AResistor
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I decided to start this thread upon seeing that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ thread largely branching off into discussing LGBTQ films overall.
LGBTQ films began as “closeted” films with LGBTQ protagonists and characters that hid this from the audience. The earliest example, that I know of, being ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ in 1955 where Jim was, likely, bisexual and Plato is gay.
Many films with LGBTQ protagonists today are independently made, however there were a couple mainstream films in the 90s such as ‘Birdcage’ and ‘In & Out.’
‘Love Simon’ was the first mainstream film for years that featured a gay protagonist. At box office it quickly became the top third teen romance film (that’s not Twilight) at the domestic box office. After the film’s success, Becky’s next teen gay romance book ‘What If It’s Us’ was picked up by Anonymous Content and Paramount acquired ‘Gay Kid and Fat Chick’ which can be likened to ‘Kick Ass.’ Hopefully, this will begin a wave of many more LGBTQ movies to come.
While there’s been debate over “straight actors” playing lgbtq roles, this isn’t necessarily the case. Hollywood, although people mistakenly view it as being very liberal, is still deeply closeted which makes it a risk when an actor comes out. For example, from working at Warners I overheard a casting department state Matt Bomer was the leading choice for Superman but the studio wanted someone else because he’s gay. In other cases, many actors only get the courage to come out after they’ve been in a lgbtq film such as Keiynan Lonsdale and Lucas Hedges this year. There’s no way in telling which roles are an aren’t being portrayed by lgbtq actors due to the still closeted nature of the Hollywood system.
For writers, it’s even difficult to truly write the stories you want to. Many lgbtq screenwriters, such as myself, straightwash our stories to ensure that they can sell; this has less to do with choice and more to do with a forced choice due to how difficult it is to get these films made. With studios taking more chances, writers are becoming more hopeful they can tell the kinds of stories they want to tell. Due to a growing diverse marketplace I feel safe in primarily focusing on telling films with bi characters, which is what I know best.
Sometimes LGBTQ content is edited out of movies in order to make the character straight, such as ’54.’
Most LGBTQ movies are known to be depressing and to have sad endings. Contrary to boy meets girl films, most boy meets boy films end with the couple breaking up or one to both of them dying, primarily due to AIDS (although it can sometimes be due to a hate crime or suicide). This is what makes LGBTQ films with happy endings stand out.
Similar to films with heterosexual protagonists, there’s all kinds of films with LGBTQ protagonists. There’s romance, drama, political, comedy, and even spy thrillers. Hopefully in the future there will be horror, action, science-fiction, and adventure movies as well. This year marked the FIRST time an action film with an LGBTQ protagonist was made, albeit animated – DC’s ‘Ray.’
Another issue, which has mainly been in the states, is tokenism. In the past, LGBTQ characters were just presented as a GBF or flamboyant with little variance. It gives off the false impression that all LGBTQ people are inherently the same and these stereotypes sometimes complicate the coming-out process (Ryan Phillipe’s coming-out scene in ‘One Life To Live’ captured this perfectly). This primarily started to change in the states about ten years ago when LGBTQ characters were allowed to be more diverse whether this is flamboyant or masculine such as Deran Cody in the series ‘Animal Kingdom’ (‘Animal Kingdom’ marks, to my knowledge, the first time a show primarily geared towards all men had a gay main character – ‘Animal Kingdom’ premiered in 2016).
LGBTQ films began as “closeted” films with LGBTQ protagonists and characters that hid this from the audience. The earliest example, that I know of, being ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ in 1955 where Jim was, likely, bisexual and Plato is gay.
Many films with LGBTQ protagonists today are independently made, however there were a couple mainstream films in the 90s such as ‘Birdcage’ and ‘In & Out.’
‘Love Simon’ was the first mainstream film for years that featured a gay protagonist. At box office it quickly became the top third teen romance film (that’s not Twilight) at the domestic box office. After the film’s success, Becky’s next teen gay romance book ‘What If It’s Us’ was picked up by Anonymous Content and Paramount acquired ‘Gay Kid and Fat Chick’ which can be likened to ‘Kick Ass.’ Hopefully, this will begin a wave of many more LGBTQ movies to come.
While there’s been debate over “straight actors” playing lgbtq roles, this isn’t necessarily the case. Hollywood, although people mistakenly view it as being very liberal, is still deeply closeted which makes it a risk when an actor comes out. For example, from working at Warners I overheard a casting department state Matt Bomer was the leading choice for Superman but the studio wanted someone else because he’s gay. In other cases, many actors only get the courage to come out after they’ve been in a lgbtq film such as Keiynan Lonsdale and Lucas Hedges this year. There’s no way in telling which roles are an aren’t being portrayed by lgbtq actors due to the still closeted nature of the Hollywood system.
For writers, it’s even difficult to truly write the stories you want to. Many lgbtq screenwriters, such as myself, straightwash our stories to ensure that they can sell; this has less to do with choice and more to do with a forced choice due to how difficult it is to get these films made. With studios taking more chances, writers are becoming more hopeful they can tell the kinds of stories they want to tell. Due to a growing diverse marketplace I feel safe in primarily focusing on telling films with bi characters, which is what I know best.
Sometimes LGBTQ content is edited out of movies in order to make the character straight, such as ’54.’
Most LGBTQ movies are known to be depressing and to have sad endings. Contrary to boy meets girl films, most boy meets boy films end with the couple breaking up or one to both of them dying, primarily due to AIDS (although it can sometimes be due to a hate crime or suicide). This is what makes LGBTQ films with happy endings stand out.
Similar to films with heterosexual protagonists, there’s all kinds of films with LGBTQ protagonists. There’s romance, drama, political, comedy, and even spy thrillers. Hopefully in the future there will be horror, action, science-fiction, and adventure movies as well. This year marked the FIRST time an action film with an LGBTQ protagonist was made, albeit animated – DC’s ‘Ray.’
Another issue, which has mainly been in the states, is tokenism. In the past, LGBTQ characters were just presented as a GBF or flamboyant with little variance. It gives off the false impression that all LGBTQ people are inherently the same and these stereotypes sometimes complicate the coming-out process (Ryan Phillipe’s coming-out scene in ‘One Life To Live’ captured this perfectly). This primarily started to change in the states about ten years ago when LGBTQ characters were allowed to be more diverse whether this is flamboyant or masculine such as Deran Cody in the series ‘Animal Kingdom’ (‘Animal Kingdom’ marks, to my knowledge, the first time a show primarily geared towards all men had a gay main character – ‘Animal Kingdom’ premiered in 2016).
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