Ambiguously Gay / Live-Action Films

Ambiguously Gay in Films.

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The following have their own pages:

• The DCU
• Marvel Universe

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• Major Henry West in 28 Days Later. He is very physically affectionate with his men, including Jim (kissing him on the head and cheek), but he excludes himself from the men's despair over the lack of women. He also shows no interest in raping Selena and Hannah. While this may be a case of Even Evil Has Standards, in the rest of the context, he is coded as gay.
• Albert Nobbs: Hubert is married to a woman whom he loves, but it isn't clear if he's a trans man or just a woman living as a man, nor his wife's exact relationship with him (i.e. if it's sexual etc). The same can be asked of Albert, who is attracted to Helen.
• Vasquez in Aliens is suggested to be a lesbian by the other marines, but it's probably just because she's a butch ladette. She seems to be close with Drake, though there's no overt sexual flirtation and they've got the same job.
• All About Eve
  • At least to a modern viewer, Addison DeWitt comes off as rather camp. Subverted in that he sexually blackmails her in the end.
  • Eve herself is sometimes seen as being a lesbian or bisexual considering her androgynous appearance, her rough voice, and a scene with her walking with another unnamed woman, arm-in-arm, up the stairs in bathrobes. Given Eve's habits of deception, it's hard to pin down just what she is.
• The title character in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. She's athletic, she doesn't seem attracted to any of the guys in school (she rejects Emmet at the end), despite all their best efforts, and her scenes with Chloe are possibly the only moments where she appears to be sexually attracted to another character. And to top it all off, there's some Reality Subtext — the actress who plays Mandy, Amber Heard, came out as being bisexual and was publicly involved with a woman.
• In Amazing Grace it seems that William Wilberforce and William Pitt the Younger have a thing going on with each other. As in Real Life, they were apparently both buried near each other in Westminster Abbey. It also doesn't help that Pitt the Younger was widely rumored to be gay.
• Champ from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The companion film, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy, which is made from footage left on the cutting room floor, makes Champ's attraction to Ron painfully explicit.
• Beetlejuice: Otho is obsessed with fashion and interior design and overall behaves in a very effeminate manner. It helped that his actor Glenn Shadix himself was gay, and that Otho makes a The Wizard of Oz reference.
• Blood of the Tribades: The two female vampires in the lake may be a couple, or just playing as they skinny dip. It's never confirmed either way.
• Missy in Bring It On is described by other characters as "dykeadelic", follows Torrance around like a puppy dog, and the only time she shows interest in a man is when she finds out that he's gay. "You speak fag?". Missy and Torrance even hold hands together and share a bed during a sleepover.
• The two white hitmen in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. They go everywhere together. One reacts with disgust when a hooker makes an advance on him. When one of them is shot, the other becomes extremely emotional and goes on an immediate Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Brokeback Mountain: While the main characters, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, are unambiguously in a secret relationship, many a debate centers on their exact sexuality – whether they're gay, bisexual, or not attracted to any men but each other. Though most people seem to at least think Jack was definitely gay, Ennis' sexuality is much more difficult to pin down.
• Ugarte from Casablanca seems a little too desperate for Rick's approval.
• In Cavalcade, the Best Picture winner for 1933, there is a quick shot of a nightclub in which a woman wearing a monocle holds another woman's hand, and a man puts a bracelet on another man's wrist.
• Compulsion (2013): Saffron may be a lesbian, or just using Amy's increasingly obvious attraction to have her accede in cannibalism and murder.
• Crimes of the Future (2022): Berst and Dani, both women, come off as a couple sometimes, especially in the suggestive scene where they strip naked before lying down against each other to ask Caprice whether the pair have a "future in performance". It may just be a close, if weird, friendship though.
• In Darkman, it's implied Durant might have feelings for his henchman, Rick. He compliments him on murdering someone "right through the brain. Just how I like it," and the two later attend a party together where Durant offers to get him a drink. It's enough to make his henchmen question it, especially when Durant wants to know where Rick's been after he goes missing. Some of the fingers in his collection belonged to women, implying that he hates women as well.
