Actors: The gay/straight awards divide

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By Ley on Sunday, February 6, 2011 - 23:40

With the major movie award nominations being announced recently, we thought it was time to take a closer look at the nominations and see just what we think of past performances and the nominations that followed.

As all of you know by now, I am such a geek when it comes to movies, TV, musicals and music. Any chance I get to write about one of them, and I’m hyper like a kid on their birthday. However, when I realised the reason behind this article I couldn’t help but feel like someone had just burst some of my balloons: showing the slightly darker and disappointing side to movies as well as our community, all at the same time. What am I talking about, you wonder? Well, I’m talking about the way in which straight actors playing gay characters get Oscar nominations and other such accolades, whereas gay actors playing straight roles get criticised, even by their own community.

Let’s have a look at some of the straight actors first:

  • Charlize Theron won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2004 for her portrayal of prostitute-turned-serial-killer, Aileen Wuornos, in Monster;
  • Both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were nominated for Oscars in 2006 after their portrayal of gay cowboys in Brokeback Mountain;
  • Annette Bening is nominated for a Leading Actress Oscar this year for her performance as Nic in The Kids Are All Right;
  • Colin Firth was nominated in 2010 for a Leading Actor Oscar for his role in A Single Man;
  • Sean Penn won the Oscar for the title role of Harvey Milk’s biopic in 2009;
  • Natalie Portman is nominated this year for a Leading Actress Oscar for her performance in Black Swan.

All of these are incredible achievements, and none of them are given without good reason. I love each of these actors for various roles they’ve played and powerful performances that they’ve given, I would merely like to raise the age-old question: why is it that only straight actors who play gay roles in movies get recognised?

Having spent hours searching the internet for gay or bisexual actors and actresses who have played main or supporting roles in movies, I’m beginning to get really disheartened with one of my favourite things in the world. It’s hard enough to find those actors who were given the straight or gay roles to play in a movie, but an almost impossibility to find those who were acknowledged for their performances with award nominations.

There are plenty of gay actors out there looking for work, and many are known for playing gay characters, but unfortunately those are only the quirky best friends or novelty neighbours. Several of the recent roles given to straight actors to play could quite have easily been given to other, gayer, actors. For example, why not have Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon play one of the moms in The Kids Are All Right? Or even have Alan Cumming playing one of the men in I Love You Phillip Morris? Granted, not every gay actor wants to play gay roles, but I don’t think I’m going out on a limb saying that some would like the chance to try.

The reason I’m saying in movies only, is because recently there has been a rise in acceptance for gay actors in gay and straight roles on TV. Need I mention the fabulous Chris Colfer and his recent Golden Globe win for playing Kurt Hummel on Glee?

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