Atlantic "3 Things Glee Does Wrong" an excellent take on the chinks in Glee's delightful armor. Are you listening show runners? This is spot on
i09 The villain of Iron Man 2 is Tony Stark. Discuss
The Hollywood Reporter a porn biopic for Lindsay Lohan. This could either be the comeback of "yes I can act" or a very very bad move. Hard to tell
Film Freak Central "the perils of Dirk the Daring" wow. i was just thinking about this 80s cartoon videogame the other day.
The Playlist first pic of Chloe Moretz as the vampire in the misbegotten remake Let Me In
Deadline NY Kristen Wiig options Clown Girl. Sounds intriguing
fourfour 'old people getting high' a gif wall from It's Complicated
i09 production art and casting demands for John Carter of Mars
Finally, you really should read this heinous homophobic article on Newsweek about the inability of gay actors to sell straight roles. Yeah, I guess Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift and god knows how many others never gave any performances that were worth a damn. The article is mostly about today's out actors and it does them a terrible disservice. Where's the respect? Make sure to read the comments section though. The ever wonderful Kristen Chenoweth shows up to tell Newsweek what's what about her gay co-stars and gay actors in general.
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22 comments:
What's going on with Newsweek? That gay actors article should be in the dictionary next to: EPIC FAIL!
That was the most bizarre article I've read since their piece about Zahara Jolie-Pitt's hair.
1# i'm tired of superhero movies except for Raimi's Spiderman and Nolan's Batman(because before all, it's great movies with real story)
2# about Newsweek,what say?? mediocre arguments(gay or not if the actor is bad ,he's bad )! sad period
My god, that Newsweek article is heinous. Gotta love Kristen's comment though, she's the best! When is Hollywood going to finally give her a fabulous film role?
That Newsweek article is pure crap. Particularly when the author suggests that the performance of a gay actor playing a straight character gets less convincing retroactively when they come out.
Hmmm perhaps that's a sign that the problem lies not with the performer but the prejudices of the author and his inability to accept a gay person playing a straight character.
Oh and that Superhero article was very insightful.
I lost for words at that Newsweek article. It's absrud. And just when I thought it wasn't possible to love Chenoweth anymore... There she goes.
That article HORRIBLE, yes... but what the author is basically saying that people watch movies not for the performaces or story or anything quality-related but because of the "stars" in the movies and the gossip surrounding them and judging those movies by the real-life personas rather than the actual performances wich is sad but I don't know if I can disagree in that that's the way most people watch movies... :S
Honestly, I'm very intrigued by the Lindsay Lohan as Linda Lovelace biopic. I think she's gone majorly downhill, but she had some real potential before.
If she does this right, it could be a very nice comeback for her.
It sounds like a very meaty role.
I will chime in on the heinousness of the Newsweek article, but it says more about the author than the actors. back to 1967 with you!
As for Glee, thanks - I've thought the same thing for a while. I watch for the talent, but they're making them jump through hoops (over sharks?) to make musical numbers work that make no sense. The characters are being written to the joke or the number, rather than to the character, and the show is suffering.
But happy to see Jonathan Groff....
I don't want to sound homophopic since I have a lot or gay friends, but I agree? The only gay actor that convinced me he was in love with a woman was Laurence Olivier in Carrie?
Maybe I shouldn't be that honest, but...
I'm sorry in anticipation, but I can't say the guy is not right. I'm really sorry, since this comment may offend a lot of people, but...
Gayness really something thatb is sticks to actors. I mean, I could never believe Mel Gibson as gay the same way I could never believe Everrett as a straight? Is that wrong?
I'm sorry.
I'm really sorry for that comment.
the Meryl Streep gif was awesome! i actually forgot she got stoned in that movie.
I don't even think it's that the actors aren't convincing. It's that the audience just can't get "gay gay gay" out of their head. One of my friends used to watch "How I Met Your Mother" until she found out NPH was gay; suddenly he was "unrealistic". Lily Tomlin went from being an awesome older actress to "that old lesbian". But hey, once a straight plays gay, suddenly everyone talks about how they're probably actually gay. I know a few people who "joked" that Heath Ledger probably died of AIDS. Articles like the one in Newsweek are not only hurtful, they're part of the problem: conditioning audiences to attach a label to an actor because of who they date, no matter what. It's disgusting, and that's why actors who transcend that gap - NPH, Jane Lynch, Ellen, Rock fucking Hudson - are such icons.
Ok, I'm done. Carry on.
Feeling exactly the same about GLEE. I still love it, but they seem to be dropping the ball this season.
Oh, didn't read the Newsweek article just yet....you can see where my priorities are, GLEE comes before Newsweek.
Cal... i appreciate honesty but i just can't imagine what movies you're watching if Ian McKellen and Monty Clift and Jodie Foster and so on and so on aren't convincing to you in their roles? i mean these are great actors! And Cynthia Nixon in Sex & The City. I mean how can you not get into that romance between her and Steve the Bartender? to me that's one of the best opposites attract chemistry from any television series.
and to me part of the intrinsic hilarity of Neil Patrick Harris as a predatory straight man is that he is so very convincing as such both in HIMYM and in Harold & Kumar.
