![]() Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." Kimberly French / Focus Features via AP file “The movie business has a lot of history, and it has a lot of history of doing things one way and the same way, and breaking that structure is taking more time than it has on the TV industry,” said Russell Boast, a casting director and co-president of the Casting Society of America, a professional society of casting directors for film, TV and theater. Major studio films, however, aim to attract wider audiences, and casting directors tend to already know whom they want to cast in roles: Mainly, actors who are already well known. Additionally, TV aims to attract younger, niche audiences who expect to see diversity in their content. While there’s no set data on how many LGBTQ actors have been cast in LGBTQ roles on TV and in films - and some actors may not be out publicly, making it more difficult to compile reliable information - industry insiders with whom NBC News spoke said the film industry is likely behind TV when it comes to hiring queer actors.įilm studios, they said, tend to rely on smaller, less diverse teams of writers and have fewer LGBTQ people involved in the creative process. Hugh Culber in "Star Trek: Discovery." Michael Gibson / CBS In 2020 alone, queer actor Kristen Stewart played a lesbian in Hulu’s Christmas rom-com “Happiest Season,” out actors Sarah Paulson and Cynthia Nixon played love interests in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series “Ratched,” gay actor Dan Levy played a queer character in the Emmy-winning Canadian show “Schitt’s Creek"and several openly gay actors starred in the Netflix adaption of the Tony Award-winning queer play “The Boys in the Band.” Anthony Rapp as Lt. Since Cruz made his debut in “My So Called Life,” television has been increasingly hiring LGBTQ actors to play LGBTQ characters. The part “helped influence a whole generation of people who became writers and actors and content creators, who wanted to see more people like Ricky, more LGBTQ people of color, and I think we're seeing the benefit of that today,” said Cruz, who served as executive producer of Apple TV’s "Visible: Out on Television,” a 2020 docuseries about the history of the LGBTQ movement through the lens of American TV. ![]() ![]() Hugh Culber on CBS All Access' “Star Trek: Discovery,” he made history playing gay high school student Ricky in the ‘90s show “My So Called Life.” It was the first time an openly gay actor played a gay character in a leading role in a TV series. “I think when a cis person goes in to play a trans role,” Luna said of cisgender, or nontransgender, actors, “they're bringing more of a projection.” Zoey Luna, Gideon Adlon and Lovie Simone in a scene from "The Craft: Legacy." Rafy Photographyīefore actor Wilson Cruz starred as the openly gay Dr. His character, Barry Glickman, is a narcissistic theater actor who dons sparkling tuxedo jackets, talks with a stereotypical gay lisp while flailing his hands around and describes himself as “gay as a bucket of wigs.” From left, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Keegan-Michael Key in "The Prom." Melinda Sue Gordon / NetflixĮrik Anderson, who runs the film site Awards Watch, called “The Prom” a “gorgeous and vibrant production” but tweeted that Corden’s “performance is gross and offensive, the worst gayface in a long, long time.” In early December, Netflix dropped its highly anticipated musical comedy “The Prom,” starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells and James Corden as fading Broadway stars who set out to help a lesbian teen take her girlfriend to the prom.The film, helmed by out director Ryan Murphy, got mixed reviews, but some lambasted it as “ homophobic” and “ offensive” because of the casting of Corden, a straight actor, in what they saw as an “ aggressively flamboyant” caricature of a gay man.
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