Steven Spielberg Names “Philadelphia” As His Favourite Gay Film
Steven Spielberg has named Philadelphia, the 1993 drama starring Tom Hanks as a lawyer fighting his sacking after an AIDS diagnosis, as his favourite LGBTQIA+ film. The director, 79, made the pick while speaking to Attitude at the London premiere of his new sci-fi Disclosure Day last week.
“My favourite LGBT film? Oh my god, there are so many, there are so many,” Spielberg told the magazine. “Even though Tom Hanks is not gay, I thought Philadelphia was a breakthrough. It was a watershed film that he probably wouldn’t do today, but he would be just as good in it today if he did.”
Why Philadelphia still matters
Jonathan Demme’s courtroom drama was one of the first major Hollywood films to confront AIDS and homophobia head-on, and it won Hanks his first Best Actor Oscar in 1994. Hanks himself told The New York Times in 2022 that the role should now go to a gay actor.
“Could a straight man do what I did in Philadelphia now? No, and rightly so,” he said. “We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.”
Spielberg also gave an honourable mention to 1961’s The Children’s Hour, calling it “a great film [starring] Audrey Hepburn”.
Which films do other stars pick?
Spielberg isn’t the only one with an answer ready. At the same premiere, his Disclosure Day star Eve Hewson picked Heated Rivalry, admitting she finished the gay hockey drama and “started it again immediately after”. Her co-star Henry Lloyd-Hughes named Stephen Beresford’s Pride before settling on Moonlight “on pure cinematic sensibility”.
Troye Sivan has been open about his love for Call Me By Your Name for years, telling Pop Crush in 2018 it was the first time he ever looked at a character and thought, “I one-hundred per cent relate to that person.” He even wished he’d auditioned to play Elio.
