Tell me about Jaye Davidson’s Crying Game Reveal

[quote] Could a movie spoiler like that ever be kept today?

when it got a Best Supporting ACTOR nomination, they secret was out

It wasn’t really a reveal to people who lived in cities. Considering it was an art house film, that was practically the whole audience.

Most people didn’t see it.

The sky was so bright.

This happened to me on Grindr the other night, except in a different way.

It was a big deal at the time.

It was a poorly kept secret back then, too. The secret probably wouldn't have a chance today.

I thought he was Cathy Tyson until he was nominated and that was a very big reveal. He would have been a worthy win, as well. Classic film.

I was 13 though I did see it in an art house theater with my sister. I don’t really know what the cultural consensus was.

Leslie Nielsen and Anna Nicole Smith parodied it in the movie Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.

Every two-bit comedian make a joke about it.

The reaction was anti-gay and anti-trans. It was the 90s after all.

Academy Awards that year was celebrating women in film

Mercedes Ruehl who was presenting in the Best Supporting Actor category that year said

"In a year where we celebrate women in film, I'm presenting a category where women have found it impossible to gain a toehole. It's safe to say we have made a significant breakthrough in this category!"

Billy Crystal did a wonderful parody of it to the tune of "The Tender Trap" in that year's Oscars.

IIRC, some people got upset with the Academy for nominating him in the supporting actor category because they felt that destroyed the big reveal of the film.

Saw it opening weekend, so I actually didn't know the twist and was genuinely shocked (though I knew there was supposed to be a twist). I worked with someone who was so disgusted by it that they walked out and asked for their money back.

Actually thought it was a shame that the "secret" overwhelmed the rest of the movie to such a degree, because it was a good film that ended up being reduced to a punchline.

Agreed R14. I think the "secret" was revealed before I watched it, but honestly Stevie Wonder would have figured it out. It was a nice little indie film completely blown up into a "thing".

I saw it early and the reveal really surprised me. I wasn't expecting it at all.

The entire theatre threw up and rioted.

My aunt, who hated the film told me " I knew that bitch was a man"!

I went to see it opening night in Columbus. My friend, a female, whispered to me "Oh oh, she's a dude" as soon as she started to go down on him. So I started paying closer attention and the reveal was not a shock to me.

Of course, my friend was right. I asked her how she knew so fast. She said women never go down on a man first thing. Haha.

One thing I never understood - did the terrorists know it was a man or did they think it was a girl up to the end?

To me, the big reveal was how this unknown actor played the role so well.

Love the bitchy exchange between Jaye and Miranda Richardson that begins at 1:05.

Nobody mentions Randy Travis singing "Stand By Your Man" at the end. It pretty much turned the light on in his closet.

I saw it in theaters with a straight friend. I thought it was obvious, but he let out a loud “oh my god” at the reveal.

Jaye Davidson vowed that his acting career would begin and end with the Crying Game

and he sort of kept his promise, with only two movies in 1994, he has done no acting since 1994

I think it’s one of the best films ever.

Dan Butler did a sketch about this movie in his one man show "The Only Worse Thing You Could Have Told Me"

I saw it with my sister the week it came out. Neither one of us had any awareness of the secret ; we thought it was just a British film about the IRA.

We were both shocked when the big reveal happened; I don’t think I’ve been caught off guard like that by a movie before or since,

Meh! I was doing it eight shows a week on Broadway in a little musical called "Rent".

[quote] IIRC, some people got upset with the Academy for nominating him in the supporting actor category because they felt that destroyed the big reveal of the film.

Another reason why cis binary gendered categories need to be abolished. It should be Best Actorx regardless of gender.

Go to the fridge and get out a packet of hot dogs. Open the packet. Throw a hot dog on the floor. There you have Jaye Davidson’s “Crying Game” reveal.

Bonus: young(ish) James Broadbent!

i liked the movie and saw it when it came out. i haven't seen it since then, might be good to re-visit it. i really like watching UK-related movies/shows.

