Don Roos is a real jerk

[Zahveed]

What pisses me off is that Roos is falling into line with the idea that knowing somebody is gay automatically means the audience will immediately think about him getting fucked in the ass. Which is ridiculous. When I see Angelina Jolie in Changeling I don't think about Brad Pitt banging her.

I think about them sitting at the dinner table, eating their meal ever so quietly. Jolie stops eating. "Why don't we talk anymore?" she asks. Pitt tosses his fork on the plate in front of him, wiping his mouth with a napkin as he stands up. He drops the used tissue on the half-eaten plate and walks away as Jolie cries over her steamed vegatables.

[OscarGuy]

When I see Alan Cumming on the screen, *I* think gay guy...largely because he's rather effiminate, even in his straighter roles. However, when I see Neil Patrick Harris as Barney on How I Met Your Mother, I think of him as that character. I guess it's all in how the actor plays a role.

[Penelope]

What pisses me off is that Roos is falling into line with the idea that knowing somebody is gay automatically means the audience will immediately think about him getting fucked in the ass. Which is ridiculous. When I see Angelina Jolie in Changeling I don't think about Brad Pitt banging her.

It's a false assumption and that it comes from an out gay man makes it even more upsetting.

[Zahveed]

I don't know, I don't look at Alan Cumming, in a movie, and think "gay guy." At the same time, I can't watch Tom Cruise and not think about insane asylums.

I read this more like, be openly gay but don't make it the news of the day. It shouldn't matter. Does Adam Lambert have to teach Hollywood a lesson or two?

[The Original BJ]

"Who could put Tom Cruise in a movie right now? When I see Tom Cruise, I think of Scientology, jumping on a sofa and getting into a fight with Brooke Shields.”

These kinds of comments always baffle me. I have to continue to believe that most rational people don't think about these kind of things when they're watching a movie, despite the fact that entertainment bigwigs constantly profess that they do.

If I were to watch something with Cruise, I'd think about whether or not he were right for the character he's playing, how his performance compared to those turns of his I've liked and disliked, even how his star persona played into this role. I wouldn't remotely think about him jumping on a couch -- how long ago WAS that?!

Now, I certainly wouldn't bank on Tom Cruise opening my movie huge these days, but he's certainly not un-castable. Didn't everybody (not me or you guys, but average moviegoers) think he was hilarious in Tropic Thunder? That's what I kept hearing...

[OscarGuy]

Actually, actors coming out will help to end homophobia...especially if they are already established with a character (such as Neil Patrick Harris)...but, I can somewhat see his point about casting someone with public notoriety. It would be the same thing whether you would want it to be or not. But, he still shouldn't have said it.

[Penelope]

From Notes From Hollywood:

Gay director Don Roos says gay actors shouldn't come out publically
Posted by James F. Mills on July 20, 2009 at 8:00pm

Openly gay film writer/director Don Roos does not believe gay actors should not come out of the closet publically. “I don’t think actors should be out at the level of press, radio, TV and film,” he said on Sunday, July 19.


Roos made that comment during a special “Conversation with Don Roos” program honoring his work on the final day of Outfest, the 10-day LGBT film festival held every July in Los Angels. His comment echoes a similar controversial comment made a week earlier at another Outfest panel by openly gay TV director Todd Holland, who has since issued an apology saying he chose his words poorly.

Roos, who wrote and directed the films Bounce, The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings, elaborated by saying that when casting a movie, he has to consider things which will distract the audience from the story he is trying to tell. “I can’t cast Mel Gibson in a movie," he said. "Who could put Tom Cruise in a movie right now? When I see Tom Cruise, I think of Scientology, jumping on a sofa and getting into a fight with Brooke Shields.”

He added that he believes everyone else should come out publically. But the actor’s job is to perform a character and his/her real life shouldn’t enter a viewer’s mind while watching a movie. “I prefer more mystery," he said. "I don’t want to know about [the actor’s] political views, whether they’re gay or straight.”

Audience members immediately challenged his comments. However, Roos, who was honored 10 days earlier during the opening ceremonies of Outfest with the 2009 Outfest Achievement Award, stood his ground by saying that he feels the fear of homosexuality that exists in American society is firmly ingrained. “I have a deep respect for homophobia [in American society] and I don’t think it will ever go away. I don’t think actors coming out is going to help end homophobia. I think doctors, teachers and lawyers coming out will end homophobia.”