LGBT filmmakers on whether straight and cisgender actors should play queer characters: 'It all boils down to respect'

• Some straight actors have delivered great performances as queer characters, such as Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain" and Cate Blanchett in "Carol."
• Meanwhile, other decisions to take on queer roles feel misjudged, such as Eddie Redmayne's role in "The Danish Girl," and Scarlett Johansson's role in "Rub & Tug," which she backed out of after backlash.
• Insider spoke to several queer directors and filmmakers to find out what they think about straight and cis actors taking on queer roles.
• Broadway actor Michael James Scott and queer directors Craig Johnson and Daniel Ribeiro told Insider they didn't have a problem with it as long as there is "respect."
• "Colette" director Wash Westmoreland and "Tell Me I Love You" director Fiona MacKenzie said the practicalities of filmmaking can sometimes get in the way.
• However, Johnson and Scott both said that cis actors taking on transgender roles is "less respectful" than straight actors playing queer roles.

Most queer roles in cinema have gone to straight actors. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal played lovers in "Brokeback Mountain," while Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara did the same in "Carol." And Felicity Huffman and Eddie Redmayne both played transgender people in "Transamerica" and The Danish Girl" respectively. All six performers were Oscar-nominated for their portrayals.

Indeed, while most delivered exquisite performances (Blanchett and Ledger in particular), there has also been criticism towards straight and cis actors taking roles that some believe should have gone to queer actors.

Redmayne's performance, in particular, was criticized. It was called "regressive, reductive and harmful" by trans writer Carol Grant for IndieWire, while Scarlett Johansson backed out of a trans role in 2018 after intense backlash.

There is a rising tide of people who believe that queer roles should be reserved for queer performers only, although that sentiment has been met with criticism by some, including Blanchett herself.

However, the debate is becoming ever more prominent. Insider spoke to several queer film directors and actors to see what they think about straight and cis actors playing queer roles.

Look for queer actors, as they have greater knowledge about queer characters

Daniel Ribeiro, Brazilian director of "The Way He Looks," told Insider that he doesn't have a problem at all with straight actors taking on queer roles.

"Anybody can play anybody. That's what is beautiful about acting," Ribeiro told Insider. "But I think when you're casting a film, the important thing is to have that in mind. And first of all, you look for actors who are gay or who are trans, depending on the role, if you have that in mind and you go looking for them but then you find a straight actor or a cis actor that will play that part, who makes sense for that part, I think it's okay.

Ribeiro touches on a problem here — the fact that gay and queer actors are actually not sought after or even looked at in the same way straight and cis actors there. There is, Ribeiro says, plenty of people who "don't even bother" looking for queer performers for queer roles.

"They go straight for whatever they want, and then they don't think about it. They don't go looking for it, there is no research in casting. I think that's the problem."

Ribeiro's own movies, he told Insider, are always a mix of queer and straight actors playing the part — including "The Way He Looks."

"Still Alice" and "Colette" director Wash Westmoreland also told Insider that his movies usually have a "mix" of straight allies and queer characters – but without even realizing it, Westmoreland has a tendency to cast queer people in queer roles more often than not.

"I don't even think about it but, in my films, looking back, out of about 16 or 17 gay roles, I think all but twice I cast gay men, because when they came in to audition they were better," Westmoreland told Insider.

"They brought with them so much knowledge about what that character was experiencing and had a greater access to the emotions of the story, so naturally in my work, I have cast gay people to play gay roles."

"But sometimes you do need a big movie star to get the budget. So it's a good idea to mix the cast with a straight ally and queer actors who are getting a lift from being hired, and then progress is made."

The biggest film stars are often straight, and film stars help get movies made

This is a practical element to trying to get a movie made that several of the people Insider spoke to touched upon, and appreciated — most of the film industry's biggest stars are straight, so studios are naturally going to want to hire a star they can bank on to be a box office draw.

