Elliot Fletcher

If you look back on the history of transgender characters in film and TV, you’ll find few depictions of trans men. Besides Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry, there was Daniela Sea’s Max on The L Word, Glenn Close and Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs, and a few minor TV roles here and there. The one thing all those roles have in common? They weren’t played by trans actors. But Elliot Fletcher is swiftly changing that and paving the way for a better future on the small screen.

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.

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.