Gay for pay actors

By Charmaine Quizon

“Entrenched by discrimination, gay-for-pay actors dominate the lgbtq+ cinema.”

Over the history of motion picture, heterosexuality hegemonized the film industry while homosexuality on the screen is atypical (Richardson, 2011). Ancient stereotyped gay roles induce laughter, pity, and terror from the spectator, (Russo, 1981) thus are often in distress over their sexuality causing suicidal tendencies. The Children’s Hour (1961) of William Wyler is a movie that exemplifies self-hatred sentiment of homosexual characters over their sexual individuality which led to suicidal. It is observed that the number of lgbtq+ characters on the screen is very few the last couple of decades (Michaud, 2013) particularly in 1960’s, and 1970’s. Yet, a glimpse of alter came in 1990’s, when an absolute rise in number of gay characters filled the cinema (Baker, 2015) which gave heterosexual spectators the opportunity to reshape the awareness they have towards homosexuals.

However, in recent years there’s a decrease in quantity of gay representation from Hollywood films which is reflective to Homosexual Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLADD), a non-g

5. Stars from a Bi-Gone Era

Most of the stories that we discussed came from one guy: Scotty Bowers, a Hollywood pimp of the queer silver screen actors of the 1940s and beyond. He was also associated with Alfred Kinsey in his famous learn of human sexuality in the 1950s by providing many of the interview subjects.

A former marine, Bowers kept hushed for many years about these stories, as he did not want to adversely affect the lives of any of the actors who were still around. Many of the stories were actively hushed up using fixers paid by the studios at the second, and several of the actors were in "lavender marriages"---marriages arranged by the studio, frequently with another queer star. At the period, studios especially would not have wanted the queer attractions of their headlining actors to be widely known, as that would possess damaged the 'wholesome family image' of many of the films they wanted to market.

After all of the actors died, Bowers finally decided that his experiences and stories couldn't harm their image or beloved status---plus the society was a more open place to queer attraction---so he wrote about it. His memoir, Full Service, records many of the t

Do queer roles really demand to be played by queer actors?

It’s a Hollywood cliche that, for a straight male actor, playing a gay role is a shortcut to an Oscar (alongside starring in a film about the Holocaust, disability or mental illness). There have been many prominent examples (Tom Hanks won Best Player for playing a homosexual man with AIDS in Philadelphia (1993), Sean Penn for starring in a biopic about gay civil rights activists in Milk), but if such a strategy exists, it’s no longer as viable today: it certainly didn’t out for Bradley Cooper this year, whose performance as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro was snubbed, or Paul Mescal, who wasn’t even nominated for All of Us Strangers.

But there is still a residual instinct of prestige for the straight actor playing homosexual, and while they are far less likely to be described as “brave” for doing so, it still seems to be a mark of seriousness, a way of proving your chops. In proof, now that it tends to be associated with auteur-led, independent cinema rather than middle-brow Oscar bait, it’s more clouty than ever before. In recent months, a flurry of new productions have been announced in which direct actors – or least, actors

GAY FOR PAY WITH BLAKE & CLAY

Every actor knows there is nothing more prestigious than bravely playing gay. But is your pesky heterosexuality getting in the way of booking a one-way ticket to award season?

Join Blake and Clay, two seasoned gay actors, as they educate you to play gay and make LGBTQ about YOU. Proceed from straight to straight up booked! Let their lived life get your acting career off life support! Because representation matters, but their representation hasn't called in ages.

The Toronto Fringe sellout hit lands at Streetcar Crowsnest after winning the Second Urban area Award For Outstanding Comedy and Patron’s Pick.

Toronto Star raved “I could go on quoting every line in this hour-long act, because so many of them are perfectly calibrated mic drops,” while NOW Magazine hailed it as “Straight Up Brilliant”.

GAY FOR PAY is “razor sharp satire” (Glenn Sumi) that delivers “a punchy gag-a-second whirlwind” (Istvan Dugalin).

Jonathan Wilson (performer) is a Governor General’s Award and Gemini Award nominee, as well as a multi-Dora award nominee and winner. Credits