Gael García Bernal on being hesitant to label his sexuality & his similarities to gay wrestler ‘Cassandro’
It doesn’t matter your sexuality in order to play an exótico [the campy category of Lucha Libre wrestling which Cassandro inhabited].
You can be straight and play an exótico. They played an archetype, and so, before the gay movement [of the 1970s in Mexico], this category was something more, a little bit more permissive in a way.All of a sudden, it was like there were so many taboos that were broken, and when they were broken, everyone was like, Yeah, it wasn’t such a big deal.Straight is a term that I didn’t invent.
I like women. But at the same time, being an actor allowed me to explore that transgender quality that we all have in a way.
It allowed me the freedom to do that. And if I wasn’t an actor, I would’ve acted [anyway] as a sport, as a hobby, in order to explore that.[Straight] is a definition that I’ve fortunately never allowed society or family or whatever to impose on me.
