He expressed sympathy with black actors angry that they were “being ill-treated and underestimated,” but said the issue was a wider one.
“No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar; I wonder if that is prejudice or chance,” he said, with the implication that he felt it tended towards the former.
Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sean Penn have all won best actor Oscars for playing gay men. “How clever, how clever,” said McKellen. “What about giving me one for playing a straight man?" ...
Guardian.
It's chance really, isn't it, dear?
Actually, I'm not sure you could even call it 'chance'.
Can you name one out leading gay actor (out of the six) who you could genuinely say was cruelly snubbed?
Maybe the American Academy Of Motion Pictures could just invent special categories every year so no-one feels left out?
Best Old Poove Playing A Wizard etc.
Update: For some reason it looks like every media outlet on Planet Earth has picked up on this interview. I'm not interested enough to do anymore, but Google some combo of 'McKellen gay Hollywood disregarded'.
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Next you will be trying to tell me wizards aren't gay.
ReplyDeletePAH.
Todd Haynes definitely deserved (at he very least) an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Carol. And it deserved Best Film, too. Both leading actresses are nominated for the film and I assume the fact they're both straight increased their chances. I just can't see Haynes and the film being snubbed as anything other than homophobia.
ReplyDeleteI know you think it's shit but Brokeback Mountain definitely should have won Best Film over the actual winner that year: Crash, which is a film that no one remembers and even the movie's director himself says that it probably wasn't the best film made that year.
Can't really see homophobia at work over the Carol snub.
DeleteAs you have said y'self, the Oscars love the fillums with the gay/lez actings!
Yes, but ver point is that they only love straight actors bravely playing gay characters. That goes all the way back to Philadelphia, dunnit? But they don't give awards to gay directors making gay films or the films themselves. Philadelphia wasn't even nominated, nor was Jonathan Demme, its director (though he's out and openly straight). Brokeback Mountain got a nomination but lost to a much lesser film. Carol was ignored in both the main categories, etc.
DeleteI don't think it's overt homophobia as such, but I just can't see any other reason for these films losing out.
Well, they got nominated, yes?
DeleteMaybe - going out on a blue sky limb here - people voting just liked another film more?
Neither Philadelphia nor Carol were nominated for Best Film or Director, while the straight actor(s) playing the gay characters were nominated in both cases (Tom Hanks won, of course; I'm hoping at least one of the female stars of Carol wins next month). I'm not entirely convinced myself that it's homophobia, but when you look at the films that were nominated instead of those two in their respective years, you do wonder why they weren't (admittedly 1993 was very strong in terms of films, but this year is extremely weak).
DeleteYou have to remember that the Academy is largely made up of old fogies, so I think they're less likely to be impressed by gay films and gay directors than they are by straight actors being "brave" and playing gay convincingly.
By and large, I agree with you that it probably isn't homophobia but I do think a slight bias against gay films and gay directors making gay films is evident. As far as gay actors who have been overlooked, you're right, I can't think of any instances where an out gay actor definitely deserved an award but didn't get one. I know there are a few fans of Matt Bomer who thought he was ignored for his performance in The Normal Heart because he's a gayer but I don't think many people seriously believe he deserved one (I know that's TV).
Pitch for an article; 'Why oh why is Hollywood so homophobic???'
DeleteHollywood would have jizzed its pants with smugitude if, say, Philadelphia, Brokeback Mountain, or Milk had won best picture.
DeleteHaha! I understand your point and I do agree. But there you are, you see, Milk is another example: gay director making a gay film, both overlooked, but straight actor playing a gay: GOLD!
DeleteI don't think Hollywood is homophobic. I just think there's a bias there, but I also don't think there's anything you can or should do about it. The old fogies at the Academy will die off and the bias will probably disappear, but all the other factors that result in Oscars will always be in play: money, business, nepotism, history (like Denzel Washington eventually winning for Training Day, a crappy film which many see as a recognition by the Academy that he should have won for Malcolm X, for example; Scorsese finally winning for a shitty picture because he was overlooked for so many years), sentimentality, money, business, money, nepotism, money, etc...
Well?? What do you say about Milk, pls!?
DeleteGiven up, 'ave yer!
I think it would be unfair of me to comment on Milk (film) cos my views on the well-known child-molester, DLB. :(
DeleteThough having said that, Milk (Film) was a bunch of patronising soapbox crapola. Nicked, too.
DeleteTru dat.
DeleteWho cares about these bloody award things anyway. Even the book Crash is a bunch of pretentious nonsense and if no-one in the industry can tell its hardly anyone's problem but their own.
ReplyDeleteI mostly just watch them for the clothes worn on the night. They're getting increasingly dull as the years go on, it seems.
DeleteI used to sit up at night to watch them but Rupert Murdoch bought the rights years ago and you have to have Sky now to watch them. *shakes fist at the Sky*
Don't worry, he's going out with Jerry Hall now. He will make all sky services free out of love for all humanity and cos her boots are just so fricken spectacular. You mark my words.
DeleteYeah but no, Sireena is talking about actors here, no?
ReplyDelete...
I see you've changed the article's title, haha. I do disagree 100% with this kind of argument. The same goes for Spike Lee and various others boycotting the Oscars this year and the whole #OscarsSoWhite thing. If only for the reason that not only does it paint the stated demographic as victims but also anyone in said group who wins in future will be open to the charge that they were only given the award to right some kind of political wrong, if you see what I mean. Plenty of gay actors have won Oscars (not out of the closet at the time, obvs) and so too gay directors, black actors, black directors. As Glenda Jackson said the other day, the Oscars are "a whole shebang of nonsense". Most people win these days because of the campaign their film companies and themselves mount beforehand and the money that they put into the promotion of those films as contenders, etc.
ReplyDeleteDidnae!
DeleteI think the whole thing is shiny industry nonsense tbh. It would be like expecting the charts to have better music in it.
ReplyDelete*peers at screen* yes, what Glenda Jackson said. :P
Also dare I say gay people have fantastic taste :P Hence would be less likely to choose ridiculous massive budget films for these awards.
Don't worry, by 2046 EVERYONE will be gay and also we will have hovercars, so these industry shindigs will seem largely irrelevant :)