Gay Roles In Movies
Sep. 5th, 2008 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_samtyrhttp://themovie-fanatic.com/exclusive_articles/spotlight_of_the_week/gay_roles_for_real_men/
tMF CONTROVERSIAL: Gay roles for "real men" - Who's afraid of playing gay?
I don't see what all the fuss is about playing gay characters. When I did Y Tu Mama Tambien, I was asked, 'Don't you worry about what people will say to you in the street?' It seemed like it was such a huge deal. Why would it be an issue for me? I think it is a very American thing. In Mexico, no one has given me any s**t for playing gay roles, for playing a transvestite, whatever. They don't confuse the actor with the role. I mean, they don't think Al Pacino's a cop!"
That's awesome actor Gael Garcia Bernal talking. Man, he certainly has balls! Many young actors nowadays would rather keep mum or ignore offers to play gay, and why shouldn't they? Aside from the hungry press that can put the "bad news" within minutes, it could ruin their careers permanently. But we're talking Hollywood of course.
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European actors certainly have different outlook. As you might have noticed, even the young Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is interested in playing drag. Can he pull it off? Also, if you noticed, in Little Ashes, the upcoming movie starring Radcliffe's co-star, Robert Pattinson is also playing gay. It seems the British threw away their so-called "traditional values" long before we even thought about it. But is this a new phenomenon? Are actors from the other side of the Atlantic more open and ready to take on controversial roles including dressing up in women's clothes and exposing their feminine side? I think not. French and German actors have been doing the same thing...
Best Gay Roles Ever. Let's look back at some of the most acclaimed gay roles in cinema. But let me mention names first: Daniel Day-Lewis, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Hugh Grant, Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, Gael Garcia-Bernal, Javier Bardem, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Linus Roache, Robert Carlyle, Charlie Hunnam, James Marsden, Scott Speedman and Rupert Graves.
If playing gay is the kiss of death in Hollywood, why are so many of these guys still making movies? After the jump, we pick the tMF Top 5 Gay roles (by real men).
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tMF Top 5 Best Gay Roles: This is quite hard. There are a lot of fantastic performances, but we narrowed it down to just five - take a look:
Honorable Mentions: Daniel Day-Lewis (My Beautiful Laundrette), Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain), Gael Garcia Bernal (Bad Education), Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Velvet Goldmine) and Robert Stadlober (Summer Storm).
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# 5. Hugh Grant in Maurice. You might be surprised to know that one of Hugh's earliest movies was EM Forster's gay coming-of-age story, Maurice. Adapted for the screen by the Merchant Ivory duo, it also stars James Milby and Rupert Graves. Says Grant Balfour:
The film opens on a stormy, windswept beach, as an older man awkwardly instructs young, fatherless Maurice Hall (James Wilby) in the "sacred mysteries" of sex. The same turbulent, wordless struggle with passion lasts throughout this slowly evolving, beautifully filmed story. Novelist E.M. Forster's brainy, British melodrama hinges on choice and compulsion, as the pensive hero falls for two completely different men. First comes frail, suppressed Clive (Hugh Grant), who wants nothing more than classical Platonic harmony... and a straight lifestyle. (Grant's performance is so convincing, one wonders how he ever became a heterosexual sex symbol.) After Clive's wedding, Maurice turns to hypnosis to cure his unspeakable longings. Unfortunately, his "cure" is interrupted by Clive's lustful, brooding, barely literate gamekeeper Scudder (Rupert Graves), a worker more at home gutting rabbits than discussing the classics. Maurice's love for a "social inferior" forces him to confront his illicit desire and his ingrained class snobbery.
