Link to the n*de dudes
They have to live together for several years while waiting for Lee Harvey Oswald to show up, so they pass themselves off as...um... brothers. Not much of a gay subtext-- Episode 3 is entitled Other Voices, Other Rooms, but it has nothing to do with the Truman Capote novel about gay awakening, and Bill's heterosexual identity is established very quickly, when the guys relax by going to a gentleman's club. But at least some people suspect that the two are a gay couple, and Bill is beaten up in what we would call a homophobic hate crime. Later he is institutionalized and given shock therapy, a common experience for gay men in the early 1960s. And killed.
So, a queer-coded character, displayed in his underwear a lot. Enough for me to check to see if George MacKay has played any other gay-subtext roles, or is gay in real life.
He was born in 1992, and broke into film as one of the Lost Boys in Peter Pan (2003). Then he played a gang member in The Thief Lord (2006), which I recall as having a gay-subtext bond, but not with his character.
Next came a long string of angst dramas
The Boys are Back (2009): man with a dying wife and estranged sons.
Private Peaceful (2012): Tommo (George) has a brain-damaged brother, sees his father being crushed by a tree, loses the Girl of His Dreams to his other brother (Jack O'Connell). They go to war together, and Bro disobeys an order to abandon the wounded Tommo, and is executed. Sounds delightful.
How I Live Now (2013): Daisy, who has a dead mother (of course), survives a nuclear war, sees her friends massacred, finds her boyfriend (George) severely injured, and nurses him back to health. Lovely.
The Outcast (2015), a two-part tv movie: Lewis (George) sees his mother drown (of course), grows up feeling responsible, so he self-harms and sets a church on fire. He spends time in prison, then confronts his toxic family members (hint: every man is bullying and abusive), and confesses his love for The Girl of His Dreams before..you guessed it...going to War. Ugh! Or as one reviewer notes, a "relentlessly emotional, heart-tugging story of tragedy."
Does every single one of George's movie and tv roles involve a dying parent or sibling, a severe injury during wartime, a lot of other tragedies, and the endless misery of life? I'm surprised someone doesn't start singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."
Let's check his gay and gay-subtext roles:
I already reviewed 1917 (2019). The tragedies piled on World War I soldier George and his gay subtext boyfriend (Richard Madden) were laughably unyielding. The darn thing was too grim even for torture porn. I I was wondering why they didn't have him bitten by a zombie. But the gay subtext lasted until the last scene, with a last-minute tacked-on reference to a girlfriend back home. I can hear the writers panicking: "Wait, we forgot to establish that he's straight"
On RG Beefcake and Boyfriends: Richard Madden n*de in Sirens. He's playing the gay Ashley Greenwick (stereotyped name, that) caught in the act. I don't know who the disgusted buddy is.Pride (2014): Members of the gay group LGSM are raising money for the families affected by the British Miners' Strike (1984). Joe (George) is so closeted that his out-and-proud boyfriend dumps him, and dies of AIDS two years later. Bummer, but at least it's a gay role.
True History of the Kelly Gang (2019): George plays the notorious Australian bushranger (outlaw), who has a gay friend (Nicholas Hoult) and likes to hang out affectionately with his male crew, sometimes in dresses, but also gets a girlfriend. It ends badly.
In Femme (2023), George plays Preston, a homophobic gang member who beats up and then starts hooking up with a drag queen. But she gets revenge by filming their encounters and showing his friends, so they suspect him of being gay. Preston gets angry and beats her to a pulp, but doesn't kill her.
OMG, George, what is this, Hee-Haw?
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
More after the break
















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