All that glitters...

I have grown increasingly interested in the role homosexuality is playing in Hollywood these days (I dunno, maybe it’s my constantly growing (no pun intended) obsession with T.R. Knight). With the outings of T.R., Lance Bass, and Neil Patrick Harris last fall, the “f-word” scandal that rocked the set and the cast of Grey’s Anatomy, and the rise of Perez Hilton as a trashy tabloid blogger extraordinaire, never before have gay issues been so prominent in The Wood.

But have things really changed for gay actors? Just because time has allowed gay issues to come more to the forefront of our culture, do changes toward equality actually extend into the entertainment industry?

Some would say yes. Any kind of exposure (be it Rosie’s position on The View, Ellen’s hosting of The Academy Awards, Isaiah Washington flinging the f-word around like Akon throws his women) is good exposure, good or bad. With gay rights issues a major topic of debate, even in politics, there is greater chance of gay issues and characters popping up in television and film (like 2006’s trio of queer cinema recognized by The Academy: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Transamerica). And with more out actors in Hollywood, not only might it become easier for more actors to follow suit, but there will be more opportunity for gay actors to have a prominent spot in the limelight. By telling the stories of queer actors and characters in popular culture, Hollywood helps raise the visibility of LGBT issues and give millions of Americans a greater understanding of who we are as people, not merely statistics.

I think I’m giving Hollywood too much credit here. I don’t think they can be honored for being so progressive. It can pride itself as a place where homosexuals are not only accepted but employed in gross numbers, but the unwritten rule is that an actor never comes out of the closet. Playing a gay character is one thing, but admitting to being gay is another. Furthermore, it is considered heroic or challenging for a straight actor to play a gay actor, but pretty much unheard of for a gay actor to play a straight character (which, in my opinion, is probably more challenging). Since Tom Hank’s Oscar-winning performance as a man living with AIDS in Philadelphia, gay roles have been sought after by straight actors because they are looked at as disadvantaged, and actors want to play underprivileged characters, no matter what their disability may be (one article that I read recently actually classified homosexuality along with physical or mental disorders in terms of an actor wanting to tackle a challenging role). There seems to be some stigma that an actor coming out of the closet kills the success of one’s imagination, with characters often serving as an outlet for viewers to imagine their own romantic fantasies and thus have the need to think of them as strictly heterosexual. Don’t we as human beings deserve more credit for our intelligence?

There are gay actors who play straight roles in Hollywood. Jack Plotnick plays a womanizer in Lovespring, International, and Broadway actor plays a “straight” man in The Class. But these roles are SO supporting and SO minor that they are hardly being reported on in The Advocate or reported on Access Hollywood. For the most part, fear continues to dominate the psyches of closeted gay actors in The Wood, unsure if being out and open about who they are will break their career.

George O’Malley and Barney Stinson are possible exceptions. Since the actors playing these characters were forced out of the closet after their shows became huge successes, they do not seem to have suffered from this sort of stigma where a gay actor can play a straight role without it being completely unconvincing and distracting. But if you look at their characters, they are not entirely believable in and of themselves. O’Malley’s sexuality is shown only in its faults: bumbling his way through a new marriage while fighting his urges for his best friend. And Stinson is the womanizing caricature of a broad comedy. An article I read from The New Republic says, “Hollywood commentators are so certain that Hollywood producers won’t let gays play straight that, when they actually do, well, it’s just not good enough.” But the actors are good enough, and their talents may be going to waste because of the social stigma surrounding homosexuality in Hollywood (after all, they have assumed the role of a straight person for years!). Sure, their shows may be successes, but what will happen to Knight’s and Harris’s careers when their shows end? Sadly, it may not look so good for them.