Trans Actors Can Be In The Building And Still Get Ignored

Like a lot of Trans World peeps I was more than a little heated when the women of POSE were once again snubbed for Emmy consideration despite stepping up their acting games and putting in some Emmy worthy performances.

Tell me you didn't cry watching Candy's funeral?  Or laugh your azz off when Elektra read that Karen for filth in that Hamptons seafood restaurant scene.



Billy Porter was nominated for and won an Emmy last year for his Pray Tell performance and is now only lacking an Oscar to become only the 15th person ever to complete the EGOT.

What's the EGOT you ask?  An EGOT is when an entertainer during their career wins an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award. 

So yeah, he's mad talented.    He also said this when being interviewed last year for his historic Emmy win.   The part I'm salty about starts at the 2:51 mark of this video



That video with his 'we in the building' comment is heightening my irritation with that comment a year later.  While Porter received a second consecutive nomination for playing Pray Tell,  the POSE women got snubbed for a second consecutive year.

You can still be in the building and still be ignored.  You Mr. Porter and your fellow cis people all need to recognize that despite the 2020 Emmy nominations for Rain Valdez and Laverne Cox (and congrats to both those amazing women) the #EmmysSoCis.

Brian Michael Smith and Scott Turner Schofield are talented trans masculine actors who were not given 2020 Emmy consideration, either.   

Yes, trans actors are in the building.  But they still have to fight tooth and nail for the few roles in which trans women play trans feminine characters.  Hell, trans women have had to fight just to play a cis feminine character in Hollywood. 

Trans masculine actors have to fight just as hard to play a trans masculine character.   It took a major outcry from our community to get Halle Berry to reconsider a role in which she would be playing a trans masculine person.   Same with getting Scarlett Johansson to change her mind about playing Dante 'Tex' Ritter in the Rub and Tug movie.

Trans women actors have a problem getting trans feminine roles because studio execs and casting directors are still fixated on putting cis male actors in drag to play those roles.

And to our trans community's horror, those cis men (and a cis woman in Hilary Swank) have gallingly gone on to win the awards trans actors get routinely snubbed for by telling our trans stories..

So no, trans people aren't even close to having equity or seeing the change you claimed had come in that 2019 interview.  Your Emmy interview to our ears sounded like the dismissive 'wait your turn' crap we've been hearing from Black gay men with clout for over 50 years.

The way Black trans women are being genocidally murdered also adds a fierce urgency of now element to not only this situation, but everything we do.

POSE is one of the few productions in Hollywood in which we not only get to tell our stories, we have trans people in front of and behind the camera writing and directing them like Janet Mock and Our Lady J.  That makes it a unique and beloved show in our trans community, and we want to see MJ Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Angelica Ross, Hailie Sahar and Indya Moore succeed.

That means if these women's POSE performances merit Emmy recognition, we want to see them nominated for those performances.  If those nominations then turn into trans historic Emmy wins, we're good with that.

That is also the case for the trans folks working behind their camera.  If they are doing award worthy work, they need to be recognized for that.

Frankly, I love seeing all my Hollywood trans family succeed whether you are in front of the camera or behind it.  The measuring stick for how successful you are in Hollywood is winning or being nominated for major awards like Emmys, Oscars, or Golden Globes.

But to have a shot an winning an Emmy or any of those awards I mentioned, you have to be nominated for it.   This is the flaw in Billy Porter's 2019 'we in the building' speech.

You can be in the building all you want.  But if you're in the building, doing exemplary work, and are still getting ignored for unspecified reasons up to and including Hollywood transphobia and anti-Blackness, that's a problem that needs to be called out and addressed.

Variety's First Ever Transgender In Hollywood Roundtable

As many of you TransGriot readers are aware of, I'm a huge supporter of trans actors playing trans people in film and television roles, and trans writers predominately writing those characters.

The success of the FX TV show POSE speaks to what can happen when you let trans people tell their stories.  It also speaks to the authenticity that shines through it when you cast trans actors to play trans roles.

FYI Hollywood, trans actors can also play cis roles.   How about hiring some of my Hollywood trans peeps to do just that? 

Variety magazine, the media publication of record for Hollowood, just released a Transgender In Hollywood issue. 