Gay actor Michael James Scott, who starred as the Genie in "Aladdin" on Broadway and in the West End, told Insider that he gets that if a straight actor is "a bigger star or bigger name, it helps the film to get made, and also helps it to get shown out there more so that more eyes are seeing it."

The more people who see movies featuring queer themes and queer characters, the quicker the normalization of LGBT people and their community will happen. It's important not to underestimate the progress that films featuring straight actors playing queer roles have helped to make.

Hilary Swank won the best actress Oscar for playing transgender man Brandon Teena in 1999's "Boys Don't Cry," while Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal did what Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio refused to and starred in 2005's "Brokeback Mountain," a film whose cultural impact cannot be understated.

Ang Lee's seminal movie was discussed by Steven Paul Davies in his queer cinema book "Out at the Movies."

Davies said: "Most major film studios have been clamoring to get behind new, gay-themed projects ... thanks to 'Brokeback,' film financiers will continue to back scripts that don't simply rely on gay stereotypes ... and that will certainly be progress."

Davies cites "Milk" as one of these movies, a film that stars straight actor Sean Penn as gay activist Harvey Milk. Penn won an Oscar for his portrayal.

Some straight actors should be 'applauded' for taking on queer roles

Several of the people Insider spoke to, including Scott, also acknowledged that it can be hard for straight actors — particularly men — to take on queer roles as it could lead to them damaging their careers, so they should be commended for doing so.

Two such actors who are straight but played gay characters are Gordon Warnecke, who starred as Omar opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in 1985's "My Beautiful Laundrette," and James Wilby, who starred as the titular Maurice opposite Hugh Grant in James Ivory's 1985 movie.

These were both well-reviewed movies made in Thatcherite Britain, a time where being gay or queer wasn't exactly popular. Yet both Warnecke and Wilby told Insider that they didn't hesitate to take on their respective queer roles.

"I didn't remotely care," Wilby said. "Effectively it's a love story, I don't care whether it's gay or not gay, it's about a forbidden love story, so as long as you can understand that concept, I don't see what the difference is. I could have been doing a love story with an actress I loathed, but you still have to pretend to be in love. Luckily, Rupert and I and Hugh and I got on very, very well. So it wasn't a problem."

Warnecke, whose film about an interracial gay couple made and set in the 1980s seems revolutionary for the time, concurred with Wilby's stance.

"I remember when I first read the script, I had no idea that the two guys fall in love. And by the time I finished reading it, it was almost a secondary part of the film. I've never classified it as a gay film. It's just a love story."

Both actors said that they would happily play another gay character, but both did say that they recognize the climate has changed enormously in recent years, which Wilby said could be a negative thing.

"Very shortly, unless you're it, you won't be allowed to. I think that's a shame," Wilby said. "The whole point of being an actor is to take on things very unlike yourself. Would Daniel Day-Lewis be able to do 'My Left Foot' now? [Day-Lewis played Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy] I doubt it. It's a shame."

Wilby and Warnecke were both critically praised for their performances (which, by the way, are both excellent) and whether they think it themselves or not, the reality is that they probably were very brave to take on those roles back in the 1980s.

This is what led Scott to tell Insider that he has to "respect" straight actors who "put themselves out there like that," while Westmoreland said that it can actually be a very positive personal experience for straight actors when they take on queer roles.

"Often they'll explore something within themselves that is homo-identified and I think that's a wonderful thing," Westmoreland said. "A lot of people are not simply one thing or the other, so it can lead to very intense performances when straight guys do roles."

Queer characters are not only queer; 'queer is only one part of a character'

Craig Johnson, who directed Netflix's "Alex Strangelove" went along with the notion that queerness isn't as black and white as it is sometimes made out to be. Johnson said that while queer characters are very important, they shouldn't only be thought of as queer.

"I like to think of characters as fully fleshed out, three-dimensional humans where being gay is just one part of them," Johnson said. "So if the portrayal of the person is authentic, you have to go with the best actor for that person. It can be a gay actor, it can be a straight actor."

