From Andrea James’ Shared Experiences Blog:

Calpernia and I recently chatted with Michael Kearns from Frontiers Magazine about Transamerican Love Story. His nice profile is available here:

* Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: Calpernia Addams and Andrea James discuss their new Logo series Transamerican Love Story


* Frontiers Volume 26 Issue 20 (PDF)

Nashville Scene article on the closing of The Connection
This article is from awhile ago, I remember being interviewed for it via phone, but it only just came to my attention recently. The Connection was an amazing place to work, and to evolve… I started going back when it was at 5th and Demonbreun, and it was there that I saw my very first showgirls and realized that I could maybe someday become the person I wanted so much to be. On my first visits, I became transfixed by a weekend-cast showgirl named Mahogany who performed songs by Grace Jones and Annie Lennox, and befriended a tiny Wednesday-cast showgirl named Latarsha who operated the spotlight for the weekend show. 

Click HERE to Read More..

Link to Calpernia and Andrea interview about “Transamerica” for RainbowNetwork.com

Calpernia Addams and Andrea James
28 March 2006

Calpernia Addams and Andrea James may not have Hollywood marquee clout, but thanks to their work in Transamerica and Felicity Huffman’s daring and fearless portrait of a transsexual woman, you’d better believe you’re going to hear their names loud and clear.

The women run Deep Stealth Productions, a company dedicated to offering more accurate and positive portrayals of transgender people in the media. Huffman - taking on arguably the most layered and difficult role of her career - came to the women for help in preparing for the film.

If Huffman was to fully transform into Bree, a male to female transsexual just days before her final operation, she wanted to walk the walk, talk the talk and feel the emotions. So Addams and James got to work.

Though the prep work presented them with challenges they’d never before faced (James, a voice coach who helps transgender women find their female voice, had never done the process in reverse before), both women were up to the challenge and were ecstatic to be a part of a project they say has the power to change minds and open doors for LGBT filmmaking.

So how did Transamerica come to you both?
Andrea James: Felicity was doing research for the role, pouring her heart and soul into this before they started filming, and she found our information and called us up. So, you know, that’s always a bi of a shock.

She called you up herself, she didn’t have one of her people do it?
AJ: Well, she had someone helping who told her who we were and what we are all about, but she called us that day. It was very exciting to get that call because, at the time she checked in with us, Desperate Housewives hadn’t hit yet, but I knew her work from Sports Night and I’d always loved Magnolia. So it was early in the process.

What was she most concerned about learning from you?
AJ: One of the things she really wanted to get was the voice. So we looked through the script with her and we went through page by page and said, ‘Well, this is a bit of a stretch plot wise,’ and she was able to get some things revised.

But I guess the main thing about working with her was that she really wanted to get a sense of what’s going on in this character’s head at that really difficult time of transition.

Calpernia Addams: And she said before that she really wanted to make this a unique individual character, having her own particular life experience. She never was trying to represent all trans women with this portrayal, and I think she really did a great job of that.

What were your primary concerns before taking on this project? Before pursuing any project, really?
CA: I always go into anything like this expecting the worst, unfortunately, because usually Hollywood and the media in general likes to use trans characters as plot points that are a punch line - a prostitute or a psychotic killer.

AJ: In most movies about trans people they’re portrayed as victims or criminals, and this is the first movie where it’s funny. It’s a nice movie where the laughs are not at the expense of the character.

The things that she goes through could happen whether she was trans on not.
AJ: Right. She’s really the first fully human character who has been portrayed. There’s a completeness to her that you usually don’t get.

Felicity Huffman in TransamericaTell me a bit about the process of working with Felicity. I know you worked on so many things, but what were some of the main points she wanted to cover?
CA: She felt she had so much ground to cover to really familiarize herself. She asked us a lot of questions about the feelings behind transition and the life experiences that you go through in the process. So we shared a lot of our own background with her.

I think one of the things that stands out in my mind that we shared with her is that, early in your transition, you don’t want people to look at you. You want to blend in and hide and be secretive. You really see that in Felicity’s character. She’s always turning her head away a little bit, she’s closed off physically.

In that first scene especially when she leaves the house and she has so many layers of clothing on, like all she wants you to see is her face.
AJ: And even then she’s hiding behind these big sunglasses. She really is trying to find her way in the world and she’s still sort of in this cocoon stage, she’s still in development. Every scene is sort of a peeling away of that discomfort, so by the end, you see it in her movement, in the way that she talks to her son.

Felicity is very honest in interviews that when she came into this film, she had prejudices of her own. Did you see any of that in her when you first talked to her?
AJ: It’s very cute that when she first came over, she confided in us later that she was very nervous because I think she didn’t really know what to expect. I think there’s always this fear of the unknown and, once it’s known, it’s not so fearful.

