Alek's new blog post. A very good read.
Aleks 🌐 @aleks_kv 9m9 minutes ago
ICYMBI, my new blog, on transgender actresses and Adam Lambert and what not aleksandrakv.tumblr.com/post/149941357188/learning-with-adam …SEPTEMBER 04, 2016 @ 14:32
LEARNING WITH ADAM When Adam Lambert refused to play the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the upcoming “Rocky Horror Picture Show” remake, one of the reasons he stated was that he, as a cisgender person, felt that at this time and age, the role should go to a transgender person.
“I kind of felt like in 2016, to be cis and playing the role of a trans character, it felt inappropriate to me,” Lambert said. “In the ‘70s, it was different. But nowadays we have such an amazing conversation that’s started about trans and gender in this world. I think casting Laverne was so brilliant. It’s so appropriate…” (1)
I didn’t have any particular reaction after his explanation and I most definitely did not know that Laverne Cox was one of the first trans women to play the role of a trans woman ever, in the Netflix television series “Orange Is the New Black”. I impulsively agreed with Adam, which is almost a knee-jerk reaction for me at this point. I also learned the term ‘cis’ which was new to me and I felt proud of Adam for supporting trans and gender conversation. As a fierce fighter for equality and a vocal ally to LGBT community, I feel that understanding and learning about their community is of vital importance. I want to know so that I can understand and also because I don’t want to offend anybody which happens so easily due to ignorance. And Adam has helped me learn so much.
Although I am not certain when the casting talks for “Rocky Horror Picture Show” took place, I found out about Adam’s decision back in March. And, it wasn’t until the recent events concerning GLAAD’s reaction to Mark Ruffalo’s casting of Matt Bomer to play a trans woman that I started thinking about the whole issue and mentally went back to Adam’s words, connecting the dots. Basically, GLAAD criticized Ruffalo, who is a long time LGBT supporter, for casting cisgender Bomer, an openly gay actor, calling his decision ‘’toxic and dangerous’’.(2)
I was a little surprised, not only because there are several roles of trans women played by men that I love with a fiery passion of my film loving heart, but because it had never occurred to me that those roles could have served any other purpose apart from the one of satisfying my, and anyone else’s, cinematic hunger. I just didn’t understand why it was, to quote Adam, “inappropriate” for a cisgender man to play a transgender woman. In recent articles on the topic, their writers have listed almost all such roles, starting with my all time favourite and absolutely brilliant Cillian Murphy in ‘’Breakfast on Pluto”, then the amazing Jared Leto in ‘’Dallas Byers Club”, to a little disappointing Eddie Redmayne in “The Danish Girl”, who played Lili Elbe, one of the first known recipients of sex change surgery, a movie which could be so much more, I realize now, than an obvious Oscar bait where yet one more cisgender man plays such a historically important role of a trans woman.
On a little side note, not one writer mentioned the ingenious Xavier Dolan, a Canadian gay director, writer and actor, and his “Laurence Anyways”, a film about an impossible love between a woman and a transgender woman named Laurence (then living as a man), but it’s a topic for a different story. Or maybe not – if I had to state one reason why Hollywood is missing out on Dolan, it would be his lack of commercialism and sensationalism so irrevocably ingrained in their treatment of art. But, alas, even he chose a man.
The most mainstream exception, Laverne Cox, who is transgender and who portrays Sophia Burset on “Orange Is the New Black” is a trailblazer and a herald of change in many ways and it really was high time for that, which is another reason why I think GLAAD was right to criticize Ruffalo now. It is 2016, it is time. In a 2015 comedy drama “Tangerine”, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, transgender women are played by transgender actresses, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, and even though it’s a small indie film, there’s a critics’ consensus that “it shatters casting conventions”.(3)
I had a little talk with my online friends last night about the whole situation. As per usual, we were there for Adam, and I learned something… Universally accepted and completely reasonable defense of directors’ choices which flies so easily off of anybody’s tongue that any actor should be able to play any role is so true and important, but it rings particularly hollow when it is applied selectively. Do you know any trans actresses? Do trans actresses play trans women? There are very few cases. Even more importantly, do they play cisgender women? Or men? The answer is a resounding no.
