Evolving into (Unintentional) Crap

In a recent Newsweek article, writer Ramin Setoodeh implied that homosexual actors should not be cast in heterosexual roles because they do not come across as believably straight. He used Will and Grace's Sean Hayes and Glee's Jonathan Groff as examples. Hayes played a straight man in the Broadway production of Promises, Promises, and Setoodeh called his performance "wooden and insincere, like he was trying to hide something, which of course he is." Setoodeh said that Hayes' scenes with on-stage love interest Kristin Chenoweth "devolve into unintentional camp."

On the musical hit show Glee, Jonathan Groff plays Rachel Barry (Lea Michele)'s love interest. Groff and Michele are well known in the Broadway community, both having starred in Spring Awakening. Groff is openly gay, yet plays a straight man who enters a love triangle and steals a young girl's heart. Setoodeh feels that "there is something about his performance that feels off. In half his scenes, he scowls - is that a substitute for being straight?"

I could go off about how closed-minded and ignorant this article is. I could crucify Ramin Setoodeh, calling him homophobic and hateful. What I will do instead is ask one simple question - why is he looking so hard? When you watch a television show or a movie, are you studying the actors' performances, searching for nuances that shout "gay" or "straight"? I certainly don't. I've never seen a Broadway play, so I cannot personally comment on Mr. Hayes' performance. I do, however, watch Glee, and I did not know that Mr. Groff was gay until I read Setoodeh's article. Frankly, I don't care if he's straight, gay, or somewhere in between. He's a charming actor who has a nice chemistry with his love interest, Lea Michele. Should I be looking for longing glances between Groff and the show's jock character, Finn? Watching for Groff to brush up against Puck, the resident bad boy, in the hallway? Of course not. So why, then, would I be looking for any other clues as to the actor's sexual orientation?

If the acting is good, the audience shouldn't be thinking about the actor's personal life. In Boys Don't Cry, I quite literally forgot that Hilary Swank was, in fact, a female. That's acting. I hate to use this example, but in Tropic Thunder, I forgot that Robert Downey Jr. was portraying the African American character. He was that good. This is what we should remember when stereotyping actors into roles that only coincide with their personal lives. Is Tom Hanks really a slow man with mental issues, as he portrayed in Forrest Gump? Can you believe that Steve Carell isn't really a 40 Year Old Virgin? And wait, you're telling me that Aaron Eckhardt doesn't look like Two-Face? Colin Firth recently played a gay man in A Single Man. Was it easier for him because it's a cinch to play, in Setoodeh's words, "your average theater queen?" Is it so much more difficult for a gay man to act macho than a straight man to pretend to like other men?

I don't think it was fair of Setoodeh to blame the actors themselves for this trend. Hayes and Groff are fine actors, believable in every role I've seen them in. Hell, look at Neil Patrick Harris, who has played everything from a womanizer on HIMYM to an exaggerated cameo in the Harold and Kumar movies where he's a sex obsessed, drug addicted heterosexual. (Wink wink - he is credited as himself.) This is not about gay playing straight. This is about what we allow ourselves to forget when we watch television or movies. I don't think about Anna Paquin's bisexuality when I watch True Blood because the show sucks me in (pun intended). I can forget that Owen Wilson tried to kill himself a few years back, because he's funny. I can forget that Angelina Jolie stole Jen Aniston's man, because she's sexy and a damn good actress. (I cannot, however, forget about poor Jen's past, because the tabloids won't let me. Poor, poor, lonely, manless Jen...)

Perhaps Ramin Setoodeh just doesn't like Glee. Maybe he's not a fan of Broadway shows. Or maybe he's just so closed-minded that he can't put his knowledge of the actors aside and enjoy the show. By the way, Setoodeh himself is an openly gay man.

I think perhaps what the author of the article meant to convey was that gay people have a harder time getting juicier roles because of the audience's inability to seperate reality from fiction. He asks, "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?" I've seen Clooney act; the answer is yes.



For the original article, click here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/236999

Kristin Chenoweth's response to the article, click here: http://www.broadway.com/shows/promises-promises/buzz/152350/promises-star-kristin-chenoweth-speaks-out-on-horrendously-homophobic-newsweek-article-defends-sean-hayes/


Setoodeh's response to Kristin Chenoweth here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/237758