Andrew Scott has shared his opinion on the idea that only gay actors should play gay roles across film, TV and theatre.
In recent years, debate has surrounded the question of whether straight actors should play queer roles.
When asked about his thoughts on the topic in a recent interview, Scott, who is gay, said that people can be “extreme and hysterical” about the debate, but ultimately “every individual story has to be examined”.
The All of Us Strangers actor admitted he was “reluctant” to provide a soundbite for the question “Where do you stand on the idea that gay actors should play gay roles?”
“I’m always reluctant to give a quick soundbite about that. Every individual story has to be examined,” he told The Guardian.
“There are certainly much more opportunities; the playing field is becoming more even and that has to be considered in every casting decision. But people can be very extreme and hysterical.”
He continued: “What is important is that we have representation for everybody, not just in front of the screen, but behind it, so that when somebody is on a set, if you’re portraying somebody that’s different from you, that somebody can say, ‘Well, that’s not authentically the way it is.’”
Scott was widely praised for his performance in the 2024 drama All of Us Strangers, in which his character, screenwriter Adam, finds himself drawn to his neighbour Harry (played by Paul Mescal) while dealing with his grief over the death of his parents.
The film’s director Andrew Haigh previously explained that he was intent on casting a gay actor, such as Scott, in the role of Adam. However, he clarified that he did not believe only gay actors should play gay roles.
“I’m not one of those people who thinks you have to cast a queer actor in a queer role, but for this role, I did want to because I was trying to unpick some nuances of a certain generation of gay people,” Haigh said.
He said of Scott: “I needed someone that could understand that and have those conversations with me. I didn’t want it to feel like I was trying to explain what it was like.”
In 2021, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies declared that gay roles should be reserved for queer actors in a move towards greater authenticity.
Several straight actors, including Cate Blanchett, Rachel Weisz, Sean Penn and Suranne Jones, who have played queer characters, have disagreed with the idea.
“I will fight to the death for the right to suspend disbelief and play roles beyond my experience,” Blanchett said in 2018.
Penn called the idea “a timid and artless policy toward the human imagination”.
The actor played Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, in the 2009 biopic, Milk, but has since said that casting “would not happen in a time like this”.
However, in 2018 Darren Criss, who won a Golden Globe for his role as Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, vowed to turn down queer roles in the future for fear of being “another straight boy taking a gay man’s role”.
