Dallas Buyers Club - a question of casting and "nonfiction" storytelling

It's hard to believe that this Best Films Rewatch is almost over. Yes, it is almost the end of September, and it was supposed to last the summer, but there were a lot of films on that list! Not only did I watch every one (with the exception of "A Walk to Remember," which I might just watch this weekend!) I added several.

At this point I find it hard to imagine picking less than 15 films for My Best Films of All Time list, and that is with two films left to watch that very well might crack the top 10, maybe even the top 5. I just hope that I've had enough time away from both "La La Land" and "Call Me By Your Name' to watch them objectively. Some time away from both "Black Swan" and "Mulholland Drive" certainly helped.

I was a bit nervous to revisit "Dallas Buyers Club," my favorite film of 2013, for various reasons. For one thing, Oscar season 2013/2014 was the one where I lived (and barely survived) in Los Angeles.

The season began with some incredible experiences. I finally met Sasha Stone. I interviewed Daniel Radcliffe, John Krokidas, Julie Delpy...but by the time the Oscars came along, I was in the depths of active addiction. I didn't see all of the nominated films for the first time in quite some time, but I somehow managed to predict 22 out of 24 categories correctly. It was an easy year...for predictions at least.

Although both "12 Years a Slave" and "Gravity" were really good films, they didn't speak to me in the way that "Dallas Buyers Club" did. Watching the film again, I'm not sure why it made such an impact on me. It is a fascinating story, and as a queer person who wanted very to be something other than a junkie, perhaps I was hanging on to the activism of the piece.

Jean-Marc Vallee is a fantastic director. The way he and cinematographer Yves Belanger set up and shot the film is stunning in its realism. (They would, of course, repeat this with "Big Little Lies.")

What makes this difficult to discuss today is the fact Jared Leto not only played a transgendered woman in the film, he also won an Oscar for it. I vaguely remember rumblings about this near the end of the season, mostly because of Leto getting criticism for acknowledging the trans community (what...was he supposed to say nothing?) in his speeches but mostly remember a piece in Huffington Post that took issue with the fact that the film focused on Ron Woodroof (who some seem to think was bisexual and maybe not as homophobic as the film made him out to be) as the lead, moving the queer stuff to the sidelines. Except Ray. Who was desexualized. I found this whole argument ridiculous then and now. This is the story Vallee was telling, and it was based on the truth, not a piece of nonfiction.

"Dallas Buyers Club" reaches beyond the queer community-- I can attest to this from the reaction to the #nowwatching post on my FB page. It has less to do with the fact that Ray was played by a cisgendered man, and more to the fact that it speaks to an audience who might enter the film in the same place that Woodroof does, we preconceived notions about HIV, AIDS, AZT and the LGBTQ community. I never felt Woodroof's character was being pushed as the straight hero for gay people.. I am still not sure if the Woodroof in the film woud've kept the business going had he not needed the medicine himself. That's not exactly a straight saviour is it?

But back to Leto.

Would he even have been cast today? Probably not. Should these films simply not get made until studios are willing to cast transgendered actors in transgendered roles? Or is it that they should at least be considered before casting the likes of Jared Leto?

I am a queer actor. I program LGBTQ films for the Oxford Film Festival. But I am also a white, middle aged (ugh!) man. It's an interesting conundrum. I feel marginalized at times, particularly in the South, but also afraid to speak my mind, particularly on the internet.

I was on a panel recently for Outflix, a film festival in Memphis and was asked about casting for LGBTQ roles. I found it best, in front of a hundred people, to answer on my experience.

For ages, I only wanted to play straight. Romantic leads in particular. I'm sure this desire had something to do with wanting to feel a (false) sense of masculinity...and I had the opportunity several times, playing Romeo, Tony in West Side Story...even as recently as 2016 playing Giles in "The Mousetrap." But today, I would love to play more gay roles...I just haven't had the opportunity. Some people might say that my Austin in "True West" might have leaned that way, but honestly, I didn't think much about his sexuality.

I know the "right" answer is to say that queer people should have an opportunity to play these roles, and I believe that to be the truth. I also think Jared Leto is fantastic in "Dallas Buyers Club." I can't imagine "Brokeback Mountain" with two better and right actors than Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger and if there is a better Elio than Timothee Chalamet...well...I just don't believe it.

I just don't think the answer to this question is as black and white as twitter outrage makes it out to be.