gay Tagged Articles at Cinematical

There's a long-running joke in Hollywood that one of the easiest ways to earn an Oscar is to either 'Ugly it up" or contract a disease. But, in recent years, one of the newer trends that can lead an actor to the podium is for them to take on a role where they play a person of same-sex orientation (a fact that has already become the stuff of satire). Over the past 10 years, plenty of actors have earned Oscars for playing gay roles, and the latest actor to join the club could be Matt Damon, who has signed to play Liberace's lover in Steven Soderbergh's biopic of the flamboyant musician.

So what's the big deal? Don't actors pretend to be different people all the time ... isn't that their job? Well, yes, but it's a little more complicated than that. Gay and lesbian political advocates have long lamented the sad state of affairs where straight actors are getting gay roles, instead of giving 'out' actors their chance to shine. So, while I question the idea that only gay actors could play a gay character, just as only straight actors can play straight characters, the sad fact is that Hollywood is still relatively puritanical when it comes to allowing their actors and actresses to be out and proud -- and that needs to change. But, that doesn't mean I think an actor (gay or straight) shouldn't play role any role they want ... just as long as they're good at it.

So on that note, I decided to give a little credit to five performances by straight actors in gay roles that transcended orientation and, ultimately, are just damn fine performances.

After the jump: my picks for the best of straight actors going gay for pay...

Fans of the Transporter films aren't usually looking for a lot of subtlety and nuance, not unless those are codewords for "butt-kicking" and "car crashes." But Louis Leterrier, the whimsical Frenchman who directed the second film and co-directed the first one, said in 2005 that he had a subtext in mind for Jason Statham's title character: He was gay.

Chris Lee writes at the Los Angeles Times' fanboy blog that three years ago, when Transporter 2 came out, well, so did Frank Martin. According to Lee, Leterrier pointed to the scene where Frank turns down a romantic advance from Amber Valletta by saying, "It's because of who I am." Leterrier said, "That's him coming out!"

"If you watch the movie and you know he's gay, it becomes so much more fun," Lee quotes Leterrier as saying in 2005. "It's so great -- the first gay action movie hero! ... Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, 'The Transporter, that's such a great movie!' If they only knew they're really cheering for a new kind of action hero."

Statham didn't pay much attention to his director's comments, telling Lee in 2005, "It's just Lou-Lou trying to be funny. Although he did say, 'In Part 2, you will become the gay icon.'" That part might have come true, as Statham's many shirtless scenes made him popular in certain quarters, even if the character himself wasn't overtly gay.

At a reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Friday night at Carnegie Hall, author J.K. Rowling revealed what many fans have suspected all along: Albus Dumbledore is gay. The outing of Dumbledore came during a question and answer period following the reading, when a young fan asked if Dumbledore ever found true love. "Dumbledore is gay," Rowling responded. Gasps, prolonged applause. So now it's official, Potter fans, Dumbledore is out of the closet.

Rowling, who has since the publication of the final book in her enormously popular series, revealed to fans bits and pieces of the back stories that aren't in any of the books, further elaborated that Dumbledore was smitten by his former friend and later rival Grindelwald, who figures heavily into the last book, and that his love for Grindelwald blinded him for a while to the Grindelwald's true nature. Rowling called Dumbledore's love for Grindelwald, "his great tragedy" before noting with a laugh, "Oh, my god, the fan fiction!"

Rowling revealed that while working on the planned sixth Harry Potter film, she noticed a reference in the script to a girl Dumbledore once loved, and passed a note to the director, David Yates, revealing to him the truth about Dumbledore's sexuality. Fans have long suspected Dumbledore was gay -- he's had no significant relationship with a woman, and his past has always been clouded in mystery.

Rowling noted that some Christian groups already don't like the Harry Potter series because the books allegedly promote witchcraft. Dumbledore being gay, as she noted will give them one more thing to not like about it. Not that Rowling -- or most Harry Potter fans -- seems to care.

A movie that will be pretty much the exact same thing as the touring musical is on the way, promising an extremely thin plot that is exactly what the title suggests: Naked Boys Singing! The musical features songs like "The Bliss of a Bris" and "Gratuitous Nudity", and has been touring in cities around the world since 1998. In fact, in New York City, it's the 10th Longest Running Off-Broadway Show ever. (Whose job is it to keep a list of these things? Someone must be doing it, tirelessly.)

The show has also had a fair share of controversy, having been shut down in Georgia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and branded as "adult entertainment," although most view the shutdowns as attacks on the gay community and not against the play itself. Basically this is The Full Monty, except stripped (pun intended) of a plot, and replete with songs and nakedness. It's not like people wouldn't be informed of that fact, having most likely at least read the title of the musical, or seen what's printed on their tickets.

At any rate, this will probably be a blip on the radar when it comes out, and then move at the speed of Pauly Shore to DVD. But if you've been waiting for a movie all about male nudity and nothing else, then you can soon end your vigil and treat yourself to a trip to the movies. Hopefully you live near an arthouse theater.

[Via WOW Report]

It's been awhile since we last spoke about our favorite Daniel Craig haters -- remember those folks who decided to spend an absurd amount of time protesting the decision to cast Daniel Craig as the next James Bond? Yes, these are the same people who went so far as to create a website called danielcraigisnotbond.com and bombard us with reasons as to why Craig was not a good choice for the role.

