How to Become an Actress if You’re Trans - UPDATED

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Categories: Diary • In Print • Advice

UPDATED with more info! =)

This is a long post, and one I plan to simply link to from now on when this question comes up, to make things simpler. There are two big questions I am often asked by trans people with aspirations for getting into entertainment media:

1. Why don’t trans roles go to trans actors?
2. How do I get work in the media?

Why not a trans actress?

1. If I had my way, there would be one trained and experienced trans actor for every non-trans man or woman called in to audition for any part, not just trans roles. The best actor would be cast. (In LA we call anyone who acts an “actor”, instead of using “actor/actress")
2. Rather than simply complain, I resolve this issue within myself by choosing to work with the situation at hand. As things stand, saying “It should have been a transwoman!” is possibly true, but realistically it doesn’t do anything… it just doesn’t, unfortunately.

What will do something in the climate we have right now to improve opportunities for trans actors?

• (a) Improving the current climate by making current trans representations more accurate and sympathetic. This has the effect of opening people’s hearts and minds to the idea of transwomen as sympathetic, normal human beings, which will be helpful in the next phase of things.
  
• (b) Building our own infrastructure of media professionals and producing ourselves the trans-inclusive and trans-positive media that no one else is making. Deep Stealth is one example of this infrastructure, and by making friends/getting credibility in Hollywood, we are setting the stage for our later work to be allowed into the playing field and examined in the climate of greater acceptance that step (a) engendered. Our film “Casting Pearls” was the first of Deep Stealth’s entries into this environment. One step of many.
• (c) Once we are making projects and getting them at least as noticed as those of any other indie filmmaker, we cast trans actresses in them who have done their homework to make themselves castable.

How to get work as an actor

The last step mentioned above is the starting place for someone who wishes to work as an actor. A girl has to do her homework to make herself castable. As I’m sure you know, being an actress is not as effortless as Meryl Streep or Angelina Jolie makes it look. I’ve met many transwomen who ask me “how do I get in the movies?”, who became frustrated when I didn’t give a simple answer like “call this number and ask for Bob...” We face the horribly difficult handicap (using that word in the golf/sports sense) of starting 300 yards behind the other participants in the race, so much of our energy is spent just catching up. Any transwoman who wants to be in television/film should complete her external, visible transition as well as possible (and possible at maximum effort, not medium effort) just to get to the starting line. And then work harder to make herself an exceptional example, not just one of the crowd.

“It’s not fair/It’s discriminatory to base hiring on beauty or talent” This argument is always at the ready for many trans people, who are used to using it to fight discrimination in work, housing and education scenarios. It is irrelevant in Hollywood. It’s a frustrating fact, but being an actor is not about “fair”. You are chosen on the basis of your ability to make a gut-level impression on the most people possible.

When I was a child, I used to wonder how television could be free. I knew even then that shows must be expensive to make, and everyone knew that TV stars were paid huge amounts of money. Here is a not-so-secret truth: Much like cigarettes are actually just a “nicotine delivery system”, the media on television is nothing more than a lure to get you to sit there long enough to see the commercials. An advertising delivery system. Seriously, the only reason they bother making tv shows is so that you will watch the high-paying commercials in between them. They’re not doing it because they just love paying Jennifer Aniston $1 millon per episode. In theatrically released movies, an individual actor is more of a direct draw to get you to buy a ticket, and as a corollary, the movie is a draw to get you in there to buy a 3 cent cup of soda for $4. Movie theaters make more money from concessions than from ticket sales, according to some figures I’ve read.

So, they need someone who can make a million people’s heads turn when she walks into a room. If an actor can’t make a million people’s stomachs flutter with desire just by walking into a room, she had better be able to make that million people cry by convincingly portraying a sympathetic emotion, or laugh, or feel angry. There are very few people in the general population who have this power. It’s not fair, but if you want to play in this arena, you have to be attractive in a way that most average people agree upon. Or you have to convey emotion in a way that most average people connect with. If you can’t do it, and you can’t learn to do it by working on it, then as an actor you are not going to work. That doesn’t mean you’re less of a cool person, but it’s a painful fact.

I used to be able to affect 2,000 people on stage every night well enough to make a living by it, but I still don’t know how well that will translate to larger audiences in film and TV. I fully expect as much criticism as praise, and I will always be learning and growing as an actress. It’s a mixture of that elusive “it factor” and tons of hard work learning how to bring out your personal best on camera.

Most actors I know do it because they love it, and it feeds their soul. But, since it’s all a money and numbers game for the executives with the power, they are going to pick the actors they think are most likely to successfully motivate people to give them eyeballs (which leads to money from advertisers), ticket sales in theaters or critical praise from powerful media critics. If we want to work within this paradigm (achieve success in the current system), then we have to learn the rules, play by them as much as our convictions will allow us to, and/or change them as much as we can where we can. If we don’t like this system, then we must create our own. The internet, Flash cartooning and streaming video make this possible to a degree, but in a realistic sense Hollywood took many decades to build and we’re not going to completely replace it any time soon.

So what do I do now?

I tell girls who want to “get in movies or TV” that they need to finish the external, visible aspects of transition (face, body, voice, manner). They need to get into a serious acting school/class. They need to get work wherever they can (theater, tv, indie film, etc). And that last one leaves us back with “but trans actresses can’t get work!” This is where the dilettantes are separated from the seriously driven. You can get work as an actor if you make it your full time job to do so, and you can even turn down work that is outside the image you want to portray. It won’t be the female lead in Mission Impossible III, though, and some girls don’t want to even try if they think the prize in the Cracker Jack box is anything less than stellar fame (in the very system they criticize).
I think you have to be willing to try, even if the prize is only a pat on the back and some respect from a few people who know what they’re talking about. You take each little victory and build on it, and you do that painstaking chore because you love the process, not the end result.

But I don’t really want to do all that work, I just want to be famous!

Hey, that is an entirely possible goal in the emerging media system, thanks to YouTube, MySpace and reality television. For YouTube and MySpace, you are limited only by how much work you’re willing to put in (see, you still have to work!). There are plenty of articles out there on how to become a YouTube/MySpace star, but the basic idea is to just produce consistent content on a regular basis. Do a funny video every week, on the same schedule, and you will start to get regular viewers. Post a new song every two weeks on a regular schedule. Put together a nice looking, clean looking page.
With reality television, a person can become “famous” without having to be an actor or musician (although it doesn’t hurt, wink wink). My own reality show, Transamerican Love Story, was something I did after having an established identity as an actor with many years of experience behind me, and I was very careful to choose to work with people I trusted to maintain high levels of quality and class. Those were very important things to me, but the biggest reality stars right now are those who exhibit the most “outrageous” behavior and plumb the deepest depths of sub humanity. If one is willing to sleep with a horrifying celebrity on camera, pass out drunk, vomit in slow motion, get into fist fights with other girls or any other “outrageous” behavior on camera… then one can possibly become “famous” without having to do the work of an actor, musician or online content producer. Taking that lowest road is not recommended by me, but shows like “I Love New York”, “Flava of Love”, “Bad Girls Club” and so on are prominent examples that a kind of success is possible in that genre.

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