• Neil and Todd from Dead Poets Society have a very close relationship. Neil is extremely affectionate with Todd and insists on making him feel loved and supported, while Todd (who had only known Neil for a few months) is far more devastated by Neil's death than the other boys who had known Neil for years. They also both seem uninterested in the women and nude magazines that Charlie brings to the club meetings. Neil is annoyed Charlie brought the girls to the club. Also, the other boys seem extremely worried for Todd, more than their own grief.
• Doctor... Series:
  • Doctor in Love:
    • Dr. Flower is rather fay and becomes visibly distressed when a drunken Dawn and Leonora show affection for him.
    • Wildewinde is a soft-spoken man and when Dr. Cardew believes that he may hold affection for Miss Strudwick, he remarks that it's unusual for him unless times have changed.
  • Doctor in Clover has Sydney, an actor with an effeminate voice who calls people "dollies", and Robert, a rather fey hairdresser.
  • Satterjee from Doctor in Trouble doesn't show any interest in women throughout the film, but admires Dr. Burke's legs, and says they go all the way up to his bottom when helping to make him a Julius Caesar costume.
• Any character (at least if it's a comedic one) portrayed by longtime Disney actor Ed Wynn comes off as this sooner or later (Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins, for one) due to his high-pitched voice and giggling. Interestingly, son Keenan Wynn (also a Disney actor at times) was known for having a much more masculine screen persona. Lampshaded by Matthew Perry when he appeared on Saturday Night Live.
• The Fallout: Vada and Mia have sex, and while Vada makes some overtures towards Quinton, Mia never shows explicit attraction to guys. However, it remains unclear what either's sexual orientation is, because they're still young and may be just figuring things out.
• Father of the Bride (1991): Franck Egglehoffer and assistant Howard Weinstein are both foppish and campy. They enjoy the wedding prep as much as the brides themselves.
• The wizard Nekron from Fire & Ice. He acts very effeminately, often does the gay wave, and when Princess Teegra is offered to him as his bride he shows very little interest in her. He also seems to get very excited during his fight with Larn, as if he were having an orgasm.
• First Girl I Loved: Though Anne admits she's gay by the end of the film, it's left unclear what Sasha identifies as, though she'd apparently genuinely reciprocated Anne's feelings earlier.
• Get Out (2017): Georgina is included in Rose's memory box of ex-partners/victims, and was possibly lured into the Armitage house through Rose's Honey Trap.
• In The Getting of Wisdom, Laura resents the boarding school's goals of turning her into a proper lady, says that she Does Not Like Men, and enters into a relationship with her also-female music teacher, but her sexuality is never explicitly confirmed.
• In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, while Podcast obviously has something of a crush on her Phoebe doesn't reciprocate at all (though whether this is due to Incompatible Orientation or her just generally being awkward is unclear) - and in the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Melody and Phoebe share lots of intimate and tender moments but they never officially state their relationship.
• In Go, two male Hollywood actors are forced to have a dinner date with the cop who arrested them to get on his good side. Whenever they cop and his wife are in different rooms, they both seem to be hitting on the actors, but the actors can't quite be sure. It turns out that the cop and his wife were just buttering them up to to sell them an ersatz Amway.
• In The Grand Duel, Adam Saxon is a Sissy Villain who dresses entirely in white, and seems completely uninterested in his Arranged Marriage to Elizabeth; whining to his brothers about whether one of them could marry her instead.
• In Handsome Devil, it's never confirmed whether or not Ned is actually gay - everyone assumes he is, and there are hints that his friendship with Conor could be more than just that, but a major point of the film is that people don't always fit into the boxes people assume they do.
• Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle: The Jews (they are referred to as such), Rosenberg and Goldstein (who think the same of Harold and Kumar).
