Ramin Setoodeh writes for Newsweek. According to Kristin Chenoweth, who I will talk about later, Ramin is gay. The fact that he is gay makes his article even more distressing. In his article he talks about Sean Hayes' performance as a straight man in the play in which he stars with Kristin. Ramin basically says that when a gay man is known to be gay he can't play a straight character. This is such crap. If someone is a good enough actor they can play straight, gay, or anything else. I could watch Neil Patrick Harris star in a gay porno and then have no doubts he is straight as soon as I watch him in How I Met Your Mother or Harold & Kumar.
There are lots of other examples too. When someone writes an article as destructive as the one Ramin wrote, all he is doing is making sure that actors stay closeted for fear of hurting their careers. The actors in question then have to hide who they really are which makes people who are not actors question whether they should be open or try to hide. It is a vicious circle.
Kristin Chenoweth wrote a much harsher response than me to Ramin's article and for that I stand up an applaud. I have always loved Kristin and now I love her that much more.
Wow. There are lots of hetero acts that I can't believe would be in love with women, because they CAN'T ACT!
ReplyDeleteMaybe Ramin S missed Ian MacKellen as the notoriously heterosexual King Lear? Quite terrifying, and no complaints of being too gay to be believable.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing worse than repressed latent homosexuality, cause this is what happens.
ReplyDeleteHaven't read Kristin's response, but I agree with Enty. This whole "gay can't play straight" and "straight can't play gay" is nonsense. Good actors take on the role they are given and perform it believably. I can think of many other gay men and women who have played straight roles very well (Rock Hudson comes to mind right now).
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ReplyDeleteThis guy is obviously an idiot. Does he not know how many closeted gay actors play straight in every single movie role they take?
ReplyDeleteI read the letter from Kristin; definitely worth your time.
ReplyDeleteBeth: That's a good point about RH, who had been moistening panties for decades.
Gay actors have been playing straight characters for years, and vice versa. A person's sexuality has nothing to do with how well they portray a role. They are playing a "CHARACTER" in a movie, play, etc. Maybe this Ramin guy needs to be taught the difference between "Real" and "Make Believe".
ReplyDeleteTwo words for self-hater Ramin: Paulo Szot.
ReplyDelete@Beth~I totally agree. Watch any Rock Hudson movie, for example "Giant" with Elizabeth Taylor. They are smoking hot together in the early scenes. He totally pulled off hetero! Montgomery Clift in "A Place in the Sun" again with Taylor, same thing
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lady J, it's a character, it doesn't mean that an actor should have the same personality as the character, it's acting.
ReplyDeleteGood for Kristin! I actually thought Ted C did a pretty good job of addressing this. Not only did he cite examples of gay actors who are fabulous playing 'straight', he mused whether we should also not have straight actors play gay, in that case?
ReplyDeleteI mean, the whole article is so ridiculous it's laughable - I can only hope that it's author is suitably publicly shamed.
two words.
ReplyDeleteTom. Cruise.
The bravest thing she said in her response was coming out as a Christian.
ReplyDeleteThis woman is a class act. I adore her.
Perhaps he should have said they "lacked chemistry".
ReplyDeleteHe's now got a response up on Newsweek's website whining that "the internet" is being mean to him and that people don't really understand what he's saying. He apparently refuses to accept the idea that yes in fact people do understand what he's saying and think it's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like in Hollywood, gay actors can't win one way or another. On the one hand you have people like the Newsweek idiot insisting that gay actors can't play straight, but then on the other hand you have stories like the one about how John Barrowman didn't get the role of Will on Will and Grace because the producers didn't think he seemed gay enough.
I was also incensed, since I spent most of my early puberty yearning after Montgomery Clift, and LOVED the Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies. They certainly seemed hetero to me. Although I did watch, while in the hospital with swine flu and actually watching TV, an old favorite, A Farewell to Arms, with Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones, and noticed that in most of their clinches, he kept his face buried in her neck.
ReplyDeleteIt goes the other way too, I don't think anyone accuses Sean Penn of being gay, but he did a great job as Harvey Milk.
The real problem is that most of the actors these days are only called actors, they aren't really. Real actors can play anything.
moi - i cant even read his response, i get too angry. What a stupid little... something he is! One step forward, two steps back, it feels like...
ReplyDeleteHell, back in the day, men used to play women! A good actor can play anything. Period. A less-talented actor may struggle playing against type (which is a much broader category than just sexual orientation), but Sean Hayes is not one of those actors.
ReplyDeleteBravo to Kristin.
I AM SO WITH ENTY AND KRISTIN...WHAT A DUMB SELF LOATHING GAY MAN....
