Sometimes we love it when a straight man embodies a gay man for a movie or television role, and sometimes we don't. But today we're mostly checking out the men who we could watch play gay over and over again. It takes a straighty with a reverence for gay men to pull this off, and the fellas below fit the bill. Keep scrolling for some of our favorite straight actors who have made a name for themselves in the industry for their ability to convincingly play gay on camera.
Colin Firth
Here's an all-timer. Colin Firth has played gay roles in A Single Man (where he goes skinny dipping with Nicholas Hoult in a smoking hot homoerotic scene), the heartbreaking Supernova opposite Stanley Tucci (more on him later), Where the Truth Lies (where he tries to penetrate Kevin Bacon from behind), and The Staircase. Plus his character in Mamma Mia!, Harry Bright, even comes out as gay. That's five roles mamaw!
Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor got the Ryan Murphy treatment in the gay biodrama Halston, where he plays the titular eccentric and visionary gay fashion designer. McGregor gets his ass pounded here while trying poppers for the first time! He plays Jim Carrey's gay lover in I Love You Phillip Morris, and even sucks off Jim on a boat before spitting Jim's cum into the water. Ewan also has gay scenes in The Pillow Book and Velvet Goldmine. Gay much!
Stanley Tucci
We already told you that Tucci plays Colin Firth's longtime gay lover in the devastating drama Supernova. And you probably remember his iconic gay character in The Devil Wears Prada. You can also catch his gay roles in Burlesque, Little Chaos, and The Daytrippers, where he had his first gay kiss. That's five roles as well, but who's counting.
James Franco
Franco famously stated: "I like to think that I'm gay in my art and straight in my life." Kudos for saying that. For spilling. His art included getting railed by Keegan Allen in King Cobra, so we approve! James Franco also has gay roles in the biodrama Milk, The Broken Tower (where he gives a dude head), I Am Michael (opposite out actor Zachary Quinto), and the little-known movie Howl. Heck, he even directed the explicit gay movie Interior. Leather Bar., which features real gay sex acts.
Antonio Banderas
In his most heartbreaking role to date -Philadelphia - Banderas watches his gay lover, Tom Hanks, slowly succumb to AIDS. But it's not all doom and gloom! Banderas has hot gay sex in Law Of Desire and plays a sexy mature gay man in another Pedro Almodóvar-directed movie, Pain and Glory.
Gael García Bernal
García Bernal is so much more than his threeway with real-life best friend Diego Luna in 2001's Y tu mamá también. A few years later he tapped his queer energy for Bad Education and in 2023's Cassandro he portrayed the eponymous gay lucha libre wrestler Saúl Armendáriz.
Mahershala Ali
Here's an interesting one - Mahershala Ali won not one, but two Oscars for playing gay! He nabbed Best Supporting Actor trophies for his gay roles in both Moonlight and Green Book. Gay for pay? More like it pays to be gay hunnay.