• Hercules Returns, a Gag Dub of an old Italian Sword and Sandal flick, turns the eponymous Hercules into this. It's even turned into a minor plot point - a character pretending to be Zeus tells Hercules his purpose in the city of Chlamydia is to openly reveal to the world his true homosexual tendencies. Hercules, for his part, vehemently denies being gay.
  Hercules, in a huff: Never heard anything so ridiculous in all of my life. Me, of all peop—My God, what if he's right?! Oh, of course he isn't.
• Ryan Evans from High School Musical. While Word of God will never admit it, the second movie throws in little hints such as his father trying to "straighten" out his increasingly flamboyant hats. Not to mention Ryan and Chad's homoerotic dance number "I Don't Dance" in the second movie, which was followed by a scene where they sit real close and, oh yeah, are wearing each other's clothes. And eating hot dogs. As of the stage version, he's officially out. Lucas Grabeel, the actor who played Ryan, has admitted that he discussed Ryan being gay with the director, Kenny Ortega. It is likely that they had intended for Ryan to be gay, but could not show it explicitly due to High School Musical being a Disney Channel production.
• Eames in Inception is a candidate for this, referring to Arthur as 'darling', acting as Fischer Jr.'s disappointed date (while disguised as a woman), then proceeds to physically flirt with Saito (still disguised as a woman) until Saito realizes that it's actually Eames.
• Ariel, Harris's best friend in L.A. Story is implied to be a lesbian. She lives with another woman, displays no romantic interest in men and the few discreet references to her sex life are gender neutral ("I hate to tell you this, Harris, but if you can find somebody you can have sex with and lie in bed and watch TV, you've really got something.")
• Lawrence of Arabia: The title character's sexuality is treated as ambiguous in a few charged scenes. In Real Life, his relations with his male "companions" are considered very suspect.
• Leading Lady Parts: The two casting directors, played by Catherine Tate and Gemma Arterton, who pressure poor Felicity Jones to strip and leer at her as she does (offscreen). Arterton's character even gives Jones a flirtarious wink.
• Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III: Tex Sawyer wears a women's apron and paints his fingernails, implying that he may be homosexual. According to Viggo Mortensen, he portrayed Tex as being homosexual.
• Fräulein von Bernburg from Mädchen in Uniform. Manuela is in love with her however it is vague if her feelings are requited or not.
• The Magnificent Seven (2016): A few critiques questioned whether Goodnight Robicheaux and Billy Rocks were intended as lovers. Throughout the movie there are several lingering shots of them sharing cigarettes, which could be read as an Indirect Kiss, and they probably share more affectionate physical contact than any other two characters in the movie. Their relationship is also emotionally intense, with each basically revealed to be a Living Emotional Crutch for the other. Notably, during a scene in which most of the other men are either bragging about their women or (in Horne's case) being overtly flirted with, Billy and Goodnight do not participate, while Goodnight keeps a hand draped on Billy's shoulder at all times.
• Mannequin: Arguably Mr. Richards, who, while not as flamboyant as Hollywood, has his gay moments.
• Assjuice from Neighbors says he was awake when Teddy put his penis in his mouth.
• A New York Christmas Wedding: Azrael comes off as Camp Gay, with a sassy attitude and vocal fry, while he doesn't show any other signs. He's an angel, so perhaps they don't even have any sexuality here.
• Night at the Museum: Jedediah and Octavius have Ho Yay going on in their interactions. Octavius also calls Sir Lancelot very handsome on several occasions and Jedediah seems to get jealous at that .
• A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge: Everything Jesse does or says basically comes out as gay, even though the entire time he wants to woo the lead female. He goes to a gay bar, runs away from a straight sex scene, dances and lip syncs to a girl pop song while wearing sparkly star sunglasses, even the actor who plays him is gay! The dialogue taken out of context comes off as so gay it hurts. Not surprisingly, the film has become something of a touchstone for LGBTQ horror fans.
  Jesse: Something is trying to get inside of me.
  Ron: Yeah, it's female and it's waiting for you in the cabana, and you want to sleep with me.
