As an openly gay actor, Ben Whishaw has some opinions about straight actors playing gay roles.
However, as the “No Time to Die” star explained in an interview with The Guardian, his views aren’t exactly black and white.
As an example, he cites Eddie Redmayne’s performance as a transgender character in “The Danish Girl”, in which Whishaw had a supporting role.
READ MORE: Ben Whishaw Says Casting A Gay Actor As The Next James Bond ‘Would Be Quite An Extraordinary Thing’
“I think Eddie did a beautiful job,” he said of Redmayne, who is straight.
“And it’s done. Going forward, there will be other films in which the role is given to someone who lived that experience. Why shouldn’t a role like that be given to someone who knows, inside, what the character is? I’m all for that,” he added.
“I feel the same, sometimes, about straight actors playing gay parts,” Whishaw continued.
“I’m critical if I don’t think the performance is, from my subjective experience, accurate. I might think, ‘I don’t believe you!’ And even a small moment of hesitation or inauthenticity will block my engagement with the whole story. So I understand these questions,” he explained.
“I just feel that we can end up arguing over these black-and-white things and get extremely polarized over these questions when I don’t think it needs to be that way. Have a discussion! There can be disagreement! There can be different points of view!” he said.
“I love contradictory things. Ambiguity,” he concluded. “And if we look, if anyone takes a moment to look inside themselves about how they’re thinking or feeling on a subject, they’ll immediately see all manner of things that are not consistent. So I’m on the side of listening to each other.”