CA: Yeah, when we say we were aware of prejudices, I didn’t see any negative behaviour like scorn or ridicule. I think it was more that she didn’t know. She was more than willing to open up and learn things, but she didn’t have prejudice in the pejorative sense that it was some negative vibe I was feeling.

And it’s obvious she thinks very highly of you both. I see her mention you constantly in interviews. It seems you really bonded. She seems to really care for you as people.
CA: We had dinner at her house, she called us even after filming was over. I got to do the scene in New York with her and Andrea is in the film (as the voice coach) at the beginning. So it’s been great. She’s so open. She didn’t just sort of use us and lose us.

AJ: And, it was such a remarkable experience - to see someone of her calibre come at this. As you said, she came into it not knowing much of anything. And all of a sudden she threw herself into it with such panache and élan.

I think most actors who take these roles are phoning it in. They think, ‘Oh, this is going to be an interesting little experiment.’ But she did something beyond that that I think shows in her performance.

So how do you feel about the finished product?
AJ: It’s a really nice, family sort of movie. You know, it’s probably not going to play in mainstream America, you know. It’s not going to compete with King Kong. But even that it’s just out there, that’s going to make a difference. It’s going to be rented. It’s going to be seen on cable. It’s going to be available to get into the hearts and minds of people who might not otherwise be exposed to this.

CA: I’m so glad that it was made and I’m so proud we had the opportunity to work both behind these scenes and on camera, just to be a part of something that is another step toward acceptance and normalization on a large scale for us.

To answer your question directly, I love the movie, and I don’t just think of it as a political tool. I was really entertained by it.

Transamerica is quite a departure from Desperate Housewives. What have people been saying about your portrayal of Bree?

So far only my family and film festivals have seen it, and you’re preaching to the converted there [Laughs]. They loved the film in Toronto and Tribeca. I think it’s been warmly recieved most everywhere. Maybe it’s sort of an urban thing, but from the minute it begins, people start laughing. They go, “Oh, it’s not a hard issue movie like transgenders are people too, it’s a warm hearted comedy about people!”

I always get called about movies coming out with transgender themes. Whenever I talk to the directors and casting people, they seem really surprised at the suggestion that they cast women to play these parts. Why do you think it doesn’t even occur to people to cast transwomen in these roles?

The people who aren’t familiar with transgendered people, I think they get hung up in the… package, no pun intended [Laughs]. I think most people can’t do what (director) Duncan Tucker did… You know, if you’ll remember, I even called him, I said “Listen, you should get a guy to play this role.” And he said, “First of all, it’s not a movie about what’s under your skirt, its about what’s in your heart. And second of all, we want to honor who transgendered women are, and they are women.” I think for the most part, instead of the interior truth of the character, people can get caught up in the wrapping paper.

Duncan said he needed an actor who was transformative, and I think you really did that. What turned out to be different than your expectations once you started researching for this role?

Well, it sort of transformed throughout the spectrum of my experience, beginning with getting the role and ending with finishing the movie. I think, to tell the truth, I probably paralleled those casting directors that you’re talking about, you know how they start going “Oh! It should be a man”, and I started going, “Well, its an odd small segment of society, and Im going to play a really interesting oddball, and I’ve gotta figure out how to do it… you know, it’ll be a “character”. Of course, what it ended up being was finding Bree’s emotional journey, and where that rested in terms of the truth of the human soul. And you know, the truth of the human soul is the truth of the human soul, whether your a guy or a girl or transgendered or anything. And once I went, “Oh, Ok, she’s just like me, her circumstances may be a little different, but she’s just like me.” That changed it from I’m playing an small, odd segment of society to I’m portraying a certain an aspect of myself.

What you did with Bree’s voice was especially amazing.

I worked with Andrea (Calpernia’s business partner), and I also worked with a voice teacher here in LA and Katie Bull in New York. I came up with a few different voices, all of which got nixed within the first 3 or 4 days of rehearsal in NY because they were all really false. Eventually I learned to bring the inside out. Where is this person coming from? She’s coming from excruciating self consciousness, self loathing and shame, but she’s also coming form a place of bravery and courage. That’s what we needed to find in the voice, the voice just can’t be, “Oh what a weird voice!” We tried to find a voice that portrayed all those things going on inside and it wasn’t just a guy going (in cracked falsetto) “hello how are you!” It had to show her soul.

This is a deeper question, but what does being a woman mean to you, in light of playing someone like Bree?

That’s a great question… gosh, women have always been the waters in which I have swum, so I didn’t quite know what anything else was like. Growing up in a matriarchal household with my mother and six older sisters, women were the beginning, middle and the end for me. It meant that men have always been “other” to me. I never knew how to act around them, what they felt, they were “other”.

