not playing queer

Pam Spaulding writes on her blog about some weird situtions in the soap opera industry. First, Chris Engel, an actor from The Young and the Restless, quitted the series after he realized that his character was about to kiss another man.

Now there is another similar case: Patricia Mauceri plays the mother of a character that turns out gay in One Live to Live. She refused the script because a Latina mother can never accept that, in her opinion. She was changed with another actress.

Patricia Mauceri in character

Here is the whole story:

"OLTL" was taping scenes in late-June concerning roommates Cristian, Layla and Fish. (They'll air in September.) Cristian and Layla suspect that sweet cop Fish is gay, but aren't sure how to approach him about it. So they buy a book about how to tell if you're gay and plan to give it to him.

Cristian's mom, Carlotta, was supposed to find the book and assume Cristian is gay. Her reaction was scripted to be very accepting and even amused, citing his love of art and fondness for going shirtless as signs she should have recognized.

But Mauceri, who has played diner purveyor Carlotta Vega for 14 years, refused to play the story as written, saying a Latina mother would not be so accepting. Rather, Mauceri rewrote the scenes to make Carlotta confused and troubled, and submitted them to "OLTL" execs.

"That's not the story we're telling," responded an exec.

Mauceri then said she could not play the scenes as written, so the show called Santiago.

"Saundra Santiago is now playing Carlotta Vega," confirms an ABC rep.

The stereotype that all Latino mothers are homophobic is used in this case to promote a very personal and direct form of homophobia. Some actors afford to refuse the part or re-write the script. That brings to my mind the situation in theatre, the one that I know better. A couple of weeks ago, Iulia Popovici was mentioning how Romanian actors are avoiding to identify with their gay characters, almost yelling "this is not who I am!". I see that quite often when a gay character comes on stage. Quite bizarre, this detachment is not happening with criminals, murderers, rapists, bigots etc. Playing evil is more convincing most of the times. Does it mean that playing queer is seen as being more threatening to most heterosexual actors? Or is it the fear of their own sexuality, the fear of becoming one of them by rehearsing? It is a good example to show how performance has implications on subjectivity just like performativity does. Actors fear that and they try to keep the character as far as possible from their subject. Then you come with some black-face type of performances, ridiculing the queer character, in the style of Bruno (Sacha Baron Cohen was most of the time close to his wife during premieres, even if in character: he needed the proof that he IS not Bruno, he is not queer, that is just a character to make fun of of). Directors are doing it in a similar way: they dis-identify with their queer characters and stories by some poor form of Brechtian alienation. The purpose is not to make the audience think about their own situation or to make them critical of what they see: theatremakers are just telling that it is not their story, it is not their alliance, it is not their concern and creativity, queerness is incidental and it's "used" mainly for its comical homophobic effect. That is the situation if the queer character is not part of a melodramatic plot and is killed at some point to reinstall the original status quo. Then it becomes a tool for a queer cleansing of the stage. Both situations are dead ends for any social change and reinforce a homophobic attitude.