Darren Criss: I want to make sure I won’t be another straight boy taking a gay man’s role
The actor won an Emmy for his role as gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan who murdered Gianni Versace
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
Darren Criss doesn’t want to be “another straight boy taking a gay man’s role”.
The actor shot to fame as love interest to Kurt Hummel in Ryan Murphy’s Glee and has since won an Emmy for his latest role as gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan in American Crime Story: Versace.
But in a recent interview with Bustle, Criss – who identifies as straight – admitted he doesn’t want to be constantly cast as a gay character when there are gay actors able to play the roles.
He said: “There are certain [queer] roles that I’ll see that are just wonderful.
“I want to make sure I won’t be another straight boy taking a gay man’s role.
“The reason I say that is because getting to play those characters is inherently a wonderful dramatic experience.
“It has made for very, very compelling and interesting people.”
He also went on to say how it’s a “bizarre twist of fate” that playing a serial killer like Cunanan is the reason he won an Emmy.
“There’s something very twisted about the fact that somebody that I share ethnicity with, a Caucasian-Filipino-American who is famous for doing something absolutely deplorable, is now the reason that I get to sit here and talk to you.
“That is sort of a bizarre twist of fate.”
