Jeremy Strong Understands Criticism Of Straight Actors Playing Gay: “It’s Absolutely Valid”

After portraying Donald Trump‘s gay mentor Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, premiering Oct. 11 in theaters, the Golden Globe winner said he thinks LGBTQ actors should be “given more weight” when it comes to casting LGBTQ roles.

“Yes, it’s absolutely valid,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m sort of old fashioned, maybe, in the belief that, fundamentally, it’s [about] a person’s artistry, and that great artists, historically, have been able to, as it were, change the stamp of their nature. That’s your job as an actor. The task, in a way, is to render something that is not necessarily your native habitat. … While I don’t think that it’s necessary [for gay roles to be played by gay performers], I think that it would be good if that were given more weight.”