Wilson Cruz & Johnny Sibilly Sound Off On Rami Malek Going Gay-for-Pay Again
- Kris Avalon
- May 28
- 4 min read
Wilson Cruz and Johnny Sibilly recently criticized straight actors playing gay roles, specifically targeting Rami Malek. This occurred after Malek's role as a gay singer with AIDS in the film The Man I Love premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
via: Queerty
Rami Malek is picking up positive reviews for his latest movie, The Man I Love. It made its debut last week at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
In the movie by director Ira Sachs, Malek plays Jimmy George, a singer and experimental performer in the 1980s New York arts scene.
The character has HIV and is beginning to succumb to AIDS. Writing for Deadline, reviewer Pete Hammond was among those to praise Malek’s “brave and wonderfully lived-in performance”. He called it “one that will be long remembered, a career high.”
At a press conference last week, Malek said that when he first read the script, he was hesitant. He explained that playing a gay singer in the 1980s who develops AIDS felt initially too similar to his Oscar-winning role as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
“There was a certain sense of fear,” Malik said. “And I started to really think about what I was afraid of. Was it the similarities? Was it the singing? Was it obviously what was going on in the period? And the fear was, I knew I had to address the fear.”
He accepted the role after understanding the differences between the characters.
“If there’s anything Freddie taught me, it was ‘address the fear.’ And when I raced into it, I started to discover that these were men that were similar, but they were also worlds apart.”
Queer actors react
Out magazine ran a story about Malek’s press conference. On social media, many people commented that they’re looking forward to the movie. However, others are unhappy that Malek was again selected to play a gay man with AIDS.
On an Instagram story, Johnny Sibilly (Queer As Folk, Hacks, Pose) shared a snapshot of the Out story. He went on to say, “I’m sorry if this sounds bitchy but something will never sit right in my spirit about straight actors playing gay men dying of aids.”
He continued, “As someone who has done it on television I can say one of the things that lifted me through was knowing that the men who died of the disease & at the hands of negligence of our government & our society would know that those little gay boys that watched videos and photos of them suffering would one day live freer lives because they existed. That the lives they lost & their stories would be told through the next generation of artists that loved & lived the ways they wouldn’t be able to. This isn’t about saying it’s an ‘acting job’ or ‘finding the humanity’ in the project with this. It’s about being what so many that came before us couldn’t. Said with love.”
In a follow-up message, Sibilly added, “We are so many of their dreams realized. Never forget that.”
Wilson Cruz (Star Trek: Discovery) commented beneath Out’s Instagram posting, which featured the headline “Rami Malek feared once again playing a gay singer with AIDS.”
“Some of us would have been HONORED to bring our history ALIVE, because it’s OURS,” said Wilson.
Guy Branum
Guy Branum (Chelsea Lately, Bros) reshared one of Cruz’s Instagram stories. it’s unclear if Branum or Cruz added the highlighted words stating that “an openly queer man” would not have feared taking the role.
In a follow-up story, Branum said, “The most annoying part of cis/straight people playing trans/gay roles AND not fat people playing fat suit roles is that afterwards, part of the press and processing must be telling us what an INDIGNITY it was. ‘I had to kiss someone with a beard!’ ‘I was worried people might think I was gay’ ‘They had to shave my whole body’ ‘five hours to get into that sweaty suit’ It’s a reminder they see our identities as insulting, and they’re just slumming for an award, but we cannot forget they are slumming.”
Malek has given no indication that he considers it an insult if anyone thinks he’s gay. However, Branum’s post was almost certainly prompted by his latest role.
The film and TV industry, despite being full of queer creatives, remains a sector where discrimination runs rife. Do these gay actors have a point? Let us know in the comments below.
Tip Toe
On an unrelated but similar note, one man keen to cast queer actors in queer roles is Britain’s Russell T. Davies (showrunner of the original Queer As Folk). His latest drama, Tip Toe, features Alan Cumming as the owner of a gay drag bar who finds himself falling out with his straight, increasingly far-right-leaning neighbor, played by David Morrissey.
The show debuts this coming weekend on Channel 4 in the UK. Davies says deals to air the show outside the UK are still ongoing. However, he’d also be open to making a separate US version. He even has an actor in mind to take on Cumming’s role.
“There are actors like Matt Bomer who has always said he has wanted to work with me,” Davies said. “Frankly if he wants to make the American Tip Toe I’d sell it to him for 10 pence. This [radicalization] is happening worldwide and it’s happening with every minority group to a vast extent, and it’s speeding up.”
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