Willem Dafoe kissing a man

Yes, I did notice and I have wondered why this odd choice was made. It bothers me a bit when I watch this film. I can't understand why they used a man and then switched to the girl. I guess we will never know.


"Humans! Humans fear what they don't understand and hate what they fear."

i did some googling and found this:
http://regrettablesincerity.com/?p=1157

There is one truly great red herring that shows that Friedkin is completely confident with himself and his film that he is willing to flush expectation down the toilet. After bad guy Willem Dafoe watches an interpretive play, he goes back stage to meet one of the performers. With a crew cut and a masculine painted face, the performer moves in and kisses Dafoe. The instant connotations of this shot suggest that Friedkin is going to attribute villainy to homosexuality, like many of his detractors accused him of doing with his previous films. People picketed Cruising for presenting gay sub-culture as a cesspool of filth and sin and for making the lead antagonist a blatant homosexual. Cruising nearly destroyed Friedkin’s career, and he entertains the notion that he again is going to explore homosexuality from a negative perspective with L.A. Then, with a witty touch, the performer reveals the crew cut as a wig, allowing her curly feminine hair to run free. With that scene, Friedkin destroys anyone’s preconceived notions about the film and about his concerns as a filmmaker. He daringly refers to the film that almost destroyed him in order to show that all the bets are off with this film, that this is a different film than Cruising and also one that will not cater to expectations.

I heard Friedkin actually say it was on purpose to throw off the audience, even if only on a subliminal level. I think he was trying to make “illusion” a theme of the movie.