Kristen Stewart Calls Only Allowing Gay Actors To Play Gay Roles A 'Slippery Slope'
- By
- On Top Magazine Staff
- | November 30, 2020
In a recent interview with Variety, out actor Kristen Stewart discussed her thoughts on straight actors playing LGBT characters.
Stewart stars opposite Mackenzie Davis in the holiday-themed romantic comedy Happiest Season.
In Happiest Season, Abby's (played by Stewart) plan to propose to her girlfriend Harper (Davis) at Harper's family's annual Christmas dinner is interrupted when Abby realizes that Harper has yet to tell her family that she's gay.
Rounding out the cast are Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Daniel Levy, Mary Holland, Burl Moseley, Victor Garber, and Mary Steenburgen.
The film is now streaming on Hulu.
Stewart said that she admired the movie's director, Clea DuVall, for putting out a film that artfully promotes its message of LGBT acceptance.
“I was so pleased to have been invited onto something that was, for lack of a better term, hiding the vegetables,” she said. “Because I don't think we're hiding shit; it's pretty clear what we're saying.”
When asked about straight actors playing gay roles, Stewart, who is out, called the topic “a gray area.”
“I think about this all the time,” she said. “Being somebody who has had so much access to work, I’ve just lived with such a creative abundance. You know, a young white girl who was straight and only really was gay later and is, like, skinny – do you know what I’m saying? I so acknowledge that I’ve just gotten to work.”
“I would never want to tell a story that really should be told by somebody who’s lived that experience. Having said that, it’s a slippery slope conversation because that means I could never play another straight character if I’m going to hold everyone to the letter of this particular law. I think it’s such a gray area. There are ways for men to tell women’s stories, or ways for women to tell men’s stories. But we need to have our finger on the pulse and actually have to care. You kind of know where you’re allowed. I mean, if you’re telling a story about a community and they’re not welcoming to you, then f--k off. But if they are, and you’re becoming an ally and a part of it and there’s something that drove you there in the first place that makes you uniquely endowed with a perspective that might be worthwhile, there’s nothing wrong with learning about each other. And therefore helping each other tell stories. So I don’t have a sure-shot answer for that.”
(Related: Asked about playing gay, Viggo Mortensen answers: You're assuming I'm completely straight.)
“I will say, Mackenzie is not somebody who identifies as a lesbian. She was the only person in my mind that could have played this with me. Sometimes, artfully speaking, you’re just drawn to a certain group of people. I could defend that, but I’m sure that somebody with a different perspective could make me feel bad about that — and then make me renege on everything I’ve just said. I acknowledge the world that we live in. And I absolutely would never want to traipse on someone else’s opportunity to do that – I would feel terrible about that.”
“So my answer is fucking think about what you’re doing! And don’t be an asshole,” she added.