Mason Gooding wants to go gay-for-pay—& who are we to stop him?!
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If you made a New Year’s resolution to be more assertive and not be afraid to ask for what you want, let Mason Gooding be your inspiration as we dive into 2024.
Over the holiday, the hunky Scream and Booksmart star clearly took some down time to catch up on his reading list, which notably including the celebrated queer mythological romance, The Song Of Achilles.
“Sorry I’m late to the party, but glad I could make it at all,” Gooding said of the 2011 novel, posting a selfie with the book in hand on Twitter X to share his review (“it’s really very good”).
How about we take this to the next level?
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Now, why is this news to us, you may ask? It’s not like the actor’s starting a book club, and we’re not necessarily making headlines out of every celebrity’s GoodReads account. But it’s this book in particular—and Gooding’s post pointedly letting Miller know he’s a fan—that has us foaming at the mouth with excitement.
For those unfamiliar, The Song Of Achilles is author Madeline Miller’s New York Times Best Selling novel set during the Greek Heroic Age, following the romance of legendary heroes Patroclus and Achilles against the backdrop of the years-long Trojan War.
Achilles, of course, is a well-known figure of Greek mythology—he’s why we have the term “Achilles’ heel”—and was famously played by Brad Pitt in the 2004 epic, Troy, a role responsible for many a sexual awakening. He and Patroclus both factor into Homer’s Iliad, where they are described as childhood friends, but for her novel, Miller drew upon plenty of other writing from the era to tell their story, which many believed to be a romantic one.
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The book was released in 2011 to critical acclaim, but found a second life an entire decade later when it became a major favorite of “BookTok,” with readers of all ages praising unabashed exploration of gay love—and its ability to tell an LGBTQ+ story that wasn’t about the struggle of being queer.
Given the novel’s exploding popularity and the recent success of Red, White & Royal Blue—another page-to-screen queer romance—one can imagine there have at least been meetings about turning The Song Of Achilles into a movie. It’s got action, adventure, love, lust, and an epic scope baked right in; wouldn’t a filmed version just make sense?
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Which brings us back to Gooding. Obviously one of the first questions one would ask about a potential Song Of Achilles movie is, “But who would play our heroes?” And it seems he’s already throwing his hat in the ring.
Like, let’s be real: The guy doesn’t tweet all that much. The fact that he decided to post this—and directly tag the author—feels very intentional (and shameless) in a way that we are absolutely here for.
And, honestly, wouldn’t he be perfect for either Patroclus or Achilles? Look at him! The man is built like a Greek god already.
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While he isn’t gay (or, at least, he’s currently in a relationship with model and artist Amenah Soares), Gooding has a track record of queer-friendly roles like Love, Victor and has proven himself to be a total ally, including a tweet a few months back where he defended the queer romance options in the popular video game Starfield, claiming he chose “all the gay options” while playing.
But we don’t need to explain it to you—who wouldn’t want to see this actor rocking some muscle-bearing Grecian armor and pining after his longtime male bestie?
Gay Twitter X™ agrees, and many of them seem to have caught on to the fact that Gooding wants the role bad. Here are just a few of our favorite reactions to his Song Of Achilles book review/blatant pitch to get cast:
But the question remains: Say Gooding did get cast as Patroclus in a hypothetical The Song Of Achilles adaptation, then who should play his Achilles? We’d like to nominate out Fire Island and Glamorous star Zane Phillips, who’s already expressed interest in playing Hercules—another muscle-clad hero of Greek myth—so why not Achilles?
Sound off on who you’d like to see go Greek in the comments!
