‘Grey’s Anatomy’s Alex Landi weighs in on straight actors playing gay roles

Alex Landi’s character on “Grey’s Anatomy” is the first gay male surgeon to appear on the medical drama.

Dr. Nico Kim and intern Dr. Levi Schmitt (Jake Borelli) have been enjoying a fling with each other in the middle of saving patients’ lives. Their relationship is the first of its kind on the series. In an interview with Attitude magazine, Landi says that he just wants to do his best when portraying roles regardless of his sexuality or his character’s.

“As an actor, I want to do the best job I can in any role, regardless of my own personal sexuality or the character’s,” Landi says. “I just want to do this role proud for the LGBT+ and the Asian communities. If I put in my two cents, the best actor wins.”

“It comes down to the role breakdown,” he went on. “it just falls into whoever can do it the best and what the producer likes. I don’t think it necessarily has to fall into sexual identity. It falls into who can get the job done. There are discussions about transgender actors playing transgender roles, gay actors playing gay roles, and Asian actors speaking up about whitewashing simply because not all actors have equal opportunities. There isn’t a level playing ground. When roles stop being pre-defined by ethnicity and sexual orientation, that is when these discussions will no longer be at the forefront of casting decisions.”

Landi, who is half Korean and half Italian, also wants to break racial stereotypes.

“I’m trying to break stereotypes,” he says.“Asian men are not seen as masculine in the media and that is something that I am striving to change. Why can’t there be an Asian James Bond? Why can’t there be an Asian Marvel superhero? There are plenty of Asian men who can pull it off. A dream of mine is to become a Marvel superhero.”

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