Ben Whishaw sometimes ‘doesn’t believe’ straight actors playing gay roles

Ben Whishaw has said that sometimes he simply “does not believe” straight actors who play LGBTI+ roles.

The soft-spoken British actor, best known for Paddington and as Q in the James Bond film series, is the latest to wade into the long-rumbling debate over LGBT+ roles being taken by straight, cis actors.

As much as some non-queer actors have done spectacular jobs at conveying the pain and joy from being LGBTI+, others definitely didn’t come at all close. In the latter, often relying on tired, harmful stereotypes.

And in an interview with newspaper The Guardian, the Emmy-winning gay actor shared his thoughts on Eddie Redmayne’s controversial lead role in The Danish Girl.

“I think Eddie did a beautiful job and it’s done,” he said of the 2015 film about trans trailblazer Lili Elbe, which he starred in as one of her lovers.

“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.

“I feel the same, sometimes, about straight actors playing gay parts. I’m critical if I don’t think the performance is, from my subjective experience, accurate."

LGBTI+ storytelling needs to come from an authentic and committed place, the 41-year-old said.

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