Really, though...

[tencrush]

That Colin guy from Merlin is one of the fugliest people on the telly at the mo. That's not a subjective opinion on my part, that's like scientific fact or something. He's one of the two reasons I don't watch Merlin, the other one being that it's about fucking wizards. See also: more fucking wizards (Harry Potter), fucking trolls (Lord of the Rings) and fucking blue fairy people (Avatar). Do not be telling me I should be watching any of this shit, I cannot take it seriously.

I voted Neil Patrick Harris in the Big Gay Battle on After Elton. John Barrowman is just too gay to be allowed to win these sorts of things. I'm joking, of course (not about voting, I did vote NPH), there's no such thing as TOO GAY, but if there were, I'm pretty sure JB would qualify. But no, I purposefully voted against JB. For reasons I explained like a year and a half ago, I don't think he's the greatest candidate for big gay role model. Neither is NPH, probably (Man, he only came out like 3 years ago, dudes, really? Weird, I thought it was longer ago.), but there you go.

Comments

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[eandh99.livejournal.com]

You seriously believe that "not gay enough" excuse? Just stop and think a moment about the idea that somehow JB was insufficiently gay. That's like imagining a more obnoxious Simon Cowell or a campier Graham Norton. It's not like Eric McCormack played the role especially gay - Will was very straight-acting especially at the beginning. They wanted and got a nice, unthreatening straight man with a wife and kid to play Will so it wouldn't frighten the US audience.

And on the homophobia in CoE - why did it need to be there when it wasn't there in 26 regular episodes? Why is Andy suddenly uncool with Ianto's gayness, why hasn't he made a remark like that before? It was a deliberate decision on the part of RTD et al to make TW in a world where sexuality was fluid and not an issue, they said so in first series. So why throw that out the window for gratuitous and crude homophobic remarks and then put those remarks into the mouths of characters we were supposed to like (Johnny) or who we had never seen be homophobic before (Andy)?

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[forgiveninasong.livejournal.com]

I was making a flippant comment, really. That's generally the reason that Barrowman gives for him not getting the part of Will. It's kinda well known. And it's kinda meant to be a funny thing, that they got a straight man to play a gay part, when a gay man had auditioned.

I agree about the homophobia though!

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[eandh99.livejournal.com]

I believe that that's the reason they gave him - dunno if he believed it but I sure don't LOL.

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[fide-et-spe.livejournal.com]

JB believes it was because he is an out gay man, and this is Hollywood. They wanted a straight guy to play it, much more comfortable. He says they did give him this reason. Thing is he is actually quite straight on screen, Capt Jack isn't especially camp at all. I think the guy who played Will is much camper on screen that JB.

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[eandh99.livejournal.com]

I agree - and I don't think things have changed very much. Captain Jack is only very very rarely camp on screen - I think that "as if" moment in Ghost Machine is the only one that comes to mind. My recollection is that Will was fairly straight-acting on the show at least in the early seasons, with all the "screaming queen" behaviours put onto Jack. Took forever for Will to get a boyfriend or even date openly on the show.

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[fide-et-spe.livejournal.com]

Even Will not being that camp compared to Jack on W and G, he was still camper than JB tends to be onscreen. Thing is, JB isn't that camp. He can camp it up, no problem, but it isn't inherently there, he is really quite neutral, and Capt Jack is rather macho on the whole.

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[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Maybe that was the problem. They wanted camp and JB didn't give them that in his audition. I'm betting that's what they meant bu 'not being gay enough.' That he wasn't playing the part as a sterotypical gay, simpering or campy enough.