Colin Firth feels complicit in Hollywoods homophobia

I’m still glowing that so many of my imaginary boyfriends got nominated for Oscars this morning! One of my favorites was Colin Firth’s nomination for Lead Actor, for his critically-acclaimed work in A Single Man, directed by first-time director Tom Ford. Can you believe this is Colin’s first Oscar nomination? He’s been in two Best Picture Oscar winners (The English Patient and Shakespeare In Love), but Colin has never gotten recognized for the big one before.

Before the nominations were announced, Colin admitted to a British publication that he was trying not to get “swept away” saying: “God knows…. I’m trying not to think about it. You don’t know how much you’ve vested in something until you have a disappointment. Years ago when I had a Bafta nomination in my mid twenties I was very blase and I didn’t go because I was filming at the time. I lost. I thought I was cool about it but I was absolutely shattered. I was astonished I was so shattered. I was very surprised. I’m getting on a bit and I’ve been up and down a few times. I’m too old to get swept away in it completely and I’ve had little enough experience of it to feel too jaded.” Once Colin heard that he got nominated, he told People Magazine: “I thought I was managing my expectations, but on hearing the news I discovered new and unfamiliar vocal tones. Perhaps I should do another musical.”

Meanwhile, Colin is still promoting the hell out of A Single Man. He and his wife Livia (in these photos) just attended the UK premiere of the film, and Colin is currently doing a round of interviews. Colin recently spoke out about the double standard that still exists for gay actors, and Colin humbly admitted to feeling “complicit” in the double standard:

The actor, who stars as George Falconer, a homosexual college professor, in A Single Man, said at the film’s UK premiere in central London that there are still ”invisible boundaries” that homosexual actors struggle to cross.

He said: ”There might be risks for a gay actor coming out. The politics of that are quite complex, it seems to me. If you’re known as a straight guy, playing a gay role, you get rewarded for that. If you’re a gay man and you want to play a straight role, you don’t get cast – and if a gay man wants to play a gay role now, you don’t get cast.”

”I think it needs to be addressed and I feel complicit in the problem. I don’t mean to be. I think we should all be allowed to play whoever – but I think there are still some invisible boundaries which are still uncrossable.”

Nicholas Hoult, the young British actor who has been nominated for the Bafta Rising Star Award, said he did not feel he was taking a risk by playing the role of student Kenny, who takes an interest in Firth’s character in the directorial debut of Tom Ford, a fashion designer.

”There was no fear [in taking the role],” said the 20-year-old. ”It was a very interesting character and when you get the chance to work with Colin and Tom, you’d be stupid to turn it down because you’re scared of playing a character who’s potentially gay.”

Ford joked that he had a ”crush” on Firth and Hoult and admired their acting abilities, tipping them both for awards success – with Firth expected to get an Oscar nod when the nominations are announced tomorrow.

He said: ”I have a crush on Nicholas but I have a crush on every actor in the film … I think as a director you have to have crushes on the people that you cast in your movie.”

[From The Telegraph]

Don’t you love him? I don’t agree with him 100%, but I know he has a significant point. However, Colin said it the right way, I think. Unlike someone like Rupert Everett, who just comes across like he’s whining and being a big, nasty, vicious prick. Colin comes across like he’s trying to stand up for his gay actor buddies. And you know he probably has a lot of gay friends. And they probably swoon over him, just like me!

Colin and his wife Livia at the London premiere of ‘A Single Man’ on February 1, 2010. Credit: WENN.

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