I saw it in the theater and I was surprised by the big reveal. Some guys in the small audience gasped out loud. I giggled. Excellent film. But I rushed to see it because of the whispers of something shocking about it. I really didn't expect Jaye to be a guy. I was innocent back then. ;)

I saw director Neil Jordan give a Q/A about the film for its 25th anniversary. EVERY fucking question from the moderator was trans this, trans that, and how the film would play today and Jordan was polite but you could tell he was irritated by the questions. It was obvious Jordan saw Dil as a character rather than some political statement about transgenderism which the moderator was trying to push. I respected Jordan after that because he really is about telling stories than pushing an agenda. And that's why I still love the film because it's about people. Also, the soundtrack is amazing.

American people were stupid then and are still stupid now as the rest of the world knew she was a trans! It wasn't such a big twist thingie in the UK at all. However, the film was a great romantic film.

Also the least interesting thing about the movie.

I recall Rush Limbaugh revealing the surprise twist ending on his radio show.

Jane Fonda approached Jaye Davidson at the Academy Awards ceremony to congratulate him on his performance and he was reportedly rude to her.

One of few if perhaps only songs by Boy George one actually liked. It's still there buried with rest of my CD collection, though think ended up buying original film soundtrack.

I remember seeing this as a teenager with my sister and her female friend from the UK.

There was one scene where Dil is throwing out her boyfriend's stuff off the balcony of the apartment and screams "Fuck off back to Essex!" My sister's friend couldn't stop laughing.

Later she explained it to us it would be the equivalent of saying go back to the ghetto where you belong.

Any UK people want to chime in on that?

I thought it was fairly obvious it was a man. But my trandar is just as good as my gaydar .

I couldn't believe he was circumcised.

There were hints early in the movie.

Jody saying something like Jude not being his usual type. And Col, the bartender, trying to say it to Fergus right before Jaye's character has his big entrance on the club's stage.

When I first saw the movie and Jaye's character showed up I thought "Is this a bad Sade impersonator?".

I'd be more interested in this kind of reveal:

This was released in the UK at the end of 1992 and just faded away. I don't even remember there being a huge amount of outrage over it presenting an IRA terrorist as a sympathetic character, let alone the OMG SHE'S GOT A DICK ridicule you would have expected from the tabloids.

It didn't get a mainstream cinema release and Stephen Wooley (I think) complained about the wall to wall coverage the release Peter's Friends had. The Boy George single wasn't a huge hit either.

Then all the award nominations came and it generated some news coverage. Miranda beat herself at the BAFTAs, winning for Damage, but the media didn't go overboard with Jaye being nominated in the supporting actor category. From what I remember there was more focus on the quality of Forest Whitaker's English accent.

I got a VHS release not long after the Oscars and generated a bit of discussion around THE TWIST, but a lot of people found Forest Whitaker's death more of a twist than Jaye Davidson's penis.

Btw, Cicero's Pet Shop Boys' produced single Live For Today remains a total banging bop. Truly life affirming. You can understand why Chris Lowe took such a shine to him. Sylvia Mason James is outstanding. There was a proper video for it on YouTube at some point. The Orchestral version is great too.

I remember watching it with my mother and when Jaye was doing one of his songs on stage, my mother said, "Are you sure that's a woman? She has HUGE hands!" She wasn't fooled!

It initially flopped in the UK because no one wanted to go to a movie about the IRA. But it exploded in the US when it was released. People like Madonna (she was still relevant back then) went around saying it was the best movie of the year,

Was Peter's Friends that big of a success or hyped as one? It seems like such a quaint and quiet TV drama.

I rented it long after the Oscars supposedly "spoiled" the surprise, and was so convinced by Davidson that as I watched, I figured there was a trans character coming up that hadn't been introduced yet. The reveal really surprised me.

It became a punchline as others said, largely because American humor in the 1990s was about making fun of anyone who was even slightly different from the norm, but the film is terrific and was probably hurt by the reaction of the reveal.

[quote]Nobody mentions Randy Travis singing "Stand By Your Man" at the end. It pretty much turned the light on in his closet.

R23 Or Madonna singing in the background during the big Jimmy / Miranda bar scene.

[quote]Was Peter's Friends that big of a success or hyped as one? It seems like such a quaint and quiet TV drama.

It did well at the box office but the publicity was ferocious. Ken & Em were huge stars (it was before she'd won the Oscar for Howards End) and the other actors were famous names from their TV shows.

