A lot has changed in the world of cinema since its birth in the late 1870s. Cameras have better quality, acting is more personal and the rise of digital filmmaking allows for more pristine, quality films.
Not all changes have been for the better, however. After almost 140 years of cinema, it’s still pretty much basic knowledge that Hollywood is dominated by young, white, straight cisgender males.
Sure, films are far more politically correct now than in the past. But while blackface and yellowface have been obliterated, bigoted miscastings are still very much present.
Some prominent miscastings of the past few years were for films geared toward the transgender community.
Films like “The Danish Girl” and “Dallas Buyer’s Club,” while glorified by the Academy Awards, received backlash from the transgender community for refusing to cast transgender actors in transgender roles.
The newest addition to this pattern is the upcoming film “Anything,” which has cisgender actor Matt Bomer cast as transgender woman.
“Anything” producer Mark Ruffalo responded to the criticism through a series of tweets explaining why Bomer was cast in the part.
He said the transgender community’s negative response to the casting was “wrenching.” Despite this, he said he is glad the community opened up this conversation.
Since the film has already been shot and Bomer tried so damn hard to do well, Ruffalo said we should cut them a break.
“We are all learning,” Ruffalo said in a tweet.
Really? All the complaints geared toward Eddie Redmayne and Jared Leto being cast in transgender roles weren’t enough?
Maybe there’s just a Hollywood assumption transgender people can’t act. You know, like how apparently black people don’t want Oscars and the only way to determine a good actress is by how hard she can cry on camera.
If all this wasn’t bad enough, there is an even more transphobic movie coming out soon called “(Re) Assignment.” The film stars Michelle Rodriguez as a man who is forced to go undergo gender reassignment surgery and then seeks revenge against the group that forced the surgery upon him.
I wish I’m made that up.
Honestly, the premise alone makes notoriously transphobic movies like “Silence of the Lambs” and “Dressed to Kill” look diplomatic in comparison.
But what else could we expect? In the modern age of filmmaking, transphobia is the new racism. You might as well give them blackface.
I would love to be the beacon of light in this situation and reassure you this ignorance will tide over soon and be fully resolved, but I’m afraid the future is rather bleak.
Minorities are just as severely unrepresented as ever, and when they are represented, they fall back into their standard silver-screen stereotypes. It’s why actors like Leslie Jones, Samuel L. Jackson and Lucy Liu are essentially cast in the same roles in every one of their movies.
Even well-intentioned audience members still don’t fully comprehend why casting non-transgender actors is a move in the wrong direction.
The misperception that transgender women are merely men who identify as women is still ingrained in so many people’s heads, which has led to miscastings like Bomer’s.
But honestly, casting a man in these roles would be the same as casting a man to play a woman’s role. It’s absurd and just plain insulting.
However, we can’t rule out the possibility of transgender actors and filmmakers eventually becoming a part of Hollywood cinema.
Laverne Cox from “Orange is the New Black” became the first openly transgender woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy award, as well as the first openly transgender woman to be nominated for an Emmy since 1990.
The 2015 comedy-drama “Tangerine,” starring transgender actresses, received great praise and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
We also can’t forget that Lana and Lilly Wachowski, probably the greatest filmmaking pair of contemporary cinema, are both transgender women. Jamie Clayton, one of the stars of their new series “Sense8,” is also transgender.
So while they have yet to conquer mainstream cinema, the LGBT community still continues making some of the best underground films of the past three decades. Transgender filmmakers are the outlaws of cinema, and someday, like Jesse James and Billy the Kid, we will love them just as much.
afaulds@umail.iu.edu
