Earlier this year, at the 2014 Academy Awards, Jared Leto took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the HIV positive transgender character Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club. This was the crowning achievement among widespread critical acclaim for his acting in the role. He was praised for his weight loss, for his never breaking character during filming, and for his ability, as the above video suggests, to make the character “real.”
Leto finished his journey with the character Rayon by taking the opportunity in his acceptance speech to address the “dreamers” of the world and accept the award standing “for and with” those “who have ever felt injustice because of who you are, or who you love.”
However, a problem that went largely overlooked as the accolades and praise came in for Leto was the fact that there is an extreme underrepresentation of Queer characters being portrayed by members of the marginalized group who they are portraying. I think it is a fair assessment to say that the only mainstream Transgendered character actually portrayed by a Transgendered actor is Orange is the New Black’s Sophia Burset, played by Laverne Cox.
While I do not wish to take away from any actors’ talent or ability, I think that there is a problem within casting for Queer characters that is being overlooked which parallels the idea of “Color-Blindness” with respect to race. The idea of Color-Blind Racism is that in an abstract application of liberalism, every person is seen as having equal opportunity regardless of their race. In other words, an overly liberal mindset that racism is over in the United States creates a philosophy of equality that leaves historical injustices with current day ramifications in the past, as well as overlooks discrimination, privilege, and social power struggles to say that we’re all American’s and we’re on an equal playing field. This is not true, because if we stick to the playing field analogy, some Americans are born with the privilege of being on 3rd base and headed for home while others are born at the end of the bench in the dugout with no chance at batting in the foreseeable future.
The way that I believe this mentality is aligning itself with casting choices for LGBTQ characters is by having a mentality of casting “whoever is best for the part.” Which makes sense, and if you’re making a film, you want the best actor. However, the problem is that the Jared Leto’s of the world are being cast, while actual Transgendered actors are being overlooked and kept out of sight within mainstream Hollywood representations of their group. Other mainstream roles are Walton Goggins Transgender character Venus Van Dam on Sons of Anarchy, and Lafayette Reynolds, who was discussed in a previous post. All of these characters are being played by hetero males who are putting on dialects and mannerisms that allow them to fit into a Queer type, allowing audiences and critics can praise them for their “transformational” acting. Essentially, they are putting on what I want to call “Queer Face,” which is reminiscent of old Hollywood habits of dressing white actors in Black face and acting out Black stereotypes as opposed to granting black actors roles.
The recognizable actors like Jared Leto have the privilege of being granted important roles during a time where there is a push for more representation of the LGBTQ communities and moves for social change. They can maybe even use this privilege, as Leto attempted to by standing “for and with” who he was portraying, to try to bring awareness and positive reinforcement to LGBTQ issues. In the end though, for every Jared Leto cast in a Queer role that will be hailed as inspiring and transformational, there are groups of Laverne Cox’s who are being excluded from participating in representation of their own community and issues.
The Pictures Make My Head Hurt 