Romeo Beckham, the 23-year-old son of David and Victoria Beckham, is set to make his acting debut in Forty Love, a romantic drama about a tennis prodigy who falls for a male rival. The film follows Sacha Gallo (Paul Kircher), a superstar with a bright future planned by his coach-father, until a handsome new contender (Beckham) appears. The synopsis states: 'For the first time, Gallo faces an opponent of an entirely different nature — love. A force as exhilarating as it is destabilizing — and far more dangerous than anything he has encountered on the court.'
A trend of homoerotic sports films
The project taps into the recent success of homoerotic sports films and TV shows like Challengers and Heated Rivalry. For Beckham, who failed to make it as a footballer and has been dubbed a 'professional nepo baby,' the role appears strategically chosen. Hollywood has long favored straight actors playing dramatic gay characters as a shortcut to credibility.
Critics argue that this phenomenon raises uncomfortable questions about why queer roles are often viewed as markers of serious artistic intent. 'There’s a reason people joke that if an actor wants an Oscar, they should play a historical figure, lose or gain a dramatic amount of weight, or play a gay person,' notes the article.
Hollywood's obsession with queer suffering
Examples abound: Tom Hanks won an Oscar for Philadelphia, Sean Penn for Milk, Hilary Swank for Boys Don’t Cry, and Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club. More recently, Nick Offerman won an Emmy for The Last of Us, and Paul Mescal gained prestige for All of Us Strangers. All these performances featured straight cisgender actors playing LGBTQ+ characters in stories overwhelmingly about suffering, persecution, shame, illness, violence, and loss.
'While the history of LGBTQ+ people cannot be told honestly without acknowledging discrimination, the problem is that Hollywood often seems far more interested in queer pain than queer joy,' the article states. Straight actors rarely rush to headline a breezy gay rom-com, and prestige campaigns built around happy, well-adjusted queer people are uncommon.
The problem for gay actors
Openly gay actors have long spoken about feeling pigeonholed. Many believe they won't be considered for certain roles due to assumptions about their sexuality. 'When’s the last time a gay actor was celebrated for the extraordinary transformation they underwent to play a straight character?' the article asks.
While the author acknowledges that acting is about becoming someone you are not, and that rigid rules about who can play whom raise their own problems, the underlying issue remains: Hollywood continues to reward one particular type of queer story, told by straight actors, above all others. The article concludes by questioning whether queer stories could be allowed to be joyful, ridiculous, sexy, romantic, and ordinary without needing to justify their existence through trauma.
