Comment: Should cis actors play trans characters?

[stephaniec]

Comment: Should cis actors play trans characters?

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/08/10/comment-should-cis-actors-play-trans-characters/ 🔗

Pink News/by Naith Payton   08'10/2015

"When you cast a cis actor you are stealing that role from a trans actor. In our cis-centric society, trans actors do not get the opportunities that cis actors do, they are deliberately held back and marginalised. For many trans actors, trans roles are the only roles they will ever get.

In a world where a proportional amount of trans actors play cis roles as vice versa, then it would be perfectly acceptable to cast cis people in trans roles. But that doesn't happen. So cis actors are essentially stealing opportunities – opportunities they already had by default – from trans actors who may never get those opportunities again"

[suzifrommd]

I'm mixed about this. Everything the editorial says is true, but there's an assumption that trans actors can only play trans characters. I'm hoping that's not true.