- - -
# 4. Cillian Murphy in Breakfast on Pluto. I'm a big fan of the Irish actor Cillian Murphy. Aside from Disco Pigs and On the Edge, I think this is one of Murphy's most amazing performances. Says Bret Fetzer:
Both epic and intimate, Breakfast on Pluto uses the life of Patrick "Kitten" Braden (Cillian Murphy, Batman Begins), a queer orphan boy, to explore the hidden worlds that lie beneath so-called "normal" society--the subcultures of homosexuals, the Irish Republican Army, and prostitutes. At odds with his conservative Irish town, Patrick rebels with the fearlessness of someone whose life feels worthless. When he leaves for London, where he hopes to find his mother, he joins a touring rock band, is almost murdered, becomes assistant to a magician (Stephen Rea, The Crying Game), is arrested as an IRA terrorist, and joins a peep show--and those are only half of the markers on his odyssey (the movie struggles to encompass the novel by Patrick McCabe). Though the first half of the movie feel almost weightless in the headlong rush of events, a rich emotional heft sneaks up on you; by the end, Breakfast on Pluto has become almost unbearably sad and wonderfully buoyant. Murphy's superb performance is both delicate and willful, ably supported by an excellent cast, including Liam Neeson (Kinsey), Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), and Ian Hart (Backbeat), as well as rock stars Gavin Friday and Bryan Ferry (who has a particularly creepy cameo as a serial killer).
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#3. River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho. River Phoenix is definitely one of a kind. It was his intense, absorbing portrayals of a lost youth, a hustler, a young spy, and someone in love that endeared him to a loyal fans who still remember the fallen actor up to this day. Directed by Gus Van Sant, it also stars Keanu Reeves.
See the movie trailer [ courtesy of youttube ]
- - -
- - -
More about the movie: River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in director Gus Van Sant’s haunting tale of two young street hustlers: Mike Waters, a sensitive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him, and Scott Favor, wayward son of the mayor of Portland and the object of Mike’s desire. Navigating a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns, Mike takes Scott on a quest from the grungy streets to the open highways of the Pacific Northwest, in search of an elusive place called "home." Groundbreaking and visually dazzling, My Own Private Idaho is a stirring look at unrequited love and life at society’s margins.
- - -
#2. Linus Roache in Priest. I simply don't care what critics have to say about Priest. Many of them have lambasted this Antonia Bird film because they are offended by the so-called 'attack on the Catholic Church'. Please take your misplaced traditional values somewhere else. The movie is totally absorbing and allows you to think more about the relevance of religion today. Linus Roache plays the confused yet sexually active Priest to perfection. Says Dave McCoy:
Despite its title, forget about finding this controversial drama on the Vatican's screening list. The film explores a provocative checklist of religious taboos--celibacy, incest, sexual abuse, homosexuality, the debatable secrecy of the confessional--as director Antonia Bird delivers a bold condemnation of what she views as the outdated politics and harmful nature of Catholic doctrine. The story concerns the ideologically strained relationship between two clergymen, the misleading conservative Father Greg (Linus Roache) and his older and more practical colleague, Father Matthew (Tom Wilkinson). Upon arriving at his new Liverpool parish, Greg is shocked to learn that Matthew ignores celibacy and openly sleeps with his black housekeeper. Greg chooses to satisfy his earthly desires in a more secretive way. Sometimes, he likes to lose the cloth, grab a leather jacket, and pick up guys at the local gay pub. He's got other problems as well. While torturing himself with his own moral dilemma, he's hit with another, as during confession a young girl confides that her father is sexually abusing her at home. While this drags out the old "bound by secrecy" cliché of many religious melodramas, Bird uses it to bolster her theme of unwarranted secrecy in the face of faith and social scorn. Ultimately, both the priest and the girl are victims of their own fear, and must find courage to destroy it. Thankfully, Bird's wicked sense of humor keeps the film's tone from slipping into saccharine sentimentality, while Roache's intense performance and a honest, shattering finale rescue the film from swerving too far into shallow TV movie-of-the-week sensationalism.
I was surprised to discovered that the film was actually available on youtube, divided into different parts. Here's part one.
- - -
#1. Heath Ledger in BrokeBack Mountain: Robbed of the Oscar for Best Actor, and the victim of the Academy's elite 'force', Brokeback Mountain gave us a defining role for the late Heath Ledger. While another actor won the award (Oddly enough, for portraying another gay role), Ledger's performance in this movie is moving, honest and heartbreaking. No wonder fans of the actor still remember Heath's Ennis DelMar and share his grief over love lost forever.
- - -
What's on your mind? Do you think actors who play gay roles will not make it big in Hollywood? Are there other actors who played gay roles that you think ought to be in the list? Tell us what you think!
tMF CONTROVERSIAL: Gay roles for "real men" - Who's afraid of playing gay?