"I made a movie called 'The Skeleton Twins' and Bill Hader, who is straight, played a gay character, and I'm really proud of his portrayal. I think it feels authentic. I've had so many gay people come up to me and be appreciative of his portrayal because it felt authentic."

However, despite this, Johnson, like Westmoreland, said he does have a tendency to cast gay actors, particularly if he is on the fence between actors for a queer role.

"If I'm trying to decide between two actors, one straight and one gay, and it's a gay role, I'll likely go for the gay actor," Johnson said. "But it comes down to the best actor for the role because queer is only one part of a character. As we all know, not all queer people are the same. We're not all best friends, we're just as diverse as all straight people are diverse. You've got to find the actor that captures that person whether actors are straight or gay."

Johnson 'feels differently about transgender portrayal'

"We're in a time where one must find a transgender actor for those roles. That's important. It's part of their identity and there's a physicality to it that is an important distinction," Johnson said.

While there have been several examples of cis actors playing trans characters, the most high profile case of late actually came when a cis actor backed out of playing a trans character. Scarlett Johansson was set to play a trans character in Rupert Sanders' movie "Rub & Tug." However, after intense backlash, the actress backed out. This came after Johansson starred in Sanders' previous movie "Ghost in the Shell," which was accused of whitewashing its Japanese source material.

Westmoreland, Ribeiro, and Scott all agreed with Johnson's sentiment, particularly that trans actors are immensely better placed than cis actors to accurately portray those roles. Westmoreland cited "Tangerine" as an example. "Tangerine" features trans actress Kitana Kiki Rodriguez playing the lead character, who is trans.

Scott said the importance of having trans actors play trans roles comes down to respect: "There's so much more of a physical change that happens for our trans community. It's less respectful to what our trans community have gone through physically — of course, mentally, too — but actually physically. For them to be able to have someone come in and just flip it on. It's about respect. It all boils down to respect.

"We're actors. We can do it all. I think if there is care, a sensitivity to the culture. Doing research and understanding things in our culture and things that are alive and well in gay people — if you immerse yourself in that and you respect and honor what those things are, I'm okay with it.

"What I'm not okay with is when there is no respect or when there's a conscious decision. I question the motive behind that. Why can't we try to find a queer actor first?"

Practicality can sometimes hinder idealism

However, Fiona MacKenzie told Insider that as a straight director, while she always "auditions openly and tries to be as inclusive as possible," the practicality of filmmaking can sometimes get in the way, particularly for independent movies such as her own film "Tell Me I Love You," which features straight actor Ashley Parker Angel in a queer role.

"We had about two weeks to audition. We didn't have months and months to put it together. Some of it was availability and who showed up. It's such a competitive world, to insist it's a gay actor in that time frame might be a little difficult."

"You're in the room to decide and you don't have a lot of time, in a big-budget film you have tons of callbacks. I'd love to say I had six months to cast but that's not true. I didn't have that luxury at all."

Ultimately, then, the queer filmmakers Insider spoke to made it clear where the problem is — not in straight actors playing queer roles, but the people making those decisions, hiring those actors, who don't give queer performers a chance.

It's no wonder that pretty much every leading film star is straight and cisgender, particularly with Ribeiro acknowledging that some film stars may not be out. Hollywood is only just starting to embrace queer identities on camera, in front of the camera, and behind the camera. It may seem obvious to say that "actors are actors," but, as MacKenzie told Insider: "Gay actors should be given all the opportunity in the world."

This isn't happening industry-wide as of yet, but the more movies that are made that feature queer characters, themes, and storylines, the more the "normalization" that MacKenzie and Ribeiro and Johnson stress we need, will happen.

A lot of those films will continue to feature straight actors in queer roles. Let's just hope that queer actors out there are given the same opportunity.

Read more:

18 straight actors who were praised for playing LGBTQ characters

9 movies that got their LGBTQ representation completely wrong

The problematic history of trans characters on screen is laid out in Netflix's 'Disclosure'