In a recent interview with the Sunday Times, actress Kate Winslet let slip that certain queer actors in Hollywood still feel too scared to come out of the closet.
She does believe, however, that the “issue of there not being enough LGBTQ stories in our mainstream is on the brink of change,” and that queer actors need to have their own #MeToo moment of accountability in Hollywood.
Winslet’s mainstream breakthrough came with Peter Jackson’s 1994 classic Heavenly Creatures, in which she played Juliet Hulme, a young New Zealander who, along with her best friend and lover Pauline Parker, was found guilty of murdering Parker’s mother in the 1950s. Winslet, who is straight, also plays a gay character in her most recent role, the Mary Anning biopic Ammonite. But Winslet is aware of the problems of casting straight actors in queer roles.
“I’m done with not being honest about what my real opinions are,” Winslet explained in the interview, “and I know the [Ammonite] part was never offered to anybody else. In taking this part I had an opportunity to bring an LGBTQ story into living rooms.”
Although Winslet feels ambivalent about potentially taking the part from someone else, she also knows how Hollywood works.
“I cannot tell you the number of young actors I know — some well known, some starting out — who are terrified their sexuality will be revealed and that it will stand in the way of their being cast in straight roles,” she explained to the Times. “Now that’s fucked up.”
It sure is. The actress went on to talk about a certain well-known actor whose American agent recently told them not to publicize their bisexuality. “I can think of at least four actors absolutely hiding their sexuality,” Winslet said. “It’s painful, because they fear being found out.”
Winslet specified, too, that the problem affects “men more than anything.”
Winslet’s intel checks out. Stars like Tom Hardy have seen public blowback after coming out as bi or even admitting to the odd affair with other men. While queer and trans stars like Kristen Stewart and Elliot Page may be the face of a newer, more tolerant Hollywood, it’s more than believable that many cis men still consider it career suicide to come out of the closet. And while plenty of men are out and proud behind the camera — like Lee Daniels, Ryan Murphy, and Russell T. Davies — even in today’s Hollywood, coming out as bisexual or gay is seen as a career-killing mistake on the part of old-fashioned executives and casting agents. Even “Mindhunter” star Jonathan Groff expressed being worried that he would be typecast after coming out in 2009.
There’s also, of course, the age-old assumption that gay actors can’t be “convincing” in straight roles. “That should be almost illegal,” Winslet told reporter Jonathan Dean in the Sunday Times interview. “You would not believe how widespread it is.”
But when it comes to actors who choose to remain closeted, Winslet agrees that it’s nobody’s business but their own. “In some cases, [actors] are choosing not to come out for personal reasons,” she explained. “Perhaps [it’s for] privacy. Perhaps [it’s from] conditioning and shame.”
Whatever the reason, we can all agree that Hollywood’s double standard needs to change.
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for them.'s weekly newsletter here.
