Jazzmun

Jazzmun has one of the most extensive filmographies out of any trans actor working in Hollywood today. She started off with a recurring role on The John Larroquette Show in 1994 and has appeared on everything from NYPD: Blue to Roseanne and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Most recently, she portrayed trans activist and minister Bobbie Jean Baker on ABC’s When We Rise.

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.