Damn you brain! Damn you and your cross-associating! Now I can't stop thinking of Hiccup/Toothless yaoi porn!
edited 8th Jul '10 11:45:07 AM by CDRW
I spent a few minutes checking to see if How To Train Your Dragon's Rotten Tomato rating was higher than Toy Story 3's (1% lower BTW) and then came straight to this thread.
...OK, the thread got huge fast.
Anyway, since I don't watch dubbed Anime, period *, and I don't hang that much around the American fandom that does, either, so I don't really know about these things.
Now, if he's a good actor and treats the characters right, eh, no problem. I still haven't been able to get a clear picture of the guy from this thread, because the descriptions posted seem to vary from klansman to saint.
I do have a slight problem about straight people playing gay or bisexual roles. I'mm not against it, but I see it as soomewhat disohonest. I don't see any problem in the reverse situation; queer people have to pretend to be straight all the time, we're experts on that.
As I said, it's not implicitly bad, but imagine a Fake American situation; a British actor acting as an American? OK.. A british actor acting as a obnoxious American sterotype? That raises some eyebrows. And Americans aren't an opressed minority.
^^I agree. I have no problem with straight people playing gay people, in the same way I have no problem with actors playing schoolteachers, single people playing married couples, kind-hearted people playing psychopaths, and so on. If you're a good actor, you do your best to play whatever role you're given. That's all.
The only problem I have is with able-bodied actors playing handicapped people, since in real life, handicapped actors are usually restricted to playing handicapped roles, unlike able-bodied actors who have a relatively unlimited pool of roles to audition for.
But I digress. We're talking about voice acting here, I presume, not acting in general.
^ Aha. If an actor plays a gay person with all the negative gay stereotypes, I would have a problem with that. Some of the responsibility goes to the director and writer, of course, but I think that going straight to stereotypes is usually an indication of a lazy actor.
But I don't think that just because you're straight means that you'll definitely go to negative gay stereotypes when playing a gay character. I mean, look at Brokeback Mountain for instance. Well, fine, they're both bisexual, but the point is I think that straight actors can and should be able to play gay characters competently, and vice versa.
edited 8th Jul '10 12:40:07 PM by Anarchy
edited 8th Jul '10 12:42:02 PM by Nyktos
I guess it is.So basically if you want to become a successful anime VA, move to Texas.
Or California, but Bang Zoom! isn't nearly as prolific as FU Nimation and Sentai Films combined, is it?
^^ What was that in response to?
@Jethro: To be honest I'm a little bit bothered that an actor will default to a stereotyped portrayal if he is heterosexual. Equally, I do not think that the casting of a gay actor would be the determining factor in a sterotyped portrayal of a homosexual character getting onto stage or screen.
edited 8th Jul '10 12:48:36 PM by KillerRabbit
They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams for an instant, then it's night once moreThere are things you don't realy do in acting, though. You don't have men playing women or women playing men — there is no practical need for oppposite sex acting, with actors of both sexes readily available, and trans-issues are a whole different bag. In voive acting, of course, female VA's do the voices for young boy characters.
You don't play another race. This does have some hazy edges. Can a Korean play a Japanese? Can a latino play a mmiddle eastern? Can Steven Seagal play Chengis Khan? (answer, no, Steven Seagal can't act period). Also, what about nationalities and ethnicities? I've seen Peter Stormare, a Swede, play a Russian, German, Roma and a Norwegian.
Can you act a radically different age group? Can you play someone with a physical deformity or mental retardation? It all depends on how you treat the subject matter, but I feel, that sexual orientation is something very essential to a person, and shouldn't be treated as frivolously as a profession or hobby. Especially if the actor has issues with it.
[ed.]
I'm not saying it's automatic, and I will gladly admit I have seen several good gay performances by straight actors. I'm just saying I personally would gay roles were given to gay actors.
edited 8th Jul '10 12:54:07 PM by JethroQWalrustitty
On stage, yes, you could do all of the above. On tv, no, you generally wouldn't, but only because of the tyranny of realism. I do not think there is anything "frivolous" about attempting to understand another groups point of view and depict your understanding as part of your profession.
They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams for an instant, then it's night once more@Rabbit: There's nothing bad about straight actor playing gay in itself, but there is a problem when it's treated as some character Hat that can be taken on and off like that. And the fact that there are often over the top Camp Gay characters played for laughs, played by straight guys.
And getting back to the point of this thread, with straight actor with (allegedly) some hangups about gay characters being cast in a work like APH where Everyone Is Bi.
Also, I'm gonna co-sign the Texas bashing. Suck on that, Lone Star State. Blame Bush, he made ya'll Acceptable Targets.
"Can you act a radically different age group? Can you play someone with a physical deformity or mental retardation?"
To the first, Dawson Casting. And since female seiyuus have been voicing young boys convincingly for ages, I think that gender, if it's voice acting, isn't the huge barrier it is on film or stage.
To the second, a little bit of stage makeup goes a long way. More importantly, non-disabled actors have been playing those kinds of characters convincingly for ages and I think it's insulting to those who have put so much time into researching their characters to imply that able-bodied actors can't play mentally retarded or physically deformed characters.
But you have a point that actors generally get cast in characters that are roughly the same age, gender, or race. (Age, not so much... again, make up can do wonders.) And you're right that race is fuzzy.
Only, I'm thinking that since sexual orientation is an internal, non-physical trait - you can't tell if someone's gay or straight or bisexual by just looking at their bodies - since it's more like a personality trait than anything else, it's closer to the analogy of the good-hearted guy playing a violent, murderous rapist then to, say, a white actor having to play a black character, for example.
If an actor is homophobic to the point that playing gay characters would offend him or her and prevent them from portraying the role properly, then all I can say is that actor should not play those roles. But I think that very few straight actors are homophobic to that degree.
As an acting student myself, I can say that I will take on any role that I can manage to get, regardless of what that character is like. For example, I am an atheist, and that's something that is very, very important and personal to me, in the same way that their sexual orientation might be very important to a gay actor. But I would not hesitate to play, say, a Christian fundamentalist if I was offered the role, and I would treat it with as much sensitivity and care as I would any other role - even moreso, perhaps, because I'd be aware of my prejudices against that character.
So, my point is I still don't think you can argue that all straight actors seem dishonest while playing gay characters; I think it all depends on how individual actors portray their characters, so you can't make blanket statements like that.
"There's nothing bad about straight actor playing gay in itself, but there is a problem when it's treated as some character Hat that can be taken on and off like that. And the fact that there are often over the top Camp Gay characters played for laughs, played by straight guys."
I agree with you completely. But you seem to agree with me that not all straight actors are incapable of playing gay characters decently. Again, let me just say that I feel that going straight to stereotype is a mark of lazy acting. (But then again, the director and writer has to share at least part of the responsibility as well.)
edited 8th Jul '10 1:17:27 PM by Anarchy

^ Ditto.
When All Else Fails, you have fun and flirt wit da ladies, dats da Drawings way!