In a recent interview, out actor Billy
Porter said he wouldn't mind if he never plays another straight
character.
Porter is best known for playing Pray
Tell on the FX drama Pose. He also appeared on Broadway, where
he won a Tony Award for playing Lola in the musical Kinky Boots.
In his latest project, Porter plays Fab
G, a genderless fairy godmother character in Amazon's re-imagining of
the classic Cinderella.
Speaking with UK LGBT glossy Attitude,
Porter weighed in on the debate on whether straight actors should
play queer roles.
“I do believe in an across-the-board
way that queer roles, at this point in the game, should only be for
queer actors,” Porter said.
"The only reason why I feel that
way so strongly is because queer people playing straight roles is not
the same. We don’t get the same thought; we don’t get the same
opportunities in that way. It’s imbalanced. I think the
conversation is more, for me, about balance.”
“I personally don’t care whether I
play a straight character or not ever in my life again. That
conversation is rooted and based in this idea that playing straight
is 'better,'” he said. “That's not true. It's not better, it's
just different.”
Porter described his genderless
Cinderella character as “magical.”
“Magic has no gender – that's been
my tagline from the moment the ink was dry on the contract,” he
said.