Supernova’s Colin Firth on straight actors playing gay: ‘I don’t have a final position on this’

Supernova star Colin Firth has said he doesn’t have a final position on the debate around straight actors playing gay.

In an interview with co-star Stanley Tucci in the December issue of Attitude, out now, the star adds the question is “still alive.”

The actors play a gay couple on a road trip of the Lake District in the tearjerker, out soon; Firth has previously played gay in 2010’s A Single Man.

“It’s something I take really seriously”

“I don’t have a final position on this,” Firth said. “I think the question is still alive. It’s something I take really seriously, and I gave it a lot of thought before doing this.”

Tucci and Firth in Supernova (Pictures: StudioCanal Bleecker Street)

The Oscar-winning star of The King’ Speech added: “Whenever I take on anything, I think it’s an insufferable presumption. I don’t really feel I have the right to play the character. That’s always the starting point. What do I know about this person’s life?

“How can I presume to set foot in this person’s lived experience, let alone try to represent it?”

Tucci, who played a gay character in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada, added: “For so many years, gay men and women have had to hide their homosexuality in showbusiness to get the roles they wanted – that’s the problem here.

“Anybody should be able to play any role that they want to play – that’s the whole point of acting.”

In an interview this week, Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen defended playing a gay man in his self-directed movie Falling.

Supernova explores the onset of dementia through one of its characters, and has been applauded for its sensitivity. It currently holds a 90% certified fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Read the Attitude December issue, out now to download and to order globally.

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