Will & Grace‘s Eric McCormack stands by straight actors playing gay roles.
When asked to weigh in on the debate on Monday’s (March 18) installment of ITV’s Good Morning Britain, McCormack claimed, “That’s a tough one for me because I didn’t become an actor so that I could play an actor,” per Deadline.
“There’s no part I’ve ever played where I wasn’t playing something I’m not,” he said. “It’s part of the gig. And I’ve always said, 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 of Will Truman. When asked about his portrayal of a gay man on the sitcom, he said he’d “like to think that [he] represent[ed] it well.”
“I came from the theater, and one of my best friends was a gay man,” he added. “So I think I took their spirit and their message in what was otherwise just a sitcom and, represented it, I hope.”
As for whether or not he believes he would be selected for the role today, he replied, “I guess the answer would be, they’d have to say in the casting, ‘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 that comes in and knocks it out of the park, is the one that gets the part.”
Another actor who shares McCormack’s point of view is Stanley Tucci. The straight actor who has portrayed gay roles in The Devil Wears Prada and Supernova argued that he “believe[s] that’s fine” if it’s “done the right way.”
“I really do believe as an actor that you are supposed to play different people,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in July 2023. “You just are. That’s the whole point of it.”
While McCormack’s role has been applauded for encouraging representation, others have taken the opposite stance of he and Tucci, such as And Just Like That star and gay actor Mario Cantone.
“Look, straight people have been playing gay guys forever, and we’ve all had to deal with that,” he told The View in October 2021. “Until there’s equal parts… people are like, ‘Well, gay people shouldn’t be able to play straight parts.’ The amount of parts, the balance is way off. So that’s why I would like to see a gay man playing a gay man all the time.”
Will & Grace is available to stream on Hulu and Prime Video.
The post ‘Will & Grace’ Star Eric McCormack Says Straight Actors Being Cast In Gay Roles Is “Part Of The Gig”: “I Didn’t Become An Actor So That I Could Play An Actor” appeared first on Decider.