A series by Christopher James investigating the 'Gay Best Friend' trope in movies.
At 13 minutes into the movie, we meet Duncan (Pete Davidson). Very quickly after, we wish we hadn't met him.
I can admit this. Many of my choices for Gay Best Friend have been examples that I’ve loved. In the 90s and 00s, this was often one of the few ways we would see positive gay representation on the screen. Still, this trope can be negative when it leans on broad characterizations, the gay best friend as an empty accessory.
Netflix’s Set It Up (2018) was a breath of fresh air in some ways. Theatrical releases were reserved for either superhero movies or more “cinematic” prestige fare. The romantic comedy genre was being edged out, only to find its home on Netflix. Set It Up had all the makings of a Pillow Talk old-fashioned romantic comedy with the modern sheen of a How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Harper (Zoey Deutsch) and Charlie (Glen Powell) are overworked assistants who set their respective bosses up with each other (Taye Diggs and Lucy Lui) so they can have more work-life balance. Sparks fly between the bosses and assistants.
Unfortunately, it features a “gay best friend” character that embodies everything that’s wrong with the stereotype and threatens to derail a perfectly fun movie...
Don't stay laughing for too long. We've got some thoughts about Pete Davidson's "gay best friend" from Set It Up.How bad is Pete Davidson in this movie? He’s bad in so many of ways, many of which are not readily apparent. Earlier versions of the “gay best friend” would find actors making the characters overly feminine, often to mock them, or overly masculine to underline “they’re still just one of the guys.” Davidson’s Duncan falls into the second camp, but in the laziest way possible. Davidson reads each line as if it's on a Weekend Update teleprompter and he hasn’t seen the words before. His intro scene revolves around a joke on how gay guys are promiscuous. The kicker is that, yes, Duncan did have a guy over while he was giving his roommate and friend Charlie a pep talk. However, Duncan’s hook-up merely kisses him on the cheek while Davidson does his best to not look uncomfortable. It’s cring-y, almost as if Davidson wished he weren’t playing a gay character. This epitomizes the laziness of the Duncan character. He’s written as “gay” as if to fulfill a quota, but is so lifelessly written and played that it does a disservice to the character.
When we discussed about Kieran Culkin's Wallace Wells in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, some readers had issues with the casting of a straight man in the role and felt like it was too slight of a character. I can definitely see that, but even in his limited screen-time, Culkin imbued the character with a perspective that Duncan is never given. Here in Set it Up, we never really understand what Duncan thinks of Charlie, his workaholic tendencies or his burgoning love for Harper. He does tell us that he doesn't like Charlie's current girlfriend Suze (Joan Smalls) because she's shallow. That's a pretty big claim to make when Duncan is similarly shallow. Culkin's Wallace wants to help his friend Scott out so that Scott will leave his apartment and he can live the single gay lifestyle he so desperately wants. What does Duncan want? Neither the script nor Davidson bother asking that question.
Glen Powell's Charlie (right) hits all the right notes of being a lovably douchey love interest. Unfortunately, his friendship with Pete Davidson's Duncan (left) adds nothing to the film or his characterization.
Charlie: Harper, this is Duncan, my roommate. He’s a teacher at a middle school in the Bronx. He’s gay, so keep your ovaries in your pants.
I can’t fully place all the blame on Pete Davidson for his shallow characterization. The script by Katie Silberman treats him like another box that needs to be checked, not like an actual character. When Charlie introduces Duncan to Harper, he’s introduced in such a matter-of-fact way. He’s my roommate, he’s a teacher, he’s gay. That’s it. That’s all you need to know.
Yes, no movie is going to give every character a rich inner life. Yet, compare and contrast Duncan (Charlie’s best friend) to Becca (Meredith Hangar, as Harper’s best friend). Becca and Harper’s friendship jumps off the screen, as Hangar and Deutch calibrate a fun, lived-in banter. Furthermore, Becca gets a life of her own, as her boyfriend Mike (Jon Rudnitsky) proposes to her at the beginning of the movie. The rest of the movie, Becca becomes preoccupied with planning this dream wedding of her’s, leading to a big swoon-worthy set piece at her engagement party. Not only does she have a life that exists outside of the main plot of the movie, her life is an interesting contrast to Harper’s. While Harper struggles at work and chasing her dream, her roommate and best friend seemingly has it all. This only heightens Harper’s feelings of inadequacy at work and in life, motivating her more and more throughout the film.
Duncan gets no further characterization than that one line: teacher, roommate, gay. He’ll get thrown a one-liner every once in a while that touches on one of those three things. However, he never enhances any scene, nor heightens the drama. He exists because, theoretically, Charlie needed a friend somewhere.
Pete Davidson might be mad at being the first negative subject of the Gay Best Friend column.
Set It Up showed us what a modern streaming romantic comedy could be. Since then, we’ve gotten the delightful To All The Boys series, Always Be My Maybe, and Someone Great, among others. Pete Davidson’s unfortunate gay best friend was a misstep in an otherwise wonderful movie. However, it’s a good reminder that modern movies still easily fall victim to gross stereotypes and tropes that have been around for decades. A message to casting agents, please hire LGBTQ+ actors to play LGBTQ+ roles. In the case of Set It Up, there’s no reason you needed a “name” to play this four scene character, especially when Davidson brought nothing to the role. We live in a diverse world filled with people of many different colors, beliefs and sexualities. Romantic comedies have a great opportunity to reflect the diverse world we live in. May creators of future rom-coms recognize this responsibility and do better.