vice.com Why the Actor Who Played Buffalo Bill in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ Has a Problem With the Movie Today Tony Alpsen 2–3 minutes
35 years after The Silence of the Lambs premiered in theaters, the topic of Buffalo Bill’s sexual identity remains a contentious one. The deranged serial killer, played by Ted Levine in the film, was known for skinning his female victims in order to stitch together a “woman suit” for himself. This past February, Levine weighed in on the subject, and it turns out he’s got conflicting feelings about his performance.
“There are certain aspects of the movie that don’t hold up too well,” Levine, who’d never addressed the controversy before, told The Hollywood Reporter. “We all know more, and I’m a lot wiser about transgender issues,” he continued. “There are some lines in that script and movie that are unfortunate.” 35 Years Later, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ Star Says the Movie Got Something Important Wrong
Levine went on to say that he didn’t have those same concerns when he made the movie, but is more knowledgeable when it comes to the trans experience nowadays. “[It’s] just over time and having gotten aware and worked with trans folks, and understanding a bit more about the culture and the reality of the meaning of gender,” he explained. “It’s unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it’s f—king wrong. And you can quote me on that.”
The actor also said that he didn’t play Buffalo Bill as gay or trans and just saw him as a “f—ked-up heterosexual man.” Director Jonathan Demme shared a similar view of the character, saying that Bill only wanted to be a woman because it was his way of escaping. Producer Edward Saxon confirmed that the intent was never for Bill to be trans. “He was sick. To that extent, we missed it. From my point of view, we weren’t sensitive enough to the legacy of a lot of stereotypes and their ability to harm,” Saxon added.
I spent my childhood calling people gay and using the f slur, we all did. Same as the r slur. Hell the n-word didn’t have the same weight. This was the 80s and 90s.
Watching movies with my son from the 90s/00s and he cringes so often and throws out “yo they can’t say that!”
Very few of us clocked it, because it was the norm.
I hope we all remember the fucked up norms from when we were growing up when we cast judgement on others.
HOWEVER: we all learned, we all keep learning, cast the most insane judgement on anyone who doesn’t learn and doesn’t do better
We didn’t all do that. There were those of us who were gay or had gay loved ones
Not everyone used the n-word back in the 1800s either, but to pretend it wasn’t a common term is misguided.
You’re not wrong with your sentiment, but it doesn’t negate what I’m saying.
Precisely
I distinctly remember a bi friend of mine yelling “FAGGOTS!” over a LAN hall in the 2000s. It depended on the culture you were in - not just whether you were exposed to that language, but also whether you felt safe enough that words which saw use as homophobic slurs might also be used in a different way.
reddit exiles may remember the “OP is a f*g” meme from as few as 10 years ago. it wasn’t exactly frowned upon then
edit https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/op-is-a-faggot TW, exactly what you’d expect
In a way that is still alive and well here on Lemmy. Every story posted in !greentext@sh.itjust.works is “fake and gay”.
that definitely originated on less savoury sites…
Same. Back then it was normal basically. As an adult you just sounds dumb and ignorant talking like that.
the problem is the number of those kids who never grew up. more than a few of the dudes i ran around with in high school went on to be cops (big surprise) and as far as i know are still as racist, homophobic, misogynistic as ever
I was in a cab not too long ago and the guy was slinging “gay” and “retarded” like it was 1989. I’m a wicked chill dude so whatever cabbies say mostly bounces off me, but man that was an awkward ride.
I rewatched “In Bruges” recently, and I forgot how terrible the language was. It’s still a good movie, that’d I’d recommend, but there are some pretty problematic scenes. We as a society have grown a lot since then.
I get if people are put off by those things and don’t want to watch it, but I see them as a sign that we’re getting better overall.
There are plenty of times I find myself cringing in surprise like “yikes, I forgot about that” when going back to stuff.
And like it’s not even just the mature stuff. Back then, after school specials might drop the r and f slurs here and there.