Chloë Grace Moretz plays a young woman sent to LGBTI conversion therapy camp in The Miseducation of Cameron Post, an adaptation of the homonymous 2012 novel by Emily M. Danforth. | Photo: FilmRise
American actress Chloë Grace Moretz has entered the debate around straight stars playing LGBTI roles.
Speaking at the London premiere of new movie The Miseducation of Cameron Post, in which Chloë plays a young woman sent to LGBTI conversion therapy camp, the star argued that people shouldn’t ‘assume’ about actors’ sexualities.
‘Just don’t assume, do you know what I mean?’ Chloë told GSN.
‘I think what’s important about this film, is there’s a line in there where she says “I don’t see myself as a homosexual, I don’t see myself as anything.”‘
Young people ‘don’t speak about gender as a label’
Chloë Grace Moretz in a scene of The Miseducation of Cameron Post | Photo: YouTube/FilmRise Releasing
Moretz, known for the Kick-Ass movie franchise and Let Me In, continued: ‘I think that’s the future we’re moving into.’
‘If you talk to a 12 or 13-year-old, they don’t speak about gender as this label they were born as. They talk about fluidity, they talk about finding themselves for who they are.’
The star moreover added: ‘I think that’s important to not assume, any actor, any person, who they are, what they are, trying to label them or get them to tell you what you want to hear.’
‘Trans roles should be played by trans actors’
New Yorker Desiree Akhavan co-wrote and directed The Miseducation of Cameron Post.
Cameron Post director Desiree Akhavan also attended the film’s premiere.
Akhavan offered her take on the conversation around straight actors playing LGBTI roles. The debate was recently reignited when the reportedly straight Jack Whitehall was cast as a gay character in upcoming Disney movie Jungle Cruise.
‘I feel very strongly that trans roles should be played by trans actors,’ Akhavan told us. ‘Trans people are being persecuted, especially in America.
‘It is dangerous to be a trans woman of color in that country. I feel like it’s very important that those stories are told authentically and we don’t cast cisgender actors in those roles.’
Speaking specifically to straight stars playing LGB roles, Akhavan added: ‘In terms of actors in my own pursuit of casting this film, everyone was a teenager and it’s not my place to ask their sexuality. Nor did I want to.’
‘I feel like people make a lot of assumptions about Chloë’s sexuality,’ she furthermore added. ‘That bothers me on a personal level.’
‘They should not make assumptions. It is not their place to look at a young woman who’s grown up on camera and say “give me a little bit more information about your sexuality. I’d like to take more than I’ve already had having watched you grow since [the age of] five.’
Queer female storytelling
Left to right: Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane and Chloë Grace Moretz in The Miseducation of Cameron Post. | Photo: FilmRise
Moretz and Akhavan spoke up on the importance of having LGBTI filmmakers create queer movies.
‘Perspective is important across the board. Whether it’s a queer story or not, we should be giving the opportunity [to those] that haven’t had their voices heard before,’ Chloë told us.
Particularly, Akhavan has never hidden her attraction to women. She rose to popularity in 2014 for her directorial debut Appropriate Behaviour, a loosely autobiographical movie where she plays a bi woman.
She will also play the main character on Channel 4’s upcoming show The Bisexual. The series is due to premiere this fall.
‘I talk very openly about my sexuality, it is part of the works I make,’ Akhavan said.
‘I get to decide what I think is authentic lesbian depiction on screen. If they make a shitty version that’s inauthentic and there are no queer voices involved, that would be a shame.’
‘Fuck you’ to the male gaze
They also expressed their irritation at seeing female queer stories told by a male perspective.
Referring to Cameron Post as ‘a passion project shot for under a million dollars,’ Chloë said the ‘entire story was told by women and by queer people’.
Akhavan also said: ‘When you never do these kinds of stories and then you hear some straight white man’s version of it, it’s like “fuck you.”‘
‘That story has never ever been told, why are you the person who should do some research and tell it? It’s so rare, it’s such a gift to be able to be the person who tells said stories.’
She furthermore added: ‘It’s disempowering to see a messed up, inauthentic version of a story. Authenticity matters.’
The Miseducation of Cameron Post will hit UK cinemas on 7 September.
Read more from Gay Star News:
Chloë Grace Moretz tells of her brothers’ struggles with coming out
‘Gay conversion’ movie wins top prize at Sundance Film Festival
