credible job and played it straight (i.e., legitimately). And I certainly don't care at all about their sexuality in judging their work here.

Drag is the new blackface? I'd agree to a point. First of all, drag is not not new; it's much older than blackface.

But, more to the point, there is a difference between the typical broad (pun intended) style of drag (not that there's anything wrong with drag) and performances which realistically and sensitively cross gender, performances which are not intended to lampoon or playfully comment on the very nature of the opposite gender but, rather, in which the actor is merely playing a role of the opposite sex (e.g. Bedford's Lady Bracknell, Hunt's Billy Kwan, Anderson's and Veno+
ra's Hamlet).

Updated On: 6/17/13 at 01:04 PM

Yeah, you should read up on privilege.

"If I'm a frat boy, should I feel insulted and angry at the depictions of frat boys in movies?"

If the movie were to punch you in the mouth and knock your teeth out and then kill your frat brother, then yes, the experience is exactly the same.

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"...dirty-minded, foul-mouthed, liquor-ridden.."

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I see. Hard to tell intelligent satire from boneheadedness sometimes.

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If not exactly offended, I am frequently beyond bored with the hackneyed stereotypical portrayals of frat boys and also of white straight men in general (and yes, I know all fratboys are not white, that's beside my point). And when I am I call them out for lack of originality, specificity, freshness, individuality and for the cliches - perhaps self-perpetuating cliches - they are.

^ Absolutely!

I'm straight, but many of my musical dream roles are gay or bisexual, and I feel like my sexual orientation shouldn't determine my ability to take on those roles.

^^^^
So, that. Unethical and illegal.

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