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why, WP, do you believe that John Barrowman cannot act hetero?
Fair point, I should unpack, I guess.
Hmm. It may well be quite unfair of me to blame the utter lack of sexual chemistry brewing (IMHO) between those two characters on poor old Barrowman alone; it's probably as much the fault of "Gwen" and "Jack" (and the writers) as it is attributable to the actors (if you see what I mean).
Knowing Barrowman is gay in real life does colour how I perceive the character he plays, I suppose, particularly given that the character in question is meant to be attracted to (and attractive to) pretty much anything that moves. However, it does occur to me that in writing the character, the writers may also, whether consciously or unconsciously, be writing partly for the actor who plays that character, rather than in a vacuum, so perhaps gay relationships with Jack and Bloke are written more carefully or sensitively, because the writers are aware that the actor will know whereof they speak, and so they will have a more heightened awareness of whether both the situation and the dialogue are sufficiently convincing and believable.
Especially considering that many actors do bring a lot of themselves (their unique experiences, memories, personal qualities good and bad) to particular roles, it would certainly be interesting to know whether Russell T. originally wrote the role of Jack with Barrowman in mind. I sometimes wonder whether Jack's umbrella sexuality is by way of being a sop to the het women watching, and whether it wouldn't have been a more interesting way to go to make the character explicitly gay.
Do I find the hetero love angle they seem to be attempting to push trying and unconvincing? Yes. But do Jack and Gwen fizzle like a wet sparkler because of poor writing/character development, or because I am imposing my own prejudice that Barrowman couldn't possibly fancy Gwen-actress (sorry, can't recall her name) - and, indeed, vice-versa - upon the scenario? Probably a bit of both, to be honest, coupled with a general, I don't know, sexlessness and lack of eroticism that I find in much of Torchwood, and particularly Cap'n Jack, precisely because it/he is trying so hard to be sexy.
If it's any help, I reacted in much the same "My eyes!" way to the Ianto/Jack stopwatch moment in Season 1, and I'm far from having a problem with male/male flirtation or eroticism. And I wasn't over-thrilled with (straight) James Marsters's somewhat cartoon-camp take on Captain John - although I am more inclined to lay that one at the writers' door, given the ludicrous amount of panto innuendo he was forced to spout.
So, anyway, that's my take on it. Simply put, it just doesn't convince me for the reasons outlined above, and probably some more I haven't thought of yet, but I didn't mean to imply that gay actors can only play gay roles and straight actors straight roles. Perhaps I don't think Barrowman's an especially great actor full stop - but then again, it could be inconsistencies in the character and the weakness of some of the writing prejudicing me against the poor guy on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of pulling it off with sufficient aplomb. |
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