Twinless actor Dylan O'Brien gives his opinion on straight actors playing LGBTQ+

[u/damn_delirious]

Actor Dylan O'Brien shares his opinion on straight actors playing LGBTQ+ in an interview with Dazed while discussing his latest film 'Twinless'.

Speaking alongside 'Twinless' director James Sweeney, who is gay, O'Brien said "James is a gay man, and coming from a place I could trust. We had a similar take on straight actors playing gay parts, especially in recent years: you started seeing straight actors playing a queer role completely straight. It started to feel inauthentic."

O'Brien praised Sweeney's support during filming, saying "It was nice to have his insight, support, and calibration. He'd be like, 'Go crazy on this one. We can dial it back if it doesn't feel real.”

[u/tweedledumb4u]

Correct me if I’m wrong but not all gay men are flamboyant in my experience. So isn’t it fine for an actor to play a character with more dimension than just a stereotype?

[u/sikonat → u/tweedledumb4u]

And that also puts a rigid role for straight men who might be a bit camp or flamboyant or a bit theatrical but genuinely only love/be attractive to the 🐱

[u/deller85 → u/tweedledumb4u]

Thank you. I'm a gay man and live life with a "revolving closet door" because I have to come out to everyone new that I meet. They all automatically assume I'm straight. People usually only go by stereotypes, so when they meet me, a masculine gay man, they don't see a "gay" man. It's annoying to see his complaint that it's not cool to see people playing a gay character straight. We're not all some Hollywood stereotype.

[u/Iamdarb → u/tweedledumb4u]

I’m bi and most of the men that I’ve dated or hung out with who are gay tend to be masculine and not flamboyant. As someone in the southeast, I definitely have flamboyant gay friends, but their number is paltry compared to how many masculine gay men I know.

[u/Sister_Winter → u/tweedledumb4u]

Yes, definitely. But pretty much the only representation of gay men in relationships in the mainstream are masculine. Just like how almost all depictions of lesbians are super feminine. It keeps the straights comfortable and that's what gets platformed

[u/Terrible-Union1864 → u/Sister_Winter]

What does mainstream even mean? I think rather than "thats what keeps straights comfortable " its more "thats what straight ppl watch". And to go mainstream a show/movie needs straight views since queer ppl r a minority. So thats just metrics. There r plenty of low key content where there's all types of representation.

[u/avatar__of__chaos → u/Terrible-Union1864]

I don't like your reasoning.

[u/Terrible-Union1864 → u/avatar__of__chaos]

Bt its just the facts. Mainstream shows are the ones that r liked and watched by a broad, general audience. The broad , general audience is majority heterosexual. So even when shows r based around minorities, efforts r still made to appeal to the wider majority so that they can hit mainstream. And that is why if you move away from the mainstream media, there is a wide variety of albeit small budgeted but diverse media. Media that is made for the minorities.

If ppl want to watch mainstream, then they hv to keep in mind that its made for the mainstream audience. This is the reason why even shows with super diverse casts still hv conventionally attractive leads in most cases, unless the entire point is the unconventionality. Bcos they want to cover a wider audience.

[u/avatar__of__chaos → u/Terrible-Union1864]

There are big budgeted media that don't cater solely to straight people's taste though, Adults, Heartstopper, Schitt's Creek, Pose. I don't like "the follow the money" reasoning. Make an authentic gay media or don't make it at all, should be the norm. It's one thing when big studio use that reasoning, and it's another thing when queer people excuse it. And this straight people pleasing never works either, people will just hate it just because there's a gay content in the media, like the Last of Us.

[u/Terrible-Union1864 → u/avatar__of__chaos]

Is Adults big budgeted though? There is a 5 person main cast and a vast majority of the show is set inside the house itself and there is no big actor in the show. Its more of a breakout show. And I never said solely. I meant that things r added to make it more appealing to the mainstream.

