9 times famous actors refused to do gay scenes

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For straight actors, playing gay can do wonders for your career. Heck, it can even get you those much-coveted, highly-prestigious awards season nominations and wins!

However, the draw of trophies and critical praise isn't enough for some actors, as they still refuse to take on gay roles or do scenes where they kiss a member of the same sex.

Here are nine times famous actors have refused to do gay scenes in movies and TV.

1. Mark Wahlberg

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In a 2007 interview, Wahlberg revealed he was approached to star in Brokeback Mountain, but turned it down because he "got a little creeped out" by how graphic it was.

"I met with Ang Lee on that movie, I read 15 pages of the script and got a little creeped out. It was very graphic, descriptive – the spitting on the hand, getting ready to do the thing," he said. "I told Ang Lee, 'I like you, you're a talented guy, if you want to talk about it more…' Thankfully, he didn't. I didn't rush to see Brokeback, it's just not my deal… Obviously, it was done in taste – look how it was received."

2. Eddie Murphy

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In a 1990 interview with Playboy, Murphy said he turned down playing Little Richard in a movie because of gay scenes. "Would I play a homosexual? Why? I' a comedian. It would just have to be a movie where I say, 'hey this is great, I've really got to do this.' But I don't think I could do some movie where I was kissing some guy and shit like that."

"I read something about a sequence in An Officer and a Gentleman where they had to eat roaches. I ain't eating no butt and I ain't kissing no man. Sorry. If I'm not an actor because of that, so be it. And if you want to go to the movies and see me eat a bug and kiss a man, you have a problem, not me."

3. Will Smith

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In one of his early film roles, Smith played a gay character in the film Six Degrees of Separation, however, even in that role, he refused to do a gay kiss. In the film, his character was supposed to share a kiss with the one played by Anthony Michael Hall, but Smith refused and a stand-in was used.

"It was very immature on my part," Smith said later. "I was thinking, 'How are my friends in Philly going to think about this?' I wasn't emotionally stable enough to artistically commit to that aspect of the film."

4. Luke Grimes

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Grimes was starring on HBO's True Blood for several seasons before he suddenly left the show before the seventh and final season. At first, HBO said he left the show because of "the creative direction of the character," but details later came out. According to BuzzFeed, Grimes "objected to the first few scripts he received, once it became clear that his character would become romantically involved with Lafayette. He countered that he would be willing to play the role if Lafayette were attracted to him, but not if the attraction was mutual. He also did not want to do any same-sex kissing or sex scenes."

5. Al Pacino

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According to a making-of documentary, when Pacino played bank robber Sonny Wortzik in the Oscar-winning film Dog Day Afternoon, he rejected a scene where he was supposed to kiss Chris Saradon's character, as he felt it was "exploitative" and "pushing the gay issue" on audiences. He thought it would be more dramatically effective to show the couple not kiss in order to "convey the failure of the relationship."

6. Kevin Hart

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In 2015, Hart revealed that he had turned down the role of gay rapper Alpa Chino in the film Tropic Thunder. "The dude, he was doing a lot of stuff in the draft that I read. It was real flagrant… I was like, 'I can't do this,'" he said.

When asked if he would ever play a gay character, he said, "I can't, not because I have any ill will or disrespect. It's because I don't think I'm really going to dive into that role 100 percent because of insecurities about myself trying to play that part. Does that make sense?" He said he might reconsider his stance after gaining more acting experience.

7. Chris Engen

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Soap opera star Chris Engen caused controversy in 2009 when he reportedly walked off the set of The Young and the Restless when he refused to do a kissing scene with another male actor. His role was recast with actor Michael Muhney.

8. Samuel L. Jackson

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In a 2013 Playboy interview, film legend Samuel L. Jackson was talking about his love of working with filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and was asked "what's the one thing you wouldn't do onscreen," even for him. "Probably dress up as a woman and kiss another guy," Jackson said. "I don't think people want to see me do that. He hasn't asked me, but you know what? If it's done right and the story is good. I might."

9. Tom Hanks

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While Hanks won an Oscar for playing a gay man dying from complications from AIDS in Philadelphia, the actor refused to do an onscreen kiss with his co-star Antonio Banderas. Denzel Washington, who was also in the film, reportedly told Will Smith that "whether you play a gay character or not, you never kiss another man onscreen."

"I wouldn't fault Denzel for telling Will Smith that," Philadelphia director Jonathan Demme said. "That's Denzel responding to the same concern that Ron [Nyswander, who wrote the film], Tom, Antonio and I had. It's a real concern. When we see two men kissing, we're the products of our brainwashing–it knocks us back 20 feet. And with Philadelphia–I'm sorry, Larry Kramer–I didn't want to risk knocking our audience back 20 feet with images they're not prepared to see. It's just shocking imagery, and I didn't want to shoehorn it in."