Oxford's oldest student newspaper

Independent since 1920

Out in the Spotlight

The success of an acting performance in film, theatre, and television is, more often than not, measured by its authenticity. To use an obvious example, we know that Anne Hathaway is Anne Hathaway, but in Les Miserables she works to suspend our disbelief and invite an emotional investment in the character Fantine. Her Oscar nomination is a testament to the critical acclaim she received for making us believe – admittedly by also losing a drastic amount of weight – that she was a dying prostitute.

The relationships contained within such fictional narratives require a similar verisimilitude, and in exploring the depiction of these most critics will muse upon whether such platonic or romantic ties are indeed believable. Rarely, however, will the actor’s own romantic attachments come into a consideration of the latter. With the exception of, say, the extra-marital affair which may or may not have occurred in Mr & Mrs Smith, an actor’s attraction (or lack thereof) to their on-screen partner is irrelevant to any critical analysis; no self-respecting journalist would comment on overcoming the hurdles of an ugly co-star or a real-life husband/wife in order to portray a convincing romantic duo. 

When the gender and sexual orientation of actors enters the discussion, however, a double-standard quickly emerges. All on-screen or on-stage relationships are acted, and thus founded upon performativity and pretence, yet extra praise is reserved for those who can break the boundaries of their heterosexuality and feign a love for someone of the same sex. Oscars and Golden Globes are showered upon those who can not only convince us of a fictional relationship, but a homosexual one. Some have even gone as far to point out that Mickey Rourke’s lead role in the upcoming biopic of Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas may earn him the Academy Award he narrowly missed out on for The Wrestler. What information about the film is available to inform this prediction? Nothing. It hasn’t even begun shooting yet. Critics can (sadly enough, quite accurately) base this upon the mere fact that Thomas is gay and Rourke is not.

It’s a disappointing state of affairs when sexuality – and its disparity between acted and lived experience – is the factor to which writers constantly return to either commend or undermine a performance. Those who, however benevolently, point out such differences do so only to reinforce the notion that they could potentially impact an actor’s ability to do their job.

When Alexander Woolley (Cherwell Stage Editor) congratulates the cast of Angels In America on how they don’t ‘ham it up and descend into pantomimic camp to portray homosexuality, even though every male character is homosexual and every actor heterosexual’ or Associate Artist Jessica Campbell (OUDS Treasurer) writes about cast members ‘test[ing] their heterosexual nerves’ in the ‘gay scenes’, LGBTQ actors are reminded that their private lives will invariably affect their critical reception.

It’s no coincidence that Jodie Foster waited until announcing her retirement in her Golden Globes acceptance speech to also come out, that Rupert Everett recently advised gay actors to stay in the closet and that Bret Easton Ellis went on a twitter rant about how Matt Bomer ‘isn’t right’ for the lead role in a Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation ‘because he is openly gay’. It also recently transpired that Bomer’s audition for Superman early in his career was deliberately sabotaged by someone on the production team. How? They revealed his sexuality to the casting director.

While the examples above may be small, they are far from insignificant. Angels In America is a spectacular, powerful and groundbreaking play. Its subject matter is still pertinent today, when the latest figures for 2011 saw the highest rates of HIV transmission amongst gay and bisexual men in the UK since records began. Let’s keep the discussion about the production itself, not the actors’ private lives.

Check out our other content

Most Popular Articles