30 Straight Actors Who Have Gone Gay For a Film Role

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· Greg Kinnear, As Good As It Gets (1997)

The As Good As It Gets actor earned both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his role as a gay artist who is reluctantly taken under the wing of his obsessive compulsive and judgmental neighbor (Jack Nicholson) in this James L. Brooks comedy.

· Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor, Velvet Goldmine (1998)

This Todd Haynes film featured Rhys Meyers as a glam-rock icon, akin to David Bowie, in the 70's and his lover, played by McGregor.

· Matt Damon, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Damon earned a Golden Globe nomination for playing an identity thieving opportunist who ultimately kills his lover to save his image in this Anthony Minghella thriller.

· Hillary Swank, Boys Don't Cry (1999)

Hillary Swank won the first of her two Academy Awards for portraying a transgender young man who is savagely murdered after it is discovered that he is biologically female in Kimberly Peirce's indie.

· Ed Harris, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, The Hours (2002)

This Stephen Daldry drama famously won Nicole Kidman an Oscar for donning a prosthetic nose and playing Virginia Woolf -- but it also accumulated an assortment of Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for its supporting three actors who all played gay and/or sexually confused characters.

· Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci, Monster (2003)

Just three years after Hillary Swank won an Oscar, Charlize Theron followed suit for her role as a former prostitute turned serial killer. Ricci played her devoted on-screen lover.

· Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mysterious Skin (2004)

After being sexually abused by his baseball coach, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character turns to prostitution and crime in this drama from Gregg Araki.

· Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Their oft-parodied roles in Ang Lee's romantic drama -- as married cowboys who share semi-regular Wyoming rendezvous -- earned both Ledger and Gyllenhaal Oscar nominations.

· Tracy Morgan, The Longest Yard (2005)

Even Tracy Morgan went gay for a paycheck -- but his cartoonish turn as Ms. Tucker, a gay inmate who lusts after every other male prisoner in this Adam Sandler flick, was gravely insulting and even worse, enormously unfunny.

· Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote (2005)

Hoffman's portrayal of Truman Capote during the writing of his famous book In Cold Blood, swept both the Oscars and the Golden Globes.

· Sean Penn, James Franco and Emile Hirsch, Milk (2008)

The role of gay rights activist Harvey Milk earned Sean Penn both an Oscar as well as a Golden Globe nomination. James Franco and Emile Hirsch also starred as Milk's lover and mentoree respectively.

· Colin Firth, A Single Man, (2009)

This stunning Tom Ford film won Colin Firth an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a depressed British professor who mourns his longtime partner in the span of a single day. comprehensive

· Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey, I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)

This year's comedy featured Jim Carrey as a con artist who falls in love with a fellow inmate played by McGregor. Graphic sex and cuddling included.

· Julianne Moore and Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right (2010)

Their roles as loving-if-dysfunctional partners and parents of two could win Julianne Moore and Annette Bening (who have already been nominated for Golden Globes) bids in this year's Academy Award race.

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Comments

  • what? says:

    "You forgot about Michael Ian Black and Bradley Cooper in Wet Hot American Summer."
    Bradley Cooper is gay.

  • sosgemini says:

    Additionally, I am not sure Jay Davidson's character in The Crying Game is ever pegged as transgender. Jody just might be draq queen for all we know. There is a huge difference between the two.

  • sosgemini says:

    Oops, Dil..

  • sosgemini says:

    BTW: This complete is nothing without Mark Harmon and Michael Ontkean in Making Love. A movie that showed far more passion in the bed than the embarassing sex scenes in Bareback Mountain. Why fools consider Brokeback Mountain so groundbreaking when Making Love gave a much more realistic display of gay love and sex is beyond me. Lord how Brokeback Mountain bores me.

  • sosgemini says:

    This list is incomplete....

  • Nip says:

    Robert Downey jr. & Tobey Maguire in Wonder Boys and Robert in One Night Stand.
    Liam Neeson & Peter Sarsgaard in Kinsey.

  • SearchCz says:

    B.S. list ... does the author simply assume that an actor who has not come out is straight? Absurd - and - a needless distinction to stipulate the actor's (assumed) sexual orientation.

