Gay director Don Roos says gay actors shouldn't come out publicly

Openly gay film writer/director Don Roos does not believe gay actors should not come out of the closet publicly. “I don’t think actors should be out at the level of press, radio, TV and film,” he said on Sunday, July 19.

Writer/director Don Roos, left, being interviewed by director Paris Barclay during a discussion at Outfest. Photo by James F. Mills

Roos made that comment during a special “Conversation with Don Roos” program honoring his work on the final day of Outfest, the 10-day LGBT film festival held every July in Los Angels. His comment echoes a similar controversial comment made a week earlier at another Outfest panel by openly gay TV director Todd Holland, who has since issued an apology saying he chose his words poorly.

Roos, who wrote and directed the films Bounce, The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings, elaborated by saying that when casting a movie, he has to consider things which will distract the audience from the story he is trying to tell. “I can’t cast Mel Gibson in a movie," he said. "Who could put Tom Cruise in a movie right now? When I see Tom Cruise, I think of Scientology, jumping on a sofa and getting into a fight with Brooke Shields.”

He added that he believes everyone else should come out publicly. But the actor’s job is to perform a character and his/her real life shouldn’t enter a viewer’s mind while watching a movie. “I prefer more mystery," he said. "I don’t want to know about [the actor’s] political views, whether they’re gay or straight.”

Audience members immediately challenged his comments. However, Roos, who was honored 10 days earlier during the opening ceremonies of Outfest with the 2009 Outfest Achievement Award, stood his ground by saying that he feels the fear of homosexuality that exists in American society is firmly ingrained. “I have a deep respect for homophobia [in American society] and I don’t think it will ever go away. I don’t think actors coming out is going to help end homophobia. I think doctors, teachers and lawyers coming out will end homophobia.”

He added that he also feels racism is still deeply ingrained in the fabric of America, “We’re a country of bigots.” Then he quipped, “ I don’t want that to go away entirely. We wouldn’t be interesting anymore.” Program moderator Paris Barclay, an openly gay TV director, joked, “Then we’d be like Canada.”

While the coming out comments created the most controversy, the discussion was not limited to that. Roos said he does not watch his own films once they are completed. His favorite of his movies is 2005’s Happy Endings.

Roos, who wrote the films Boys on the Side, Love Field, Diabolique and Single White Female, says he enjoys writing female characters the most, finding them the more interesting, “I like irritable women. They’re scary.” He likens that back to the fact that mothers have all the power over the children when growing up. “Mom has the power to take things away or give them. You fear that ‘NO’ And it’s a female voice.”

The 54-year-old Roos started directing because directors get to talk to the actors. He found himself frustrated as a writer by not having any input once a script is purchased.

These days, Roos is often called in as a script doctor to add emotional depth and create more realistic dialogue for screenplays. “One of the requirements of being a script doctor is carrying the audience inside you.”

His advice to writers, in addition to being true to characters in the story, is to always remember your audience, to keep the audience’s emotional journey in mind. “What does the audience need to see next on this journey?”

He also encouraged writers, “Make sure you have a life and your life wins out over your career.” He said that being married and raising kids has made him less interested in his work/career. Roos married his longtime partner, actor/writer Dan Bucatinsky, in September 2008 during the 5-month period when same-sex marriages were legal in California. The pair have two children, 4-year old Eliza and 1-year-old Jonah.

Roos’ most recent project is writing and directing the internet comedy series Web Therapy starring Lisa Kudrow as an impatient therapist who gives bad advice over the internet.