Rami Malek is playing a gay man in the new movie The Man I Love alongside Tom Sturridge, another straight actor.
The film earned rave reviews during its premiere at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival last week and now director Ira Sachs is opening up about the positive reception for the film.
In an interview with Variety, Ira discussed casting straight actors to play gay roles in his film.
What is The Man I Love about?
The movie is described as a “musical fantasia of a city under duress” and it takes place during the AIDS crisis in the late 1980s.
Set in the vibrant era of late 80s New York, the film follows Jimmy George, a Downtown performance artist in an extraordinary moment between great illness and death when, still, all beauty and love is possible.
Also starring in the movie are Rebecca Hall and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who were not at the premiere.
Ira Sachs comments on casting straight actors
Sachs told Variety, “I don’t ask people who they’ve slept with, and what I have found out is you never know.”
“I am a gay man, and I primarily make movies about gay men,” he added later in the interview. “Every time I make a movie, I’m overturning the idea of what is interesting to people because the dominant culture says our lives are not interesting. That’s something I refuse to accept.”
He also opened up about why he cast Rami. He said, “From Mr. Robot. In that series, he had this very natural, easy kind of acting in which I couldn’t see the beginnings and ends of his sentences, and I was curious about it. He’s also such a unique presence. Rami is a star, and he has something magnetic that allows him to hold a movie together.”
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