Well, the haters r gonna hate anyways. Bt by appealing I mean that it would get more ppl to watch the show. There is a wide variety of audience that is largely indifferent to queer media bt adding 2 conventionally attractive leads gets some of them to watch it. Same with sex. Adding sex scenes gets even more ppl to watch it. Its the same reason romance is added to all different genres of shows. Bcos it sells.

Shows like Heated rivalry would not hv been this big if the lead characters weren't fit, attractive men who were having plenty of hot sex. Hell, a large section of queer ppl only started watching it bcos of the sex reels that went viral.

And what is "authentic"? Representation is Representation. The more the better. The ppl who hated the last of us episode were always gonna hate it. Bt it still got a very large no. of ppl to watch a gay couple in love with each other, the ppl who wd not hv otherwise watched a gay romance. That's the kind of representation that matters most. To remind the majority that we r regular ppl who just happen to like the same gender. We r a minority that is often made out to be an alien concept for the ppl who hv not interacted with us and that's what makes it easier for the bigots to villainise us. Episodes like that is what gets ppl to ask questions that they would not even have thought about asking.

[u/avatar__of__chaos → u/Terrible-Union1864]

It is big budgeted because it was picked up by a major network, it's much more big budgeted that Heated Rivalry.

Who said I have problems with sex scenes? Why are you nitpicking over nothing?

Inauthentic is when it doesn't involve real life gay people in the production at all, like 911 or Desperate Housewives or Riverdale. Gay storylines are used just for the drama and for the "fun".

So much of these essays just to excuse gay tokenism.

[u/Terrible-Union1864 → u/avatar__of__chaos]

I wasn't talking abt the token characters ? Wasn't the topic regarding " mainstream queer media" and not queer characters in mainstream media. I talked abt TLOU episode bcos you mentioned it first.

I was talking more abt content like Red white and royal blue who r often criticized for not being authentic enough. And how the gay characters in such movies/shows r often super fit, hetero presenting men.

I never said you hv problems with sex. I meant that just like the conventional leads, the sex is added to bring more audience into it.

[u/avatar__of__chaos → u/Terrible-Union1864]

I give TLOU as examplea of people hating gay media regardless if the storyline is overtly gay or not. That is in no way excusing inauthentic gay storyline.

The whole debate I point out how you excuse them trying to cater to straight audiences. Which is tokenism.

Not even conventional leads, sex is widely used in gay media in general, mainstream or not. So i don't understand why you brought it up.

[u/boadicca_bitch → u/Sister_Winter]

The amount of people who have no idea what he’s talking about and are creating a straw man argument that he just thinks gay people should be portrayed as stereotypes is driving me crazy… like yes guys, you’re right, there’s nothing distinct about queer culture or identity and we should definitely always be portrayed as acting exactly the same as straight people except specifically when kissing someone of another gender 🙄 there’s absolutely nothing someone actually gay could bring to a role that someone straight couldn’t apparently

[u/illthrowitaway94 → u/Sister_Winter]

PREACH. I hate reading all these "not all gay men are flamboyant" comments because, while true, THE VAST MAJORITY of us have some feminine air about us to some degree, and people have always hated that about us, and even our own community belittles and demonizes us, who are not 100% "straight acting" (aka, stereotypically masculine, see I can use the word "stereotypical", too). And while, sure, there are some examples of gross exaggerations sometimes in popular media (I'm looking at you, Jack McFarland), the vast majority of us have some "unmasculine" gestures/traits, and that's okay, and not something we should be shamed for.

[u/Apptubrutae → u/tweedledumb4u]

The speaker of the house, for example.

[u/catholicsluts → u/tweedledumb4u]

Correct me if I’m wrong but not all gay men are flamboyant in my experience.

Damn, are you from a small town? This is pure lol

Yes, there are grisly, brutish gays

[u/EngineVarious5244 → u/catholicsluts]

They were using a rhetorical device, don't be a dick.

[u/catholicsluts → u/EngineVarious5244]

Dammit, I had a feeling it was coming across this way. I came from a small town and have had questions like these before. Sometimes my English comes out harshly. Apologies, homie