Rebel Wilson thinks it's 'nonsense' that straight actors shouldn't be able to play gay characters

Is it OK for straight actors to portray LGBTQ+ people? Rebel Wilson is weighing in on the debate.

In an interview with BBC's "Desert Island Discs" on Sunday, the "Pitch Perfect" star, 44, argued against the notion that gay characters must be played by gay performers.

"Saying only straight actors can play straight roles and gay actors can play gay roles ... I think is total nonsense," she said. "You should be able to play any role that you want."

Wilson raised this point while discussing the idea that only members of certain communities should be able to make jokes about that community. "In comedy, your job is to always flirt with that line of what's acceptable," she said, adding that good comedy won't come out of always trying to be "safe and protective."

The "Bridesmaids" actress debuted her new girlfriend, Ramona Agruma, on Instagram during Pride Month in 2022. "I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince ... but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess," she said at the time. The following year, Wilson revealed she and Agruma were engaged.

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Stanley Tucci, Tom Hanks have weighed in on straight actors playing gay characters

The question of whether straight actors should be permitted to play gay characters has been an ongoing debate in Hollywood for years. Stanley Tucci, who has portrayed gay men in films like "The Devil Wears Prada," falls on Wilson's side of the argument, telling BBC's "Desert Island Discs" in 2023, "I really do believe that an actor is an actor is an actor. You're supposed to play different people. You just are. That's the whole point of it."

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On the other hand, "Doctor Who" showrunner Russell T Davies told Radio Times in 2021 he feels it's important for gay actors to play gay characters, stressing the need for "authenticity" in casting.

"You wouldn't cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair, you wouldn't black someone up," Davies said. "Authenticity is leading us to joyous places."

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Jane Ward, a gender and sexuality studies professor, also told USA TODAY in 2020, "It would be nice if there were enough LGBT roles that anyone could play them because there wasn't any scarcity of representation. However, that's not the case."

Notable gay characters who have been played by straight actors include Andrew Beckett in "Philadelphia," which won Tom Hanks an Oscar in 1994. But in 2022, the actor told the The New York Times Magazine that a straight man couldn't play this role today — "and rightly so."

"The whole point of 'Philadelphia' was don't be afraid," Hanks told the Times. "One of the reasons people weren't afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man. We're beyond that now, and I don't think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy. It's not a crime, it's not boohoo, that someone would say we are going to demand more of a movie in the modern realm of authenticity."

Contributing: David Oliver, USA TODAY