Ryan Murphy mocked by TV executives over 'gay voice'

Ryan Murphy was allegedly mocked by television executives for having a “gay voice,” Gay Star News reports.

Speaking on the I Think You’re Interesting Podcast, the Feud creator spoke out on homophobia in the industry.

“I had one meeting with an executive about a script and I showed up at the meeting and he started imitating my voice and sort of making feminine hand gestures, which I don’t have.”

“I never thought that my voice was gay until he repeated it back to me, but I literally was stunned into silence. He was just being really, really brutal to me.”

He continued: “I was very pained by it. I never understood it. But right from the beginning of my career, interestingly enough, I did feel homophobia.”

Murphy also adds it was “difficult” to get LGBT characters on television.

“It was really difficult… I don’t really talk about it too much because it really is painful and a lot of these people still have jobs.”

“But it was really tough because I was a gay kid and I was both popular and persecuted, so I always sort of understood both angles.”

He adds, “I didn’t dare even start off writing gay characters, but I had sort of outlandish characters in there and I would get notes literally from executives saying, ‘Can this character dress less gay?’ Even if it was a straight woman.”

“Or, ‘The language coming out of this character’s mouth seems very flamboyant, which we think it too gay and will offend some of our viewers. Can you take that out?'”

“Then two things happened,” Murphy explains. “It just sort of made me mad, so I just sort of leaned into it and, you know, I wrote a bisexual character. I started to write about lesbianism… I had gay characters. I would say, ‘No. I won’t do it. Why do you want it taken out?'”

Feud, which tells the story of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford’s relationship, will premier tomorrow (March 5).

Ryan Murphy mocked by TV executives over ‘gay voice’

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