A LBGTQIA+ love story that strives to bridge inclusivity gaps.
By: Valerie Tonn
Star-Crossed Lovers Summary
In 2023, the Matthew López directed movie “Red, White & Royal Blue” was released on Amazon Prime in relation to the book by Casey McQuiston (López, 2023). It’s about the current U.S. president’s son, Alex, who has an initial hatred for Britain’s Prince Henry, after an encounter was misinterpreted between the two at an early age (López, 2023). After being forced to make an appearance together after the two are depicted in the media to be in a messy feud covered in cake, the two began the journey of an enemy to lover’s trope (López, 2023). With Alex being caught off guard after Prince Henry kisses him, they begin a relationship behind closed doors, as a public relationship is not allowed within the monarchy (López, 2023).
As the movie progresses, we get to see some romantic moments between Alex and Henry on screen, like Henry showing Alex around the museum in Britain (López, 2023). Eventually, the experience of coming out as LGBTQIA+ within your communities (López, 2023). Alex comes out to both his parents as Bisexual, whom in their own way address their support (López, 2023). We also see how Henry’s some of family is unsupportive, with his grandfather and brother, while his sister is supportive of his sexuality (López, 2023). After Alex’s former lover and journalist leaks Henry and Alex’s private emails, the monarchy calls for Henry to remain straight in public eye and defuse these claims to calm Britain (López, 2023). However, within the palace a crowd of British civilians can be heard in support of Alex and Henry’s relationship (López, 2023). As a result, the movie finishes when the lovers decide to go public both in Britain and then America when Alex’s mother is reelected president (López, 2023).
The movie has been praised for depicting realistic sex scenes through strategic details (Ross, 2023). The movie’s ability to show two men sleeping together in an emotionally intimate way, has been praised (Ross, 2023). As well, the movie has also been praised for the promotion of safe sex with the placement of a condom wrapper on the nightstand after a sex scene (Ross, 2023). This inclusion is realistic as any occurrence in real life with the use of a condom instead of the typical depiction of a clean scene without the use of a condom for screen (Ross, 2023).
Intentional choices were even apparent after López, the director, casted both Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine, to portray Alex and Henry (Vary, 2023). Both actors are older than the intended age range for the main characters, of early 20s, from the book (Vary, 2023). This selection was to make sure these characters were not believed to be engaging in “puppy love” but rather something more serious and emotionally driven (Vary, 2023). This decision with casting also caused the changing of Alex’s experience with bisexuality (Vary, 2023). The book has Prince Henry and Alex’s first kiss to be the first moment that Alex realizes he’s bisexual in comparison to the movie in which Alex has already begun his bisexual journey with a journalist prior to the movie’s start (Vary, 2023).
Monarchical Modernization Meets Modern Measures
With release of “Red, White & Royal Blue” calling for praise on new doors being opened for LGBTQIA+ depiction in the media its important to look at data as to understand accurately, current representation (Ross, 2023). While media in the past and current present still fails to fully include LGBTQ characters in current times, we have reached a milestone of one in five films in theaters in 2021 having a LGBTQ character (Yurcaba, 2022). These numbers means that major studies have accomplished reaching 20% inclusion within major theatrical release (López, 2023).
However, these increased percentages of LGBTQIA+ representation has decreased from 2020 to 2021 (Yurcaba, 2022). This can be seen as a result as media is being a persuasion tactic (Lind, 2023). This is in which media causes viewers to change their opinion based what favors those of the dominant group in society, in this case non-LGBTQIA+ community members and even those favoring anti-LGBTQIA+ opinions (Lind, 2023).
Underrepresentation can be seen for one in how queer woman outnumber queer men, but the percentage of representation for queer women has dropped in 2021 (Yurcaba, 2022). Additionally, bisexual characters still are underrepresented despite making up half of the LGBTQIA+ community, accounting for there to only be in two of 77 theatrical releases to have bisexual characters (Yurcaba, 2022). This also includes Transgender individuals who were featured in West Side Story in 2021, four years after Zoolander 2’s trans character who was considered “offensive” per the character’s depiction (Yurcaba, 2022). Following that is the underrepresentation of LGBTQIA+ characters with HIV or disabilities (Yurcaba, 2022). Therefore, while it’s important to recognize that this movie is a great step in the right direction, representation needs to be continued to be increased for inclusion to be met for the LGBTQIA+ community (Yurcaba, 2022).
About the Author
Valerie Tonn is an aspiring public relations professional in Denton, Texas. She is attaining her bachelor’s degree in journalism with a concentration in public relations and minoring in marketing. Tonn intends to graduate Dec. 2023.
References:
Lenker, M. L. (2023, August 10). “Red, White & Royal Blue’s” Nicholas Galitzine ate cake off his body in wedding scene. Entertainment Weekly. https://ew.com/movies/red-white-royal-blue-nicholas-galitzine-cake-frosting/
Lind, R. A. (2023). Race/gender/class/media: Considering diversity across audiences, content, and producers. Routledge.
López, M. (Director). (2023). Red, White & Royal Blue [Film]. Amazon Studios.
Maude, S. (2023). Red, White, & Royal Blue: 8 biggest changes from book to movie. ELLE. https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a44774485/red-white-and-royal-blue-book-movie-differences/
Ross, C. (2023, August 14). “Red, White & Royal Blue” is getting serious praise for its realistic sex scenes. Glamour. https://www.glamour.com/story/red-white-and-royal-blue-sex-scenes
Vary, A. B. (2023, August 15). Inside the making of “Red, White & Royal Blue”: From why “the prince absolutely uses condoms” to finding Uma Thurman’s Texas accent. Variety. https://variety.com/2023/film/news/red-white-royal-blue-sex-scenes-novel-changes-matthew-lopez-1235696527/
Yurcaba, J. (2022, December 15). 1 in 5 studio films included an LGBTQ character in 2021, GLAAD report finds. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-pop-culture/1-5-studio-films-included-lgbtq-character-2021-glaad-report-finds-rcna61872
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