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Post by stryker on Jun 16, 2022 6:37:44 GMT
Tom Hanks: Straight Actors Could Not Play Gay ‘Philadelphia’ Role Today and ‘Rightly So’
Tom Hanks won his first Oscar for best actor thanks to Jonathan Demme’s 1993 legal drama “Philadelphia,” in which he plays a gay man with HIV who is discriminated against at work. Now, almost 30 years later, Hanks says he or any fellow straight actor would no longer be able to play the openly gay character at the heart of “Philadelphia.” Not that Hanks sees a problem with that change in mentality in Hollywood.
“Let’s address ‘could a straight man do what I did in “Philadelphia” now?’ No, and rightly so,” Hanks recently told The New York Times Magazine. “The whole point of ‘Philadelphia’ was don’t be afraid. One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man. We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.”
“It’s not a crime, it’s not boohoo, that someone would say we are going to demand more of a movie in the modern realm of authenticity,” Hanks added. “Do I sound like I’m preaching? I don’t mean to.”
Hanks won the Oscar and a Golden Globe for his performance in “Philadelphia.” Variety’s original review of the drama praised the actor’s “towering” performance, adding, “Hanks makes it all hang together in a performance that triumphantly mixes determination, humor, perseverance, grit, energy and remarkable clearheadedness. Whatever else might nag about the film’s treatment of a difficult subject, Hanks constantly connects on the most basic human level.”
What a load of horse s... say I, what say the board. For the record book, the great British actor Sir Ian McKellen - who is openly gay, vehemently disagrees with Hanks.
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Post by stryker on Jun 16, 2022 6:41:30 GMT
Hollywood's (and Hanks') hypocrisy is off the charts. I stand with Sir Ian McKellen.
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Post by stryker on Jun 16, 2022 6:48:53 GMT
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Post by stryker on Jun 16, 2022 7:36:14 GMT
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Post by timshelboy on Jun 16, 2022 10:10:19 GMT
Let me guess - he likes taking a dump in his partner's bed?
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Post by stryker on Jun 16, 2022 11:51:26 GMT
Let me guess - he likes taking a dump in his partner's bed? Way to avoid talking about the subject matter. And here I was thinking you might have something intelligent, or even witty, to say about the subject timshelboy. I suppose everyone on the board is scared they might say something politically incorrect about Hanks' dumb comment.
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Post by stryker on Jun 16, 2022 17:01:29 GMT
Looking forward to hearing from Doghouse and Marshamae especially, Spiderwort and London777 too, and the handful of regulars on this subject.
Does anyone here think only queer actors should be allowed to play queer characters in movies and on television? And if so, should only straight actors be allowed to play heterosexual actors. Or did Tom Hanks fail to think this through and naively felt that queer actors felt the same way as transsexual actors and activists?
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Post by teleadm on Jun 16, 2022 17:12:21 GMT
Should only alcoholics play drunkards in movies? A list that like that could be very long. It sounds like something that wasn't really thought through.
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Post by marshamae on Jun 16, 2022 18:06:13 GMT
Let me guess - he likes taking a dump in his partner's bed? Way to avoid talking about the subject matter. And here I was thinking you might have something intelligent, or even witty, to say about the subject timshelboy. I suppose everyone on the board is scared they might say something politically incorrect about Hanks' dumb comment. Or…. Maybe you have sucked all the oxygen out of the “ discussion “ with your moat - surrounded, body armored stand. I don’t care about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, I like Tom Hanks and Ian Mckellan, and it won’t be up to you me or them whether a straight actor ever again plays a gay man. It will be up to the bean counters. i certainly hope that more honest stories about LGTBQ people will be made , employing gay actors. I certainly hope Asian, Latino, Black stories will be made featuring actors that can represent appropriately. Whether that happens or not will depend on writers directors and producers of the appropriate ethnicity being part of the project. Maybe the best euro- American actors can do is refuse to be cast as people of color, to insist on culturally appropriate writers and directors and producers to lead the project. This came out harsher than I meant, but I left it because I Did mean to say that it is hard to discuss when your position is so passionately felt .
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Post by Rufus-T on Jun 16, 2022 18:35:56 GMT
There was a similar controversy about 20 years ago when Ziyi Zhang, a Chinese, played a Japanese, in Memoir of the Geisha. Personally, I thought it was a silly argument at that time. It is still a silly argument to me nowaday.
A good actor can play anyone, especially with the advanced make up and CGI nowadays. Don't we have many British played American, and vice versa. I was surprised at Kate Beckinsale's British accent on Conan when all along I thought she is America. Same with Emilia Jnoes lately in CODA and Benedict Cumberbatch in Power of Dog. Didn't a gay Neil Patrick Harris played a straight in Gone Girl? Isn't Ariana DeBose, the Oscar winner, gay too or just nonbinary? Michelle Rodriguez have been in a bunch of straight role also. I don't really care what they are as long as they were great at what they did. So I am with Ian McKellen. Tom Hank gotten wrapped too tight in the Hollywood woke bubble. I would have thought Tom Hank be more open mind than that, from all the great roles he aced.
