Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Trans Actresses/Actors

Jobs are starting to come calling on trans actresses/actors, just a couple of weeks ago there are rumors that actress Michel Henley (Boy Meets Girl) will be in a new NBC series this fall. And now there is a trans actress who just came out……
After Years of Hiding in Hollywood, Trans Actress Trace Lysette Is Finally 'Living Out Loud'
The Transparent star tells her inspiring story of going from the closet to 'living out loud' in her two new roles as feisty trans women on upcoming TV shows.
The Advocate
By Mitch Kellaway
April 15 2015

Corresponding with The Advocate as she travels home from Puerto Rico, Trace Lysette is full of gratitude tinged with a hint of awe. It's not necessarily easy to sound humble while telling someone you're flying home from a days-long TV pilot shoot, but Lysette remains genuine in spite of the glamour.

In fact, it's not hard to tell that she's probably smiling widely on the other end of the screen. And Lysette has plenty to smile about.
[…]
And now, she reveals exclusively to The Advocate, Lysette has been cast in recurring roles in two upcoming TV comedies: "brash head waitress" Gloria Del Rey on NBC's new drama The Curse of the Fuentes Women and Gisele in quirky Starz comedy Blunt Talk, which has found her shooting alongside childhood idol Patrick Stewart.
She wasn’t always out,
"I never disclosed I was trans to anyone in the casting process for fear of being discriminated against. I wasn't living out loud yet," she reflects. "I hadn't seen another trans woman in a nontrans role on TV before. ... It was uncharted territory for me and I remember being a nervous wreck on-set, hoping that no one would 'clock' me [as trans]."
But now she sees a change in Hollywood’s attitude on trans actresses/actors to a point where she now is comfortable coming out as trans.
"Don't get me wrong," she adds, "there's still a long way to go before it stops being sensational and starts getting really real. But I have definitely seen progress in my lifetime. Especially in the last few years." Maybe one day, Lysette muses, trans characters "can just be characters and the 'trans' part of it is more an afterthought."
Amen.

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