Yeah, I really don't get this angst about actors who are not transgender playing transgender characters.
In the first place, it's called acting. Actors are hired to interpret roles and bring characters to life, they are not hired to actually be those characters. If that were not the case then Tom Cruise could never have played a fighter pilot because he wasn't one, Jamie Fox could not have played Ray Charles because he's not Ray Charles, Cate Blanchett could not have played Bob Dylan because she's a woman and Heath Ledger could not have played Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain because he was not gay.
What nonsense.
And of course there's that huge surplus of out of work trans actors, and just by virtue of their gender identity or gender expression all of them are perfectly suited to play any role that depicts a transgender person, right?
Sure, that's exactly how the entertainment industry works, and not at all like any other industry where people are hired for their qualifications and ability to do a specific job.
To the critics I say - get real. In the first place, acting is a very competitive business, and an actor needs to work hard to get the few good roles that come up. It gets even harder when an actor gets older, becomes less beautiful, is a person of color or has any unusual characteristic that might be seen as an issue to deal with instead of an asset. Nobody gets hired just for being trans, or black, or a woman. And if you're all three then show business is a very tough business indeed.
And there just aren't that many trans actors in the field to begin with. A web search yielded 48 names, and of those 48 many are not even active in the business. I could only imagine that 10 or 12 actresses had the look, the experience and the skills to pull off the role of Rayon. Of those 10 or 12 actresses only 3 or 4 had the name recognition that a movie like Dallas Buyers Club would require of the stars and one of those is Laverne Cox, who may or may not have had the contractual freedom to accept the role had it even been offered. So the field of possible trans actors for any role the depicts a transgender character is extremely narrow to begin with, and when you're trying to put a movie together you just need to get qualified people hired and get on with the show.
So enough, already. Anyone who's worried about trans actors being hired should hire them. But if a trans actor is not being hired it's not necessarily injustice, any more than it is for any other actor who doesn't get a role for whatever reason. It's just show biz.