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Post by stryker on Jun 16, 2022 22:55:26 GMT
Way to avoid talking about the subject matter. And here I was thinking you might have something intelligent, or even witty, to say about the subject timshelboy. I suppose everyone on the board is scared they might say something politically incorrect about Hanks' dumb comment. Or…. Maybe you have sucked all the oxygen out of the “ discussion “ with your moat - surrounded, body armored stand. I don’t care about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, I like Tom Hanks and Ian Mckellan, and it won’t be up to you me or them whether a straight actor ever again plays a gay man. It will be up to the bean counters. i certainly hope that more honest stories about LGTBQ people will be made , employing gay actors. I certainly hope Asian, Latino, Black stories will be made featuring actors that can represent appropriately. Whether that happens or not will depend on writers directors and producers of the appropriate ethnicity being part of the project. Maybe the best euro- American actors can do is refuse to be cast as people of color, to insist on culturally appropriate writers and directors and producers to lead the project. This came out harsher than I meant, but I left it because I Did mean to say that it is hard to discuss when your position is so passionately felt . Ooh my, marshamae, I enjoyed your reply. LOL, it's good you speak your mind from time to time. It's way past the midnight hour here in my little corner of Africa and I must take myself to bed, but God, my back and the quotidian willing I will return to you with a focused, serious and nuanced reply. We will talk again. Meanwhile ...
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Post by mikef6 on Jun 17, 2022 1:26:12 GMT
Perhaps the question is an economic one. Groups who were once discriminated against as a normal thing were commonly, maybe always, portrayed on screen by white actors. Of all the films featuring Asian detectives in the classic era (Charley Chan, Mr. Moto, Mr. Wong) were played by white actors. Only one exception, one movie whose lead was of Asian heritage, “The Phantom Of Chinatown” (1940) with Keye Luke as Mr. Wong’s son. Rock Hudson and Dennis Weaver played Native American leaders. Marlon Brando played a Okinawan, Burgess Meredith a Japanese who said “Ah so” a lot. Anthony Quinn (Mexican-American) and J. Carroll Naish (Irish ancestry) played multiple ethnic characters.
What I am getting up to is that if Rock Hudson plays an American Indian then a Native American actor doesn’t get work. Groups, including openly gay men who were handled with kid gloves in any role and most definitely could not play an openly gay character.
I think this is why while Asians, Latinos and some others are mostly portrayed by actors of that ethnicity these days, gay characters, when they appear in modern movies other than the best friend of the female lead in a romantic comedy, still find straight actors in the part. This is what Hanks is talking about. If your movie has an Asian character, hire an Asian actor. If you movie has a gay character, hire a gay actor.
I am just a teensy bit disappointed with my Classic Film friends for knocking Hanks so much.
To quote Hanks, “Do I sound like I’m preaching? I don’t mean to.”
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Post by marshamae on Jun 17, 2022 1:51:51 GMT
I think this is why while Asians, Latinos and some others are mostly portrayed by actors of that ethnicity these days, gay characters, when they appear in modern movies other than the best friend of the female lead in a romantic comedy, still find straight actors in the part. This is what Hanks is talking about. If your movie has an Asian character, hire an Asian actor. If you movie has a gay character, hire a gay actor.
More than that at the time Philadelphia was made it was not possible to have a story with an openly gay hero made by a major US studio. We had plenty of gay stars but not openly. We had some films built around an openly gay character played by a gay actor, but not from a major American studio. It needed a straight actor, a major actor with star clout, so that any “ick “ factor could be dealt with by a reassuring “ he’s just acting. It isn’t real” Hopefully we no longer need a straight actor to make the audience comfortable.
Also , it was AIDS. We were scared to death.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 17, 2022 2:38:33 GMT
Looking forward to hearing from Doghouse and Marshamae especially, Spiderwort and London777 too, and the handful of regulars on this subject. Nice of you to think of me. My overall reaction is this: tempest in a teapot. An actor said something that sounded dumb or, at the very least, not well thought through, and nothing more need be made of it than that. While there may be others in the business sharing his view, none of them speak for - or represent the thinking of - the many tens of thousands of others working in the various media comprising the entertainment industry. I had an idea of what may have been behind what Hanks intended to convey (however inartfully put), and I think mikef6 has already articulated it as well as anyone could. marshamae's further thoughts on his remarks were quite useful amplification as well.
