Alone and Unobserved

Eric D. Snider (who recently came in 1st in the Most Controversial Print Journalist and 3rd in the Best Local Print Journalist categories in the recent annual “Best of Utah County” rankings) has just published a blog entry arguing that it didn’t take any real courage for Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal to play the gay lead roles in Brokeback Mountain. He argued that most people call such a step “brave” for two reasons: first, the public might start thinking the two actors were gay because they played gay roles, and second, their careers might suffer because of negative backlash. I think Eric is right as far as this goes: no, I can’t think of an actor that I think is gay because he played a non-heterosexual role, or whose career was affected negatively by such a choice. But there’s more to the picture than that.

First, homophobia is still very strong in our society, especially among males; to most of the straight guys I know, being gay would be the worst fate in the world, worse than dying or losing a loved one or anything. It’s like their whole identity is wrapped up in their sexuality. In that sense I think it’s really brave for a straight man to agree to confront his own prejudices in that way, and play the role of an extremely masculine man in the grip of desires he doesn’t understand, can’t control, and is frightened to death by.

Second, the Hollywood casting world is still very conservative. They feel they have to be, because their money is determined by their ability to stay in the good graces of an enormous group of fickle, perverse critics–i.e., the American viewing public. Agents and managers get very nervous when their young, male rising stars flirt with profits by agreeing to take gay roles, because those sage, jaded agents know that it’s never too late for a star to ruin his image. For that reason, it doesn’t really matter whether gay roles are shown statistically to be dangerous for a male actor’s career or not; the point is the perceived risk, which is very real to a young, male actor, and yet two of them were brave enough to take on the challenge anyway.

In conclusion, let me contradict everything I’ve said so far. The real reason the press is calling this decision “brave,” in my opinion, is because Brokeback Mountain is news, and they needed something to say about it. That’s what I think. They created all of this angst for the brave actors of the film to have gone through, and I have done the same in my arguments. Well, it’s probably time we all stopped worrying about imaginary stress during the casting decisions at this point and started wondering how many awards the film will win come Oscar Night. And whether Amy Adams will get the recognition she deserves for her amazing turn in Junebug. But I digress.