US films featuring Leading LGBT roles

Key films

In the fifth part of the “woke“ article series, we will move away from the lead’s ethnicity and focus more on the complex “representation” of sexual orientation. Now you might enquire why such a thing is complex? A minority of loud and artistically allergic voices believe that only actors of a particular sexual orientation can play, well a particular orientation. Primarily of course the focus was and always will be about “gay” men erasing in the process and within the scale of the argument itself those who are not gay: bi individuals and lesbians.

The whole discussion about how LGBT roles have been portrayed from straight (at least publicly) actors makes no sense when you had several (closeted) gay actors playing straight roles (e.g., George Takei, Rock Hudson, Ian McKellen) all the way back in the 50s. But I hear you say, there are many openly gay leading actors and this needs to be fixed causing an endless debate which annihilates in the process artistic merits, thoughts and outputs. These vocal individuals are looking entire events and lifetimes through a (primarily) gay and subsequent LGBT filter although you have not heard the outcry of lesbians when Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara shared a romance or when James Marsden had sex with Jack Black (yes really!), without particularly being aware of previous content, circumstances and opportunities because that would require time to research, investigate, synthesize and scale your train of thoughts.

Precisely for this reason, an opportunity presents itself to unpack a history of LGBT leading roles in US films. We will be discussing motion pictures that have either a leading thematically LGBT role (i.e., no supporting) or a non straight actor as the main star. You will be surprised how something which was considered discreet (for the right and wrong reasons in the previous decades) was remarkably prevalent and as we were headed in the advent of the new millennium (i.e., 2000), more prominent and courageous parts were written. While European cinema has never been shy to display roles with more fluid affectations where sexuality is not a check box but a means to develop or define the character, puritan Hollywood in its early years was a different story. Like everything else in modern day society, some examples started creeping in that “shocked” the back then audience members in a decade where in your face discrimination against people with different skin color, accent, country of origin, religion and of course, sexual orientation existed at every turn; the 50s.

Yet, brave filmmakers and even braver storytellers pushed their own ideas to the front: “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) featured the first gay teenager in a US film, Tennessee William’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958) was dealing with closeted homosexuality under one of the most handsome Hollywood stars of all time (the great Paul Newman) while the ultra classic “Some Men Like It Hot” (1959) one year later implied a gay romance between one of the main leads and a potential suitor (“Well, nobody is perfect”).

So it begun: the 60s started strong with Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960). Wicked Alfred not only showed for the first time a postcoital unmarried in their underwear couple in the same bed, but he smashed several taboo ceilings with his villain too making cinematic history. “The Children’s Hour” (1961) has a fantastic lesbian turn of events in the last 10 minutes, Robert Wise’s “The Haunting” (1962) dared to venture towards a subtle romance between women under the horror genre(!), in the “Reflections in a Golden Eye” (1967), Marlon Brando played a repressed gay military officer(!), “The Queen” (1968) was a documentary showcasing the life of a 24 year old drug queen and finally in 1969, John Schlesinger’s Oscar winning “Midnight Cowboy” went to some uncomfortable places with Jon Voight leaving the audience to decide the protagonist’s sexuality in a sleazy NYC.

This gave room for the golden decade of movies: the bleak and realistic 70s. If the 60s were a bit nuanced with their storytelling approach, the next decade wrote down challenging and thematically rich in LGBT scripts. Some of the most memorable films in a decade where social conservatism was evident but artistic freedom was a stark contrast to the war mongering and conservative values begun spreading its wings: “Myra Breckinridge“ (1970) featured a transwoman in the face of Rex Reed and subsequently Raquel Welch, the groundbreaking Oscar winning “Cabaret” (1972) had a bisexual lead (Michael York) in a raunchy 1931 Berlin, John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos” remains…quite the experience even now, Sindey Lumet’s masterpiece “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975) where the most desired actor (Al Pacino) was secretly having a gay affair with a transwoman, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was a deliciously entertaining assault on anything straight in the form of Tim Curry’s bisexual Frank-N-Furter, a movie (and not necessarily only LGBT) icon and Stone’s written “Midnight Express“ (1978) (based on a true story) implied how the main character shared a homosexual relationship inside a Turkish prison directly challenging the stereotypes of traditional heterosexual masculinity.

By the time we reached the 1980s, US filmmakers were becoming bolder. Just in 1980, William Friedkin released his controversial, authentic and sharp “Cruising” (1980) starring Al Pacino, a crime thriller centered around NYC’s underground gay (i.e., not glitter looking) scene and Alan Parker his “Fame” (1980). The following years Blake Edwards directed the Oscar winning “Victor/Victoria” (1982), Tony Scott the cult “The Hunger” (1983) (starring David Bowie!), Spielberg got 12 Oscar nominations in his lesbian led “The Color Purple” (1985), “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2” (1985) boasted the first male scream queen as the homosexually oppressed Jesse, “Desert Hearts” (1985) featured a lesbian couple discovering slowly romance and “Parting Glances” (1986) focused exclusively on a young gay couple and the AIDs hysteria.

