Arts & Entertainment
Disney casts straight comedian as ‘effete’ gay character
The choice has critics asking questions
Jack Whitehall (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
The choice by producers to cast Jack Whitehall, a straight 30-year old British comedian as Walt Disney Company’s first openly gay character, has critics asking questions.
In the film “Jungle Cruise,” Whitehall is “playing a gay man” and a character who is “hugely effete, very camp and very funny,” a film producer tells the Los Angeles Blade. Disney’s publicity staff says the film is “based on Disneyland’s theme park ride, where a small riverboat takes a group of travelers through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and reptiles, but with a supernatural element.”
Britain’s Sky News reported that fellow actor Chris Salvatore told Disney to “do better,” adding: “Such a dam [sic] shame it’s so hard to find gay actors to play gay roles in Hollywood.”
Actor and producer Emerson Collins added: “It’s too bad there weren’t any out actors who are regularly called some euphemism for ‘too camp’ by casting directors, studios, networks, executives etc. for literally any role who were available for this Disney ‘first.’”
Egyptian-Canadian actor and gay activist Omar Sharif Jr. asked Disney on Twitter: “Your first significant gay role will be played by a straight white man perpetuating stereotypes? Fail! This ship should sink.”
Really @Disney #JungleCruise ? Your first significant gay role will be played by a straight white man perpetuating stereotypes? Fail! This ship should sink. https://t.co/npPESNZaxD
— Omar Sharif Jr. (@OmarSharifJr) August 13, 2018
East London-based lesbian journalist Sophie Wilkinson also questioned Hollywood’s sense of casting:
If Scarlett Johansson wasn’t allowed to play a trans man then Jack Whitehall shouldn’t be allowed to play a gay man. Especially so when you consider there are absolute hundreds of out gay men in Hollywood who are better actors than him
— Sophie WilkINson (@sophwilkinson) August 13, 2018
The announcement, made public over the weekend, has amplified the ongoing critique that Hollywood Film Executives are continuing to marginalize LGBT actors and characters in films. This past May, in an annual report issued by the LGBTQ Media Watchdog group GLAAD —(The 2018 GLAAD Studio Responsibility Index )—the numbers for 2017 revealed that LGBT representation in major motion pictures are the lowest since 2012.
“We hope that next year’s report is able to paint a more promising picture than GLAAD’s 2017 findings,” GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis writes in the report, noting that 2018 has so far seen three well-executed, LGBT-inclusive films from major studios: “Annihilation,” “Blockers,” and “Love, Simon.”
“There’s not ample reasons to deny openly gay persons from appearing in those roles,” the film producer, who requested to not be identified, told the LA Blade. There are famous gay/queer actors who play straight roles “exceptionally well,” citing the examples of inimitable Sir Ian McKellen and New York actor Ezra Miller, the 25-year old who is gaining attention for his role as “Flash” in “The Justice League.”
“Speaking to Shortlist magazine, Miller said that he was warned not to share details of his sexuality – he has had romantic relationships with both men and women, and doesn’t identify as heterosexual – because it could hamper his chances of landing a leading film role,” The Telegraph of London noted last November.
“I was told by a lot of people I’d made a mistake,” Miller told Shortlist. “Folks in the industry, folks outside the industry. People I’ve never spoken to. They said there’s a reason so many gay, queer, gender-fluid people in Hollywood conceal their sexual identity, or their gender identity in their public image. I was told I had done a ‘silly’ thing in… thwarting my own potential to be a leading man.”
He added: “I was given a lot of stern talking-tos.”
Commenting on “Jungle Cruise” last week, Whitehall posted on Instagram: “Filming is underway and I am having the time of my life with my amazing co-stars.
The film is due to hit theaters in October 2019, with the cast also including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and British actress Emily Blunt.
Reporting by SKY News UK, The Telegraph of London, the staff of the Los Angeles Blade, and wire service reports.
Books
New book reveals what we can learn from animal sex
‘Poking the Squid’ on homosexuality, gender swapping, and more
‘Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex’
By Perrin Roosevelt Ireland
c.2026, W.W. Norton
$29.99 241 pages
Birds do it.
According to Cole Porter, bees do, too, but it’s not exactly what he imagined. Wild and tame, avians, insects, and mammals all have sex – although not always as you’ve been told or for reasons you might think. Even educated fleas do it and, as in the new book, “Poking the Squid” by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland, humans can learn from them all.
If you read through scientific papers on animal reproduction, you might notice something unusual: for scientists, the word “sex” means a lot of different things.
Says Ireland, “It’s used to describe behaviors, biology, life histories, and more.”
That might be because animals are not simply binary.
Take, for instance, hyenas. It’s easy for the casual observer to mistake a male hyena for a female and vice versa because of stereotypes of anatomy. Mating, for hyenas, requires subordination for the male and a nifty trick on the part of the female’s body to get things done.
Our feathered friends are no birdbrains, either: black-browed albatrosses were once thought to be monogamous but global warming seems to have changed their nesting habits sometimes. Male flamingos have sex with one another, as a territorial thing; other birds and animals form same-sex pairs for other reasons.
The Chinese mantis eats her mate after fertilization. Female snakes, alpacas, guinea pigs, and monkeys are anatomically able to enjoy sex. Genitalia between species varies quite a bit; in fact, the vaginas of ducks “are highly complex.” Lionesses will mate up to 100 times when in heat. Female damselflies will change into a “third sex” to avoid overly aggressive mating males. Bearded dragons can change their sex, if needed, as can yellow clown goby fish. And seahorse pregnancy and birth sparked a book banning in Tennessee.
So, asks Ireland, if animals, including us, vary so much in biology and life, “… why are we using the word sex like it means something, anything, consistent?!”
Pick up “Poking the Squid,” page through it a few seconds, and you’ll see that the information here is largely told through cartoon-like drawings mixed with captions. It seems to be something on the lighter side, but don’t let that artwork fool you.
Author Perrin Roosevelt Ireland offers readers solid information that cozies up to the scholarly, with hard science, philosophy, feminism, and quotations from researchers to support it, thus furthering the narrative and hitting the points squarely. If you see the art and expect something lighthearted, comic, and small-talk-worthy, you could be disappointed.
On the other hand, if you want solid, wryly serious facts, you’re in for a treat.
There’s lots of learning to be gleaned here, and some slight nudge-wink whimsy to emphasize the absurdity of wrong-headed thinking. This can make readers feel like they’re in-the-know on the jokes, and the playfulness balances the seriousness of the information well.
So, serious, scholarly, or slightly silly, none of these are negative but you’re going to know what you want from a book like this. For the right reader, someone in the mood, “Poking the Squid” is wild.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
The eighth annual Westminster Pride Festival was held at Westminster City Park in Westminster, Md. on Saturday, July 11.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The fifth annual Emerald City Pride was held in Greenbelt, Md. on Saturday, July 11.
(Washignton Blade photos by Michael Key)
View on Threads
New book reveals what we can learn from animal sex
Who might replace Lindsey Graham? The contenders and their LGBTQ records
PHOTOS: Westminster Pride
Un terremoto también se vive desde el exilio
PHOTOS: Emerald City Pride
Mr. Henry’s celebrates 60 years of proud inclusivity
It’s good to see some justices standing up to Trump
Queer media dominates 2026 Emmy nominations
Egyptian authorities refuse to allow gay cruise to dock in country
