Rebel Wilson weighs in on straight actors playing gay roles debate: ‘I think it’s total nonsense’
Rebel Wilson shared her thoughts. (Getty)
Rebel Wilson has weighed in on the straight actors playing gay roles debate, saying: “I think it’s total nonsense.”
The Pitch Perfect star – who spilt the beans on a fourth instalment of the movie being in development – has given her take on whether heterosexual actors should take on queer roles.
There are a fair few actors who identify as straight and have an impressive track record when it comes to depicting queer characters, including Mary & George’s Nicholas Galitzine, Challengers’ Josh O’Connor, Paul Mescal’s All of Us Strangers, and even Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain.
Wilson had something to say about the fallout, which some straight actors were subjected to for taking on such roles.
Speaking about double standards regarding comedy, she told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs: “I think that’s hard. It’s going into this territory of like saying, ‘Well, only straight actors can play straight roles and gay actors can play gay roles’, which I think is total nonsense.
“I think you should be able to play any role that you want,” she affirmed. “But I always think, in comedy, your job is to always flirt with that line of what’s acceptable.
“Sometimes you do step over it but, at the end of the day, you are trying to entertain people. If people are just always being safe and protective, you’re not going to get good comedy from that,” Wilson concluded.
The Senior Year star came out publicly in 2022 after the Australian newspaper, Sydney Morning Herald, appeared to threaten to out the actor.
She was forced to come out via an Instagram post before she was ready, sharing an image of herself and her girlfriend Ramona Argruma. “I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,” she wrote at the time.
