Roles, identities and… the catch

In most of the comments and arguments about roles, the common denominator is that when we involve the genders people tend to forget that we are talking about roles and not about identities. Take for example any actor in any movie. Let’s say Tom Hanks in the movie California. He played the role of a gay man. Is he really gay? As far as we know not! It is very easy when it comes to acting to understand the difference between acting and being. We never associate a role with the identity of an actor.