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Post by marianne48 on Jun 17, 2022 3:53:57 GMT
When Hanks mentions the "people [who] weren't afraid of" his portrayal of a gay man dying of AIDS, he might be talking about the studio heads and their leeriness in confronting the subject matter. Then when they finally got around to it, they fell all over each other congratulating themselves for their "courage" in investing in a major theatrical film about it.
Meanwhile, there'd already been a decent TV movie back in 1985, An Early Frost, about a gay lawyer dying of AIDS.
The low-budget indie film Longtime Companion was released in theaters in 1990 and received an Oscar nomination for one of its performers. Only then did Hollywood summon up the guts to invest in a big-budget film about the AIDS epidemic, as long as the star was a well-known hetero, so as not to scare themselves.
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Post by frankcaprica on Jun 17, 2022 5:34:08 GMT
I’ll never play a serial killer again, only real serial killers should play them in movies.
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Post by stryker on Jun 17, 2022 5:41:05 GMT
When Hanks mentions the "people [who] weren't afraid of" his portrayal of a gay man dying of AIDS, he might be talking about the studio heads and their leeriness in confronting the subject matter. Then when they finally got around to it, they fell all over each other congratulating themselves for their "courage" in investing in a major theatrical film about it. Meanwhile, there'd already been a decent TV movie back in 1985, An Early Frost, about a gay lawyer dying of AIDS. The low-budget indie film Longtime Companion was released in theaters in 1990 and received an Oscar nomination for one of its performers. Only then did Hollywood summon up the guts to invest in a big-budget film about the AIDS epidemic, as long as the star was a well-known hetero, so as not to scare themselves. I enjoyed LONGTIME COMPANION very much, and was deeply moved by it when I saw it on the big screen in the early nineties marianne. Heterosexual actor Bruce Davison received a well deserved Oscar nomination for his heartfelt performance as a gay man. I saw AN EARLY FROST too.
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Post by stryker on Jun 17, 2022 7:06:19 GMT
I think this is why while Asians, Latinos and some others are mostly portrayed by actors of that ethnicity these days, gay characters, when they appear in modern movies other than the best friend of the female lead in a romantic comedy, still find straight actors in the part. This is what Hanks is talking about. If your movie has an Asian character, hire an Asian actor. If you movie has a gay character, hire a gay actor. More than that at the time Philadelphia was made it was not possible to have a story with an openly gay hero made by a major US studio. We had plenty of gay stars but not openly. We had some films built around an openly gay character played by a gay actor, but not from a major American studio. It needed a straight actor, a major actor with star clout, so that any “ick “ factor could be dealt with by a reassuring “ he’s just acting. It isn’t real” Hopefully we no longer need a straight actor to make the audience comfortable. Also , it was AIDS. We were scared to death. I don't have the time to get into a lengthy reply right now marshamae. But in the meantime, I would be interested to know what your 10 favorite gay and lesbian themed movies are? I would also be interested to know if you think brilliant, massively talented, openly queer filmmakers such as Gus van Sant, Todd Haynes, Lisa Cholodenko and Dustin Lance Black have had to struggle (any more than other filmmakers) to get their ideas and scripts turned into films? Do you think openly gay leading men (and women) and stars such as Luke Evans, the aforementioned Ian McKellen, Matt Bomer, Kristen Stewart, Wentworth Miller, Zachary Quinto, Cynthia Nixon and Neil Patrick Harris have been prejudiced against (in their choice of roles) because of their sexuality? I don't think anyone deserves to be put in a pigeon hole. Rather than using an excellent Dennis Quaid (LOL, cast against type), should, in your opinion, Todd Haynes have employed an openly gay actor to play the part of the married, closeted Frank Whitaker in FAR FROM HEAVEN - his achingly lovely, exquisitely lensed, stylized and wrenchingly sad homage to Douglas Sirk's beautiful and quite subversive (for 1955, by Hollywood standards) masterpiece ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS? That's all for now, but if you and others play along from both the heart and the head I'll show you the real me and take some time to look at the issues raised here thoughtfully. I look forward to your answers to my questions. Hasta la vista marshamae.
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Post by Feologild Oakes on Jun 17, 2022 7:27:37 GMT
By that logic gay people should not be allowed to play straight people.
Which would be stupid.
Also a bit funny that its a straight man complaining about it, has any actual gay actor complained that a straight actor have played a gay character?
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Post by marshamae on Jun 17, 2022 16:57:46 GMT
By that logic gay people should not be allowed to play straight people.
Well that would be dumb because in the bad old days all gay people did was pretend to be straight. Their performance was nuanced because it had to work 8n real life, unrehearsed situations. All improv, all the time. If, by moving past an era when staying in the closet was the only possibility, we have dismantled the training ground for a generation of gay actors learning to play straight , that’s a good thing , yes?
i think gay actors were complaining, in the 90’s and 00’s . They were more or less out, yet straight actors were still getting the gay characters . One actor I particularly recall was was Rupert Everett.
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