Somewhere in the beginning of the movie Brittle we see main characters Bobby and Aaron on their first date and stop in front of a movie theater during their walk, where Bobby gives a short synopsis to one of the fictitious movies on the posters. “It’s about two cowboys who are in the closet during the California gold rush in 1849. But actually it is about two heterosexual actors who play gay in the hope of winning an Oscar.”
It’s not the first and certainly not the last meta-commentary in Universal’s rom-com, the first from a major American studio about and starring two gay men. In this case it’s a little subtle sneer at Brokeback Mountain, the 2005 film for which protagonists Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, both straight, received Oscar nominations. “Before that time, the film felt like progressive,” says Billy Eichner, who plays Bobby in Brittle and the screenplay together with director Nicholas Stoller (ao Forgetting Sarah Marshall) wrote, in a small room of a chic five-star hotel in Amsterdam. “It touched me and it was my favorite movie that year. But it would be interesting to look at it from a 2022 perspective.”
That is very different from the 2005 perspective. Then fewer people were awake about a straight man in a gay role, let alone that they could immediately tweet furiously about it, because that was not yet possible at the time. And, not unimportantly, there were also far fewer actors who were openly LGBTQ+. For example, Luke Macfarlane, the Canadian actor who plays Aaron, was there relatively early in 2008. Eichner had been “out” throughout his career, from his early days as an actor as a stand-up comedian. “It was always the question of how successful I could become because I was gay and that made certain people uncomfortable. Whether I could moderate it a bit, or be less gay.”
Hollywood critical
So now there is Brittle, from this week in Dutch cinemas. Or just now, that’s how you can see it. Yes, in many ways it’s “just” a funny rom-com about a New York podcast creator, Bobby, who curates a museum of queer history and meets the “hot but boring” Aaron, a solicitor who actually wants to be a chocolatier, after which the two have to face each other’s fear of commitment. But it is also a Hollywood-critical statement: all roles are played by queer actors, including heterosexual ones. “For me it was time to say, okay, we’ve had a lot of Brokeback Mountains now, now it’s our time to play the big LGBTQ+ roles, write them, produce them. So that we can control our own stories,” says Eichner.
It was always a question of how successful I could be as an actor because I was gay.
The discussion about authenticity in film making is increasingly heated. Should Eddie Redmayne, not transgender, have played a trans woman in The Danish Girl? Or Scarlett Johansson, white, an Asian character in Ghost in the Shell? Tom Hanks said earlier this year that his award-winning role in Philadelphia as a gay man who has HIV could no longer and should not interpret.
“I was very impressed by that,” says Eichner. “You often see that straight actors who played gay roles become very defensive. They feel like someone wants to take their performance away. But nobody wants that, it’s just about a level playing field.”
hypocritical
Eichner, like his character Bobby in the film, is more outspoken about it than his film partner and director. “I think it’s going to be difficult when you start telling people which films they can and cannot make,” says Luke Macfarlane. He often played a straight man himself in various sweet Hallmark romcoms. “It would be hypocritical if I were to announce that straight men are not allowed to play gay roles. I don’t want those opportunities to be taken away from me.”
Ironically, let the man who came up with the idea for Brittle came, director Nicholas Stollerbeing heterosexual. He believes that it does not necessarily disqualify him. “But I also knew it wasn’t my story to tell, so I approached Billy, of whom I was a big fan. So I think above all else you should be able to listen.”
A frequently heard argument against authentic casting is that as an actor you should play someone you are not. Stoller and Macfarlane are also from that school. “I always jokingly say I’m on set instead of ‘action!’ must yell: ‘pretend!’” says Stoller. But, and all three agree on that: there is still too much of an imbalance, and it needs to be corrected first. Something that Brittle so go far. In film history, too few queer actors have had the chance to star, Eichner says. And they will be there in 2022, open, proud, and there are a lot of them, he assures. They could have filled thirty more roles for the film.
Eichner does not want actors to be banned from playing certain roles, he emphasizes. “I don’t care about strict rules. No gay actor just wants to play gay roles and there will also be straight actors who want to play any orientation. And that’s fine. As long as it’s a two-way street.”
Brittle runs from 27/10 in 69 cinemas in the Netherlands.
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