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Sean Hayes probably wants to scream at everybody, "See, this is why I didn't want to come out".
ReplyDeleteGasp! A Christian who can tolerate and defend homosexuality?!? I so wish there were more like her (esp. in Oklahoma, where she is dearly loved in the Tulsa/Broken Arrow area, her hometown).
ReplyDeleteNewsweek is in serious financial trouble. They redid the format last year, and it's truly sucked ever since.
I don't think that gay people can't play hetero, but some just aren't good at it. The kid that plays Glenn Close's son on Damages seems so gay to me that I can't believe his relationship with his girlfriend. The kid who play Kyle XY seems so gay to me that I think there's more tension between him and his buddy than between him and his girlfriend. Of course I could be totally wrong and both of these young men could be hetero in real life and just be lousy actors. But there's nothing wrong per se, with a gay man playing straight if he can pull it off. Maybe some of them can't.
ReplyDeleteI guess Sean Hayes' performance as a straight man in Promises, Promises was so "unconvincing" that it earned him a Tony nomination.
ReplyDeleteJust saw Sean (one of the nicest, most together, down to earth, hardest working, truly talented guys in showbiz) in Promises and he absolutely rocked the house. One of those iconic Broadway performances that will be remembered for years to come. And his first Broadway show, to boot.
His comments about the other actors (and actresses - including Cynthia Nixon (who apparently was convincing as a straight woman but only BEFORE she found same sex love) - were stupid and disgusting. And really hateful.
It was a terrible, destructive, spiteful article that - if it belonged anywhere, should've been in some uber right wing rag, not in Newsweeek.
I admire Kristen more than I can say for speaking out. I wish more actors would do the same.
But looserdude - even if they ARE gay, it goes both ways! I've seen some horrendous depictions of gay men played by straight men. What matters is the quality of actor, not who they prefer to schtup in real life!
ReplyDelete@RocketQueen - Agreed, the straight man playing gay is usually an outrageous caricature, insulting and stupid. But casting is important. Some guys just are cut out for certain roles.
ReplyDeleteBut to play the devil's advocate here, how was it "brave" of Kristen to come out and say what she said? If anything she'll receive a lot of positive publicity for it. Everyone else in Hollywood is probably yelling at their publicists today because they weren't first to say what she did.
I never liked Kristin Chenoweth. Until now. Way to go Kristin!
ReplyDelete@looserdude - exactly. And if that's what this author meant, he should have said it that succinctly. But I really don't think that's what he meant.
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily think she was brave either, I'm just happy that she did it. I wouldn't have even known about the article had she not said something. Hell, I would have loved whoever came forward trashing this guy.
Cheno seems to have a nose for obnoxious douchebags, and is very adept at putting them in their places. My brother works the VIP section at a nightclub in Louisville, and I heard through the grapevine (our family) that when she visited his club recently, she gave him the ass-chewing of a lifetime. I'm sure Kristin doesn't know this, but the reason my brother and I no longer speak is that two months ago, he beat the living crap out of me, in front of my three small children. I am a woman, and stand about 5'4", and my brother is a 250-pounder, standing at well over 6 feet. I never spread around what he had done, or retaliated. I just cut him out of my life. I like to think whatever public humiliation he suffered at the hands of Ms. Chenoweth was a sort of payback for what he did to me. She has been, and will remain to be, one of my personal heroes.
ReplyDeleteI honestly question whether Ramin tried to date Sean Hayes and was shot down, and spectacularly at that?
ReplyDeleteBecause the article appears to be pointedly targeted towards Hayes. Given that there aren't that many (offically) "out" actors, targeting one does nothing more than reinforce negative stereotypes and drive closeted celebs further into the closet, when they would honestly do a greater good as positive role models.
I've always loved Chenoweth, and even more so now. Ramin is a tool, and his story is hateful. I hope it doesn't keep anyone in the closet that was about to come out.
ReplyDeleteEm Cue Em, good for you for cutting your brother out of your life. Don't let your family guilt you back into contact with him. Blood doesn't have to be thicker than water.
I don't understand if Ramin is gay why he would be so hateful and backwards regarding gay people playing straight characters.
ReplyDeleteKristin Chenoweth rocks! And I love any man who can make me laugh so hard I cry - that's you, Sean.
ReplyDeleteEm Cue Em, I'm glad your brother got a bit of the bad karma that was due to him!
ReplyDeleteHang in there, Em Cue Em! Next time, call the cops on his ass.
ReplyDeleteAssaulted by my drunk sister at Christmastime for no reason other than she's a lunatic. You are not alone!
Also, go KChen!