Stanley Tucci Argues Straight Actors Can Play Gay Characters if Done ‘The Right Way’

Stanley Tucci spoke up in defense of straight actors playing gay characters, so long as it’s done “the right way,” and doesn’t slip into stereotypes, during an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs” program.

Tucci, who is straight, has played a handful of gay characters over the course of his career. Most recently, he and Colin Firth co-starred in Harry Macqueen’s Supernova, a romantic drama about a gay couple who take a road trip after Tucci’s character is diagnosed with onset dementia. His character Sean in the 2010 film Burlesque was gay, and most famously Tucci played the magazine art director Nigel Kipling in The Devil Wears Prada, a character who was gay, but whose sexuality wasn’t really a major point in the movie. 

When asked about the question of straight actors taking these roles, Tucci said, “Obviously, I think that’s fine. I’m always very flattered when gay men come up to me and talk about The Devil Wears Prada, or they talk about Supernova, and they say, ‘It was just so beautiful. You did it the right way.’” 

Tucci did acknowledge that straight actors playing gay characters is often not done “the right way,” but argued, “An actor is an actor is an actor. You’re supposed to play different people. You just are, that’s the whole point of it.” 

In recent years there have been increased calls for more inclusive casting when it comes to having queer actors play queer characters. Those calls definitely shot up around Supernova, which was generally well received by critics, but did garner some criticism over the casting of Tucci and Firth.

Addressing the issue at the time, Tucci told CBS Sunday Morning, “I think that acting is all about not being yourself. If we were to use that as a template, then we would only ever play ourselves. I think what we need to do, we need to give more gay actors opportunities.”

Still, other straight actors who have played gay characters have staked firm stances on the other side. Darren Criss, for instance, who played gay men on Glee and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, said in 2018 that he would no longer play queer roles so he wouldn’t “be another straight boy taking a gay man’s role.” Tom Hanks even told The New York Times it wouldn’t be right for a straight man to be cast as the gay character he played in 1993’s Philadelphia if the movie were being made today (Hanks won an Oscar for his performance).

“The whole point of Philadelphia was don’t be afraid,” Hanks said. “One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man. We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy. It’s not a crime, it’s not boohoo, that someone would say we are going to demand more of a movie in the modern realm of authenticity.”

Plenty of queer actors have spoken out on the issue, too, with Jacqueline Toboni, co-star of The L Word: Generation Q, telling Refinery 29 last year, “I’m sometimes frustrated when I see straight actresses specifically playing lesbian roles that I don’t necessarily believe them. Sometimes I feel like, oh, this is supposed to be our story, and it’s not. It’s getting lost in translation … It can be as big as the writing or as simple as these two girls do not look like they like kissing each other. It just makes you feel horrible.”

And back in 2020, Kristin Stewart spoke with Variety about properly navigating the “gray area” this issue presents, where representation matters, but actors of all kinds are given the chance to play all kinds of parts. 

“It’s a slippery slope conversation because that means I could never play another straight character if I’m going to hold everyone to the letter of this particular law,” she said, adding: “But we need to have our finger on the pulse and actually have to care. You kind of know where you’re allowed. I mean, if you’re telling a story about a community and they’re not welcoming to you, then fuck off. But if they are, and you’re becoming an ally and a part of it and there’s something that drove you there in the first place that makes you uniquely endowed with a perspective that might be worthwhile, there’s nothing wrong with learning about each other. And therefore helping each other tell stories.”