We'll have a gay old time.........
Wed, 8 Aug 2001, 07:54 amLeah Maher10 posts in thread
We'll have a gay old time.........
Wed, 8 Aug 2001, 07:54 amHere's an interesting thought. A good portion of men in ameteur theatre are gay. A good portion of the professional actors I know are gay. Then how come television and film manages to only cast straight men? A few have slipped through the cracks but the rest are avowedly hetrosexual. Makes you wonder if somewhere in Hollywood there isn't a closet big enough to fit the cast of Ben Hur.
RE: We'll have a gay old time.........
Fri, 10 Aug 2001, 09:59 amWalter Plinge
Leah Maher wrote:
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Makes you wonder if somewhere in Hollywood there isn't a closet big enough to fit the cast of Ben Hur.
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There probably is, but it will be a long while before that closet starts to empty. The reason is money.
Hypothetical:
If I'm a producer making a $100 million picture I need to bring in roughly about $400 million gross to break even (after tax, studio's cut, etc). That's a lot of dosh. So I really don't want to piss off the customers (the audience). Now, a sizeable proportion of the planet's population believe that homosexuals (particularly men) are perverted or downright evil. They're taught this from an early age. I, as a producer, don't want to alienate these people because it makes it so much harder to break even. So I will in all likelihood choose not to cast an openly gay actor because it's too high a risk - remember making $100 million pictures is a business not an art, that's why most of them suck. For an actor in Hollywood being gay is a deterent to a successful career. It's hard enough already so most actors will stay in the closet.
It's unfortunate, but until homosexuality becomes an accepted lifestyle choice (and even a heterosexual couple living defacto is unacceptable to some cultures - I'm speaking from experience) you're likely to see only a handful of Hollywood actors coming out.
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Makes you wonder if somewhere in Hollywood there isn't a closet big enough to fit the cast of Ben Hur.
-------------------------------
There probably is, but it will be a long while before that closet starts to empty. The reason is money.
Hypothetical:
If I'm a producer making a $100 million picture I need to bring in roughly about $400 million gross to break even (after tax, studio's cut, etc). That's a lot of dosh. So I really don't want to piss off the customers (the audience). Now, a sizeable proportion of the planet's population believe that homosexuals (particularly men) are perverted or downright evil. They're taught this from an early age. I, as a producer, don't want to alienate these people because it makes it so much harder to break even. So I will in all likelihood choose not to cast an openly gay actor because it's too high a risk - remember making $100 million pictures is a business not an art, that's why most of them suck. For an actor in Hollywood being gay is a deterent to a successful career. It's hard enough already so most actors will stay in the closet.
It's unfortunate, but until homosexuality becomes an accepted lifestyle choice (and even a heterosexual couple living defacto is unacceptable to some cultures - I'm speaking from experience) you're likely to see only a handful of Hollywood actors coming out.