Darren Criss explains why he's done playing gay characters

Darren Criss was praised for his role in 'Hedwig and The Angry Inch.'

DARREN CRISS has played gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the gay teen, Blaine  Anderson, in the TV series Glee and the sexually ambiguous lead character in the Broadway musical Hedwig and The Angry Inch. Are you noticing a trend?

In a recent interview, Criss said he will no longer play characters who are gay.

"As a straight, white, cisgender male I get to explore all these things that are completely not me," Criss told Bustle. "And what's cool is it glorifies both the power in that and the struggle in that."

He  continues, "I want to make sure I won't be another straight boy taking a gay man's gay man's role." 

Those aren't the only role roles Criss has portrayed, but they are the roles that he's received the most acclaim.
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Criss' sensitivity to LGBTQ representation can be based on recent surveys showing  that in the 2018-2019 TV season, out of 857 series regular characters on primetime scripted programming on the five broadcast network only 75 were LGBTQ, according to a report, "Where We Are on TV," by the gay advocacy group GLAAD.

Casting straight actors for queer roles -- or, "queerwashing," akin to "yellowface" a term for white actors playing Asian characters -- is nothing new in Hollywood. In 2017, Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer, two actors who are not openly gay, playing queer roles. Chalamet won a Oscar for his portrayal.

This awards season alone, Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, Mahershala Ali, Rami Malek, Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant are all straight actors who were nominated for Golden Globes for their LGBTQ+ roles.

Criss won an Emmy for his portrayal of serial killer Andrew Cunanan in 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace.'

The issue of representation was brought home to Criss as he was playing Cunanan, a Filipino American mestizo, the same heritage as Criss.

In an interview earlier this year in Vulture, Criss got into trouble when he said, “I always say one of my favorite things about myself is that I’m half-Filipino but I don’t look like it.”

The actor continued: “I just look like a Caucasian guy, which is nice. I’ve got the multi-ethnic thing going on. People think I’m like Italian or Mediterranean.”

On the subject of Asian American representation in media, he seemed to further stress how grateful he was for looking Caucasian:

“Somebody was talking about Asian American representation, and he’s like, ‘I don’t see a lot of stuff for Filipinos specifically,’ and I went, ‘I guess not, but I guess I don’t think about it.’ I have the luxury of being half-white and looking more Caucasian, so it doesn’t weigh on my conscience as much, like, ‘Ugh, why aren’t there more roles?’ I think as an actor, you just study and you wanna bring your ‘A’ game all the time and hopefully it doesn’t even matter.”

Filipinos and Filipino Americans took that to mean he preferred passing as white. The backlash prompted him to tweet after the Vulture interview was published.

“Just to clarify- 1 of my favorite things about myself is that I’m half Filipino. PERIOD. I happen to not look like it, but THAT fact is not what I like. I like the fact that most people don’t know it’s an ace up my sleeve, an ace I’m very proud of, regardless of what I look like.”

His role as Cunanan earned him an Emmy, making him the first Filipino to win that award. If he wins a Golden Globe next month, he'll be the first Filipino recipient of that award also. It raises his profile and his ethnic background becomes even more meaningful in this era of increased representation in the media.

Having been burned as a result of the Vulture interview, he seems to understand that however he may see himself, with his new-found fame, he carries a certain responsibility to represent and be a role model for other Filipinos and Asians. 

"I didn’t choose to be half-Filipino. I mean I love it, it’s very cool, and if this has been the outcome sure, I’m very pleased and proud that I can represent people that may see my presence in the media as a beacon for themselves," he says now. "That’s a real privilege."

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