  • Blake says:

    It is not the straight up bigots that are the problem, but those female fans who have an issue with actors being gay.
    It is quite a trend for women to only enjoy gay films, if the actors are not (openly) gay.

  • Kojak says:

    Imagine........
    A shirtless MattAdore
    poolside by moonlight
    twirling a red silk shirt around
    his motorcycle helmet-for-bull
    doing a mock ballet
    to Liberace playing Malaguena!!!

  • Louise says:

    You really could have left out obvious fare like Capote and Milk. Dig a little deeper - what about Daniel Day Lewis in My Beautiful Laundrette?

  • Tamar says:

    And you got this "trend" from where, exactly?

  • jules says:

    If you're gonna include Al Pacino, at least put him on the list for playing a gay bank robber in DOG DAY AFTERNOON, not a cop pretending to be gay in CRUISING. Sheesh.

  • mark says:

    Forgot Thomas Jane and Vincent Dinofrio in The Velocity of Gary.

  • PJ says:

    This list really isn't complete. I've seen a few that aren't on this list, though the only ones that come to mind immediately is Hugh Grant in Maurice, Robert Pattinson in Little Ashes, Hugo Weaving in Bedrooms and Hallways.

  • cory says:

    I for one do not enjoy watching straight actors playing homosexual parts. But I prefer it to homosexuals playing straight parts. I do not like to watch to men kissing but I hate a man who likes men kissing a woman for I know that he is a hypocrit. I truly believe that gay actors should not come out if they want to play leading roles. We as a society have not fully excepted homosexuality. I for one have not, I respect their decision but I still become digusted with the sexual act between people of the same sex. I would never hurt a gay person for they are human beings but there are so many hate crimes that gay people still need to worry about who knows what their sexual orientation is. My best friend of over twenty years is gay and I love him as a person but what he does in bed is his business and I prefer not to know. He knows how I feel and he respects my old school upbringing. Hopefully one day all people will be able to except gay people but until all barriers are removed actors should not come out.

  • Jack says:

    Well I don't know about J Phoenix, but Leonardo should have been of this list.

    • guest says:

      who in the world does leonardo decaprio and Bradley cooper think they are fooling, its common knowledge that both these actors are flaming GAY even though leonardo has a new leggy model on his are every so often and bradly oh please he treats his mother like his boyfriends foot is on fire, But please guys use a condom with the girls if you want to stay in the closet otherwise tell the girl and see if she wants to sleep with you, give the female a choice of knowing exactly what they are getting into your bearded lady situation, i believe 99 percent of straight females would not have sex with a gay man, its better if you gay gays stay with gay guys and do not involve straight womn in your escapades id deception

  • Jack says:

    Well I don't know about J. Phoenix, but Leonardo should have been OFF this list.

  • Jack says:

    That by the way is a character killer to the minds of some. Could you imagine Charles Bronson, or Clint Eastwood, todays boys have no good role models on how to grow up and be MEN. Long live the memory of Mr. Bronson. Men like that in Hollywood will never again exist.Long are the days of the tough, hardship enduring, stoic REAL MAN. Now you play the fruit and you get an oscar.

  • Jack says:

    That by the way is a character killer to the minds of some. Could you imagine Charles Bronson, or Clint Eastwood playing the sissy, today's boys have no good role models on how to grow up and become MEN. Long live the memory of Mr. Bronson!!!! Men like that in Hollywood will never again exist.Long are the days of the tough, hardship enduring, stoic REAL MAN. Now you play the fruit and you get an oscar.

  • anonymous says:

    James Franco also was in a movie called howl where he played a very gay very real poet.

  • Ashley Barlow says:

    Um. .Christopher what's-his-name(‎​the guy who played Chris Keller)in the series OZ.There were both kissing A̶̲̅πϑ lovemaking scenes in ‎​the movie,much to ‎​the inappropriate display of numerous penises in the almost every episodes.

  • Terry Lamb says:

    To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, comes to mind, with Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo

  • It seems that maybe it’s a prerequisite to making it big in Hollywood, with both male and female having to agree to do a picture dressing in drag or playing a lesbian or gay role or something like that, just saying.

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