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Current Events > It's crazy to me how an actual gay actor (John Barrowman) wasn't 'gay enough'...

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Solar_Crimson
11/14/21 3:00:22 PM
#1:


...To play the role of Will from Will & Grace.
So the role went to Eric McCormack, a straight actor who had just gotten married to a woman.

How "gay" did they want the actor to be?

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FortuneCookie
11/14/21 3:02:25 PM
#2:


They wanted stereotypes, not accuracy.

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BeyondWalls
11/14/21 3:03:07 PM
#3:


FortuneCookie posted...
They wanted stereotypes, not accuracy.
How was Will a stereotype?

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Anteaterking
11/14/21 3:03:16 PM
#4:


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yusiko
11/14/21 3:15:41 PM
#5:


BeyondWalls posted...
How was Will a stereotype?


He wasn't as big a stereotype as Jack but he still had several stereotypical moments in the show so audiences would recognize him as gay right away

Of course jack was so over the top and when paired with Karen the 2 became the funniest thing about the show
Will and grace couldn't deliver the laughs the way jack and Karen could

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The Popo
11/14/21 3:22:08 PM
#6:


https://youtu.be/RdP7HOKehNc

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ClockworkHare
11/15/21 8:16:34 AM
#7:


Will & Grace was written for predominately straight audiences in mind, not gays (regardless of what the creators claimed). That's western show business. It was also a sitcom, which could be loaded with stereotypical character tropes used to speed up the pacing of episodic scripts.

"Oh no! Flamboyant Gay Guy did something ridiculously sassy!"
"Uh oh, now Serious Gay Guy (who's usually more reserved) dropped his typical straight face for a moment and says something sassy in response! "
"Well of course they did...gay men are sassy, right? Hahaha."
*laugh track*

Will and Jack were basically token characters despite being part of the main cast. And the episodes were written in ways that made it abundantly clear they were supposed to be gay characters. For Jack, it was his entire identity.

Like I'm not dissing the show. That's not my point. I get it was iconic for it's time and had a fanbase, I even liked moments of it, but call it what it really was. Laugh, but be honest. It was loaded with easy-to-recognize stereotypes like most American sitcoms are and it was obviously done to cater to straight demographics who made the majority of viewers tuning in. Most gay men in the west live lives almost undiscernible from the average hetero populace with the obvious exceptions in their personal lives. However, if Will and Jack had been written to act more like straight men with the occasional nod to their homosexuality in the background, much less straight viewers would have bothered with the show. The flamboyance and gay tropes had to be jacked up to 90/100 for it to have an interesting formula that stood out from other sitcoms. It made it different for straight audiences; it peaked their curiosity. Yeah some LGBTQ folk were fans of the show too, but the studios were aiming at packaging it for straight audiences to prioritize the majority.

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BlingBling22947
11/15/21 9:35:09 AM
#9:


ClockworkHare posted...
Will & Grace was written for predominately straight audiences in mind, not gays (regardless of what the creators claimed). That's western show business. It was also a sitcom, which could be loaded with stereotypical character tropes used to speed up the pacing of episodic scripts.

"Oh no! Flamboyant Gay Guy did something ridiculously sassy!"
"Uh oh, now Serious Gay Guy (who's usually more reserved) dropped his typical straight face for a moment and says something sassy in response! "
"Well of course they did...gay men are sassy, right? Hahaha."
*laugh track*

Will and Jack were basically token characters despite being part of the main cast. And the episodes were written in ways that made it abundantly clear they were supposed to be gay characters. For Jack, it was his entire identity.

Like I'm not dissing the show. That's not my point. I get it was iconic for it's time and had a fanbase, I even liked moments of it, but call it what it really was. Laugh, but be honest. It was loaded with easy-to-recognize stereotypes like most American sitcoms are and it was obviously done to cater to straight demographics who made the majority of viewers tuning in. Most gay men in the west live lives almost undiscernible from the average hetero populace with the obvious exceptions in their personal lives. However, if Will and Jack had been written to act more like straight men with the occasional nod to their homosexuality in the background, much less straight viewers would have bothered with the show. The flamboyance and gay tropes had to be jacked up to 90/100 for it to have an interesting formula that stood out from other sitcoms. It made it different for straight audiences; it peaked their curiosity. Yeah some LGBTQ folk were fans of the show too, but the studios were aiming at packaging it for straight audiences to prioritize the majority.

The only people I know that watched that show were actually gay.

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