American actor Jeremy Strong, who rose to prominence for his portrayal of Kendall Roy in the HBO drama series Succession, has said that “it’s absolutely valid” to criticise straight actors for playing gay characters.
Strong said: “I’m sort of old fashioned, maybe, in the belief that, fundamentally, it’s [about] a person’s artistry, and that great artists, historically, have been able to, as it were, change the stamp of their nature. That’s your job as an actor. The task, in a way, is to render something that is not necessarily your native habitat.”
“While I don’t think that it’s necessary [for gay roles to be played by gay performers], I think that it would be good if that were given more weight,” Strong added.
The debate over whether or not straight actors should play gay roles has been a consistent one in Hollywood over the last few years.
Straight actor Daniel Craig, whose new film Queer is based on a novel by William S Burroughs, has said that it’s not his “place” to represent the entire LGBTQ+ community.
Former Bond star Craig plays an American expat who becomes infatuated with a younger man, played by Love, Simon star Drew Starkey, in Queer.
Speaking at the New York Film Festival, Craig said that the role is “universal” and that it deals with “love, loss, the pain of love… all the things all of us have experienced in our life”.
But he went on to say of representing the LGBTQ+ community: “I’m not sure that I can take on that responsibility, I don’t think that’s my place. That’s too big a thing for anybody to take on.”