I feel like as women, we deal with a lot more self loathing, at least I do, so it’s been a process of letting go of the self loathing and appreciating the blessings of being a woman. Which is that double edged sword of incredible strength and also incredible vulnerability. And I hope with my daughters, that I come to a place where I can start saying, “I love being a girl!” and it’s not just lip service. It’s not, “Yeah I’d love being a girl if I was 20 pounds lighter, I’d love being a girl if I was really pretty, Id love being a girl if I was smarter,” all those things I feel as if I’m not. That I can say, I love being a girl, I love being a woman because I love the way women create community, bond with each other, I love the way women take care of the spirit, I love the way women create a home. And Im not saying men don’t do that, but I’m saying I find women to be natural athletes at it.

It’s a question that transwomen have to ask themselves. I grew up in a household where my mother never wore makeup, jewelry, dyed her hair, so those things weren’t part of developing my ideas of what being a woman was. I developed my ideas based on the social place, the familial place.

That’s fascinating, because for most of us you’re just born into this gender and you’re never asked, “What would you like out of being a woman?”

So Calpernia, did you cringe when you saw yourself on screen?

I did! I always rip on myself like, “You’re hideous!” and can’t stand to look.

Thats awful! [Laughs] Join the club! I don’t know very many actors that can. I remember talking to a wonderful hairdresser who’s worked with the beauties of Hollywood, and I was listing all these things I didn’t like about my appearance, and she said, look I have had the greatest beauties in Hollywood in my chair. No one likes the way they look. So why don’t you just choose to like the way you look? Cause it doesn’t matter really what you look like so much as how you feel about it. But I haven’t made very much progress with that.

So now you’ve played two really different really mothers. Bree’s mother in Transamerica looks like she would be right at home on Wisteria Lane. How do you think the girls would react to Bree if she moved in there?

Ha ha, you’re right! Fionnula Flanagan, who played my mother, would be very very at home on Wisteria Lane. She and Marcia Cross’ character would be great friends. How do I think they’d react to Bree if she lived there? I think at the beginning of the movie, they’d probably look at her as the outcast she believes herself to be, because she’s so uncomfortable, so painful with who she is that, how can you deal with someone like that other than going, “Geez! Are you alright? God!” But I think at the end of the movie, she’d be a wonderful addition, because, all those women have been through different “wars”, but none of those women have been through the war that Bree has been through.

You must know that there has been, to use a Hollywood term, “Oscar Buzz”, about your work in the film. How do you deal with that?

I try and turn my ears off, because who knows what’s gonna happen with this movie. I mean, on one hand I’d be flattered, it’d certainly be a lifelong dream. Like everyone in the business, you hear, “this is it! Boy your life’s gonna be different in a year!” and then you don’t work for a year. That’s happened to me before, so I try and just ignore it.

After Desperate Housewives, this movie is sure to add to your already enormous gay following. Did you ever think you might become a gay icon?

It’s sort of a convergence, being on Desperate Housewives and doing this movie. I have a couple of things to say about the gay community. One, I think it is no accident that Marc Cherry, who’s a gay man, wrote a television show where 40 year old women are viable, sexy happenin’ chicks. And there’s something I feel that the gay community affords women, that straight guys don’t, which is, you can be 50 and a gay guy will go, “You’re so beautiful , you’re so sexy”, and they mean it! They’re not just trying to sleep with you. They appreciate your femininity. And I think that’s a real gift that they give older women. So did I ever think I would be a gay icon? I never thought I’d be an icon at all, but if it so happens, I’d be flattered an honored. The gay community has good taste and picks well.

And I just want to say again, that, I really appreciate what Duncan did with the script of Transamerica, and how he directed it. He didn’t make an issue movie, like “transgender individuals are people too!” and thats nice, but what are you gonna do with the other 100 minutes of your film? I think what people need to break down any barriers or prejudices is, you need to experience what that character is experiencing. So you need to take them on a journey, and so he’s taken the audience on a journey, and its just the backdrop that she’s transgendered. The story is one of a woman thinking the biggest thing she can do is have sexual reassignment surgery, but actually the biggest thing she can do is become a parent. I know this from people saying, “I didn’t really want to see this movie, I wanted to see Star Wars VI, but you were here so we came, and it turns out to be this heartwarming road movie!” I loved this woman, I loved her journey, and that’s what I want people to take away from the film. And what I want people to expect going in is, it’s a heartwarming comedy. I know there are some dark parts, but you don’t get laughs unless it goes somewhere dark too. I just wanna go, “it’s funny, guys! It’s ok to laugh! She’s a wacky character, she’s your conservative right wing aunt.”

I’m always glad when a movie shows people that we are more than the hookers and psychos usually portrayed.

Yes, there’s such a wide range… Who Bree is is not representative of “transgendered people”, she’s one individual, an odd combo, I bet you wouldn’t find a lot of people like her whether they’re transgendered or not. So I hope I bust through some barriers. All you need to do is experience what someone is experiencing, and you go oh, its you and me. Well, it’s not you and me, or you or me. It’s you are me.