It also conducted this first ever Transgender Artists Roundtable discussion that included Laverne Cox, Alexandra Billings, Trace Lysette, Brian Michael, Chaz Bono, and Jen Richards.

Enjoy.

Scarlett Johansson, This Is A Trans Role You Appropriated, Not A Cis Feminine One

Scarlett Johansson obviously didn't get the message in 2016 when she took a whitewashed Major Motoko Kusanagi role that should have gone to an Asian actress in the movie Ghost In The Shell.  That pissed off fans of the manga looking forward to seeing it on the silver screen, and the movie subsequently tanked at the box office.

Now Johansson is slated to play trans man Dante 'Tex' Gill in the upcoming crime drama Rub & Tug directed by Rupert Sanders, the same person who cast her in the failed Ghost In The Shell movie. 

Tex Gill in the1970's and 1980's operated massage parlors in Pittsburgh that served as fronts for prostitution.   Gill also lived his life as a trans man, which is why we're tripping about Johansson getting this role.

Why this latest casting controversy has the trans community pissed off is because once again, we have a cisgender actor playing a transgender role.  In this case the actor has an unrepentant history of cultural appropriation

Two high profile transgender actresses in Trace Lysette and Jamie Clayton took to Twitter to put Johansson and Hollywood on blast for it.

"Oh word? So you can continue to play us but we can't play y'all?" Lysette wrote on her Twitter feed in reaction to Johansson's casting.  "Hollywood is so fucked.  I wouldn't be as upset if I was getting in the same roms as Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett for cis roles, but we know that is not the case.  A mess." 

"And not only do you play us and steal our narrative and our opportunity but you pat yourselves on the back with trophies and accolades for mimicking what we have lived,"

Clayton echoed the same thoughts in her Twitter commentary about the jacked up casting .

"Actors who are trans never even get to audition for anything other than roles of trans characters.  That's the real issue.  We can't even get in the room.  Cast actors who are trans as non trans characters, I dare you."  

Trace and Jamie are both correct.  If the same reciprocity in being cast for cisgender roles was regularly extended to transgender Hollywood actors, we wouldn't be complaining about this casting of Johansson now. 

But the equitable Hollywood casting for trans actors isn't happening at this time, and Hollywood casting directors, directors and studios know it.  To add insult to injury, cisgender actors are getting awards for doing so while perpetuating a 'men in dresses' stereotype that leads to trans women getting violently assaulted while Hollywood pats itself on the back at awards time. 

And now Hollywood is handing trans masculine roles to cis women that should be played by trans masculine and nonbinary actors.  This is also reinforcing a stereotype trans men have to constantly fight in that they are really butch women.

Johansson poured more gasoline on the casting controversy by dismissively citing actors who have gotten awards for playing trans characters in a weak attempt to defend herself.

"Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto and Felicity Huffman's reps for comment," Johansson said in a statement obtained by Bustle.

Naw boo boo kitty, not gonna work.   Even Tambor recognized the problem with casting cis people in trans roles when he accepted his second Emmy in 2016.

 "I'm not going to say this beautifully: To you people out there ... please give transgender talent a chance. Give them auditions. Give them their story," Tambor said in his Emmy acceptance speech. 

"I would be happy if I were the last cisgender male to play a transgender female," he added.

The bottom line is that trans actors are beyond sick and tired of not getting fair shots at auditioning for or getting roles written for cisgender people.  But you cis people get cast all day for the limited trans roles available with the weak excuse of 'we need a box office name to help this movie get made'.

Tangerine didn't have a box office name when they cast trans actress Mya Taylor as Alexandra.  The movie that cost $100,000 to make made $924,793 and received several awards, including a Spirit Award  for Taylor.

Don't even try to peddle the 'we couldn't find a trans masculine actor' lie.   Let's see, there's Scott Turner Schofield, Ian Harvie, Chaz Bono, Emmett Jack Lundberg and nonbinary actor Ellie Desautels for starters.

So naw Scarlett, this Tex Gill role is made for a trans masculine actor.   What's going to happen with you in it is the same thing that happened to Ghost In The Shell.  Your appropriating appearance in it will cause this film to get boycotted and tank at the box office.

Hey Hollywood, Trans Actors Exist, So Hire Them!

