Falling.The actor has made his directorial debut with the film, which he also wrote and stars in. Mortensen plays John, a gay man who finds himself caring for his racist and homophobic father when he starts showing dementia symptoms.When asked about his decision to play a gay character as a straight man, Mortensen responded by telling Reuters as a joke, “I apologise to all the proctologists for casting David Cronenberg,” referring to the Canadian filmmaker’s role playing a colorectal surgeon.“There are certain characters I’m not going to play.