The pandemic has made for an unusual 2021 awards season, but one aspect feels familiar: Another handful of films with straight A-list stars playing queer are vying for attention and accolades.
At least one of these contenders has already been met with backlash: James Corden’s performance in The Prom was decried by queer critics and viewers when the movie musical premiered on Netflix in December. But others, like Supernova, in theaters January 29 and on demand February 16, have been embraced. Starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, the film’s sensitive portrayal of a gay couple who road trip to visit family in the English countryside — perhaps for the final time, as they stare down an end-of-life decision — has been met with widespread acclaim.
The question of whether straight actors should still be playing queer, here in the second decade of the 21st century, would seem to have an obvious answer. (Ideally, no!) But with delicately crafted films like Supernova still popping up, the rules don’t seem so hard and fast. Below, them. culture critics Michael Cuby and Naveen Kumar wade into the contentious debate.
Naveen: Before we get too deep into what may be a thorny conversation (and I’m glad we’re in this together, Michael!), I think we both agree that we’d love to see more openly LGBTQ+ actors breaking through in Hollywood, in all sorts of roles, not just those that align with their sexual orientation or even their gender identity. Bring on more stories about queer lives, with our bodies and voices both in front of and behind the camera. And cast Kristen Stewart in a Marvel movie already! Strides have been made, but there’s a long way to go — and I think we both feel strongly about sounding the drum for progress.
Then we have a movie like Supernova. I believe we were both pretty swept away; it’s delicate, beautiful, and heartbreaking. Both lead performances have a subtle grace to them that’s sensitive without feeling sentimental. Firth and Tucci also feel perfectly cast; it’s hard to imagine other actors carrying this off. Of course, both of them are straight but have been adored for playing gay before — Tucci in The Devil Wears Prada and Firth in A Single Man, two movies that are definitively gay canon. What’s interesting to me (and even somewhat refreshing) is that there’s no particular reference to their characters’ sexuality in Supernova; it’s not a movie about being gay but the love between two people. At this point, if we’re going to accept and appreciate straight actors in gay roles, I think the story being told matters. What do you say?
Michael: I must agree, Naveen. My feelings about who should play queer are quite complicated, but I hesitate to make a blanket decree that straight actors should be taken out of the running forevermore. I do think the type of queer role matters a lot in these considerations — and in the case of Supernova, neither Firth nor Tucci’s characters are defined by their queerness. This isn’t a film about “coming out” or the struggles of being gay, and thus, there is less of a need for that “lived experience” to provide authenticity. Supernova is about two aging gay men who are contending with the sad reality that one of them is dying, and both actors do tremendously laudable work. (Side note: A Single Man is one of my all-time favorite films.)
That being said, that doesn’t change the fact that Firth and Tucci being cast in queer roles can still have adverse effects — namely, that the plentiful LGBTQ+ actors struggling to find any work are now shut out of what may be one of their only legitimate opportunities. Since Hollywood has so many problems imagining queer actors in straight roles, I do think it’s important that they are considered (and cast) in queer roles, which unfortunately, are still few and far between. This comes to the fore even more when we look ahead to awards season, where Supernova is bound to be a heavy-hitter. Despite their tremendous performances, it does sadden me to consider how much bonus credit they’ll get for “playing gay,” while so many queer actors can’t even get a callback, let alone awards attention. Does that element complicate things for you?
Naveen: Absolutely. Though when it comes to casting and awards contention, the big thing to remember is that Hollywood is first and foremost a business. Movies like Supernova and Ammonite, both second features from young directors, draw attention (press and awards consideration, if not box office) by casting big stars. Looking back, for example, we could argue that queer actors were denied opportunities in The Favourite and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, but without Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, and Melissa McCarthy (all brilliant), would those movies have even been made? Would people have gone to see them?
I always think of Philadelphia, one of Hollywood’s first mainstream depictions of the HIV crisis, which had killed more than 100,000 people by its 1993 release. It should not have taken Tom Hanks starring as a professional dying of AIDS for everyday Americans to sit up and take notice, but that movie (for which Hanks won a Best Actor Oscar) really brought awareness to greater heights. Obviously, we should be past the point where it’s necessary to bring in Tom Hanks for people to relate, but look at what happened when he got COVID-19!
The reason we don’t have a big corral of bankable, openly LGBTQ+ stars is that they haven’t been granted the same opportunities, because producers think they won’t sell tickets. And those stars won’t get made until they get a chance to prove producers wrong. That’s why someone like Jodi Foster came out so late in her career, for fear of missing out on opportunities. I do think that’s changing, but clearly we’re not there yet.
Michael: And isn’t that The Great Conundrum? It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, and it’s one that ignores the reality that people “break out” all the time. I think immediately of Billy Porter, who was known on Broadway but not necessarily in Hollywood before Pose. Now he’s an Emmy-winning, bankable star in his own right, stealing the spotlight at every red carpet and poised to break boundaries this year as the Fairy Godmother in the splashy Cinderella remake.
