Back to posting whatever is on your mind again?

Anyways... no.

You know Barney from he show called "How I met your mother"? His whole character is based on how big a player he is. He sleeps with a new woman every night... almost. He is the straightest straight guy of them all...

... but is actually played by the GAY actor Neil Patrick Harris.

Conclusion:
An actor's sexuality doesn't matter as long they are a good actor.

Pretty much your last sentence is correct. There's another example of this too with actress Chloe Sevigny.

She plays a pre-op trans woman and she is a woman herself. It's the British show Hit or Miss which has only one season. It's quite an interesting premise: A transsexual assassin learns she had a child from a previous relationship and is living with her past girlfriend's children as well. She is torn between raising them and her job.

Two troll threads in two days...?

This is kind of a silly topic. One's sexually doesn't make or break for one's acting ability. As Jaded already explained, there are various gay actors out there who play straight characters (and vice versa). Their sexual preferences doesn't make it at all unique.

When you start restricting actors due to their sexuality, then it becomes incredibly selfish. Gays can only play gays, straights can only play straights. No, sorry, doesn't work like that.

I agree that the answer to the question should be no. However, I think that just in general, gay actors are a lot more comfortable and realistic in straight roles than straight people are in gay roles. I mean, there is no such thing as a society that frowns upon being straight (Tumblr is not a society), but homosexuality, for whatever reason, is still a controversial issue.

Well, society has long forced homosexuals to play the role of heterosexuals in real life, so essentially, many homosexuals are already actors.

Let's avoid turning this into an issue of repression of homosexuality, shall we...

In the olden times, women weren't allowed to act in theatre, so men played the role of women. Imagine Romeo and Juliet being played by two dudes, confessing their love to one another etc etc. The men playing women weren't necessarily gay either. It could just as well be two perfectly straight guys who were supposed to translate the epic love stories.

It isn't an issue about gay or straight actors, it's an issue about good actors! Stepping out of your comfort zone and play something that isn't part of your real self is what makes a good actor. And I think alot of straight male actors have done a good job playing as gay characters.

Examples:
- Brokeback Mountain... just saying. Nominated for 8 awards, won three... Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are/were both straight.
- Sean Penn played a gay guy in Milk, another award winning movie.
- Leonardo Dicaprio played a gay guy at a very young age in the movie Total Eclipse.
- Robin Williams played a gay guy in The Birdcage.
- Will from Will & Grace is played by a straight actor, Eric McCormack.
- Blaine from Glee is played by a straight actor, Darren Chriss.
- Cam from Modern Family is played by the straight actor, Eric Stonestreet.

More examples can be found here:
http://www.suggest.com/lifestyle/1042/18-straight-actors-that-played-gay-roles

And these are just a few examples on straight actors convincingly playing as gay characters. With that said, I stand by my opinion of you being wrong in your accusations about straight male actors not doing a good job playing gay characters in movies.

Great actors are able to play ANY character. Some actors get stuck playing the same ones, therefore not expanding their abilities as an actor.

Gay actors should be able to play straight and vice versa. It shows how good of an actor you are.

Nah Brah.

The Major Gay characters in the Spartacus TV show are all played by straight males and they do a good job.

Then again Spartacus actually handles homosexuality different than most media since it kind of exists before the rise of Christianity in Rome basically before homophobia.

Some guys like girls, some guys like other guys, and everyone pretty much just accepts that. We could learn a lot from it really.

No homo.

Kind of Off Topic but has anyone seen "Mysterious Skin"?

Joseph Gordon Levitt plays a teenage gay prostitute in it, it explores child abuse and the effect it can have on peoples attitudes towards sex later in life, honestly its a great film and I don't think enough people have seen it.

JGL is straight and plays a gay guy, so it seems relevant to this thread.

Sorry for the double post.

They lightly discussed this on Colbert last night and their answer (and mine) is no.

A decent actor should be able to portray any character and make it seem believable regardless of their sexual preferences.

If a straight actor cant pull off a gay role its probably not because he/she is straight but because he/she probably just isn't a great actor to begin with.

OR

because he/she is uncomfortable kissing or doing sexual acts with somebody of the same sex since they aren't gay, which is understandable but if that's the case they should have never accepted the role to begin with lol .