Is 'Transface' a Problem in Hollywood?
http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2015/02/25/transface-problem-hollywood (http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2015/02/25/transface-problem-hollywood)
BY Daniel Reynolds Feb 25 2015 6:00 AM ET
Straight actors have been playing gay and lesbian roles for decades. This year, Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for his portrayal of the gay mathematician Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. In addition, actors who do not have disabilities have portrayed characters with disabilities; Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor this year for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, a performance that raised criticism of its own among actors with disabilities.
While big stars do raise awareness for sometimes overlooked causes in projects such as these, the casting of nonminority actors perpetuates a cycle in which minority actors continually lose the opportunity to become stars in their own right.
I don't see it as offensive at all. I just see it as acting, which is what an actor's job description mostly contains. Sure, most actors just get this one wrong, and I've pointed out the errors as well. At these points, they need to be corrected with feedback instead of being given demands to stop. Hollywood doesn't really care, so long as they make money, but a lot of the more respectable actors do feel a sense of pride when their performance is spot-on. Let's help them do so, and maybe they'll help us out as well.
On an added note, I would feel better about actual trans actors getting more roles in Hollywood. That's a much larger fight, but still important.
I've seen the Hollywood system up close. I personally know actors, directors, producers, etc.
It's ugly to say the least. There are millions of dollars and careers that hinge on every production, so they will minimize risk. Putting familiar faces on the screen is one way of doing this. I'm not saying it's right, but this is what happens.
The only way I see transgender actors in transgender roles right now is having a transgender person assuming all of the financial risk for the production. Maybe that will change someday, but right now I'm not seeing it.
If they don't use a trans actor/actress I'd be happy seeing one that matches the character's gender identity. Otherwise the show has an underlying message that says the trans woman on the screen (who we all *know* is played by a man) is actually...a man. It's offensive.
I don't get many agreeing with me, but I believe Transparent got way more notice and a lot more attention because of Jeffery Tambor playing the lead role. I found his role was believable and sincere and a good portrayal. Not to say a trans actor couldn't have accomplished the same, I just believe the show has succeeded better than expected.
Quote from: suzifrommd on February 28, 2015, 11:15:06 AM
Is 'Transface' a Problem in Hollywood?
http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2015/02/25/transface-problem-hollywood (http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2015/02/25/transface-problem-hollywood)
BY Daniel Reynolds Feb 25 2015 6:00 AM ET
Straight actors have been playing gay and lesbian roles for decades. This year, Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for his portrayal of the gay mathematician Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. In addition, actors who do not have disabilities have portrayed characters with disabilities; Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor this year for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, a performance that raised criticism of its own among actors with disabilities.
While big stars do raise awareness for sometimes overlooked causes in projects such as these, the casting of nonminority actors perpetuates a cycle in which minority actors continually lose the opportunity to become stars in their own right.
I wouldn't have an issue with it if transgender people got roles as cisgender people but they don't. Since transgender folks are never cast as a non-transgender person, it seems like there should be room in film for transitioned people to at least play transgender people. It's like they are afraid of portraying transgender as convincing so they just throw cis people in there because they
know it will play into the stereotype America seems comfortable with (comic relief man-in-a-dress, etc).
So yeah... transface is pretty insulting at least until trans people can play "cisface".
Art and politics seldom bed down well together. I'm much less interested in political correctness than I am in seeing good acting. If an actor can play a given role convincingly and well, I don't give a hoot whether who they are in "real life" corresponds to the character they're playing.
And given that Hollywood, in particular, is more about money than art ((https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthefiringline.com%2Fforums%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Ffrown.gif&hash=ee4b80b254a8a04b1b56983ae88680c8223a3a60)), things aren't going to change until people stop going to see the dreck they do put out. I'm not holding my breath.
I don't think it's insulting, it's not like there's many T people who are actors- I don't know of any "actors" as of right now. Degrassi had a cis girl play a transguy in high school and she played her role well,it really showed the struggle T guys pre-T go through.
They can always host a reality TV show of the lives of certain Tpeople who want to participate. I wouldn't idn being in a reality TV show that educated society about us.
There should be more actual trans people playing trans people, but there is still progress in seeing trans people portrayed as fully human. I am not sure we need a reality show though. With friends like reality TV...
What I'd like to see is transgender actors and actresses playing roles where their trans status is not a thing in the role they play. Don't get me wrong. I love Laverne Cox as Sophia in Orange is the New Black. I just don't think transgender actors should be limited to transgender roles. Maybe then, it wont seem like cis people are robbing trans people of roles.
Transface seems about as ridiculous to me as a term like 'cisface' would be. You don't have to be trans to act as one, and trans people don't have to be cis to act as one. Good acting is good acting regardless.
The reason why I do think it's a problem is because when Hollywood shows a trans* character, they are basically saying "this is what you look like, this is what you act like, and this is how other people see you."
