Total Gleek

So, I've become a total Gleek.  If you don't know what that is, you need to get to know it.  I'm a geek for the TV show Glee.  Of course, I can't just watch a show without knowing about it, the stars, the background.  So, I searched all of the actors on IMBD, then googled the ones I'm most interested in.  Which, in this case is nearly all of them.

There are many things I like about this show.  Growing up, some of my favorite movies were musicals- Annie, Oliver Twist, My Fair Lady... the list goes on.  Glee is like a weekly, hour-long musical movie.  How wonderful is that?

But, as if that's not awesome enough (which it is), but they also add all of the drama I love in these weekly shows I get involved in- not too ridiculous, not too much, just enough.  He loves her who loves him who loves himself.  That kind of thing.  The show also incorporates a lot of the "issues" that not only high school teenagers can relate to, but also I can as an adult.  Maybe I'm relating to high school Karmen's issues, but I still relate.  I love that the show addresses real problems kids face today- sex, teenage pregnancy, homosexuality, popularity, confliction between being oneself and being accepted, bullying.  The list really goes on.  With the right discussion to my teenage daughter, the show is a great way to open a dialogue about any of the issues she may be having.

Now because my train of thoughts are just often erratic like this- I became very intrigued by the sexual preference issues on the show.  I mean, there is certainly a real issue of homosexuality dealt with on the show what with Kurt and Blaine and "the kiss seen around the world" as well as Santana and her struggle to win Brittany completely.  But my interest in this situation lead me to thinking about the real preferences of the actors/actresses outside of the show.  Which of course, I googled.  A lot came up, but what *really* interested me was an article in much debate in the Newsweek.  Here it is...  http://www.newsweek.com/2010/04/30/straight-jacket.html

What I found interesting in this article was that in some ways, I guess I agree with it, and in some ways I definitely do not.  Whatever the point of the author was intended to be, I don't think the controversey reflected his stated intentions. 

Let's consider White Collar with Matt Bomer, a show I love.  Matt Bomer is totally hot.  I definitely created many a fantasy that included him as the leading male role.  But, like Glee, I spent some research time and found that not only was Matt gay, he was involved in a long-term monogamous relationship and had adopted children.  In White Collar he does not play a gay man, but quite the opposite.  He's a bit of a lady's man in the show.  Did reading that he's gay change my view of the show or Matt's role in it?  Yes.  Slightly.  But does he play a very convincing straight man?  I would say absolutely.  Is my "gaydar" broken?  Perhaps.  Or maybe both his relationship status and his fatherhood status make him that much more sexy.  And maybe he's just that good of an actor.  And maybe the kisses he shares with some of the leading ladies is just passionate enought to stir my inner longing to be that leading lady of the moment.

Then again, maybe I'm just jaded because of my attraction to Matt Bomer's good looks and the sexy character he plays.  I decided to think a little harder on the subject.  I've seen several shows and movies where Eric McCormack (Will from Will and Grace, in case you don't know) plays a straight man.  From all of my research, he *is* a straight man.  But I still find it less than convincing that he could ever be straight.  Is it because I don't find him as attractive as I do Matt Bomer?  Maybe, although there are some pretty steamy photos of Eric that could lead to a fantasy or two.  Or maybe the Newsweek article has a point.

Does the type of person and/or role make a difference?  Eric McCormack is more effiminate than Matt Bomer.  Neil Patrick Harris doesn't strike me as particularly effiminate, but Sean Hayes does.  Does that make it easier for me to believe Neil Patrick Harris could be a straight man, but Sean Hayes could not?  My dad is a pretty effiminate guy, but I don't doubt for a second his heterosexuality.

Type-casting can be hard to overcome no matter who you are or what role you're playing.  Can anyone (at least my age who grew up on Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure) ever really look at Keanu Reeves and not expect him to break out into his Ted character, like totally?  Ok, maybe that one is just me.  He certainly broke the mold with the Matrix and I can almost take him seriously...almost.   But what about Lisa Kudrow?  Won't she always be Phoebe from Friends in our minds?  Will anyone ever see Fran Dresher as anything other than the loud, obnoxious Nanny?  Didn't Jennifer Aniston do the Good Girl specifically to escape her Rachel character from Friends?  I guess the low budget, small film Dreams for an Insomniac wasn't enough for her to escape Rachel even though her acting in that film was beyond awesome and actually made me a huge fan.  Maybe this is the real reason I have a hard time seeing Eric McCormack as a straight man.  He played Will Truman for a long time.  I haven't yet seen his Matrix or Good Girl role that breaks the stereotype for me.

And maybe the question to ask really, is why does it matter?  I mean, whatever your real life choices are, isn't it acting?  Aren't these men playing roles?  Tom Hanks was never really stranded on an island with a Wilson volleyball that becamse his best friend but I'm no less convinced while watching Cast Away.  And when has George Clooney ever been a Vegas thief as he was in all of the Ocean's movies?  Can we really believe Elijah Woods was ever anything more than a hobbit when watching the Lord of the Rings movies?
Bottomline- I think the problem is not the actor's sexual preference that type-casts him, but rather the roles he chooses and the length he's seen in those roles.  Play a gay man once, I doubt you're going to be condemned to playing gay men for life, but play a gay man in a legendary show for years might put you into certain category of available characters.  And be a gay man playing straight, it's no less convincing than a straight man playing gay as long as it's done right.  Of course, I can't speak for the Hollywood side of things.  What I can say, is if I were a leading lady and someone asked me to have some passionate scenes with Matt Bomer, Jonathan Goff, Sean Hayes... ya know what?  I'd do it!  Because it would be my job (and his) to play the parts we have.  And honestly, any of these men are great actors from the shows, movies, whatever that I've seen.  Maybe we need to just get it out of our minds that their personal lives have anything to do with their roles and let them be the professional men they are trying to be.  Maybe if we're so caught up in who he's sleeping with when he goes home from his "job" then we've lost the point of TV or a movie or a Broadway show.  Entertainment.  Get lost in the story.  Enjoy the experience.  Stop analyzing it for what it's not and start enjoying it for what it is.