Since Last Night Was Oscar Night…

I think it is timely that we have a discussion on trans actors.

I think there is a lot of great trans actresses/actors out there looking for work and not even getting a chance to audition for parts.

The Trans Actors Challenging Outmoded Ideas of Masculinity
Despite years of progress, trans male representation in film and television has remained all but nonexistent. Now, there’s a new group of rising stars.
New York Times Style Magazine
By David Ebershoff
February 4, 2020

1. First Time I Saw Me
Last August, at a premiere party at the NeueHouse on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, the actor Brian Michael Smith was biting into a slider when he turned around and there was Oprah Winfrey. Several years before, as a black transgender man struggling to break into Hollywood, Smith saw no obvious trajectory to a meaningful career. Even a college acting teacher said no one would cast him. “I saw zero representation of transmasculinity,” he says, using an umbrella term that means different things to different people but often describes trans men and nonbinary people who identify more with masculinity. “It was very isolating to grow up and have these dreams. I didn’t see how I was going to be able to do it.”

This is how dreams are murdered, but instead of succumbing, Smith told himself “to Oprah this situation” — meaning create his own path. And so he did. He now plays a trio of distinct trans characters on TV: Toine, the gentle cop on OWN’s “Queen Sugar,” whose 2017 coming-out episode coincided with Smith’s public coming out; Pierce, a political strategist on Showtime’s sequel to “The L Word,” which debuted in December; and a firefighter on Fox’s new “9-1-1: Lone Star.” At the premiere, Smith saw his opportunity to thank the woman whose name had become his own inspirational verb. He swallowed the slider, extended his hand — and you know what Oprah said? “I know who you are.”
[…]
But in the last year, we’ve witnessed more trans male and nonbinary actors onscreen than ever before. Even more important is what the actors and their roles represent. They are reflecting back the reality of trans male and nonbinary lives while mainstreaming long-marginalized characters and narratives. They are introducing multidimensional characters whose gender intersects with other facets of identity — race, class, sexual orientation, disability. Through their performances and social media, the actors are updating and expanding the very idea of the leading man.

When trans actors are given a chance, they excel. Just look at Laverne Cox.

In 2014, Laverne Cox appeared on Time magazine’s cover with the headline “The Transgender Tipping Point.” Since then, trans women have been working in Hollywood in increasing numbers, but that tipping point is only coming now for trans male and transmasculine actors and story lines. “We’ve been invisible,” says Nick Adams, the director of transgender representation at Glaad. He keeps an unofficial tally of trans men in film and television, dating back to a 1987 episode of “The Golden Girls.” The next entries come in 1999: an episode of the CBS series “L.A. Doctors,” about a teenager who abuses masculinizing hormones, and “Boys Don’t Cry,” about the life and murder of Brandon Teena, played by Hilary Swank. “Five years ago, the kind of roles I’m doing would have gone to cisgender actors,” says Theo Germaine, 27, of their recent parts as young trans men on Netflix’s “The Politician” and Showtime’s “Work in Progress” (Germaine identifies as nonbinary and uses both male and gender-neutral pronouns). Germaine is correct, but the reality is starker: Five years ago, these roles mostly didn’t exist. When a transmasculine character did pop up, he was often a victim, his story limited to and by trans trauma; Smith describes seeing “Boys Don’t Cry” while in high school as both affirming and terrifying.

We need to end non-trans people playing trans parts. We need to have trans people playing parts that are not trans parts, there are many parts for actresses and actors that are non-specific about gender or race.

Hollywood has a history of blocking actresses and actors from playing Asians, Blacks, and other minorities… how many Latinos actresses and actors do you see? How many Asian actresses and actors do you see in movies?

How many times have you heard that the Oscars are too white? Well the Oscars are symptoms the problem goes way back to casting and beyond.

You can use the cop-out of using “named” stars to draw the audience because there are many supporting actresses and actors that do not need to be a “named” actresses and actors.

You want diversity in the Oscars then you need diversity all the way in the process.

---

Web tip:
If you have problems opening an article behind a firewall try opening it in an incognito window or another trick is to delete the “nytimes” or the “washingtonpost” cookies. Go  in to “Settings” and make your way to where you can delete a specific cookie.