Chenoweth Wrote:[INDENT]As a longtime fan of Newsweek and as the actress currently starring opposite the incredibly talented (and sexy!) Sean Hayes in the Broadway revival of Promises, Promises, I was shocked on many levels to see Newsweek publishing Ramin Setoodehs horrendously homophobic 'Straight Jacket,' which argues that gay actors are simply unfit to play straight. From where I stand, on stage, with Hayes, every night Ive observed nothing 'wooden' or 'weird' in his performance, nor have I noticed the seemingly unwieldy presence of a 'pink elephant' in the Broadway Theater. (The Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Tony members must have also missed that large animal when nominating Hayes performance for its highest honors this year.)
Id normally keep silent on such matters and write such small-minded viewpoints off as perhaps a blip in common sense. But the offense I take to this article, and your decision to publish it, is not really even related to my profession or my work with Hayes or Jonathan Groff (also singled out in the article as too 'queeny' to play 'straight.')
This article offends me because I am a human being, a woman and a Christian. For example, there was a time when Jewish actors had to change their names because anti-Semites thought no Jew could convincingly play Gentile. Setoodeh even goes so far as to justify his knee-jerk homophobic reaction to gay actors by accepting and endorsing that 'as viewers, we are molded by a society obsessed with dissecting sexuality, starting with the locker room torture in junior high school.' Really? We want to maintain and proliferate the same kind of bullying that makes children cry and in some recent cases have even taken their own lives? Thats so sad, Newsweek! The examples he provides (what scientists call 'selection bias') to prove his 'gays cant play straight' hypothesis are sloppy in my opinion. Come on now!
Openly gay Groff is too 'queeny' to play Lea Michelles boyfriend in GLEE, but is a 'heartthrob' when he does it in Spring Awakening? Cynthia Nixon only 'got away with it' cause she peaked before coming out? I dont know if youve missed the giant Sex and the City movie posters, but it seems most of America is 'buying it.' I could go on, but I assume these will be taken care of in your 'Corrections' this week.
Similarly, thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to enjoy Hayes performance and dont seem to have one single issue with his sexuality! They have no problem buying him as a love-torn heterosexual man. Audiences arent giving a darn about who a person is sleeping with or his personal life. Give me a break! Were actors first, whether were playing prostitutes, baseball players, or the Lion King. Audiences come to theater to go on a journey. Its a character and its called acting, and Id put Hayes and his brilliance up there with some of the greatest actors period.
Lastly, as someone whos been proudly advocating for equal rights and supporting GLBT causes for as long as I can remember, I know how much it means to young people struggling with their sexuality to see out & proud actors like Sean Hayes, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris and Cynthia Nixon succeeding in their work without having to keep their sexuality a secret. No one needs to see a bigoted, factually inaccurate article that tells people who deviate from heterosexual norms that they cant be open about who they are and still achieve their dreams. I am told on good authority that Mr. Setoodeh is a gay man himself and I would hope, as the author of this article, he would at least understand that. I encourage Newsweek to embrace stories which promote acceptance, love, unity and singing and dancing for all!
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Spoiler
Article she slammed. Wrote:[INDENT]It's weird seeing Sean 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?
But the truth is, openly gay actors still have reason to be scared. While it's OK for straight actors to play gay (as Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger did in Brokeback Mountain), it's rare for someone to pull off the trick in reverse. 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.
As viewers, we are molded by a society obsessed with dissecting sexuality, starting with the locker-room torture in junior high school. 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 scowlsis 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.
Lesbian actresses might have it easiersince straight men think it's OK for them to kiss a girl and like itbut how many of them can you name? Cynthia Nixon was married to a man when she originated Miranda on Sex and the City. Kelly McGillis was straight when she steamed up Top Gun's sheets, and Anne Heche went back to dating men (including her Men in Trees costar). If an actor of the stature of George Clooney came out of the closet tomorrow, would we still accept him as a heterosexual leading man? It's hard to say. Or maybe not. Doesn't it mean something that no openly gay actor like that exists?
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Got this off Perez hilton.
What do you think ? Can a openly gay actor play a straight character without coming off as gay ?
(This is not mod baiting, i really want to discuss this)
If an actor is good, he can play ANYTHING. After all, it's all movements with your body and voice. If you master them, you can do anything you want. Being straight, gay, geek, bookwormish, coolio, demonlike, or WHATEVER.
If it was something like "Paralitic actor as Sonic the hedgehog", ok, that quite makes sense. But... with all other muscles functioning, you can do ANY human role.
If Ramin Setoodeh lets his knowledge of an actor's offstage characteristics interfere with his perception of the actor's performance, that's Setoodeh's problem, not the actor's.
DrRusty Wrote:Isn't Vin Desiel (spelling?) gay? He plays a straight guy pretty well
I'd heard this, too, and took the time to look it up. To answer you: no, he is not gay. He is straight and married with a kid. So unless it's some gigantic cover up, he's straight.
I'm not really big on getting involved with 'gay politics,' if you will, but I have to say that the original article is way over the top. It's theater. You're supposed to be throwing yourself into a role entirely different than yourself. Straight, gay, black, orange, it makes no difference. People just need to quit their bitching..
She provided some good counterexamples to the orginal article. However when she started attacking newsweek for posting an article she found offensive, she sounded ridiculous. I don't take people who loosely throw arould accusatory labels such as "homophobic" seriously.
