Will & Grace star defends casting straight actors in gay roles
Will and Grace star Eric McCormack has defended straight actors being cast in gay roles, saying that playing something you’re not “is part of the gig”.
“If gay actors weren’t allowed to play straight actors, Broadway would be over,” he said.
McCormack, who is straight, played gay lawyer Will Truman in the hit US sitcom, which began in 1998.
Asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain about the criticism of non-LGBT actors playing characters of a different sexual orientation, McCormack said: “That’s a tough one for me, because I didn’t become an actor so that I could play an actor.
“There’s no part I’ve ever played where I wasn’t playing something I’m not. It’s part of the gig.”
He added: “So this is what we do. I’d like to think that I represent it well. I came from the theatre and one of my best friends was a gay man. So I think I took their spirit and their message in what was otherwise just a sitcom, and represented it. I hope.”
McCormack starred opposite Debra Messing in the show, which ran until 2006 before returning in 2017. He won the best actor Emmy for the role in 2001.
Asked if he could get the Will and Grace role today, McCormick said: “Well, I guess the answer would be [that] they’d have to say in the casting room, ‘And you’re gay, right?’ But they don’t think they can say [that].
“So I still think it’s hypothetical. 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.”
In 2018, when he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he said he was grateful to the LGBTQ community “for the rest of my life” for accepting him in the role.
McCormack is set to make his West End debut in the musical Wild About You at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in March.
Will & Grace returned for three series from 2017 to 2020 with the original members Megan Mullally, who plays rich neighbour Karen Walker, and Sean Hayes, who plays Will’s flamboyant friend Jack McFarland, also returning.
The American comedy series has been celebrated for the portrayal of gay characters and attracted big name stars including Sir Elton John and Madonna.
Hayes, who did not come out publicly until 2010, told Playbill in 2016 that the acting industry is different if you are LGBT actor, saying Hollywood “shouldn’t be fascinated that a straight man can play gay any more”.
He also said: “[Straight actors] could play gay and be adored and worshipped for it, and I thought, ‘Oh. I’ll just do that. If I just do a good job, I’ll be accepted as an actor, and then I’ll just keep playing any role.
“But Hollywood doesn’t work that way, and audiences don’t work that way because there’s a stipulation that goes with audiences where if they see a gay person playing straight, they go: ‘Yeah right.”
