"It's called acting, dear boy"
Are you going to not watch The Godfather just because real life Brando was bi?
Exactly. And there are many examples of gay actors who played straight roles, Rock Hudson comes to mind and yes, it is strange watching a movie like Giant now knowing that Rock Hudson was gay IRL but that doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of him in that role in that film and in many of his other movies and the TV show McMillan & Wife.
Some have alleged that the five times married Cary Grant was bisexual and that his roommate and lifelong friend Randolph Scott was once his lover. I don’t know if that’s true or not, I tend to think not. But frankly I don’t care. When I watch North By Northwest or To Catch A Thief, all I know is that as a little girl, Cary Grant made me feel all tingly even as then I didn’t understand why. Cary Grant still makes me feel all tingly – sigh : )
IIRC, Tom Selleck played a gay character in the movie In & Out but that doesn’t diminish what I think of him as a person, a very conservative man, a faithful husband, an NRA spokesman, big supporter of 2nd Amendment Rights and by all accounts a really stand up and likeable guy.
George C. Scott was a brilliant actor but also a notorious drunk, cursed as to make a sailor blush, was married multiple times, was a womanizer and by many accounts of the people who worked with him, not a very nice person. But he was brilliant in Dr. Strange Love, a movie which many consider a very anti-war film yet did an equally brilliant in job portraying General Patton just a few years later and his A Christmas Carole is a close second to my favorite, the 1951 version with Alastair Sim.
Even knowing Paul Newman’s politics, he was also a great actor and I enjoy a great many of his films and as much as I disagreed with Paul Newman’s politics, by all accounts he was a nice guy, very down to earth and very devoted to his wife Joanne Woodward. The recently departed Larry Hagman was known for his role as oil tycoon JR Ewing but in RL was a rabid environmentalist. Mel Gibson has made some good movies but in recent years his personal life has become a complete train wreck. Both Hagman and Gibson and Scott battled alcoholism FWIW.
When I watch How I Met Your Mother, I see the character of Barney Stinson, the self centered womanizer, a character who is unlikeable yet likable at the same time (no easy feat for any actor) and not the actor Neil Patrick Harris who is gay IRL, and yes, I think NPH is brilliant in that role, and that’s why "It's called acting, dear boy".
If I only watched movies and TV shows who’s cast, crew and writers were entirely composed of straight, entirely upstanding moral conservatives, what would that leave me to watch? Perhaps Walker - Texas Ranger? Chuck Norris might be a good guy but is not a very good actor IMO and that show was simply awful, unwatchable. Just saying.
Yes. Every time a poster puts up a thread about a favorite TV show or movie the FR prudes come swarming in. Many criticize the program without ever seeing it. Were living in a golden age of TV and movies and I’m not going to cut my nose off to spite my face.....
I hate the freakin’ acting. Don’t care what his sex life is. I like Helen. She has talent. I liked one other one but can’t remember the title.
It’s the acting, stupid!
actually roc hudson movies have low watchability. That is just by looking at the fact he has disappeared from the classic movie rotations.
look at the anne heche movie that died when she came out of the closet (before her changing sides).