TransGriot Note:  Actress Trace Lysette on the Emmy's red carpet.

One of the things I've been increasingly pleased to see is the increasing proliferation of my trans siblings gracing the red carpets of Hollywood as they work in the industry doing various film and television projects'

What I not happy about is film and television roles that are designed as trans feminine characters being played by cis men, and cis white men in particular when there are plenty of qualified trans actors who are ready, willing and able to play those characters and give them the nuance our community deserves..

Doing that feeds 'the man in a dress' stereotype that is negatively impacting our lives and the human rights of everyone.  That stereotype needs to die, Hollywood, and you need to lead the way in ensuring that happens.

Look cis white male actors, y'all already get 70% of the roles in Hollywood, let some other peeps get some roles and some of that money, too.

We've come a long way from the days when Aleshia Brevard was non disclosed while working there and on stage, and didn't reveal until 2001 her trans status.  I also remembering us celebrating in 2007 when Candis Cayne broke ground with her recurring role of Carmelita Ranier on the canceled ABC series Dirty Sexy Money..  

Now we have a long list of trans actors working in Hollywood like Alexandra Billings, who many of you saw on the first and second seasons of Transparent, and in an episode of ABC's How To Get Away With Murder and teaches future actors,.  

We also have the amazing Scott Turner Schofield repping the trans masculine community with not only his historic role on the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful, but his one person shows like Debutante Balls and tonight's Chicago performance of Becoming A Man In 127 Easy Steps.


Break a leg, Scott.

And yes, I'm pleased to see my sisters Laverne Cox and Angelica Ross starting to get roles in which Black trans women are not the butt of a joke or are killed in the first ten seconds after they appear on screen.

Laverne will make history when the CBS legal series Doubt debuts in the 2016-17 midseason with her playing Ivy League educated attorney Cameron Wirth.  It will be the first scripted TV series ever with a transgender main character, and it's past time that happened.  

And can't forget Mya Taylor, Zackary Drucker, Jamie Clayton, Trace Lysette, Michelle Hendley, Calpernia Addams and the others trying to make a name and get paid in Hollywood for their acting talents.

Hollywood, don't just hire trans actors for trans roles.  Free your minds and cast trans actors for non-trans roles  like you have done for far too long with cis males playing trans characters.

Hollywood, if you're going to tell our stories, make money off them and get awards for writing, filming and producing them, then you need to stop pretending trans actors don't exist.  

It's undeniable that they do, and it's past time you not only start hiring trans actors to tell those stories, but trans peeps behind the camera to write and film them.

Legal Drama 'Doubt' Featuring Laverne Cox Being Picked Up By CBS!

Been talking about the legal series Doubt, which features Laverne Cox as an Ivy League educated attorney that works at a boutique law firm.

The original pilot wasn't picked up by CBS last season, but what they did do was order a second retooled pilot episode with Katherine Heigl and Steven Pasquale as the new lead actors to replace KaDee Strickland and Teddy Sears.  

Laverne was part of both Doubt pilots, and it looks like CBS is finally going to pick up the show and order it as a series for its 2016-17 television lineup.

She'll be playing Cameron Wirth, who is competitive, fierce, funny, compassionate and fights hard for her clients as someone who experiences regular discrimination herself according to the character description..

By doing so, CBS helped Laverne make more groundbreaking Hollywood and television history.  When Doubt broadcasts its first episode this fall, it will become the first television series that has an out trans actress playing a trans main character in a broadcast series.

The show's cast in addition to Heigl and Pasquale in the lead roles, includes, Dule Hill, Dreama Walker, Elliott Gould, and Kobi Libii.

While Candis Cayne was on ABC's short lived 2007-2009 series Dirty Sexy Money for 11 episodes, her Carmelita Rainer character wasn't a main character, she was a recurring character.   Laverne's Cameron Wirth will be a main character from the outset of the show, and the first Black main trans character on a network TV show .

So congrats Laverne for getting another opportunity to make more television history, and may Doubt be a runaway success..

'Her Story' Premieres At New York LGBT Film Festival

Was happy to hear about the premiere of Her Story, which features two people I have mad love for in Jen Richards and Angelica Ross.   It is a web series that features not only trans people in front of the camera playing nuanced trans characters, but a trans person directing it in Sydney Freeland

Gee, trans actors playing trans people.   What a refreshing concept.   And something Hollywood has needed to do for a long time.

