Once considered taboo in film and television, gay performers and characters at the 80th Golden Globes will be hard to miss.
When the curtains open on Tuesday’s annual ceremony, viewers will be greeted by the year’s top gay comedian, Jerrod Carmichael (“Rothaniel”), who will host the awards show. Some of the most nominated movies of the night, including the sci-fi drama «Everything Everywhere All at Once» and the psychological thriller «Tár,» and TV series including «The White Lotus» and «Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story «, star LGBTQ actors or feature fictional queer characters. And to top off the evening, the Golden Globes will honor gay television writer-producer Ryan Murphy, perhaps best known for co-creating «Glee,» «Pose» and the «American Horror Story» franchise, with a lifetime achievement award. .
“This year definitely feels like a full celebration of queer talent,” said James Kleinmann, founder and editor of The Queer Review, a website dedicated to reviewing LGBTQ shows and movies. «It makes you feel like we’re everywhere, and the Golden Globes are right to notice.»
Some of the notable nominees creating the overall queer feeling include non-binary actress Emma D’Arcy, who stars in HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon”; actor and singer Zendaya, who plays a troubled queer high school student in HBO’s “Euphoria”; and actor Jeremy Pope, who plays a young gay man who joins the Marines during the «don’t ask, don’t tell» era in Elegance Bratton’s «The Inspection.»
Facing stiff competition in its category is gay Belgian director Lukas Dhont, who has a good chance of taking home the award for best foreign language film for his coming-of-age story about two friends separated by peer pressure. , «Close». Elsewhere, nominees like «Abbott Elementary,» «Severance,» «Babylon» and others champion the inclusion of queer stories (even if minor) in mainstream sitcoms, cerebral TV, and big-budget shows, whether they end up the night with trophies or not.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s adoption of queer issues and creators coincides with a boost in LGBTQ representation in the film industry over the past decade.
A report on diverse representation in cinema released last month by the LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD found that the percentage of queer-inclusive films has grown by 50% in the last 10 years. In 2021, more than 20%, or a total of 17 of the 66 films released theatrically by a major studio, included at least one LGBTQ character. However, the report noted that representational gains were not evenly distributed across the LGBTQ community, with gay male characters dominating movie screens: of the 17 films from major studios that featured LGBTQ characters, 11 films (69 %) had gay male characters, four (25%) included lesbian characters, and two (13%) included bisexual characters.
While this year’s pool of Golden Globe nominees adds to the queer factor of the awards ceremony, many of the most anticipated wins involve seemingly straight actors playing queer characters.
“Tár,” which garnered three nominations, centers on a world-renowned fictional lesbian conductor played by Cate Blanchett, who is a frontrunner in the race for best actress in a motion picture drama. Brendan Fraser and Daniel Craig are nominated in the best actor categories for portraying queer characters in «The Whale» and «Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,» respectively. And “The White Lotus,” which garnered four nominations for its explosive second season, features several queer characters, the most prominent of which is beloved British actor Tom Hollander, who has never identified as anything other than straight.
“Some things change very fast and some things change very slowly,” said Harry Benshoff, author of “Queer Cinema, The Film Reader” and a professor of film and television at the University of North Texas.
Benshoff summed up Hollywood’s trend of casting straight actors in gay roles as a warning to producers who prioritize star power and box office sales.
«Is there any LGBT actor or actress who has Jake Gyllenhaal’s cache of stars?» she asked, referring to the actor’s portrayal of a queer man in the Academy Award-winning film «Brokeback Mountain.» «I dont know.»
For this year’s awards, Kleinmann said he’s «very excited» about queer actors being nominated for queer roles, such as Hannah Einbinder’s best supporting actress nomination for her role in the HBO comedy-drama series «Hacks.» But he also defended the practice of straight actors portraying queer sexuality in general.
“As long as you have an emotionally intelligent actor who has an understanding of the human experience as a whole, then there’s no reason why he couldn’t play these roles,” Kleinmann said, pointing to Blanchett, who played a lesbian character. in at least one other acclaimed film.
The surge in LGBTQ representation at this year’s Golden Globes comes a year after the ceremony was plagued by allegations that its voting bloc, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, lacked diversity. The controversy led NBC to cancel the broadcast of the ceremony last year. (NBC News and the NBC broadcast network are owned by NBCUniversal.)
In September, NBC and the HFPA announced that the awards ceremony would return to the network this year, after the association took steps to diversify its membership. The HFPA said it added 103 new voters, including industry professionals based outside the US for the first time, comprising a group that is now “52% female, 51.5% racially and ethnically diverse, with 19 5% Latino, 12% Asian, 10% Black and 10% Middle Eastern. The association did not publish statistics on voters’ sexuality or gender identity.
“While it is clear that the HFPA is taking action in response to the need for greater diversity this year, inclusion like this should become the norm for the HFPA in all its endeavors, including among its members,” said Anthony Allen Ramos. , vice president of communications and talent at GLAAD, said in a statement.
The Golden Globes air January 10 at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on NBC and Peacock.