The early 90s are filled with landmark mainstream accomplishments: “My Own Private Idaho“ (1991) became a notable jewel for discussing openly taboo subjects in similar fashion to “Midnight Cowboy” in the 60s, “Fried Green Tomatoes” (1991) was a coming out of age tale, “Basic Instinct“ (1992) gave us the bisexual icon Catherine Tramell, Ridley Scott’s “Thelma and Louise” (1992) was really a beautiful affair between two women, “Philadelphia“ (1993) demonstrated the struggle (and discrimination) of gay men with AIDs, “Interview with the Vampire” (1994) implied a homosexual relationship between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt two of the biggest stars of the 90s, “The Birdcage” (1996) tore the fabric of society by having one of the greatest comedians of all time (Robin Williams) and the openly gay Nathan Lane as a couple who live together with their son in Miami, the Wachowskis made their directional debut with the lesbian centric “Bound” (1996), “In and Out” (1997) was a funny take at being a closeted gay, “Gia” (1998) had Angelina Jolie playing the bisexual model Gia Carangi, “Gods and Monsters” (1998) starred Ian McKellen as gay director James Whale, Joel Schumacher’s “Flawless” (1999) saw Philip Seymour Hoffman giving an extraordinary performance as a transwoman and Hilary Swank won her first Oscar as transman Brandon Teena in the heartbreaking “Boy’s Don’t Cry” (1999).

In the 2000s audiences were becoming more familiar with non straight relationships and soon a trend begun: biographical(-ish) dramas that explored the complex lives of non straight individuals became vehicles for accumulating acting accolades in any shape and form attracting the hottest stars who underwent a bit of an “ugly” transformation: Javier Bardem in “Before Night Falls” (2000), Salma Hayek in “Frida” (2002), Stephen Daldry’s Oscar winning “The Hours” (2002), “Monster” (2003) gave Charlize Theron her only Oscar, “De-Lovely” (2004) focused on gay composer and songwriter Cole Porter, Oliver Stone’s captivating failure “Alexander” (2004) dared to showcase (albeit problematically) the greatest military general of all time as bisexual, “Capote” (2005) continued to highlight the talents of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and “Milk” (2007) told the tale of gay rights activist Harvey Milk. It was also the era that saw the last work from John Schlesinger (“The Next Best Thing” (2000)), the unfiltered works of John Cameron Mitchell in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” (2001) and “Shortbus” (2006), David Lynch’s legendary “Mulholland Drive” (2001), “Far From Heaven” (2002), Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant” (2003), “Transamerica” (2004), “Mysterious Skin” (2004), Ang Lee’s surprisingly forgotten “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), Sasha Baron Cohen’s piss take of celebrities with “Bruno” (2009) and Tom Ford’s excellent “A Single Man” (2009).

As we can witness bibliographically at least, an uptick of available roles with a non-straight context was inevitable. So it makes sense then for the 2010s to have even more related content: “The Kids Are Alright“ (2010), “Black Swan“ (2010), “Beginners” (2010), the lesser known bi vehicle “The D Train“ (2015), “Carol” (2015), “Tangerine“ (2015), “Moonlight” (2016), “Call Me By Your Name” (2017), “Disobedience” (2017) and “Love Simon” (2018) are some of the best examples that someone can think off. Meanwhile the appeal of a biopic remained popular (e.g., ”The Danish Girl” (2015), “Battle of the Sexes“ (2017), ”Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018), “The Favorite“ (2018), “Collette” (2018), “Rocketman” (2019)) while more mainstream genres such as action thrillers saw also a change in leading characters (e.g., “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2011), “Atomic Blonde” (2017), “The Gentlemen“ (2019)).

So where does that leave us? There are still outcries of course for a) the “lack” of mainstream LGBT films and b) a push to replace the job acting with real life attributes, sacrificing talent and merit in the process by those who are uninitiated in critical thinking bulldozing simultaneously working boundaries and ethics for the sake of representation as if people before them who had a different sexuality where not able to land any role or sitcoms. Elle DeGeneres and Neil Patrick Harris would like a word with you. Of course, we can forget the demographic map which plays a huge role into the demand and supply chain. Most audiences like films that are plain, vain and occasionally boring. It is your job as the viewer to seek out and refine your catalogue to fit your personal taste and not the other way around. If this is the case, then perhaps, since our era allows for flexibility of profession, you can grab a camera and write a script based on your experiences and tell your own story with realism and individualized panache. But it is easy to dictate to others what they should do in their job and even worse within their art.

A role is a role that unless it requires a distinct visual feature (e.g., height, weight, specific ethnicity), then flexibility has always been allowed since the days of Ancient Greek theatre (with the mask wearing behavior). To demand an LBGT actor playing only an LGBT role warrants erosion of art limiting the actors’ capabilities in the confinements of their own sexuality and foreshadowing their work for years to come. But of course, those who proclaim such sentiments, forgot how many non straight actors like Neil Patrick Harris, Rock Hudson, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, George Takei, Nathan Lane, Jodie Foster, Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Paulson, Lily Tomlin, Rosie O’ Donnell, Elliot Page, Marlon Brando, Alan Cumming, Aubrey Plaza, Michelle Rodriguez, Angelina Jolie, Kristen Stewart, Drew Barrymore and Lady Gaga portrayed a variety of protagonists irrelevant of their sexuality giving us legendary performances.

Then again, this does not matter when today’s (minimalistic) social media pressure lacks the focus on actual quality outputs and places absolute emphasis on quota boxes removing any sense of artistic integrity. People quickly forget that being “active” on social media matters somehow as a currency to the real world. For what is worth, it does not and this is why many have proclaimed “art is immortal”. You decide what you make of it. Meanwhile go and research the aforementioned films and you will discover wonderful stories which can make a grown man cry.