I don't see what all the fuss is about playing gay characters. When I did Y Tu Mama Tambien, I was asked, 'Don't you worry about what people will say to you in the street?' It seemed like it was such a huge deal. Why would it be an issue for me? I think it is a very American thing. In Mexico, no one has given me any s**t for playing gay roles, for playing a transvestite, whatever. They don't confuse the actor with the role. I mean, they don't think Al Pacino's a cop!"
That's awesome actor Gael Garcia Bernal talking. Man, he certainly has balls! Many young actors nowadays would rather keep mum or ignore offers to play gay, and why shouldn't they? Aside from the hungry press that can put the "bad news" within minutes, it could ruin their careers permanently. But we're talking Hollywood of course.
- - -
- - -
European actors certainly have different outlook. As you might have noticed, even the young Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is interested in playing drag. Can he pull it off? Also, if you noticed, in Little Ashes, the upcoming movie starring Radcliffe's co-star, Robert Pattinson is also playing gay. It seems the British threw away their so-called "traditional values" long before we even thought about it. But is this a new phenomenon? Are actors from the other side of the Atlantic more open and ready to take on controversial roles including dressing up in women's clothes and exposing their feminine side? I think not. French and German actors have been doing the same thing...
Best Gay Roles Ever. Let's look back at some of the most acclaimed gay roles in cinema. But let me mention names first: Daniel Day-Lewis, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Hugh Grant, Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, Gael Garcia-Bernal, Javier Bardem, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Linus Roache, Robert Carlyle, Charlie Hunnam, James Marsden, Scott Speedman and Rupert Graves.
If playing gay is the kiss of death in Hollywood, why are so many of these guys still making movies? After the jump, we pick the tMF Top 5 Gay roles (by real men).
- - -
tMF Top 5 Best Gay Roles: This is quite hard. There are a lot of fantastic performances, but we narrowed it down to just five - take a look:
Honorable Mentions: Daniel Day-Lewis (My Beautiful Laundrette), Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain), Gael Garcia Bernal (Bad Education), Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Velvet Goldmine) and Robert Stadlober (Summer Storm).
- - -
# 5. Hugh Grant in Maurice. You might be surprised to know that one of Hugh's earliest movies was EM Forster's gay coming-of-age story, Maurice. Adapted for the screen by the Merchant Ivory duo, it also stars James Milby and Rupert Graves. Says Grant Balfour:
The film opens on a stormy, windswept beach, as an older man awkwardly instructs young, fatherless Maurice Hall (James Wilby) in the "sacred mysteries" of sex. The same turbulent, wordless struggle with passion lasts throughout this slowly evolving, beautifully filmed story. Novelist E.M. Forster's brainy, British melodrama hinges on choice and compulsion, as the pensive hero falls for two completely different men. First comes frail, suppressed Clive (Hugh Grant), who wants nothing more than classical Platonic harmony... and a straight lifestyle. (Grant's performance is so convincing, one wonders how he ever became a heterosexual sex symbol.) After Clive's wedding, Maurice turns to hypnosis to cure his unspeakable longings. Unfortunately, his "cure" is interrupted by Clive's lustful, brooding, barely literate gamekeeper Scudder (Rupert Graves), a worker more at home gutting rabbits than discussing the classics. Maurice's love for a "social inferior" forces him to confront his illicit desire and his ingrained class snobbery.
- - -
# 4. Cillian Murphy in Breakfast on Pluto. I'm a big fan of the Irish actor Cillian Murphy. Aside from Disco Pigs and On the Edge, I think this is one of Murphy's most amazing performances. Says Bret Fetzer:
Both epic and intimate, Breakfast on Pluto uses the life of Patrick "Kitten" Braden (Cillian Murphy, Batman Begins), a queer orphan boy, to explore the hidden worlds that lie beneath so-called "normal" society--the subcultures of homosexuals, the Irish Republican Army, and prostitutes. At odds with his conservative Irish town, Patrick rebels with the fearlessness of someone whose life feels worthless. When he leaves for London, where he hopes to find his mother, he joins a touring rock band, is almost murdered, becomes assistant to a magician (Stephen Rea, The Crying Game), is arrested as an IRA terrorist, and joins a peep show--and those are only half of the markers on his odyssey (the movie struggles to encompass the novel by Patrick McCabe). Though the first half of the movie feel almost weightless in the headlong rush of events, a rich emotional heft sneaks up on you; by the end, Breakfast on Pluto has become almost unbearably sad and wonderfully buoyant. Murphy's superb performance is both delicate and willful, ably supported by an excellent cast, including Liam Neeson (Kinsey), Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), and Ian Hart (Backbeat), as well as rock stars Gavin Friday and Bryan Ferry (who has a particularly creepy cameo as a serial killer).