• Leonard in North By Northwest. Martin Landau has said he played the character that way.
  • This exchange is rather telling:
    Leonard: You must have had some doubts about her yourself. You still do.
    Phillip Vandamm: Rubbish.
    Leonard: Why else would you have decided not to tell her that our little treasure here has a belly full of microfilm?
    Phillip: You seem to be trying to fill mine with rotten apples.
    Leonard: Sometimes the truth does taste like a mouthful of worms.
    Phillip:: The truth? I've heard nothing but innuendos.
    Leonard: Call it my woman's intuition, if you will. But I've never trusted neatness. Neatness is always the result of deliberate planning.
    Phillip: She shot him in a moment of fear and anger. You were there yourself. You saw it. You know what I think? I think you're jealous. No, I mean it. I'm very touched, very.
• Played for comedy in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies . Agent 117 has dreamy recollections of time spent with his old buddy frolicking on the beach, which are humorously homoerotic. Later, he states with undue force that two men having sex is totally disgusting, suggesting that he's closeted and "protesting too much."
• Outlaw Women: It is never explicitly stated, but Iron Mae's enforcer Dora bears many of the classic 1950s markers for a lesbian: she is tall and muscular, has short hair, dresses in men's clothes, and smokes cigars. Additionally, she is the only major female character who shows no interest in any of the men.
• Beef from Phantom of the Paradise would be the very picture of Camp Gay if not for the fact that no one in the film ever labels him as such... though one of the club's staff calls him "Tinkerbell".
• Pierre from Pocketful of Miracles (the remake of Lady for a Day). Pierre is one of the crew of makeup artists, etc. that Queenie Martin brings in to give Apple Annie a complete makeover. They all head into the bedroom and the dialogue goes something like this:
  Dave the Dude: Hey, he [Pierre] can't go in there!
  Queenie: It's all right, trust me.
  Dave the Dude: Oh...Pierre.
• According to Molly Ringwald, one of the reasons Pretty in Pink's female lead wound up with a different guy than the producers intended was because members of the cast couldn't buy her platonic friend, Ducky, as heterosexual (even though he was, as his very last scene makes clear).
• The short film Possibly in Michigan involves two closely bonded women, Sharon and Janice, who after killing Sharon's male stalker, proceed to eat his flesh together while lying nude in the same bed. The National Endowment for the Arts interpreted the duo as being lesbian, and the short's director has favorited YouTube comments suggesting a lesbian theme.
• In the gangster classic The Public Enemy (1931), gangster Tom Powers (James Cagney) gets measured for a suit by a mincing tailor who comments on Powers' arm muscles and seems to a handsy in general. Can be viewed here.
• Rebel With Out A Cause: Famously with Plato towards Jim, whose interest looks like a Precocious Crush. At one point he's clearly interested in the idea of spending a night with Jim. Word of God is that Nicholas Ray told Sal Mineo to look at James Dean "the same way Natalie does" — and there was even a kiss between them scripted.
• Since it take place in a Ballet Company, Every male character that isn't the Love Interest in The Red Shoes (1948). Not bad for a movie made in the forties.
• The Roommate: Rebecca may want more from Sara than just a creepily exclusive friendship or even surrogate sisterhood. At one point, she hooks up with Irene after kissing her. That could have been simply to overpower her at Irene's apartment though. Her behavior with Sara however is easily read as that of a jealous lover who doesn't want anyone between them (whether friends or other lovers), though it's never made explicit that she's attracted to her sexually.
• The Serpent and the Rainbow: Peytraud doesn’t seem to show any interest in women and comments that he likes Dennis’s “pretty face” although that may have just been a taunt, considering his threats to disfigure him.
