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The great debate: Is it okay for straight actors to play gay characters? Stanley Tucci, straight actor who has played gay characters, weighed in on the subject. The actor told BBC Radio 4 that he obviously believes it's okay.
“Obviously, I believe that’s fine,” Stanley Tucci responded when asked about the debate.
In the 2006 comedy The Devil Wears Prada and 2020 drama Supernova, Tucci played gay characters. In Supernova, he had Colin Firth as his love interest.
“I am always very flattered when gay men come up to me and talk about [my role in] The Devil Wears Prada or they talk about Supernova, and they say that, ‘It was just so beautiful,’ you know, ‘You did it the right way,” he said. “Because often it’s not done the right way.”
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“An actor is an actor is an actor,” the actor said. “You are supposed to play different people. You just are. That’s the whole point of it.”
He even feels more comfortable playing other roles, in fact. “I feel much safer on stage than I do in real life. Sometimes, walking into a cocktail or dinner party, I get very nervous, you know.”
The conversation then turned to Tucci's career trajectory. They asked specifically about whether he wanted more leading roles.
“There were times, of course, I wanted to be a leading man, no question about that,” Tucci admitted. “But, as it has turned out, it’s just fine, and I feel very fortunate that I got a lot of meaty roles.”