- - -
#3. River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho. River Phoenix is definitely one of a kind. It was his intense, absorbing portrayals of a lost youth, a hustler, a young spy, and someone in love that endeared him to a loyal fans who still remember the fallen actor up to this day. Directed by Gus Van Sant, it also stars Keanu Reeves.
See the movie trailer [ courtesy of youttube ]
- - -
- - -
More about the movie: River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in director Gus Van Sant’s haunting tale of two young street hustlers: Mike Waters, a sensitive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him, and Scott Favor, wayward son of the mayor of Portland and the object of Mike’s desire. Navigating a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns, Mike takes Scott on a quest from the grungy streets to the open highways of the Pacific Northwest, in search of an elusive place called "home." Groundbreaking and visually dazzling, My Own Private Idaho is a stirring look at unrequited love and life at society’s margins.
- - -
#2. Linus Roache in Priest. I simply don't care what critics have to say about Priest. Many of them have lambasted this Antonia Bird film because they are offended by the so-called 'attack on the Catholic Church'. Please take your misplaced traditional values somewhere else. The movie is totally absorbing and allows you to think more about the relevance of religion today. Linus Roache plays the confused yet sexually active Priest to perfection. Says Dave McCoy:
Despite its title, forget about finding this controversial drama on the Vatican's screening list. The film explores a provocative checklist of religious taboos--celibacy, incest, sexual abuse, homosexuality, the debatable secrecy of the confessional--as director Antonia Bird delivers a bold condemnation of what she views as the outdated politics and harmful nature of Catholic doctrine. The story concerns the ideologically strained relationship between two clergymen, the misleading conservative Father Greg (Linus Roache) and his older and more practical colleague, Father Matthew (Tom Wilkinson). Upon arriving at his new Liverpool parish, Greg is shocked to learn that Matthew ignores celibacy and openly sleeps with his black housekeeper. Greg chooses to satisfy his earthly desires in a more secretive way. Sometimes, he likes to lose the cloth, grab a leather jacket, and pick up guys at the local gay pub. He's got other problems as well. While torturing himself with his own moral dilemma, he's hit with another, as during confession a young girl confides that her father is sexually abusing her at home. While this drags out the old "bound by secrecy" cliché of many religious melodramas, Bird uses it to bolster her theme of unwarranted secrecy in the face of faith and social scorn. Ultimately, both the priest and the girl are victims of their own fear, and must find courage to destroy it. Thankfully, Bird's wicked sense of humor keeps the film's tone from slipping into saccharine sentimentality, while Roache's intense performance and a honest, shattering finale rescue the film from swerving too far into shallow TV movie-of-the-week sensationalism.
I was surprised to discovered that the film was actually available on youtube, divided into different parts. Here's part one.
- - -
#1. Heath Ledger in BrokeBack Mountain: Robbed of the Oscar for Best Actor, and the victim of the Academy's elite 'force', Brokeback Mountain gave us a defining role for the late Heath Ledger. While another actor won the award (Oddly enough, for portraying another gay role), Ledger's performance in this movie is moving, honest and heartbreaking. No wonder fans of the actor still remember Heath's Ennis DelMar and share his grief over love lost forever.
- - -
What's on your mind? Do you think actors who play gay roles will not make it big in Hollywood? Are there other actors who played gay roles that you think ought to be in the list? Tell us what you think!
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-06 06:17 am (UTC)If anyone has an example to prove me otherwise (a modern example) then I'll happily hear it! :)
That said, Kitten ftw!
And....favorite non-mentioned actor... Christian Bale in Velvet Goldmine because his character had a tougher road into realizing what he was sexually. John Hurt, Love and Death in Long Island, because his character was heartbreaking in realizing his sexuality only after his life was pretty much old and over.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-07 12:54 am (UTC)