Taron Egerton responds to criticism of straight actors playing gay characters
Taron Egerton has responded to criticism over straight actors playing the role of gay characters. Egerton played the openly-gay Elton John in his 2019 biopic Rocketman. Egerton won a Golden Globe Award for his performance as John, but a debate has erupted online regarding whether gay roles should be prioritised for gay actors.
“I grew up in a very liberal town, and a couple of my close friends are gay,” Egerton told The Hollywood Reporter. “I feel an affinity with that community. I don’t particularly feel that there should be a blanket rule about whether straight actors should play gay roles. That’s very easy for me to say as a straight man, but I think that’s possibly a precedent not worth setting.”
It’s not the first time that Egerton had responded to criticism regarding his playing John. While being interviewed for a profile in GQ in 2019, Egerton explained the trepidation regarding his acceptance of playing Elton John in a film.
“The thing I was nervous of… there’s a certain amount of trepidation around playing a gay character when you’re a heterosexual,” Egerton said. “Because you don’t want that community to feel you’re doing some sort of caricature or something. I didn’t want to camp it up, because Elton is not a camp man”.
Egerton added that he “knew quite acutely that wasn’t what I wanted to do.” While Egerton dons a number of John’s flamboyant concert costumes from throughout his stage career, Egerton portrays John as being reserved and shy offstage.
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