And while I agree that big stars are needed to get eyes on small films, I think there’s a counterpoint that these low-to-mid-budget projects are the very films that can afford the risk, because success isn’t guaranteed anyway. Timothée Chalamet wasn’t Hollywood Royalty when Luca Guadagnino cast him in Call Me By Your Name; that was the film that catapulted him to fame. What if that had actually been a queer actor? On the other hand, I don’t foresee Supernova traveling beyond niche film circles, even with Firth and Tucci attached — if it does, it will be by luck of the draw. This isn’t some flashy musical. The Prom this is not.
Actually, Ryan Murphy’s latest is an interesting pivot. While it was certainly exciting to see out queer newcomers like Ariana DeBose and Jo Ellen Pellman cast, it was infuriating to have to deal with James Corden — who, I must mention, doesn’t add any real “star power” to a film that already boasts two Oscar winners (Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman) and an Emmy winner (Kerry Washington). Additionally, unlike the characters in Supernova, the role of Barry Glickman is all about his queerness: not only is he an adult still reeling from the trauma he faced from his parents for being gay, but his character is deliberately written as sassy and flamboyant.
Around the time of its release, I saw a lot of complaints about the fact that Brooks Ashmanskas — the openly gay, Tony-nominated, Broadway originator of the role — wasn’t even offered the part. Given the nature of this specific queer character, I’d argue that Corden’s casting and subsequent hammy performance is offensive at best, violent at worst. As a gay man himself, Ryan Murphy should be held responsible for ever even considering Corden for the role. But I’m also curious: Do you think there’s a responsibility on the actor themself to turn down roles like these?
Naveen: Speaking of Murphy and his usual suspects, Darren Criss said he would no longer play gay after starring as Versace killer Andrew Cunanan in American Crime Story, for which he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Though so many actors aren’t in a position to turn down roles on moral grounds, those who are definitely have a responsibility to consider that they’re usurping opportunities from queer actors.
This is especially and most egregiously the case when it comes to cis actors taking on trans characters. I’ve been playing a fair amount of devil’s advocate here, but I would absolutely draw a hard line when it comes to trans artists — writers, directors, actors — taking the lead on telling trans stories. I think it’s important to differentiate trans identity as a profound lived experience, and recognize that a cis actor playing trans is different than a straight actor playing gay. Talk about actors taking home Oscars for “transformational” performances, like Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club. It’s infuriating to think that happened less than 10 years ago. Hollywood has such a long and horrific history of systemic exclusion and misrepresentation of trans people — it absolutely has to stop, and reparations need to be made. Period.
Some actors have argued against moral restrictions on the types of roles they can play, including Scarlett Johansson, who famously said she ought to be able to play a tree if she wants to. And she can go right ahead! Trees have not been maligned, marginalized, or erased from mainstream media from time immemorial; trans people have, so let’s keep their narratives out of her mouth.
The last thing I’ll add about straight actors playing gay is that intention and execution matter — a lot. Both are pretty appalling in Viggo Mortensen’s filmmaking debut Falling (out February 5), in which he plays the gay son of an abrasive, foul-mouthed bigot. Mortensen’s performance relies on cliché signifiers like limp wrists and flower-arranging (seriously), and his screenplay is so focused on the hateful, abusive father that Mortensen’s own character isn’t even convincing on the page. His audacity to write, direct, and star in a movie about a gay character is pretty astounding. It’s the kind of energy queer creators ought to bring to every project.
Michael: Exactly. Ultimately, it’s all about intention — why a director is drawn to certain material, why one actor is chosen over another. I have no doubt that Mortensen took on Falling purely based on his desire to be praised for working with “complicated” material. In the case of The Prom, however, I do believe that Murphy, as an Indiana-born gay man who’s been very forthcoming about his history with bullying and ostracization, had a personal investment in the subject matter. But I think his decision to cast Corden was more about his obsession with working with so-called “A-List stars” than any actual belief that Corden was the best fit. Similarly, as a gay man, I think Guadagnino was personally drawn to Call Me By Your Name, but unlike Murphy, I think he cast Chalamet because he was phenomenal and Armie Hammer because he exuded that natural aloofness that made Oliver such a compelling love interest on the page. (What that quality says about Hammer’s personal life is, well, something for another time.)
Which brings us back to Supernova. I can’t speak to director Harry Macqueen’s personal interest in this story — as far as I know, he’s straight — but given its focus on physical illness (and not on queer trauma), I can at least say that his interest doesn’t feel exploitative. Does this mean that Macqueen couldn’t have looked harder to find gay actors? Of course not. (For what it’s worth, it was Tucci who suggested Firth to star opposite him.) But I wouldn’t want to write the film off for this reason alone. Supernova is a superb feature, with sensitive direction and even more sensitive performances. I’d go as far as to say it’s a career-best for Tucci — and as great as it would feel to be able to say that about a gay actor, the reality is far more complicated. (Unless it comes to trans characters, in which case the only appropriate casting choice is a trans actor.)
Supernova comes out this Friday, January 29.
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