Tony Slattery was of course in both The Crying Game and Peter's Friends.

He looks like Meghan Markle's trans sister.

Peter's Friends might have been a hit in the UK, but it certainly wasn't in the US. Crying Game did far better, thanks in part to the Miramax marketing machine. Game is also a far better movie.

Peter's Friends is just a ripoff of The Big Chill which was a ripoff of Return Of The Secaucus Seven.

This thread made me re-watch The Crying Game. Of course, I remembered the 'catch' but I forgot how good the movie was. Thanks, OP.

[quote]I'm presenting a category where women have found it impossible to gain a toehole.

Oh, dear.

Whenever I hear there’s a twist, I go in and can’t help guessing as the movie is beginning. Within minutes I figured out she was a he.

Same with the Sixth Sense. The minute he said “I see dead people,” I knew the twist.

I went to see it with a frenemy and as we were waiting on line he said, the girl turns out to be a guy. And just like that, the guy in front of us turns around and smacks him! He had it coming, really. He huffed away and I stayed to see the movie. Never saw him after that.

One of my favourite comedy moments of all time is these dirty old women discussing The Crying Game.

[quote]Nobody mentions Randy Travis singing "Stand By Your Man" at the end. It pretty much turned the light on in his closet.

Actually, that was Lyle Lovett; his version of Stand By Your Man is still one of my favorites

Fun fact I didn't know until recently: The Miranda Richardson IRA character was (supposedly) based on Stephen Rea's wife at the time, Dolours Price, known the UK as the Old Bailey Bomber

I always wondered why Neil Jordan cast Forest Whitaker as a British soldier.

I’m not sure that the dude from Good Morning Vietnam and Bird would have attracted a bigger budget. Maybe for his charisma, he was very likeable, though.

R60 I think Forest was wonderful.

Agrees, r61. I can’t imagine anyone being as perfect as him.

The male terrorist later turned up as the police chief in Line of Duty, a cop show that was huge in the UK.

"I went to see it with a frenemy and as we were waiting on line he said, the girl turns out to be a guy. And just like that, the guy in front of us turns around and smacks him!"

The slapper was lucky there were no cellphones back then. The altercation would have been recorded and he would have been cancelled, pronto!

I wish they would release this on Blu-Ray. It's still one of my favourite films from the '90s.

[quote]Peter's Friends might have been a hit in the UK, but it certainly wasn't in the US. Crying Game did far better, thanks in part to the Miramax marketing machine. Game is also a far better movie. Peter's Friends is just a ripoff of The Big Chill which was a ripoff of Return Of The Secaucus Seven.

Peter's Friends isn't a bad film by any means and like The Crying Game it was groundbreaking it its own way - at the time it was certainly the highest profile movie to feature a lead character who was a gay man with HIV. The previous British effort to cover HIV was the BBC drama Sweet As You Are with Miranda Richardson and Liam Neeson as a very heterosexual couple affected by it. A year after Peter's Friends there was Closing Numbers when the lovely Jane Asher discovered her beloved husband was a dirty homosexual who has sex with strangers in toilets on inter city trains. Spoiler: Jane becomes a Jill and nurses dying gay men.

[quote]The male terrorist later turned up as the police chief in Line of Duty, a cop show that was huge in the UK.

Season 6 of Line of Duty starting in a fortnight!! Adrian Dunbar was actually nominated alongside Neil Jordan at the 1993 BAFTAs for best original screenplay, Dunbar for Hear My Song and Jordan for The Crying Game. They lost to Woody Allen for Husbands and Wives. Dunbar played Natasha Richardson's love interest Widow's Peak and Emma Thompson's husband in The Blue Boy. After a very bright start in the early 90s he became a jobbing actor but Line Of Duty has rightly reminded people of how good he is.

For the elder gays here: Had Miranda Richardson been nominated for The Crying Game and not Damage, would she have beaten Marisa Tomei to the Oscar?

I rewatched it last week - I think it’s such a great film. I had forgotten what it was like to watch a movie that was non linear - with such strong historical context and so many different active themes all interacting and worlds colliding. The setting of London is perfect and the whole thing is just so gripping. Miranda is fabbbbbulous as the villain- that hair!