Her Story debuted to a packed house at New York's LGBT Film Festival Monday night, and the NewFest crowd was treated to a post screening panel with Angelica, Jen and Laura Zak moderated by Laverne Cox.



If you haven't seen the trailer for Her Story, here it is.



So looking forward to seeing it when it is released to the rest of the world.

'Race-Themed' Movie My Azz, USA Today

I was not surprised when I heard that The Best Man Holiday was kicking butt and taking names at the multiplexes during its opening weekend.  

I said this when I wrote about it in my SUF post on Friday.

Already checked and many of the theaters I like to hit are pretty much sold out, so don't be surprised on Monday if you hear that it was the number one movie this weekend.

Thor made a last minute run to beat The Best Man Holiday in this weekend's money race by earning $38 million to BHM's $31 million, but even Miss Cleo and her defunct Psychic Hotline could have predicted a sequel to a beloved classic African-American movie with the same star studded cast that we've been waiting 14 years to see again would clock serious dollars. 

It actually made more money Friday night ($10.7 million) than Thor did ($10.4 million) before the screen advantage kicked in.   The Best Man Holiday was on far less screens (2024) than Thor's 3841, cost only $17 million to make, didn't have the same advertising budget as that (ho hum) comic book movie but still made big bucks.. 

So why was USA Today hatin' on the Best Man Holiday by calling it a race-themed movie? 

Yeah, you knew Black Twitter would put its collective foot in USA Today's and writer Scott Bowles' azz for that full of fail original headline and article as the race-themed Black blogosphere came for them in rapid succession. 

Birth of A Nation is a race-themed movie, Scott Bowles.  The Best Man Holiday isn't.  .

While the movie had a predominately African-American cast, the movie themes covered universal issues of friendship, love, family and loss just to name a few and will easily top the $34 million the original movie made back in 1999.

If Hollywood would make more movies in which I can see myself reflected on the silver screen in everyday situations as The Best Man Holiday does, I'd be more inclined to spend money at the multiplex.  I'd be even more inclined to do so if that particular African-American film is written and directed by someone besides Tyler Perry. 

And surprise surprise, even non-white folks would come to see them if you spent as much advertising dollars promoting them as you do on movies like Thor.
I'd also make some calls to the agents of Nia Long and Larenz Tate and work on getting that sequel to Love Jones made or call a few Black novelists and enter into discussions with them to turn their novels into movies.   


But if you're insistent on doing another comic book movie, I have two words for you if you want to make money:  Black Panther. 

Would love to see who would play him or what Wakanda looks like on the silver screen.

Amen, Gabrielle

I've loved watching Gabrielle Union as the lead actress in the movie Deliver Us From Eva and first saw her in the movie Love and Basketball.   

She is another one of those intelligent sisters we are blessed to have representing our people in Hollywood who from time to time will have something dead on target to say about various issues and ain't 'scurred' to talk about issues of importance to her and the community.

It's an old quote attributed to Gabrielle that I saw on Essence.com, but it speaks volumes about how much it is resonating in the Afrosphere and speaks to Hollywood's recent movie casting behavior. 

“Hollywood needs to recognize all shades of African-American beauty.”

Amen, Gabrielle.  There are 23 shades of African American beauty from light and damn near white vanilla cream to deepest darkest ebony, and Hollywood needs to start focusing on the actresses who happen to be on the other end of that Black beauty scale.

Seems far too often lately that when the casting of a movie role calls for a sistah, only light bright and damned near white, mocha skinned or caramel coated sisters need apply


I love Nicole Ari Parker, Paula Patton, Thandie Newton, Meagan Good and Halle Berry for example.  They are all beautiful women and talented actresses and I enjoy watching any movie they have a part in.  However, there are sisters on the other end of the African-American beauty scale such as Gabrielle, Kerry Washington, Nia Long, Regina King, Loretta Devine, Angela Bassett, and Alfre Woodard who are just as beautiful and just as talented. 

Hollywood uses all shades of brothers from Shemar Moore to Blair Underwood, Samuel L. Jackson to Idris Elba, and it's past time they start doing the same with sistahs.