P.S. Share your thoughts on this!
As a former actor and a classically trained one, I have always thought that roles should be played by the people who actually ”fit those roles”. Just like all characters, trans* characters should be played by trans* people. I have been told this is wishful thinking and I find that this opinion reveals a greater problem. The media is seemingly afraid that people will stop watching television or going to the movies if people who actually reflect reality back to us are on the screen. That, somehow, consumerism would cease to exist if we saw people on a TV show that actually looked like … us. On another note, the industry quite blatantly discriminates on a constant basis - not just with actual material but in the very casting process itself. We have been trained to think it is much more interesting to see Hillary Swank “masculinize” herself than actually see someone who knows far more about being transgender than she ever could - some who is trans*. The media continues to be a source of humanities greatest ailments and feeds our greatest ignorances, when it could be something that actually reveals to us a greater understanding and inclusiveness of the complexities of humanity.
Do you think trans*people should play cis roles? I’m a genderqueer person, extremely femme and I’ve been playing ciswomen my entire life. I mean, some is open to interpretation, especially if it’s a musical comedy. But I’m playing Anne Frank soon, and I’ve been thinking about this lately.
