It's one gay actor versus three. Alan
Cumming disagrees with Glee star Jane Lynch, Rupert Everett
and Richard Chamberlain on whether Hollywood actors should remain in
the closet.
Lynch, who stars as sharp-tongued coach
Sue Sylvester on the Fox musical-comedy Glee, has rejected
claims that openly gay actors can't get work in Hollywood, but added
that gay people don't often play straight roles because audiences
wouldn't find it believable.
The
openly gay actress told gay entertainment website AfterElton.com,
“I do think the straight folks will continue to play the straight
roles,” effectively supporting British actor Everett's claim that
coming out gay can kill an actor's career.
In an interview with gay glossy The
Advocate, Chamberlain, who came out gay at the age of 69 in his
2003 memoir Shattered Love, advised as much.
“There's still a tremendous amount of
homophobia in our culture,” he said. “It's regrettable, it's
stupid, it's heartless, and it's immoral, but there it is. For an
actor to be working is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren't,
so it's just silly for a working actor to say, 'Oh, I don't care if
anybody knows I'm gay' – especially if you're a leading man.”
“Personally, I wouldn't advise a gay
leading man-type actor to come out.”
Cumming, who stars on the CBS legal
drama The Good Wife, called the advice “mean-spirited.”
“If you're living a lie, that's not
healthy, and I think it is really irresponsible of [Chamberlain] and
Rupert to say these things,” he
told UK daily The Guardian.
“It's about your work … It's about
how you exist as a person in the world, and the idea that your work
is more important than you as a person is a horrible, horrible
message,” he added. “I always think about a little gay boy in
Wisconsin or a little lesbian in Arkansas seeing someone like me, and
if I cannot be open in my life, how on Earth can they?”
“Anyway, it's an academic question:
how can you know [that coming out kills your career]? Some people
get less work than others, and it has nothing to do with sexuality,”
Cumming said.
(Cumming celebrates his 46th
birthday on Thursday.)