Alexandra Billings

From Carrie Coon’s Nora in ‘The Leftovers’ to Cameron Britton’s chilling Ed Kemper in ‘Mindhunter,’ these are the 15 best TV performances of 2017.

It doesn’t take a media critic to know that film and television have long mistreated and misunderstood the transgender community. Whether painting trans people as something to be reviled and shamed (think Ace Ventura: Pet Detective), as villainous monsters (remember Buffalo Bill?), or using their identities as plot twists (we’re talking to you The Crying Game), Hollywood has continued to perpetuate dangerous and offensive stereotypes. And when a film or series does finally tell an authentic trans narrative, those characters have historically been played by cisgender1 actors – from Chris Sarandon in Dog Day Afternoon (who got the part over trans actor Elizabeth Coffey Williams, who was told she didn’t look “trans enough”) to Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl. As Hollywood history shows, most of the time those actors end up earning Oscar nominations and wins for their performances of trans people.

‘Transparent’ star Alexandra Billings recounts the time she was cast in the lead role of ‘Transamerica,’ the film that earned Felicity Huffman an Oscar nomination.

Alexandra Billings, Elliot Fletcher, Trace Lysette, D’Lo, Rain Valdez, Alexandra Grey, Jazzmun and Ian Harvie talk about what it means to be a trans actor in Hollywood today.