#1
Posted: 5/5/10 at 7:51pm
This was a piece that was published in the most recent print edition of NEWSWEEK by Ramin Setoodeh.. It purports to examine the paradox in which straight actors are accepted as gay but gay actors can't realistically play straight. However, it has these sorta homophobic undertones that I'm not cool with, and I don't know if I'll be alone here. For one thing, the author requires us to accept the premise that gay actors aren't ever believable as straight, writing off Neil Patrick Harris and Portia de Rossi:
De Rossi and Harris do that on TV, but they also inhabit broad caricatures, not realistic characters likes the ones in Up in the Air or even The Proposal.
Wait, first of all, go back, The Proposal? Really?
Setoodeh seems to forget de Rossi's subtle work on Arrested Development, Harris' increasing development of his character on How I Met Your Mother as more than a hilarious womanizer. Setoodeh also ignores a critical example: T.R. Knight, who has spent many years playing straight on Grey's Anatomy. Setoodeh then moves onto Sean Hayes in Promises, Promises and Jonathan Groff on Glee:
-But frankly, it's weird seeing Hayes play straight. He comes off as wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is. Even the play's most hilarious scene, when Chuck tries to pick up a drunk woman at a bar, devolves into unintentional camp. Is it funny because of all the '60s-era one-liners, or because the woman is so drunk (and clueless) that she agrees to go home with a guy we all know is gay?
-Which is why it's a little hard to know what to make of the latest fabulous player to join Glee: Jonathan Groff, the openly gay Broadway star. In Spring Awakening, he showed us that he was a knockout singer and a heartthrob. But on TV, as the shifty glee captain from another school who steals Rachel's heart, there's something about his performance that feels off. In half his scenes, he scowls—is that a substitute for being straight? When he smiles or giggles, he seems more like your average theater queen, a better romantic match for Kurt than Rachel. It doesn't help that he tried to bed his girlfriend while singing (and writhing to) Madonna's Like a Virgin. He is so distracting, I'm starting to wonder if Groff's character on the show is supposed to be secretly gay.
-For all the beefy bravado that Rock Hudson projects on-screen, Pillow Talk dissolves into a farce when you know the likes of his true bedmates. (Just rewatch the scene where he's wading around in a bubble bath by himself.)
It seems like the author needs to put aside his own prejudices before he accuses some of the finest gay role models in the entertainment industry today of being unable to keep their sexuality from influencing their performance.
Yikes.
De Rossi and Harris do that on TV, but they also inhabit broad caricatures, not realistic characters likes the ones in Up in the Air or even The Proposal.
Wait, first of all, go back, The Proposal? Really?
Setoodeh seems to forget de Rossi's subtle work on Arrested Development, Harris' increasing development of his character on How I Met Your Mother as more than a hilarious womanizer. Setoodeh also ignores a critical example: T.R. Knight, who has spent many years playing straight on Grey's Anatomy. Setoodeh then moves onto Sean Hayes in Promises, Promises and Jonathan Groff on Glee:
-But frankly, it's weird seeing Hayes play straight. He comes off as wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is. Even the play's most hilarious scene, when Chuck tries to pick up a drunk woman at a bar, devolves into unintentional camp. Is it funny because of all the '60s-era one-liners, or because the woman is so drunk (and clueless) that she agrees to go home with a guy we all know is gay?
-Which is why it's a little hard to know what to make of the latest fabulous player to join Glee: Jonathan Groff, the openly gay Broadway star. In Spring Awakening, he showed us that he was a knockout singer and a heartthrob. But on TV, as the shifty glee captain from another school who steals Rachel's heart, there's something about his performance that feels off. In half his scenes, he scowls—is that a substitute for being straight? When he smiles or giggles, he seems more like your average theater queen, a better romantic match for Kurt than Rachel. It doesn't help that he tried to bed his girlfriend while singing (and writhing to) Madonna's Like a Virgin. He is so distracting, I'm starting to wonder if Groff's character on the show is supposed to be secretly gay.
-For all the beefy bravado that Rock Hudson projects on-screen, Pillow Talk dissolves into a farce when you know the likes of his true bedmates. (Just rewatch the scene where he's wading around in a bubble bath by himself.)
It seems like the author needs to put aside his own prejudices before he accuses some of the finest gay role models in the entertainment industry today of being unable to keep their sexuality from influencing their performance.
Yikes.
Formerly SirNotAppearing - Joined 3/08
Updated On: 5/5/10 at 07:51 PM
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