Does anyone feel that this is getting just a little bit unreasonable?

GagaJo it has nothng to do with equality. If your ideas were followed opportunities for trans actors would be reduced, because they could only be allowed to play trans parts and not any part where the character was not trans.

I am sure lots of new plays could be written for them, but the classic canon; Shakespeare, Johnson, Sheridan, Shaw etc etc would be closed to them.

Doodledog

I don't care whether he's gay, straight or undecided. When I watch a film or play I suspend disbelief and if the acting is good, the actor is the action hero, romantic lead, Queen King or revolting peasant.

Exactly.

Huh?
What hole...it was simply a question.
Aren’t we just shooting the breeze here, not going in for sarcasm and digs (you make keep your shovel.)

Kenyan

Alegrias1

Kingsley is a Yorkshireman, his mum was from England and his father from Kenya.

His father did come here from Kenya but he was a Jenyan Asian from the Gujarat.

lemongrove

Isn’t he gay??
Having seen him interviewed a couple of times I assumed he was, but then ‘luvviedom’ often comes over that way.
In that case....I hope he won’t be taking on any gay acting roles!
?

Hang on "Lemongrove", I'll get you a shovel for that hole you're digging.

P.s. Newt Scamander

I don't care whether he's gay, straight or undecided. When I watch a film or play I suspend disbelief and if the acting is good, the actor is the action hero, romantic lead, Queen King or revolting peasant.

MerylStreep

Calistamon
Laurence Oliver said much the same thing to Dustin Hoffman when they were making Marathon Man.
Hoffman said that he had stayed awake for 3 days to get the look he wanted.
Laurence said: why don’t you just try acting ?

Oh, brilliant!

I once played The Wall in A Midsummer Night's Dream (aka
Tom Snout).

Inanimate object and a male mechanical.
It was hard to stand there with my fingers in a V but I managed it.

Kingsley is a Yorkshireman, his mum was from England and his father from Kenya.

Isn’t he gay??
Having seen him interviewed a couple of times I assumed he was, but then ‘luvviedom’ often comes over that way.
In that case....I hope he won’t be taking on any gay acting roles!
?

I kind of think Gagajo didn’t know about his Indian parentage?

Egg on face time??

Redmayne is being silly and weak - pandering to the vociferous trans lobby.

Krishna Pandit Bhanj, aka Ben Kingsley, was perfect for the role of Ghandi.

lemongrove

He doesn’t really think he made a mistake?
He’s getting his name talked about ....a bit of free publicity whilst wearing his halo?of PCness.
He’s gay and British so I do hope he won’t be taking any parts that are straight and foreign.

?

Eddy Redmayne is married to a woman with whom he has two children.

WRT acting, basically, this is calling for the typecasting of actors. If you’re heterosexual you can’t play gay or trans characters. Trans and gay people would not be able to play heterosexual roles. People of limited stature could only play like roles, they couldn’t play a person of average height. David Tennant shouldn’t have depicted mass murderer Dennis Nilsson, as I assume DT is not a murderer himself.

This seems to me to be limiting people’s potential, not broadening it.

I thought he was a man playing a trans gender woman?
He wanslt Hayley on Corrie (and I LOVED Hayley)

lemongrove

He doesn’t really think he made a mistake?
He’s getting his name talked about ....a bit of free publicity whilst wearing his halo?of PCness.
He’s gay and British so I do hope he won’t be taking any parts that are straight and foreign.

Goodness, he's not gay.

I think you might be mixing him up with Dumbledore

Reflecting now in the art of acting.

It’s not enough I think for the actor to actually be his character and have the same life experiences.

An actor makes you believe in their character because they also have suspended reality and have become the character they portray. If what they are portraying is their reality can they actually take you with them or are they so close to it that they actually leave you out in the cold, watching from the sidelines.

Leaving aside the politics, do you think that ER is artistically correct?

Im thinking also of those actors who, whatever part they play, can only ever bring to it themselves. I find that quite tedious and not the drama experience that I want.

I am not sure it is easy to find good actors. It is one of those jobs that people think they could do just as well as professionals.
Minority groups don't get a fair representation, that is true, but putting on a production is very expensive and, rightly or wrongly, producers can be very unwilling to take a chance on an unknown.
Think how many times we see the same actors in our major dramas, they are there because they are bankable.

It might be a lovely idea to take chances with more newcomers, but the industry doesn't want to waste money, when a tried and tested "name" will get bums on seats.

lemongrove

He doesn’t really think he made a mistake?
He’s getting his name talked about ....a bit of free publicity whilst wearing his halo?of PCness.
He’s gay and British so I do hope he won’t be taking any parts that are straight and foreign.

Is Eddie Redmayne gay??

But, but, he played the part of Marius in Les Miserables.

Dames, drag queens, panto - it's a comedy genre, and wouldn't be funny if the women were played by female actors.

Other roles are entirely different. I can see the parallel with 'blacking up', and would draw the line at that, but (as with the recent black Anne Boleyn) see no reason for appearance to matter, necessarily, unless it is integral to the role.

In that case, I can't see the issue with the best actor getting the part, even if s/he has to, well, act ?. The pool of actors who could play The Elephant Man without prosthetics would be very small, for instance.

He doesn’t really think he made a mistake?
He’s getting his name talked about ....a bit of free publicity whilst wearing his halo?of PCness.
He’s gay and British so I do hope he won’t be taking any parts that are straight and foreign.

I get that most on this thread aren't interested in equality. Some are though. Including ER obviously.

Talk about a storm in a tea cup. Someone self reflects, realises they made a mistake, makes moves not to do again. And GN erupts with Political Correctness Gone Mad responses.

An absolute stupid idea, that’s what actors do, act the part. Duh…

Gaga The thing is....Redmayne was notwrong when he played a trans person, it’s called acting.He’s being ‘right on’ by coming out with all this sort of claptrap, as luvvies often do.

Drag is always popular. Drag Queens. Drag Kings. As I said, zeitgeist. A friend of mine included drag in a lesson she was doing on feminine representation in the media recently. The students LOVED it. They were far more radical in their opinions than her.