On Not Knowing The Difference Between An Actor And The Character They're Playing

Apparently the blogger Willis Hart does not.

Willis Hart: On Eva Marie Saint's Seduction of Cary Grant in "North by Northwest"... Note to Eva (Eve in the film). He's gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that!!!! (7/8/2015 AT 8:35pm).

OK, so he does acknowledge that Eva Marie Saint had a different name in the film... because she was playing a character. But he seems to think that both Eva Marie Saint (the actress) and "Eve Kendall" (the character in the film) "seduced" Cary Grant.

And, btw, Cary Grant was also playing a character... so while Cary Grant MIGHT have been gay, "Roger Thornhill" was not.

In any case, I looked into it, and despite Willis being convinced that Cary Grant having been gay is a fact, I found information that suggests otherwise.

"My father liked being called gay", admits Cary Grant's daughter in new memoir... Cary Grant's daughter has penned a memoir about the famous actor, admitting he liked it when people called him gay. The British screen icon, who was married five times, was often dogged by rumors that he was bisexual. But his daughter Jennifer Grant... says the Hot Saturday star actually liked the mystique surrounding his sexuality because it "made women want to prove the assertion wrong". In the memoir, Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant, Jennifer writes: "(You) Can't blame men for wanting him, and wouldn't be surprised if Dad even mildly flirted back". (Excerpt from a 4/28/2011 Daily Mail Reporter article).

Obviously his daughter did not believe he was gay. (Cary Grant's only child Jennifer Grant was born in 1966. Jennifer's mother is Dyan Cannon, who Cary Grant married in 1965).

So, who am I going to believe, the Hollywood rumor mill (and Willis) or Cary Grant's daughter? Yeah, that's an easy one. Verdict: probably not gay. Or bisexual... which this article says the actual rumor was... so he WOULD have been open to a seduction by Eva Marie Saint, if she had actually tried to seduce him (as opposed to her character doing the "seducing").

Four strikes and Willis is out...

Strike 1 is not knowing Eva Marie Saint was acting and thinking she actually had romantic feelings for the lead she was playing opposite when, in reality, she was (and still is) married to Jeffrey Hayden (and Grant was married to Betsy Drake).

Cary Grant was also acting, and his character "Roger Tornhill" was a straight man who was open to being "seduced"... the two characters (Eve Kendall and Roger Thornhill) were married at the end of the film.

Strike 2 is thinking Cary Grant being gay is a confirmed fact instead of an unconfirmed rumor. A rumor that Grant addressed, saying that he had "nothing against gays, I'm just not one myself" [1]. And his own daughter disputes this as well. (Randolph Scott is the actor he was rumored to have had a gay affair with).

Strike 3 is him not knowing the actual rumor was that Cary Grant was bi-sexual, and therefore, if Eva had actually been seducing him (instead of acting) he may have been open to the seduction.

Strike 4 is thinking Eva Marie Saint - or anyone else he addresses with his "notes" - reads them. Or would care if they did. If Eva Marie Saint didn't know (or had heard the rumor) back in 1959... what is she (if she were to read Willis' "note") supposed to do with that information now?

Footnote
[1] Source: Wikipedia/Randolph Scott/Personal Life/Rumors about sexual orientation.

Image Description: Randolph Scott's adopted son, Christopher, challenged the rumors. Following Scott's death, Christopher wrote a book titled, Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?, in which he rebuts rumors of his father's alleged homosexuality. The widely circulated photos of Grant and Scott were publicity stills. Both Scott and Grant were posed for the shots that were staged by an art director, to be used for an upcoming film, My Favorite Wife. The photos were stolen from the Scott family house during the last months of his father's life by a nurse who had been fired [1].

OST #57