When you use a theoretically valid idea that any actor or actress should play any role to defend the choice of men playing transgender women every time it happens, without being aware or caring that it has always been the case and refusing to see the bigger picture where trans women are never getting cast, that idea stops being valid and becomes a convenient excuse. We simply need to see more transgender actors and actresses getting cast for any roles. GLAAD’s reaction to Ruffalo’s casting is most timely and appropriate that way. More than forcing directors to cast certain types of actors, its purpose was to point out and educate, to bring our attention to the whole issue and it has succeeded, at least for me. More than anyone, I would hate seeing a film director’s artistic freedom being challenged, but we simply must not ignore all the reasons behind casting and not all of them have to do with artistic integrity – star power and selling the product are much, much higher ranking reasons. And, quite probably, discrimination. In that light, it becomes clear that having moral integrity is way more important than boasting an artistic one.
In a recent article in Affinity Magazine, “Our Diversity Isn’t Looking Very Diverse”(4), Etienne Rodriguez talks about how Hollywood favours only a certain type of black actresses which is yet another example of discrimination against actresses who do not belong in “desired” categories.
Such attempts at diversity seem like particularly hurtful hypocrisy. They’ll make a film about a transgender person, but they won’t cast one. They’ll make a film about a dark skin black woman, but they’ll cast a light skin one and colour her black. These are facts. It’s not artistic integrity, it’s hypocrisy, and using artistic integrity as an excuse seems like a very immoral thing to do, especially considering that such films portray sensitive social groups who are marginalized. They should strive to educate and lead by example, but they always fail to do so – not only did I fail to learn anything about transgender women from transgender roles played by men, which is a huge missed opportunity to say the least, but sometimes it is not even their biggest “offense” – it is using such roles purely for sensationalism and Oscar-baiting.
But somehow, I did learn a lot, mostly through natural curiosity and following artists I admire, like Adam Lambert, who didn’t have to refuse the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, but he did anyway. It was his choice, just like it was his choice to state something other than his busy schedule as the reason, thus opening a whole new dimension to me and a whole new mindset. When Adam cast a transgender woman Gigi Gorgeous for his video “Another Lonely Night” (5), I didn’t know how hard it was for transgender women to get jobs like I do now, but I believe Adam did and that it was Adam’s way of showing support. Also, that’s how I found out about Gigi’s YouTube channel and it was one of my learning sources about transgender women, no matter how tiny. Adam’s support has always been concrete and quiet, without any sensationalism in it.
(Unlike Piers Morgan’s self-focused, sensationalist, offensive mess of an interview with Janet Mock, a successful transgender writer)(6).
Adam doesn’t talk much about it, he just does it. He hires a transgender woman for his video. He refuses a role so that a transgender woman can have it. His actions teach me what our educational system and culture failed to. Incidentally, this is how I learned that Dr. Frank-N-Furter is not actually transgender, and I have yet to learn what Adam really meant by his statement. Perhaps, he made a mistake. Perhaps, he thought the role of a bisexual cross-dresser would be better suited for a trans person. Ultimately, why wouldn’t a transgender actress play any character, even a cisgender one? Or, he simply thought it would be beneficial for the transgender community. Be that as it may, the role went to a transgender woman, which is what matters. He may not be a perfect teacher - we all have a lot to learn and the fact that we want to is what brings us together.
Just like Adam was a trailblazer in leading his career from the start as an openly gay musician, heralding artists like Olly Alexander, Troye Sivan, le1f or Sam Smith, I hope that his choices and decisions regarding transgender women, no matter how small-scale, pave the way for some high-profile, concrete support. In his attempts to avoid sensationalism with such delicate matters, Adam is sometimes too quiet about it and people tend to forget. Let’s not let them.
PS - For further insight: Jen Richards, a transgender actress’ video “On Matt Bomer, Anything, and Casting Cis Actors in Trans Roles”
1.
www.out.com/popnography/2016/3/24/adam-lambert-explains-why-he-turned-down-frank-n-furter-role-rocky-horror 2.
www.digitalspy.com/movies/orange-is-the-new-black/news/a806767/glaad-criticises-matt-bomer-as-a-trans-woman/3.
www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tangerine_2015/ 4.
www.affinitymagazine.us/2016/08/20/our-diversity-isnt-looking-very-diverse/5. h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT_xnNh5wbE
6. h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F8WiuxYoE4