Cate Blanchett defends straight actors playng LGBT characters
Speaking at the Rome Film Festival, actor Cate Blanchett joined in the conversation about straight actors taking on the roles of gay characters.
Cate, who played the titular role in Todd Haynes' Carol, said that she was asked more questions about her sexuality than ever before when she took on the role of the lesbian character.
She explains that many interviewers had asked her or implied as to whether having a lesbian experience was needed to understand such a role.
Cate said that this goes against the whole point of acting, which is essentially pretending to be someone else.
Cate Blanchett defends straight actors playing LGBT roles.
Completely agree with her – it’s called acting for a reason!!! However there’s also nothing wrong with greater representation for the community. https://t.co/yayINhzg0K
— Alistair Lomas (@allaboutAl) October 21, 2018
She said, ''it also speaks to something that I’m quite passionate about in storytelling generally, but in film specifically, is that film can be quite a literal medium.''
She continued, ''and I will fight to the death for the right to suspend disbelief and play roles beyond my experience. I think reality television and all that that entails had an extraordinary impact, a profound impact on the way we view the creation of character.''
Hollywood has been criticised for giving straight actors roles portraying LGBT characters in the past before and Cate believes that there is a problem with this.
She explains, ''I think it provides a lot of opportunity, but the downside of it is that we now, particularly in America, I think, we expect and only expect people to make a profound connection to a character when it’s close to their experience.''
Cate hopes that more films exploring gay characters get the go-ahead as getting Carol made was not easy.
She says that, ''the film, I think now would be made in a heartbeat, but eight years ago, it was a very difficult film to get up.''
She continued, ''two women, both of whom are of lesbian-ish persuasion in the 1950's, which is like ‘who wants to go and see that? Only 12-year-old boys go to movies.' Thank goodness we’re changing the demographic of the critics who write for Rotten Tomatoes.”
Gwan Cate, you tell 'em.