It engages the viewer in a way that feels active, more like a book in that respect. My partner had never seen it and loved it too.

I kinda had an idea of the secret whilst watching, but the friend I was with was truly shocked.

I subscribed to EWeekly for decades, the cover with Stephen was the first issue I received. I read the article and it made me want to go see the movie.

I had no idea what kind of press it was getting since social media still wasn’t a thing and I don’t think I had cable tv back then. It was a very good movie. The only criticism I read about was the casting of Forest Whitaker.

I wasn’t really shocked by the reveal. I had heard there was a twist but didn’t know exactly what. Davidson is androgynous but still masculine enough that it wasn’t all that surprising.

This thread makes me want to watch it again. I haven’t seen it since the early 90s and I’d probably appreciate it it more now. I remember the Boy George song was soooo overplayed at the time I would actually get angry when it came on the radio and couldn’t change the station fast enough.

The screenplay is terrific and deservedly won the Oscar.

[quote]For the elder gays here: Had Miranda Richardson been nominated for The Crying Game and not Damage, would she have beaten Marisa Tomei to the Oscar?

Great question. I think Miranda deserved to win that year or tie with Marisa. She was so good in both films but also Enchanted April.

I can't remember if the AbFab appearance was before or after, but she was great as "Bettina" who - according to Patsy - was so anal retentive she couldn't sit down without fear of sucking up the furniture.

Judy Davis deserved the Oscar that year for Husbands and Wives, not Richardson and certainly not Tomei.

I remember being totally surprised with Jaye’s reveal. The movie studio was publicly asking reviewers and people who had seen the movie not to spoil the surprise.

[quote]I couldn't believe he was circumcised.

Jaye was born in the US.

I went opening weekend. I hadn't heard so many screams or seen so many popcorn containers flying since opening weekend of Carrie.

Like Carrie, this is one of two movies that I would love to see again -for the first time.

And also like Carrie, this was a wonderful movie even without the shock.

I posted in the thread about Silence Of The Lambs being transphobic as to why The Crying Game is the ultimate TRA movie.

Stephen Rea meets Jaye and doesn't realise she got a penis. Initially he's repulsed but when he comes to terms with his prejudice and genital preference he accepts Jaye for who she really is. Then Miranda turns up with her terf bangs and is really bitchy towards Jaye and tries to steal Stephen's heart back with her cishet feminine wiles but Stephen makes his preference clear and rejects horrible terfy Miranda and then Jaye gets Miranda's gun and literally SHOOTS THE TERF DEAD, bang bang bang.

I think Miranda Richardson would have won the Oscar over Marissa Tomei if she'd been nominated for The Crying Game instead of Damages. As much as I love My Cousin Vinny and Marissa's performance in it, Oscar voters tended to reward nominees who were in Best Picture nominees. And Miranda was very very good in it.

It's also well known that a lot of voters didn't watch a lot of the nominated films and performances, and neither Damages nor Husbands and Wives we're widely seen, whereas The Crying Game and My Cousin Vinny were, at least in the U.S.

Jaye looks very different these days

There was an entertainment show at the time, maybe Siskel & Ebert's show, that went on at length about how Damages hadn't been seen by many Academy voters and that the Academy needed to work on that because it made them look biased.

[quote]There was an entertainment show at the time, maybe Siskel & Ebert's show, that went on at length about how Damages hadn't been seen by many Academy voters and that the Academy needed to work on that because it made them look biased.

You know, that's an interesting point; Siskel & Ebert used to genuinely critique movies & the film industry & I don't know that there is anyone out there really like that anymore. All existing mediums are now designed solely to promote the film industry.

Damage - Miranda Richardson goes mental in her kitchen after her son is so shocked at finding his Tory MP dad fucking his French girlfriend he walks backwards out of the flat and accidentally topples to his death over the stairwell bannister.

Damages - Rose Byrne starts to work for Glenn Close and finds out that she's a bit of a control freak bunny boiler.

They also had a lengthy show about how Hoop Dreams was the victim of a small group of Academy voters who dominated the Documentary nominees, it was really enlightening, I learned a lot about the Academy and behind-the-scenes jobs on film sets from those two.

Richardson was excellent in DAMAGE