Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...New York vs. Los Angeles: Best City for Gay Actors?
Compare and Contrast
So is it easier to be an out actor in New York than in Los Angeles? Everyone AfterElton.com spoke to says yes, emphatically so.
“[In New York] your reputation is everything,” Cheyenne Jackson told the site last year. “People know if you’ve got the goods, if you’re easy to work with, and if you can get the job done. Besides it’s New York theater. Everybody’s gay!”But as for being openly gay in Hollywood, ”I think it’s been a detriment, probably just a little bit,” says Jackson. “Had I not been out and open, I think I might have gotten some movies that I screen-tested for. People may have said, ‘The dude’s gay — how are we going to market this?’ But it’s not an issue for me because being out is very freeing.”
Ironically, Jackson says being out probably didn’t even help him get his most prominent screen role to date — playing “gay hero” Mark Bingham in the 2006 movie United 93. “The director didn’t know anything about me. I think one of the main reasons I got the part was that I was the biggest guy who auditioned. Mark Bingham was 6′5”, and I’m almost 6′4”.
In short, some anti-gay prejudice still exists, though more in Los Angeles than in New York. Much depends on the actor in question, the medium they work in, the level of their celebrity, and the kinds of roles they hope to get.
Without a doubt, the presence of attractive, admired openly gay celebrities has personalized the struggle for GLBT acceptance and made the world a more tolerant place. But all the actors AfterElton.com spoke to agreed that coming out is a complicated decision that should only be made by the person involved.
“I can’t judge other people for what they do,” says Sieber. “All I can say is to each his own.”
“Everything comes with a price,” adds Batt. “In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter. But this ain’t a perfect world.”
For more in-depth gay entertainment stories, visit AfterElton.com.
I honestly don’t understand the need for actors to be openly gay in Hollywood or Broadway. Look, acting is a profession where people make a living not being real and assuming other identities. Let the hetero actors have to prove their breeder-ness by strutting their sexuality around in the tabloids, we gays don’t need to!!
If you’re going to leave this story up forever, and it appears that you are, then at least make the headline correct. You’re comparing only two cities, so you should be asking which city is better, not which is best.