Well, after spending months boycotting the film, they're still going strong -- except, now, they're searching through hundreds of Casino Royale reviews and collecting every negative quote they can find in an attempt to ... do what, exactly? Stop us from seeing the film? After Happy Feet beat Bond at the box office this past weekend, they celebrated: "The Boycott triumphantly goes into its second weekend, how poorly will Casino Royale place this week?" Triumphantly? The film has grossed over $224 million worldwide in only two weeks -- as far as a boycott goes, I'd say they failed miserably. Not only did they fail, but they were stomped on, chewed up and spit out into the same garbage pale Daniel Craig uses to dispose of his "dirty tissues." Hey, but keep up the hard work.

In other Bond-related news, Daniel Craig is "supposedly" urging movie bosses to "modernize" Bond and include some full-frontal nudity, as well gay scenes that may or may not include 007. Here's the Craig quote currently floating around the internet: "Why not? I think in this day and age, fans would have accepted it. I mean, look at (British TV series) Doctor Who - that has had gay scenes in it and no one blinks an eye." Hmm, it appears someone likes their martini on the rocks ... not that there's anything wrong with that. Bond questioning his sexual preference? What do you think about that one?

Eleven Men Out, the third feature from Icelandic director Róbert I. Douglas, tries very hard to do many things. On one hand, Douglas' film is a semi-serious exploration of how a heterogeneous, male-oriented society reacts when one of its sports heroes announces that he's gay. On the other, though, it's a cheerful, fun Gay Movie, complete with a soccer-playing drag queen and a man in a baby doll tshirt that reads "I DID BECKHAM." On a third hand, Eleven Men Out is just the latest in the long line of stories about gay characters rising above the ignorance of others, in which no one is ever seriously mistreated, and there's very little doubt that the ending will be a happy one.

On yet a fourth hand, however, the movie bears a sneaking similarity to a new wave of films coming out of Eastern Europe (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Something like Happiness, for example), in which the difficulty of life is a fact rather than the point, and characters find their own reasons to keep living. Unfortunately, Douglas only hints around this last element, which is easily the most interesting in his ultimately rather lightweight film.

It takes a special kind of man to have his penis compared to Jane Mansfield's breasts, but that's how John Waters describes gay icon Peter Berlin in a clip from That Man: Peter Berlin, which opens today in New York City. Berlin, a pornstar who spent the 60s, 70s, and 80s starring in porn films, modeling, and getting photographed by the likes of Warhol and Mapplethorpe, was the inspiration for Owen Wilson's character in Zoolander. The "legend," now 63, also created his own clothing to accent some of his body's more "impressive" features. I understand why he would want to flaunt it, but at the same time I think I'd feel uncomfortable being too exposed. I imagine some scenario where I'm suddenly being chased by a moose and have to leap a barbed wire fence to save myself. I'm just saying I'd like to be better protected in that instance. That probably doesn't happen in NYC very often, but still, one has to be cautious. Berlin's next project, he claims, will involve numerous video tapes he's created of himself having sex. Also, tapes of himself watching himself have sex on tape. He has lots of sex, I think that's what we're supposed to derive from this.

According to a list of "Famous Gays and Lesbians" that is part of an official, (partially) government-funded education plan in England, Kevin Spacey is a big homo. Or rather he was until yesterday, when with a flustered "Oops!", he was quickly removed from the list. The list was created by a British LGBT group, whose organizer Paul Patrick claimed to be "saddened and angry" about the error, which was apparently part of a lesson plan provided to schools. Patrick went on to say that that his group "double checked...[its] material carefully but Mr Spacey's name got through. I don't know how." Yeah, me either, Paul. Can't imagine.

Appearing on the list with Spacey were such gay luminaries as Graham Norton and Oscar Wilde - and apparently none of the kids who received the presentation last year found it at all odd that Spacey's name was there as well. I'm just sayin.

[via Jossip]

There are loads of people who don't want to see Brokeback Mountain, and they've all got their reasons. Some of them might hate Ang Lee, or be allergic to horses. Others just think it looks dumb. Some, however, just don't dig on the whole Gay Thing. Larry David, proudly, counts himself as one of these - sort of. Though he insists that he's got nothing against people who happen to be gay ("I love gay people. Hey, I've got gay acquaintances. Good acquaintances, who know they can call me anytime if they had my phone number."), David nevertheless has a creeping fear of the masculine homosexuality on display in the movie. It's not that he's disturbed by the thought of watching two macho men in love - far from it. Instead, he's afraid might find the whole thing so appealing that he'll walk out of the theater gay. And then where would he be, what with the wife and everything?

Ian says it's great, but Rupert isn't so sure. What exactly? Coming out as gay or lesbian in Hollywood. Ian McKellen claims his career took off when he announced to everyone without gaydar that he was in fact a homosexual. Rupert Everett, however, doesn't think Hollywood is quite as accepting just yet. He claims he was unable to reach the "next stage" of his career after he came out. Having heard these arguments from both actors, I wonder how much being gay really had to do with their career arcs. It seems McKellen, right or wrong, is simply getting better roles than Everett, and I'm not entirely sure how significant sexual preference is in this particular instance.