Takaya Honda and Matt Wilson play boyfriends on the beloved Australian soap Neighbours. Over the weekend, they made an appearance at Sydney’s Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, where they greeted fans and answered questions from media.
Afterwards, 31-year-old Honda, who is straight, took to Instagram to address the question he gets asked far more often than he would like.
“We get asked, more often than I think we should, ‘what’s it like to play a gay character as a straight actor, do you find it difficult?’” he wrote.
“Our jobs as actors is to communicate a story by adopting the lives of the characters we play. Who they are attracted to is only one part of who they are. Everyone understands love and most have an intimate understanding of what true romantic love is.”
Honda went on to say that there is “no degree of difficulty added” simply because a character is gay.
“This is our job and we work bloody hard to do it the best we can,” he wrote, “with the hope of honoring the story we have been given the responsibility of telling.”
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But not everyone seemed to agree with the actor’s stance.
One commenter responded: “How about we put real gay and queer people first and not someone who has not ever faces [sic] a struggle.”
To which Honda responded by doubling down on his position.
“I hope I no one is ever asked their sexuality for a casting, it would be completely inappropriate and an awful practice that would likely have dire negative, not positive, effects,” he said.
“You continue to say that I have not experienced discrimination, you do not know my story nor the amount of discrimination I have faced, and I do not need to qualify this for you.”
What is your opinion on straight actors playing gay roles? And what do you think of Honda’s response? Sound off in the comments section below…
