Will and GraceEric McCormack supports straight actors playing gay roles.
When asked to weigh in on the debate in Monday’s (March 18) installment of ITV Good morning Great BritainMcCormack stated, “That’s hard for me because I didn’t become an actor so I could play an actor,” according to Deadline.
“I’ve never played any role where I wasn’t playing something I’m not,” he said. “It’s part of the concert. And I’ve always said that if gay actors weren’t allowed to play straight actors, Broadway would be over. So this is what we do.”
McCormack, who is straight, played the gay title character, Will Truman. When asked about his portrayal of a gay man in the comedy, he said he “would like to think that [he] represent[ed] Is better.”
“I come from theater and one of my best friends was a gay man,” he added. “So I think I took his spirit and the message of him in what was otherwise just a sitcom and, I hope, represented it.”
As for whether or not he thinks he’d be cast in the role today, he responded: “I guess the answer would be that at casting they would have to say, ‘And you’re gay, right?’ Which I don’t think they can say. I would like to think, in general, that the best person for the role, the one who comes in and knocks it out of the park, is the one who gets the role.”
Another actor who shares McCormack’s point of view is Stanley Tucci. The heterosexual actor who has played homosexual roles in The Devil Wears Prada and Supernova argued that he “believes[s] “It’s okay” if “it’s done the right way.”
“I really believe that as an actor you’re supposed to play different people,” he told BBC Radio 4.Desert Island Discs in July 2023. “You just are. That is the goal.”
While McCormack’s role has been applauded for encouraging representation, others have taken the opposite stance to him and Tucci, such as And so Gay star and actor Mario Cantone.
“Look, straight people have been playing gay forever, and we’ve all had to deal with that,” he said. The view in October 2021. “Until there are equal parts… people say, ‘Well, gay people shouldn’t be able to play straight roles.’ The number of pieces, the balance is very off. That’s why I’d like to see a gay man playing a gay man all the time.”
Will and Grace is available to stream on Hulu and main video.
