"Better Off Ted" star Jonathan Slavin on Hollywood's internalized homophobia

We love out Better Off Ted star Jonathan Slavin. We recently spoke to him for our now-historic BEST.GAY.WEEK.EVER! on camp, which led to a fascinating conversation about straight actors playing gay roles — something Slavin wishes they wouldn't do.

Now Slavin has been interviewed for Advocate.com in which he expounds further on Hollywood's internalized homophobia:

What happens sometimes with gay writers, gay directors, and gay casting directors is that they sort of look like me: They’re sort of schlubby, middle-aged gay guys who have always been schlubby gay guys, and who have always wanted to be around really hot guys. When you give those people power, they tend to surround themselves with the people that they find dreamy, and they have a tendency to fetishize the conversion of hot straight guys. Like, you hear stories about them not yelling "cut" on the set of Brothers & Sisters when Jason Lewis and Matt Rhys were kissing.

It starts with the gay people in power, but the responsibility falls on us in the gay community because we tend not to care if a straight guy plays a gay character as long as they’re cute. We’ll choose abs over politics, and that’s our problem. It’s up to us to say, "But I’d like to see a gay person playing a gay person."

He also speaks about how difficult it is for gay actors to be considered for some gay roles:

I have actively sought after some gay roles that I haven’t even been able to get seen for because they’ve said, "It’s not that kind of gay; we want Brokeback Mountain gay, so we’re only seeing straight guys."

It's obvious that Slavin isn't afraid to tell it like it is, and we applaud his candor. Now if someone could just do something about his de-gayed IMDB profile!