Guy Pearce Apologizes for His 'Insensitive' Trans Tweet
Guy Pearce raised a question around trans actors playing both trans and non-trans characters in a now-deleted tweet.
The 55-year-old Memento actor has now issued a lengthy apology.
“I posted a tweet yesterday that I shouldn’t have, which to prevent upsetting anyone else I have now deleted,” he said with the apology attached to the tweet.
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Guy first acknowledged that raising the question on Twitter was not wise, and that the discussion needs to be had in person.
His original tweet was: “A question – if the only people allowed to play trans characters r trans folk, then r we also suggesting the only people trans folk can play r trans characters. Surely that will limit ur career as an actor? Isn’t the point of an actor to be able play anyone outside ur own world?”
He acknowledged how his questions were “insensitive” and apologized “enormously,” for raising the question on the platform.
In 1994, Guy played a flamboyant and obnoxious young drag queen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
“I raised the question because for 30 years now I’ve had many people ask me since doing Priscilla ‘Don’t you think gay people should’ve played those roles?’ and now many similar discussion are occurring about trans actors and trans roles. It has led me to reflect even more about acting as an artform and it’s place in the world,” Guy said.
“I believe that to suggest ‘acting’ can only come from our own lived experience annihilates our imagination,” he later reasoned.
Guy said that he only raised the question to get to the “definition of acting,” but was against all forms of discrimination.
“And again, sincere apologies for crassly focussing on just one already harassed minority in my original tweet,” he concluded.
Guy Pearce caused another stir on Twitter earlier this year after he appeared to diss Cate Blanchett over her win at the 2023 Critics Choice Awards.