Pages

Jan 2, 2024

The Top 10 Hunks of "The Great Gatsby"

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel of the Jazz Age, is loaded down with gay subtexts.  Young aspiring writer Nick Carraway moves into a house on Long Island next to the mansion of the extravagant Jay Gatsby, and falls in love with him, supporting him through an elaborate scheme to win his former lover Daisy, Nick's cousin.

The 2013 Baz Luhrman film version ups the gay subtexts, eliminating any hint of romance between Nick and lesbian-coded tennis pro Jordan, making Nick's affection for Gatsby palpably romantic, and suggesting that Gatsby doesn't want Daisy so much as Daisy-and-Nick.




There's also a gay subtext that isn't even in the book: Daisy's husband Tom has a palpably homoerotic interest in Nick and other men.  They go to a wild party attended by a gay-coded man and several women, and when it turns into an orgy, Tom grabs a bellhop and strips him out of his clothes.

There are a huge number of hunky actors in the production.  Unfortunately, most are kept under wraps, or appear in undershirts.  Here are the top 10:

1. Leonardo DiCaprio (right) as Gatsby.  He's played gay characters many times.

2. Tobey Maguire (left) as Nick.  He and Leo have a real-life bromance going on, and their real-life affection certainly added to the gay subtext.


3. Joel Edgerton as Tom, Nick's college buddy who likes men and women.  He played half of a gay couple in Saturn's Return (2001).

4. Jason Clarke as George Wilson, garage mechanic whose wife is having an affair with Tom.

5. Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan as the evil gambler Meyer Wolfsheim.  He has played a number of bare-chested romantic leads in Bollywood.








6.-7. I'm not sure exactly who plays the bellhop who gets his shirt ripped off in the bisexual orgy scene, but my best guesses are hot model Milan Pulvermacher (top photo), cast as "Waiter at the Hotel Sayre", or Australian actor Stefan Mogel (right), cast as "Bellboy" (uncredited).

8.-9. The casting director apparently scoured Australia for physique models to play even minor parts.  Check out Conor Fogarty as Gatsby's Butler, or Alex Lissine as a Cocktail Waiter.

10. Or Kai Pantano as one of Wolfsheim's thugs. He's done some modeling and had some small roles in Australian movies and shorts.  

3 comments:

  1. This the gayest version yet of the novel- DiCaprio and McGuire have better chemistry from their real life bromance than Leo has with the girl playing Daisy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The original novel has a strong gay subtext also, although Fitzgerals was about as homophobic as you would expect for the 1920s.

      Delete
    2. It's one of my favorite novels but I never noticed a gay subtext- in the movies the bromance between Gatsby and Nick is more obvious- the problem is that I believe Daisy is an impossible role - she is a dream girl- the passion between the men is more real

      Delete

No offensive, insulting, racist, or homophobic comments are permitted.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.