"The Normal Heart"
We watched the movie "The Normal Heart" in class and after watching Kabir's documentary about Whitewashing I kept thinking of the fact that Mark Ruffalo, who's straight, was playing a gay man who was partners with Matt Bomer, who is gay in real life. The film was incredibly powerful and the topic was super important and emotional so I thought it would be interesting to see the two actors perspectives on it and the effects it had on them considering their different sexualities.
The movie got mixed reviews from the public, mostly positive, but some people felt that it was a missed opportunity while others believed that it did a great job of portraying the difficulty surrounding the issue. Personally, I think it was amazing and educated me on the issue while also portraying the extreme emotions that were felt because not all gay people saw the issue the same, in fact, most of them had different opinions as to how to approach the issue but seeing them come together was really powerful.
Overall, I'm grateful that we watched this movie because I think our generation missed the majority of the movement and issue and it's important to be aware of it and the struggles that people dealt with, and continue to.
Source: https://www.indiewire.com/2014/05/matt-bomer-reveals-how-the-normal-heart-saved-his-life-26482/
Source: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/tv/la-et-st-en-mark-ruffalo-20140807-story.html
I think that's an interesting question you raised, regarding Mark Ruffalo playing a gay man when he himself is straight. To me, whether some group/identity should be represented in film depends on what the movie is being made for and why. For example, I think with race, it's a bit of a given to use actors of the same race, since not doing so sends a clear message. However, in "The Normal Heart", I don't believe that Ruffalo not being gay is significant because it's not obvious. That is, unlike whitewashing, it's not something that plainly doesn't make sense. Though it would have been preferable to have a gay man act, maybe Ruffalo's more well-known background could actually have helped to promote gay rights through the movie.
ReplyDeleteGreat connection between Kabir's Senior Project and this movie. I sit with you in cass and remember discussing it with you and Belen. I think it is important to note that he played a role that potentially should have been played by an actual gay man. However in a situation as this I think that they were using Ruffalo as a selling point for the movie because he is a well known actor. On top of this a huge part of acting i feel is for actors to get out of their comfort zones and play different characters in different ways. With regards to having a gay actor play his character, I can see the critics points, however I also feel that the whitewashing mostly goes to race and gender. If you have a white man play the role of a persian or something like in Kabir's documentary then u can see clear whitewashing but for someone to play a different sexual orientation I feel is part of acting. Not playing just your own identity.
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