New Film About Ray Focuses On the Life of a Transgender Teen; But...Did He Have to Be Played by Elle Fanning?
http://www.themarysue.com/about-ray-elle-fanning-trailer/
by Teresa Jusino | Friday, August 7, 2015
Good news: There's a new film called About Ray that focuses on the life of a teenage trans boy going through his transition, and how he interacts with his family. Bad news: the trans boy is played by Elle Fanning.
(I couldn't fit the entire article title into the subject header!!)
I agree that if you're going to have a trans character it's obviously better to have them played by a trans actor. But the article goes on to suggest that if they insist on using a cis actor then at least have them be the right gender (ie, a cis/genetic male for a trans male; cis/genetic female for a trans woman)... I have to say I utterly disagree with that approach. It really annoyed me when they used a female actress to play a trans woman in an episode of Law & Order: CSI. Everything about her said "genetic female" and I couldn't believe for a second she was trans. If they had used a young genetic guy as the trans character I might have had less of a problem believing it. That's why I didn't have problem with that cis guy playing the trans woman in TransParent. At least it feels physically realistic... don't know how it will feel after the character is meant to have been on HRT for a few years though, might seem less believable then!
Another issue... if we start insisting that only trans actors can play trans characters could this potentially lead to a backlash that says, "well if that's the case you can't play any cis characters"?
Quote from: Ms Grace on August 08, 2015, 04:31:45 AM
It really annoyed me when they used a female actress to play a trans woman in an episode of Law & Order: CSI. Everything about her said "genetic female" and I couldn't believe for a second she was trans.
Yes. That was a serious problem with Felicity Huffman in Transamerica. Whoever cast it had no clue about the battle trans women have with our bodies. When you cast a GG as a trans woman, you cut that all out.
Quote from: Ms Grace on August 08, 2015, 04:31:45 AM
Another issue... if we start insisting that only trans actors can play trans characters could this potentially lead to a backlash that says, "well if that's the case you can't play any cis characters"?
^^^
This!
Quote from: Ms Grace on August 08, 2015, 04:31:45 AM
(I couldn't fit the entire article title into the subject header!!)
Another issue... if we start insisting that only trans actors can play trans characters could this potentially lead to a backlash that says, "well if that's the case you can't play any cis characters"?
I think one of the problems with this is the shear numbers of actors who are working compared to those who are not and than compute the % of trans actors with those of cis and the available job offerings.
Variety, the entertainment newspaper, just printed an article on an upcoming movie, "About Ray". It stars Elle Fanning as an FTM teen trans man. Ray's mother is played by one of my favorite actresses, Susan Sarandon.
Based on the trailer, About Ray might be a great movie.
You can read the article here:
http://variety.com/2015/film/news/about-ray-trailer-elle-fanning-watch-transgender-1201566336/