Is It Ever Okay For Straight Actors To Play Queer Roles? – Refinery29

As a casting director, Fem pushes authentic casting a step further: They centre identity-conscious casting in their work. In an email with Refinery29, Fem says authentic representation looks like casting queer actors as queer characters, and that should also be the bare minimum. “Identity-conscious casting says, I know this role was conceived of in this one particular way — let’s say cishet and white — or maybe we haven’t necessarily been thinking about actors like this for this role, but actually if we hire an actor with these other identities, it actually enhances the story and/or makes it more relevant, and here’s why,” Fem explains.