I’ve been getting annoyed, these last couple weeks, by a thought that keeps recurring to me. I used to love the television show Will & Grace when it was on. I didn’t actually watch it all that often because it was on at inconvenient times in the UK but I’d watch it online and stuff. It has fantastic writing and it looks like the characters (and actors) have a lot of fun which gives it an unusual energy. But what’s been annoying me is how they take the issue of being gay and play with it as though it’s something to giggle at but never really focus on. This was evidenced to me a couple of days ago by a bloopers video I saw online. They use the gay line at every turn they can but the show and the actors are never honest about it. There are innumerable kisses between Karen and Jack, between Will and Grace and between Grace and Karen. Because straight or lesbian is ‘A OK’ on US television. But boy on boy action, not a chance. It’s a gay show and yet there is only one kiss in the clip show of guys kissing. Can mainstream audiences only accept gay shows if it’s laughing at the gays and not really with them?
Of course there’s the issue of actors themselves being out. How gay is Jack? So Gay. But Sean Hayes, rigidly in the closet. No utterance of his heterosexuality is uttered. He just doesn’t talk about it. Randy Harrison, one of the most high profile gays actors on television with his starring role in the US version of the British show Queer As Folk, hardly talks about it.
Nobody, not one single person is going to get over the idea of being typecast as gay if those who play gay don’t talk about it. When T.R. Knight from Grey’s Anatomy goes on ‘Ellen’, as he did two days ago, and can hardly articulate his position, never actually saying ‘I’m gay’ and refering to the ‘faggot’ name-calling he was subject to by a fellow cast member as ‘that hateful word’ (after his initial mumbling of the term), gays get weaker. Lots of peole heralded Knight for coming out publicly. He didn’t come out, he was kicked and pushed out by media reporting of the bust up on-set between two other actors that led to his being called the term. He may be articulate and kind and a thoroughly nice man, but he betrays himself by not having the courage to be open in the first place. It may be hard to be gay in the media but it can’t be hard to be gay in Hollywood. Give me a break, the place is full of gays. It’s clearly not being gay that’s the problem, but being publicly gay in Hollywood medialand.
So the US entertainment industry is using gay as a plot device but when it comes to actors actually being gay, that’s a no no. Apparently gay doesn’t sell in the magazines like a nice airbrushed People magazine headshot will do of a straight actor. No, wait. People magazine. Isn’t that the one that hosted Lance Bass’s coming out, and TR Knight’s and numerous others? Now you look at UK television and there are shows like Torchwood that has a bi/gay/straight/who-knows-what main character played by an actor who ‘married’ his male partner not long ago. If British shows can stop pretending, can’t they do the same stateside? And gay-vague isn’t good enough. It’s like the sidekick of Clair Bennet (the cheerleader) in the show Heroes. Gay. He’s gay. But they won’t say it, apart from when some kids in the high school corridors call it out as an insult. Because that’s what it’s seen as, and that’s what it’ll stay until entertainment considers it no longer a taboo topic. Let modern day people like Cole Porter stop hiding under the carpet and come out. Can’t Hollywood stop playing at gay? It’s not a fun game anymore.
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Randy Harrison has talked about being gay many times, in many different articles. I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but that’s definitely incorrect. He’s never, ever been shy about that fact.
You know he has talked about it a couple times but I would dispute the fact that he has talked about it ‘many’ times. Perhaps he is just a shy guy, but his colleagues on QAF certainly are more open about their views and positions than he is. I think he’s admirable in his work but I think he leaves much to be desired in his representation of the cultural and media aspects of being an actor. When I was doubting my sexuality I tried to find out information about him as an individual and it was remarkably difficult. I think for gay role models at the moment one could viably consider that there’s almost an obligation to be truthful and honest and open. I’m not saying Harrison hides it, but I don’t think he’s open about his orientation.
I have to agree with the person above who said Randy has talked about being openly gay several times in articles, interviews etc. over the years. As a matter of fact, he’s said it so many times that when people still ask if he’s gay or not, it makes me want to scream! I used to reply. But I don’t even bother anymore.
Also, who says Randy has be a role model just because he’s gay and was once on a TV show about the lives of gay men? He’s moved on now anyway. By the way, he hasn’t been shy about being out in public with his boyfriend of 5 years either. They’ve been seen together at several functions around NYC.
- Chris
Do you think actors should be our role models, Padz? I undertand why you can feel a bit let down when they’re not honest and/or vocal, but acting is their job… sadly, there are more straight characters out there than gay ones, and being stuck playing gay characters can be bad for an actor’s career, because a type actor won’t be offered as many or as varied a number of parts.
Also, it’s their private life. They’re selling their portrayals of these people, not their privacies. It’s their choice talking about their private lives, but they don’t need to do it if they don’t want to.
I can enjoy Will and Grace sometimes, but on the whole I don’t find it really stimulating. And QAF I just find too stereotyping and superficial…
I’d say, let’s do GOOD fiction with both straight characters and gay characters. Then fiction will start resembling life a bit more.
Sorry about the rant. I’m on thesis mode…
xx
Don’t worry about the ‘rant’; it was much less than mine! On the issue of role models and so forth, I know there are imperfections in the shows I mention and I know that I am discussing the private lives of public individuals. They have a right to privacy. That being so, I still think there’s a degree to which they, having taken on such high profile roles ought not shy away from discussing certain aspects of their lives. I don’t mean they should be telling all and everyone about their bedroom exploits but I don’t think it unreasonable to drop into conversations little everyday details.
For example, if asked in a mainstream media publicity interview if they have any particular hobbies they could say, “Yeah, my boyfriend and I love walking around the downtown streets of all the amazing places I get to visit. That’s one of the best things of being a famous actor, all the places you get to visit.” I don’t mean to make their whole existence about being gay or revealing all that much about their lives but my point is that by making their lives very normal they don’t perpetuate the idea that being gay will stop them getting work and so the idea that being gay has some negative connotation accompanying it.
Will and Grace is a fun show, but I agree that there isn’t much in the way of real behavior between gay men. Jack is a subject of ridicule and is shown as the ultimate flaming fag. So all of America (and U.K.?) gets a laugh out of him. Just don’t take that sissy seriously. Will is the bitchy, bitter queen ala Michael from Boys in the Band, just updated. The most real he has ever been was when he was with gay cop Vince.