Jeremy Strong Understands Criticism Of Straight Actors Playing Gay: “It’s Absolutely Valid”
Jeremy Strong has chimed in on the long-running discourse around casting straight actors in gay roles. After portraying Donald Trump‘s gay mentor Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, premiering Oct.
11 in theaters, the Golden Globe winner said he thinks LGBTQ actors should be “given more weight” when it comes to casting LGBTQ roles. “Yes, it’s absolutely valid,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m sort of old fashioned, maybe, in the belief that, fundamentally, it’s [about] a person’s artistry, and that great artists, historically, have been able to, as it were, change the stamp of their nature.
That’s your job as an actor. The task, in a way, is to render something that is not necessarily your native habitat. … While I don’t think that it’s necessary [for gay roles to be played by gay performers], I think that it would be good if that were given more weight.” Written by Gabe Sherman, The Apprentice charts a young Trump’s (Sebastian Stan) ascent to power through a Faustian deal with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Cohn.
The movie also stars Martin Donovan as Fred Trump Sr., and Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump. Cohn’s sexuality was an open secret, despite playing a crucial role in the Lavender Scare of the 1950s McCarthy era.
