randomWalks

Don’t buy the credo Diesel told Time: "I support the idea of being multicultural primarily for all the invisible kids, the ones who don’t fit into one ethnic category and then find themselves lost in some limbo." That’s just marketing talk. The only limbo kids fall into is pop culture.

I'm also the son of an astrologer. Does that make me antiestablishment, singular, reckless, yet familiar?



Yes, I think it does.

I think so too. What I'm more worried about is you using our culture’s subconscious racial/sexual fantasies to your own advantage and to the mainstream’s delight.

just kidding, i'm NOT worried about that.

That is, I'm worried about all of us.

He's also gay. (not that anything's wrong with that)

plz, i need documentation. This would change my entire reading of the movie (which I'm quite proud of).

From a trusted and well known colleague:



While working in Europe (on XXX) they hired him a "girlfriend" who he dragged around with him from set to set.



His male "friend" often visited the set and there were numerous passionate advances noted by cast and crew.



He also recently purchased a house. While looking for houses, he went with his "manager" to the homes. He never brought his "girlfriend."



I've also heard (through less reputable sources) that he often dated men he met while bouncing in NY.



A friend and I were just noting that we think America (and the world) is ready for a gay action hero.



Vin, here's your call to duty. Come out bro.

Not that this link proves the truth of the rumor, but it does prove the existence of the rumor.

How would it change your reading of the movie? Please enlighten me Mr. DJ.

I remember there was talk a couple of years ago about a gay James Bond, starring Rupert Everett, but this project has not materialized. If Xander Cage were, in fact, sexually ambiguous that might make sexuality in XXX a more interesting issue. And maybe then we could start talking about a "gay action hero." So I have to ask, dj, how Vin Diesel's sexuality could possibly destroy your reading of the film?



By the way, he was the voice of the title character in The Iron Giant!

P.S. - Forgot to mention we work in Hollywood.



This is NOT something I heard from my granny who watches a lot of Entertainment Tonight.

P.S. - Forgot to mention we work in Hollywood.



This is NOT something I heard from my granny who watches a lot of Entertainment Tonight.

What I want to know is why this information--wherever it comes from--somehow proves that the "gay action hero" has arrived.

I agree with lilliput. The gay action hero doesn't arrive without being an out action hero. Others in this computer lab say much the same thing. An openly gay actor might not be as successful with the action movie audience.

No one claimed that the gay action hero has arrived. The only question is whether or not someone is ready to make a film with a gay action hero. Whether they dare.



This could happen a variety of ways. An out actor starring in a action film (he couldn't be acting straight, but it could ambiguous).



Or someone will really step up to the plate and make a film about a gay action hero.

/me points to Tom Cruise.

How can an action hero be sexually ambiguous when half of the job is to flirt (to put it very mildly) with someone equally attractive? I'm happy that the female action hero arrived. See The Long Kiss Goodnight (a couple years ago, but I love it), Charlie's Angels, Dark Angel, Alias, Ballistic (Lucy Liu).

That's fine, envirowarrior, but I have to stand by my initial point that Vin Diesel's sexuality is irrelevant, at least in a discussion of XXX (I haven't seen his other films and can't speak for those characters). But I'm still wondering why it's such a concern for some of his fans--and why dj thinks it will ruin his reading of the film.



Tom Cruise? I don't get it.

Tom Cruise: gay action hero. reading and ruined reading forthcoming.

dj, when did Tom Cruise come out? I must have been dead that year, because I never heard a thing about it.

does it change anyone's reading of will&grace to know the boys are straight? how do you understand gay when gay is portrayed by straight men portraying stereotypes? would it be different if they were gay? would the acting itself change? is it simply the difference between homophobia and internalized homophobia?

i.e., if diesel's gay, portraying a particular brand of racialized masculinity in XXX, does his portrayal expand that masculinity to include gay now? (only if he's out, I think). or does it make him a huge anti-role model, as in, all you potential gay action hero-types, you better stay in the f**in closet.(since he's not out). finally, how could his sexuality NOT affect one's reading of the movie? the only way to do that is to pretend as if we don't know that the sets are fake and the actors are humans with lives off screen. the meaning is in the relationship between life & art. If it were a well-publicized "thing," that is, if Diesel were vocal and genuine about what it's like to play a straight guy when he's gay, then I'd say there was less of an effect on the reading of the movie.

BTW ignore whatever comments clearly result from my not having seen the movie.

The Tom Cruise rumor has been going strong for probably a decade. If I remember correctly, The Celluloid Closet addresses it. I've heard that the book of The Celluloid Closet even closes with a chapter on Tom Cruise.

Hcog, I started off agreeing with you but I have a serious objection to your assertion that "the meaning is in the relationship between life and art." This statement rarely occurs when the artist in question is a white, heterosexual male.



I do believe that "reading" gender, race and sexuality in and into art is relevant--but I have a problem with the way it's being done here. If our reading of XXX somehow "hinges" on answering the question of Vin Diesel's sexuality, that proves to me that there is little discernible confluence between life and art, at least in this film.

Am I allowed to reveal XXX spoilers in this thread?



Adam, will you create a CSS style for spoiler that will blend with the background (AICN style?)

Obviously, I don't care if you reveal spoilers. Why don't you talk a little bit about "laying pipe" in this movie. I found the below described scene grody, and it made me not-love Xander Cage (although somehow Mr. Diesel manages to still hold a special place in my heart), was the first implied love scene. After his kisses are rebuffed by his leading lady (don't worry, we know he'll win her heart - and more - by the end of the show), he walks into his bedroom to find a stranger in her skivvies, and maybe shoes, writhing around on one of the posts of his enormous four-poster bed. "The things I'll do for my country," he says as he dives onto the woman, she having writhed her way onto the mattress. And SCENE! What is up with that?

lilliput, I'm not entirely sure what you mean and I'd like to understand...

it is almost second nature for me to inquire into the effect of white male heterosexuality (sometimes in my whiteness i'm still blind and screw up.) Maybe that assumption didn't come through in what I wrote.

I would say that reading XXX doesn't so much "hinge" on his sexuality as it is affected by it. What is the difference for you between the relevance of race, gender, and sexuality etc. for "reading" art and what is going on here? How do you propose the be read in and into art?

hcog, i should have been more clear in my reply. the first part of my comment was a reaction to that particular statement you made--and i feel now that i did take it out of context.



as for the part about "life and art" and whether or not an interesting intersection of the two takes place in XXX--i just want to be more critical about it and not base my reading on speculation, which is what a list of Diesel "gay sightings" amounts to, in my opinion. having said that i'm going to go ahead and speculate that perhaps there is some meaning in Diesel's reticence on the subject, as in his refusal to talk about any aspect of his personal life. maybe he is hiding. or maybe he's opening the boundaries of sex, race and gender by refusing to label himself as an either/or. this, at least, is how he answers the question of race.



i can't believe this movie is still on my mind. i hated it! btw, hcog, thanks for posting about the "i look up at the sky now" screening. i'll be there!