Last week, Rupert Everett reasserted his opinion that his career has been stifled as a result of his sexuality. The openly gay actor told the Telegraph: "There’s only a certain amount of mileage you can make, as a young pretender, as a leading man, as a homosexual. There just isn’t very far you can go.”
It isn't the first time Everett has expressed this view. In 2013 he told BBC's HARDtalk: "Straight men get every opportunity to play gay parts that they want and then win tons of awards for doing so. But the other way doesn’t really work out. The mainstream actor has had to become straighter and straighter and straight."
He's right about actors playing gay parts: there often does seem to be a slew of awards and plaudits for those willing to portray themselves as anything other than heteronormative. (See: Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain; Sean Penn as Harvey Milk; Felicity Huffman in Transamerica; Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey in I Love You, Phillip Morris; Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry, I could go on ...)
But what about the other way around? Does Everett have a point? Is there a reluctance for studio and TV execs to cast known gay or bisexual actors as straight characters? Do we, as audiences, find it difficult to accept gay actors playing straight roles? I don't think it makes a difference one way or another. Surely that's what acting is.
There are plenty of gay and bisexual actors who have made their names playing mostly straight characters. From bisexual Michelle Rodriguez, Evan Rachel Wood and Amber Heard to Ellen Page and Jodie Foster who both publicly announced their sexuality recently (Page at the Time to Thrive conference, and Foster – who has since married her partner – at the Golden Globes). Here are five examples of actors in same-sex relationships playing mostly straight roles. Please leave your thoughts and comments in the thread below.
Wentworth Miller
The pin-up and Prison Break actor was roundly applauded for his coming out in 2013, with a superb letter protesting Russia's anti-gay laws. He followed this up with a speech to the Human Rights Campaign dinner. Miller's sexuality had been private for a long time, although rumours swirled, and gossip blogger Perez Hilton apparently made it his mission to out the star. Explaining his former decision to stay quiet, Miller said: "I chose to lie – when I thought about the possibility of coming out, how that might impact me and the career I worked so hard for, I was filled with fear. Fear and stubborn resistance that had built up over many years."
But his announcement doesn't seem to have hindered his status as a leading man who makes girls (and boys) weak at the knees. He'll be returning to his role as Chris Redfield in the forthcoming Resident Evil film.
Portia de Rossi
Portia de Rossi, who is married to talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres, has made a stellar TV career in fan favourites such as Arrested Development and Ally McBeal. Her on-off relationship with John Cage as Nelle Porter was one of the best things about Ally McBeal during seasons two and three, and she has been lauded for her portrayal of Lindsay Bluth (Arrested Development) – a woman who is married but in a sexually unfulfilling relationship desperately chasing after other men. She has also played a lesbian before, appearing as Olivia Lord in Nip/Tuck.
Zachary Quinto
Best known as Spock in the new Star Trek incarnations and as Sylar on smash TV show Heroes, Quinto has been out since 2011. He's also had roles in 24, Six Feet Under, CSI and Charmed. He's played straight roles, as with What's Your Number, and also gay parts, as in So NoTORIous. He originally spoke about his sexuality in a 2011 interview with New York Magazine, which was received with little fuss.
Cynthia Nixon
She played Miranda Hobbes in Sex and the City for six years – the hard-working Harvard graduate lawyer who eventually marries boyfriend Steve, and has a child. Off screen, however, she is married to activist Christine Marinoni. Speaking of her sexual orientation, she says: "I don't really feel I've changed. I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I'm just a woman in love with another woman."
Russell Tovey
He's played roles as diverse as werewolf George Sands in Being Human, Steve Marshall in Him & Her, and Rudge in The History Boys; as well as cameos in Sherlock and Gavin & Stacey. One of Britain's best young acting talents, Tovey has made a career of mostly playing straight characters. He already had many roles under his belt when he decided to depict a gay character – first in The Pass, a play about a repressed gay footballer, and since in Ashes to Ashes and Looking, a drama about San Francisco's queer scene.
Tovey, however, did tell the Guardian: "I've found out over the years that the conversation about casting me has come up: would it affect the show and the audience if I'm a gay man playing a straight character? These conversations are being had still."
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