Neighbours Soap Star Matt Wilson Offends The LGBTQ community
When this comment by Matt Wilson hit the airwaves via Channel 5's "The Wright Stuff" 'We (Neighbours ) specifically designed the character to "act straight" and "act normal"', he couldn't have realised that he was just offending the whole LGBTQ community.
Matt Wilson (who plays a gay character Aaron Brennan in Australian soap explained to Suzi Perry when she ask about if there have been any criticism that he as a straight man playing a gay character :
“We’ve had this argument come up a couple of times.
“There are a lot of people who think you should have a gay actor playing a gay character, but that’s like saying you should get someone in a wheelchair to play a character in a wheelchair.
“I think it’s important that we are expressing it. We specifically designed the character to act straight and act normal.
“When I say ‘normal’, I mean he’s not like the characters on ‘Modern Family’, where they are flamboyant and camp and they walk around tiptoeing.
“That creates separation – that’s us and them. It shouldn’t be like that. It should be all equal and no-one should have a problem with that. The way other characters act around my character is that there is never a problem at all.”
You are right, a straight actor can play a gay character, same as gay actor can play straight character, but a gay actor would have not put their foot in the worm hole you just did – you just offended the whole LGBTQ community as whole.
As an actor playing a gay character should know better than doing what you just did. I will suggest you educate your self about LGBTQ community especially when you as a straight man plays a gay character.
Matt Wilson tweets this as a response to the backslash:
Photo by Ten Australia/Neighbours