New “Dorian”: More Gay Colin
Colin Firth has entered the middle-aged-gay period of his career: he stars in Tom Ford’s adaptation of Isherwood’s masterpiece, “A Single Man,” which premieres at the Toronto Film Festival next month. Firth also stars in this new version of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” At its core, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is one of the great horror stories of its time (and some would say all time). The film also stars Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian) as the title character. It’s tough to tell from the trailer here how heavily this film will hammer the gay undertones that made Wilde’s novel controversial when it was published in 1890, but there are a few quick cuts of the bearded Firth looking Barnes up and down with bedroom eyes.
Evidently you don’t follow Colin Firth’s career as closely as some of us do. He was in Relative Values where he played a gay nephew of Julie Andrews. Apartment Zero is a cult film of the gay world. His first starring role on the stage was in Another Country where he played the gay character, later played in the film by Rupert Everett. He’s had a varied career from the very beginning and did not have to wait until mid-life to play gay roles.
Jackie