'Succession' Star Jeremy Strong: LGBTQ+ Actors Should be 'Given More Weight' in Consideration for Queer Roles

"Succession" star Jeremy Strong, who plays closeted gay lawyer Roy Cohn – Donald Trump's mentor – in the upcoming Trump biopic "The Apprentice," says actors' sexuality should have some "weight" when queer roles are cast, Deadline reported.

In comments to the Los Angeles Times, Strong opined that concerns around straight actors playing queer roles are "absolutely valid," but added that he is "sort of old fashioned, maybe, in the belief that, fundamentally, it's a person's artistry, and that great artists, historically, have been able to, as it were, change the stamp of their nature. That's your job as an actor."

The "Armageddon Time" actor, who does not identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, went on to say, "The task, in a way, is to render something that is not necessarily your native habitat," and he reflected that while he doesn't "think that it's necessary" to give queer roles solely to LGBTQ+ actors, "I think that it would be good if that were given more weight."

Deadline describes the film's storyline as an account of how a young Trump struck "a Faustian deal with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Cohn," and recalled that "Cohn's sexuality was an open secret, despite playing a crucial role in the Lavender Scare of the 1950s McCarthy era."

"Although he denied his diagnosis, Cohn died of AIDS-related complications in 1986," the outlet added.

The New York Times reported that the Trump campaign has called the film, which stars Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump, "garbage" and "pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked."

Vanity Fair noted that the Trump campaign went so far as to call the film "election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked."

"But director Ali Abbasi says that the Trump camp's bluster is misplaced," Vanity Fair relayed, "as he believes the digital playing card huckster might even enjoy how Sebastian Stan portrays him."

Questions of authenticity around which actors ought to play which kinds of roles have swirled for years, with some stars arguing that an actor's job is, by definition, to portray people they are not, while others say that casting LGBTQ+ actors in queer roles allows performances to take on greater emotional truth.

In a July 2, 2023 appearance on the BBC's radio show "Desert Island Discs," Stanley Tucci – star of films like "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Supernova," in which he has played gay characters – said, "Obviously, I believe that's fine."

Added Tucci: "I am always very flattered when gay men come up to me and talk to me about 'The Devil Wears Prada' or they talk about 'Supernova,' and they say that, 'It was just so beautiful,' you know, 'You did it the right way.' Because often, it's not done the right way."

Tucci went on to say that when an actor's portrayal of a gay character "tips into caricature and stereotypes, then it becomes a problem."

"It's a Sin" and "Queer as Folk" writer Russell T. Davies, on the other hand, has compared the casting of straight actors in gay roles with blackface, telling UK publication Radio Times, "I feel strongly that if I cast someone in a story, I am casting them to act as a lover, or an enemy, or someone on drugs or a criminal or a saint... they are not there to 'act gay' because 'acting gay' is a bunch of codes for a performance."

"It's about authenticity," Davies added. "Authenticity is leading us to joyous places."

Watch a trailer for "The Apprentice" below.