Last week, Adam Lambert made headlines when he commented on an Instagram post from Out's sister publication The Advocate about The White Lotus star Theo James eyeing the role of George Michael in a rumored biopic, saying, "Yay another straight man playing a gay icon" with an eye roll emoji.
Photo: Instagram (@theadvocatemag)
Now, the Grammy-nominated singer is clarifying what he meant when he sat down with Variety at this year's Sundance Film Festival to promote his upcoming film Fairyland, saying that it would be "ridiculous" to be serious about such a claim.
"My actual comment, my little sarcastic comment, was a straight actor playing a gay icon, which I do think is a bit different," he said. "I by no means think that gay characters can only be played by gay actors. That would be ridiculous. Case in point: Scoot's brilliant performance in this film."
"This film" is in reference to Fairyland, which stars Scoot McNairy as a bohemian father in 1970s San Francisco. Lambert notes McNairy's performance as proof that gay men don't always need to play gay characters.
"I just think that as a queer person, so many doors have been closed to us for so long," he said. "It's a big step forward that these stories are being told, but I hope in the future you'd see an out actor also being able to tackle an out leading role. I just want some equal opportunity."
Later in the interview, Lambert also said that homophobia was "probably" the reason he lost the season eight American Idol crown to Kris Allen.
"It was 10 years ago," he said before directing attention back to the film and saying. "The thing about our film is that even though it takes place in the 1970s, there are so many ideas in it that are current. LGBTQ+ people are under attack again by the conservative part of our country."
Fairyland, written and directed by Andrew Durham and based on Alysia Abbott's 2013 memoir, premiered at the 2023 Sundance Fim Festival on January 20.
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