I have no trouble getting into straight actors playing gay either (provided they aren't taking super obvious routes like Greg Kinnear in As Good As It Gets and aren't stealing oscar nominations that belong to gay men playing gay and not getting credit for it because they aren't 'stretching'. ARGH 1997. I SHALL NEVER FORGIVE THEE)
That Newsweek article pushes my buttons in so many ways I can't even think straight (pun certainly not intended)! While my head stops spinning, let me list a few actors who are putting Setoodeh's claim to shame:
1. Rock Hudson (you're kidding me, right?)
2. Matt Bomer (watch Chuck -- you'll be surprised)
3. Neil Patrick Harris (broad caricature, maybe -- but epically played just the same)
4. Portia de Rossi (see above)
5. Cynthia Nixon (married or no, I doubt she swaps sexualities at the drop of a hat)
5. Zachary Quinto (Spock and Sylar FFS!)
6. John Barrowman (one of my favorite actors gay or straight)
7. Jonathan Groff (not "queeny" in the least)
8. Sean Hayes (if his Scrubs ep doesn't convince you there's nothing more I can do)
P.S. I know I said "a few" but that just proves my point, doesn't it?
I did enjoy KC's rebuttal, but I especially loved the poster directly after her who told the author that his "name sounds like noodles."
Yes, Nathaniel, you're right. There are a lot of gay actors who can play straight very well.
But, in a lot of cases, if the actor has his sexual orientation expressed in his physicality, it undermines the performance. It's why I don't buy Jodie Foster playing romance in her action movies, that same way I wouldn't buy Bruce Willis in his Die Hard mode playing gay.
Sometimes actors' sexual orientation shows in performances, and the most important thing if the character's sexual orientation.
And there's something else. Playing against your sexual orientation can be easy to some actors, but playing gay/straight IN LOVE is quite a different thing, you know? I don't remember many successful cases like that.
That Newsweek article was just stupid.
As for Iron Man 2...it would be nice if that had been written by someone who liked the movie. He liked Spiderman 3 better than Iron Man 2, apparently. So...yeah.
Let Me In...NOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHY ARE THEY REMAKING IT SO SOON? ARGH! Though casting Hit Girl as the vampire is a funny thought. I can see it now:
"OK, you c*nts, lets see what happens when I drink your blood!"
(That was lame.)
And Lindsay Lohan in a PORN BIOPIC? MY EYES ARE BLEEDING.
Personally, I see the author of Newsweek as being either ignorant or a homophobe or (probably) both, and I don't really see a way around that. For example, there are few if any people who would argue that Montgomery Clift's performances in Oscar-nominated roles in A Place in the Sun and From Here to Eternity aren't intensely romantic and convincing. Rock Hudson's swab, debonaire ladies' man in Pillow Talk (not to mention his highly convincing Oscar-nominated portrait in Giant), as is Cynthia Nixon's Miranda Hobbes (which won an Emmy). James Dean in Rebel, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, the list goes on.
And to go that the scenes become less convincing after they come out? What a load of, well, you know. 30-40 years from now when it's confirmed that a certain "closeted" actor was in fact not so in their personal life-will that make them less convincing? Will certain money-showing actors who were "completed" by Nathaniel's other nemesis be less so when we discover that they were probably more interested in their volleyball scenes ten years prior? I seriously doubt it.
I can't believe people are actually discussing about this and taking it seriously. What utter bullshit.
Don't want to sound controversial (not again) but I can't understand how it's possible that any given American actor playing a Russian character speaking in English, for instance, is believable - and probably even praised for the accent- while at the same time NPH performance as a womanizer is questioned just because he's out.
The fact that this happens is only a sign that the problem is on the viewer's eyes, in my opinion. So maybe what we need is more actors coming out and playing straight roles, so that people will get used to it. Honestly, I didn't even know some of the people mentioned here and in the article, were gay (I live in the parra, I know) and I don't think that's gonna change the way I see their performances.
I think it was Tarantino who said every movie gains in repeated viewings if you add a gay subtext. But that you add it for your subjective experience, doesn't mean it was there.
Newsweek...you do fail. Your saying Hayes is over the top in a Neil Simon show. Go back and watch the Bill Cosby scenes in "California Suite" or anything Richard Dreyfuss does in "The Goodbye Girl". Neil Simon, for the most part, always seems over the top, gay actor or not.
And Neil Patrick Harris is amazing, no matter if it's a caricature or not. Plus, what about Marlon Brando and James Dean. Closeted men, even if they were considered bisexual, who were the quintessential men of their era (and still to this day, honestly). Plus, nobody could say something about Katherine Hepburn or Judy Garland or any of the other people who were considered "not straight" in one way or another.
Gay men are going to play gay better, but most of them grew up pretending to be straight. Therefore, I believe if you are a talented actor, you can play whatever you so desire
And finally, I do believe Jonathan Groff will be gay at the end of the season. That's all I have to say on that.
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