crisper57
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Keanu Reeves: Neo
Heterosexual actors play gay all the time. Why doesn't it ever work in reverse?
- Thread starter Brian in Mesa
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The article completely ignores hetero men doing over-the-top impersonations of gay men. One that comes to mind is Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker on Modern Family. Funny? Yes. Way over-the-top and stereotypical? Absolutely.
I work in an industry with lots of gay men and it's often stunning to me to find out who is gay, because there's almost nothing stereotypical about them. I've spent the last two decades re-learning what I know about the culture because what I learned on TV was insufficient (and wrong).
So if gay men have trouble playing straight men, that's a problem with acting, not sexual orientation.
I work in an industry with lots of gay men and it's often stunning to me to find out who is gay, because there's almost nothing stereotypical about them. I've spent the last two decades re-learning what I know about the culture because what I learned on TV was insufficient (and wrong).
So if gay men have trouble playing straight men, that's a problem with acting, not sexual orientation.
OP
OP
Hot button topics usually are better off in P&R. Maybe I'll move it back to M&T and keep it there unless it gets out of control.
Agree. There are so few good actors, gay or straight.
Chaplin
Better off silent
What the hell does that mean?
It's long been speculated that Wayne was secretly gay because he worked with actors who were closeted (but out among Hollywood insiders) such as Rock Hudson and Montgomery Clift.
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Silly.
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I'm always the last to know. It took me 20 years till I finally bought into the Jim Nabors/Rock Hudson rumors. Be that as it may, it's going to take me a few hundred years to buy into the John Wayne rumor. I've played a lot of poker in So Cal the past 25 years and I've run into many that claimed to know Wayne well. Not once have I heard this rumor from a credible source. And as far as I'm concerned, if you can't trust a poker player who can you trust?
Steve
Matt L
formerly known as mattyboy
I am waiting to see if Stout has a response to this editorial.
I didn't say I believed it, and for the people passing the rumor, they don't need it to be true. They're simply trying to get people to acknowledge that gays and lesbians exist in all forms, and the fact we'd even sit here and contemplate whether Wayne was or not means the goal was accomplished.
Point being, someone's sexual orientation isn't locked into a personality archetype. Whether Wayne was or wasn't, it wouldn't change his legacy as an actor and humanitarian. I hope we can all agree on that. If not, then maybe the idea of pushing buttons has a broader purpose.
Chaplin
Better off silent
PLEASE tell me you don't believe that. I've read multiple biographies on John Wayne and that is never mentioned. The only thing close to it was that he didn't agree with the lifestyle at all but didn't condemn people because of it.
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I agree with much of what you're saying but I'm not sure I buy your initial presumption. The gays and lesbians I've known were, to a person, against forcibly outing others and would not likely have started or contributed to such a rumor. Perhaps you're right but it runs counter to my limited experience. I'd also add that anyone that needs a rumor (contrived or otherwise) in order to accept that there are non-hetero's in all walks of life probably aren't going to be swayed by John Wayne gossip.
Steve
No, but really, why would it matter?
OP
OP
During an interview with Playboy in 1971 John Wayne was quoted responding to a question about "pervert" films by saying, "Wouldn't you say that...Midnight Cowboy, a story about two ****, qualifies?"
Which proves?
George Rekar has been calling gays perverts for years while doing gay hookers...
OP
OP
Proves nothing. Was just the first thing I found Googling "John Wayne gay."
Not only have I never heard that before...the only John Wayne films I have seen all the way through are North to Alaska, The Quiet Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Hatari!, How the West Was Won, and Donovan's Reef.
Maybe it's just me, but something about him has always annoyed me and it became a distraction from any role he was in.
Maybe it was just how over-hyped he was when I was growing up.
DemsMyBoys
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As an Orange County girl I'll add my two cents on Uncle Duke (as we called him in my family) being gay: No.
I can't claim that I knew him well, he was older than my parents, but I used to see him around Newport Beach all the time. He used to throw a tow line of the back of the Wild Goose (his yacht - a converted minesweeper) and tow us around the back bay on our boards. Believe me, back in the 60's and 70's if our parents had even sniffed "gay" from John Wayne that would have ended.
I know people who knew him VERY well and they always laughed at the rumors. He himself used to joke that the gay rumors came because of the way he walked. He'd say you would walk that way too if you were balancing on 2" cowboy boot heels. As long as I knew him and his kids and his friends and his neighbors if there were ANY truth to the gay rumors I'd have heard them. Newport Beach/Balboa was a small town and people wouldn't have cared if he WAS John Wayne, if he was gay we'd all have known it.
He was totally cool. As were his kids who he loved to death.
(Of course there's that time my Dad goosed him on the butt and he spilled his drink all over Pilar but that's a story for another day.)
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Maybe it's just me, but something about him has always annoyed me and it became a distraction from any role he was in.
I'm wondering who over-hyped the guy for you. Growing up in the 60's all I heard was that Johnny Cash can't sing and John Wayne can't act. They were both hugely popular, perhaps even for some of the same reasons, but I would have never called either of them over-hyped.
Most of his movies don't hold up well for me today but I can always watch Mclintock and Big Jake. They weren't his best but they summed up the John Wayne persona quite well. And if anyone watched those two movies and accepted the rumor that he was indeed gay, I suspect people would have a lot more respect for his acting skills.
Steve
Chaplin
Better off silent
He was not gay. Period.
John Wayne could act, it's just most of his movies were more a persona than a performance. And he had that persona down pat. Everyone points to True Grit as a great performance, and it was, but you can go as early as The Searchers and see his talent.
He was the prototypical American hero in an era that was under constant threat by the Soviet Union. He served a purpose and became the biggest star in Hollywood for several years. I didn't really agree with his politics, but I love his movies.
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