Our Staff Picks column is a new addition that takes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme and the "Staff Picks" section was the place to find out what films were worthy of one's time. Of course, our version has a decidedly nude angle, as we suss out which films from a certain genre with great nudity. This week: straights playing gay.
It's the final week of Pride Month, so let's take a look at one of Hollywood's favorite topics: straight men playing gay characters. Sometimes there's a gay story without any openly gay people in the cast at all! Here are some genuinely good films that have straight actors playing gay and sometimes doing hot scenes together.
Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is gorgeous and epic, but almost everyone involved is straight. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger play Jack and Ennis, two men who meet while herding sheep in the mountains. We see their love affair unfold over the course of their lives while they try to maintain "normal" and "straight" existences in 1960s America. But they just can't quit each other.
The Power of the Dog
Speaking of angry gay cowboys, Jane Campion's masterpiece Power of the Dog took the trope to a new level. Benedict Cumberbatch played a closeted cowboy who bullies a young gay man and his distraught mother. The young gay man gets close to Cumberbatch, but it's not what we think. This film is a real slow burn, but it is worth watching - especially when you remember Benedict washes his muddy body in the lake totally nude.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
This 1999 film is a bit shocking in its portrayal of gay and bisexual men. That being said, it does dip into the gay villain trope. Jude Law and Matt Damon have a ton of chemistry. Their best scene is a super flirtatious bathtub chess scene. Their sexual tension is off the charts until Jude gets out of the bath and shows his dickie in an aerial shot. Talented and rippling, indeed.
Behind the Candelabra
Speaking of Matt Damon, he went gay again for this campy dramatization of Liberace's life. Michael Douglas played Liberace, the gay icon himself, and Matt Damon plays his driver/lover who drives a lot of the sexuality home. He walks around the house in teeny tiny manties and even mounts Douglas for a makeout. These two are based on real-life gays, but they are real-life straights.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
This iconically gay cult classic stars straight men Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Terence Stamp. All straight, as far as we know. The three play queer characters - two drag queens and a trans person - who all start performing in a desert resort cabaret in the middle of Australia. The guys have a ton of fun including one sexy adventure in which they hike through the desert in full drag.
There are no sex scenes - just bulge and ass!
Want more straight people in gay roles? Check out this sexy, simmering playlist that might make you wonder if these "straights" have some gay in them:
