This director is sick of seeing straight actors ‘applauded for bravery’ for playing gay
Mike Doyle (Monica Schipper/WireImage)
The director of new queer film Almost Love has said he is sick of seeing straight actors who play gay characters “applauded for their bravery”.
Mike Doyle told Variety that he specifically cast queer actors in his film because he is tired of watching straight people take all the credit and attention.
Almost Love stars Scott Evans – the younger brother of Chris Evans – and Augustus Prew. Both actors are openly queer.
Mike Doyle said seeing straight actors who play gay characters ‘applauded for their bravery’ drives him ‘crazy’.
“I think there’ve been some movies of late that have gotten a lot of attention, and the non-gay romantic leads playing gay are applauded for their bravery, which just drives me crazy,” Doyle said.
It was just very important to me that the two stars are out loud and proud.
“I’m not making an edict that only gay people can play gay people, and straight people play straight people. We’re actors so we can do many things. It was just very important to me that the two stars are out loud and proud,” he added.
The director said he “unofficially” made it his mission to cast gay actors to play the gay characters in his film.
Almost Love star said the entertainment industry wants to pat itself on the back for giving queer people queer roles.
When asked if he had faced any pressure from film executives to cast straight actors, he said he hadn’t, but put this down to the fact that Almost Love is an independent film.
“There were battles I lost, but this was a battle that I was not going to lose,” he said.
Meanwhile, Scott Evans said that the entertainment industry suddenly wants “a pat on the back” for giving queer people queer roles – but said that he wouldn’t want to play some of those roles “all the time”.
“Reading Almost Love, it was a completely different thing,” Evans said. “It was seeing something that I totally related to and that I knew a lot of my friends related to, and a lot of people relate to whether you’re gay or you’re straight. It was very exciting.”