• Shirley Jackson is portrayed this way in Shirley. While she is married to a man, they never shown physical affection for each other (and barely any affection, period), never have sex, and although she's very upset that he's cheating on her and everybody knows, it's implied that this is mostly because of the humiliation at the university. Meanwhile, she becomes obsessed with their female houseguest Rose, and has extremely intimate times with her, hugs her, at one point masturbates with her (which might have been a hallucination), and fantasizes about kissing her.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2020): Bordering on intentional Homoerotic Subtext, Agent Stone's loyalty to and obsession with Robotnik comes off as a full-blown crush at times, especially in the sequel, from the latte art to a picture of Robotnik in a French Maid Outfit on the screen at the Mean Bean.
• Rob Paulsen's character Larry the male stewardess in Stewardess School is extremely flamboyant and once during an emergency he asks for a bobby pin only to put it in his hair.
• It's never directly mentioned in Stuart Saves His Family, but it's quite obvious that Stuart is gay. The only hint is Dad saying "You'd drink too if you had Liberace for a son!" Mick LaSalle wrote in his review:
  Not the least curious aspect is that Stuart is clearly gay. There's no overt mention of this fact, and only one oblique hint in that direction, but it is unmistakable.
  This is of interest for two reasons: 1) for the way the film handles Stuart's gayness (not at all); and 2) for the way, all the same (and however superficially), it handles something you never see in movies: The urbanized gay son returns home to visit his conventional small-town family.
• Lord Durant, the Big Bad of Swashbuckler, is surrounded by a Paid Harem of scantily-clad women that he pays almost no attention to. However, he keeps casting flirtatous glances at his male teenage lute player; is shown sharing a bath with him; and, when Jane calls him him a 'pederast', he doesn't deny it.
• In the 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, John Travolta's character Ryder exhibits some gay behavior. He says that Denzel Washington's character has a "sexy voice" and says he would have made Washington his "bitch in prison." When he finally meets Washington, Ryder says he's handsome and later asks how much he weighs for no particular reason. Ryder also comments on the fashion of a young man and says "he makes it work." However, Ryder also brags about taking a female "ass model" to Iceland after a party. It's hard to tell if he's really attracted to men or just being flippant.
• Joe, Curly's substitute in The Three Stooges is played as an effeminate stereotypic character. Is possible that was Joe Besser's way to distant himself from Curly Howard's iconic performance (as in other roles he played he didn't show the same mannerism).
• In 3:10 to Yuma (2007), no one ever comes straight out and says Charlie Prince is gay. But he struts like he's doing the catwalk, talks with a shrill high-pitched voice, has the best fashion sense of all the cowboys in the movie, and even wears eyeliner. The beautiful and well-endowed bar hostess that Ben Wade is attracted to earns a look of contempt from him, and throughout the whole movie, a big unspoken explanation for his incredible obsession and loyalty to Ben Wade is that he's in love (but they are still True Companions, when Charlie actually talks about why the gang should help him). The closest dialogue that hints at his sexuality is a Pinkerton calling him "Charlie Princess."
• The Uninvited: Miss Holloway, the woman who once was a nurse in the Meredith household, is coded as a lesbian who was in love with Mary Meredith. She seems way too fond of Mary, having named her sanitarium after Mary and hung a huge portrait of Mary in her office. She refers to Mary as "darling". She reminisces to Rick and Pamela about how she and Mary would sit up together and talk about how they were going to conquer the world. (And the hint of a lesbian relationship would explain why Mary was apparently willing to tolerate her husband's affair.)
• Ozymandias in Watchmen. He hangs out with the Village People and David Bowie in a montage and has a folder called "Boys" in his computer. Not to mention his suit having Pharaoh Nipples.
• Dates back at least as far as the silent film Way Down East, in which Lillian Gish's aunt is obviously coded as a lesbian (top hat, mannish glasses, brusque manner).
• William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: Mercutio. He plays a drag queen to boot. Tybalt manages to provoke Mercutio into hostilities with a homophobic taunt of "Mercutio! Thou consortest with Romeo!", removing a considerable amount of ambiguity to many viewers.
• In The Wrestler, Randy's estranged daughter Stephanie lives with another woman with whom she at the very least shares a very close friendship. Randy himself suspects that's she's gay, but it's never really confirmed one way or another.

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