Should Queer Roles Be Played by Straight Actors?
Well… it’s complicated
I vividly remember reading this question for the first time a while back, when I had just started discovering and consuming queer media. At the time, I had never really thought about it. To me, an actor worthy of this title had to be able to portray a queer character no matter their real-life sexuality. But as I grew up I started having a more nuanced perspective regarding this issue…
An actor, by definition, is a person whose profession is acting on the stage, in films, or on television. By this definition, the question of whether straight people should play queer roles seems trivial, but I think that within this discussion there are many layers of arguments that are worth discussing.
When asked this question, many people merely think about the actual acting skills and talent required to portray a role that is quite different from the actor’s real life persona. This is the first and most basic level of analysis of this question, and yes, I agree that if we’re talking purely about skills, then any good actor should be allowed to represent a queer character in a movie or on stage.
However, this would beg the question of “what does it mean to play a queer role correctly?” After all, there is no blueprint for what queerness is or how people should…