After Transparent aired, there were a couple people here who came distressed because of fears of "is this really the best that I'm going to look, or sound, or be perceived?" A cis actor can play a trans person with all of the emotional perfection in the world, but at the end of the day they're still just a man dressing up as a woman, or vice versa. Does the disabled community really care if a disabled character looks completely disabled in the movie? Does it affect their self-esteem? Probably not. But does it matter for trans people. Looking visually NOT like our birth sex is a big deal for us. So by constantly getting members of our birth sex to play our identity gender, Hollywood is subtley constantly sending the message "you are just a man/woman who dresses like your preferred gender. This is you." And it is a problem, because it leads to a distorted perception of what trans people actually look, sound, and act like.
If passability wasn't such a big deal, this likewise wouldn't be a big deal. But coming from someone who stayed closeted for TEN YEARS specifically because I never saw a realistic portrayal of a trans person, because I was constantly inundated with the "man in a dress" image of trans people, I feel pretty strongly about this... letting actual trans people show and tell their own stories, ACCURATE portrayals, instead of constantly sending the message to us that we're only dressing up as our identity gender.
Quote from: Mara on March 01, 2015, 01:53:37 AM
What I'd like to see is transgender actors and actresses playing roles where their trans status is not a thing in the role they play. Don't get me wrong. I love Laverne Cox as Sophia in Orange is the New Black. I just don't think transgender actors should be limited to transgender roles. Maybe then, it wont seem like cis people are robbing trans people of roles.
Transface seems about as ridiculous to me as a term like 'cisface' would be. You don't have to be trans to act as one, and trans people don't have to be cis to act as one. Good acting is good acting regardless.
That's a great point. Look at the girl in James Bond - Golden finger. She played a bond girl. Just saying.
Quote from: Carrie Liz on March 01, 2015, 02:00:15 AM
If passability wasn't such a big deal, this likewise wouldn't be a big deal. But coming from someone who stayed closeted for TEN YEARS specifically because I never saw a realistic portrayal of a trans person, because I was constantly inundated with the "man in a dress" image of trans people, I feel pretty strongly about this... letting actual trans people show and tell their own stories, ACCURATE portrayals, instead of constantly sending the message to us that we're only dressing up as our identity gender.
^This^ is what kept me from realizing I was trans 10 years sooner. I had fantasies of being a woman most of my life, but I couldn't get past this. I just wasn't desperate enough to see being a "man in a dress" as a possibility to ease my mind. As it turns out the real key was estrogen. I can present male if I feel right inside, although I do look longingly at Sweetie's fashion catalogs.
I remember while in college being so disgusted with dating that I wished I could find a doctor who would erase my genitals and reroute my urethra near my anus. I would have bought a whole wardrobe of androgynous clothes, all the same, and erased every sign of my gender. I wouldn't have been happy, though. Even then the "androgynous" body I imagined really looked female. All of this was wild fantasies because what I really wanted was never to have had a male body at all. What kind of role models did we have in 1980? Hollywood has gotten better but not a lot better. Jill should sell her story to one of those producers she knows but insist on some control.
I agree completely that we need more and better role models, but I don't think it's Hollywood's job to provide them. If they do so now and then along the way, that's great, but it would be far better for our role models to be actual people being themselves. I admire Laverne Cox for her portrayal of Sophia, but I admire her far more for the outreach she does as a proud trans woman.
It isn't only actors who can, or should, do this: we need trans artists, writers, athletes, scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs, plumbers... heck, even politicians.
The Hollywood version of reality is pretty skewed. It's not where I find my inspiration.
Quote from: Tysilio on March 01, 2015, 12:05:01 PM
I agree completely that we need more and better role models, but I don't think it's Hollywood's job to provide them. If they do so now and then along the way, that's great, but it would be far better for our role models to be actual people being themselves. I admire Laverne Cox for her portrayal of Sophia, but I admire her far more for the outreach she does as a proud trans woman.
It isn't only actors who can, or should, do this: we need trans artists, writers, athletes, scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs, plumbers... heck, even politicians.
The Hollywood version of reality is pretty skewed. It's not where I find my inspiration.
▲▲▲ This, except I would take it a little further. Celebrities, politicians, and religious authorities are three groups I really don't look up to. I don't see a particularl benefit to transgender people achieving these positions. My two cents worth.
Hugs, Devlyn
Darn... I forgot to put that little winkie face after "even politicians." (https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthefiringline.com%2Fforums%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Fwink.gif&hash=fd49c1687b59c0ea097a7b4f1ed562a996fdaf5c)
Speaking of:
Eddie Redmayne as transgender pioneer Lili Elbe – first picture released
Andrew Pulver|Friday 27 February 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/27/eddie-redmayne-transgender-lili-elbe-first-picture-danish-girl
First it was a Thomas the Tank Engine movie, now it's a film about a pioneer of sex reassignment surgery, The Danish Girl.........
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Colour me jealous. He's gorgeous. I need his makeup artist.