Trans actors should be playing not-trans roles

Beowulf is a fantasy character they could have made that film with puppies.

That's totally irrelevant, the point is that the actor didn't need to have any particular physical qualities at all to take the role, only a convincing voice, and the same thing could be done for any role using that technology. Even historical figures like Martin Luther King, or Martin Luther.

There was a big fuss on Broadway when they cast Abigail Breslin as Helen Keller instead of a visually impaired child actress.

The producer/director kept explaining, an experienced child actress strong enough to carry that part was rare as hens teeth anyway so it would have meant an inexperienced unknown, which was a huge financial risk. And they had to have a big, known name to pull the audience to make the show successful as opposed to a financial disaster.

Reality sucks. But it's what the world runs on.

Trans people are less common than non-sighted/blind people, or deaf people/hard of hearing.

How much blind or deaf representation have you seen in media this year compared to trans?

Beowulf is a fantasy character they could have made that film with puppies.
Martin Luther King is a historical figure.

Blythe in You is is a minor character and Hari Nef was probably not paid very much and doing it for exposure. It doesn't really matter and its a good thing to portray homosexual relationships as just happening rather than making a thing out of it.

Sometimes it's relevant and sometimes it isn't. There was some publicity recently about a black actress playing the little mermaid but what does the ethnicity matter there? You couldn't have a white female play someone like Martin Luther King though.

It seems difficult to imagine that would work, but in terms of movie make-up these days you can do quite a lot, and maybe even more on the stage. And then, there are some computer generated films where actors can look totally different, look at that Beowulf with Ray Winstone, he's a tubby middle aged man playing a buff fellow 15 years younger.

And I agree up thread about Chandler’s dad. I always assumed the “joke” there wasn’t about being trans or not (as she was a drag queen anyway I believe?) but more that the viewer knew that actress as a well known woman - it was never supposed to be a believable trans character.

Presumably it’s only an issue if it’s relevant to the actual story. So a disabled person could play a role of a character in a story where disability wasn’t a storyline because disability shouldn’t be the only “thing” about a person. Equally if it’s a movie about a real person then arguably they should be played by someone similar unless the whole point of the play/movie is to subvert the story (eg Hamilton).

So in You - it’s actually probably reasonable to have Hari Nef playing the part as being trans isn’t anything to do with the story, but neither is being female - it isn’t a role where her sex is really anything to do with it and the role could have been played by any sex or any race.

It would be more reasonable for a female who wasn't French to play Joan of arc than a French male.

Sometimes it's relevant and sometimes it isn't. There was some publicity recently about a black actress playing the little mermaid but what does the ethnicity matter there? You couldn't have a white female play someone like Martin Luther King though.

As soon as you start giving people jobs because they are trans, or female, or Asian etc you are building expectations of special treatment. And, quite possibly, are not hiring the best person for the job/role.

Yes, and it will ultimately tend to work against those actors themselves, who could very easily find themselves unable to play roles they might be interested in but which do't fit their profile. If someone like Juliette Binoche can convincingly play a Hispanic role, presumably a Hispanic actress can convincingly play a Frenchwoman, and why shouldn't she? But if it becomes normal to think of these kinds of identifiers as being exclusive, people are deluding themselves if they think that sort of ideology won't equally apply to supposedly dominant groups of people. I can easily imagine a bunch of French people being upset over someone not French playing Joan of Arc or some other role with a lot of national meaning.

I am not convinced that is a road we want to go down.

I've certainly never seen a trans actor who passed for a second, it's always screamingly obvious to me

The problem with those castings is that it gives the illusion that someone can have surgery, change sex and pass when it's not true. Both roles should have been given to men.

Yes, though I think in friends that was part of the joke - that Chandler's dad was this really sultry, sexy woman, that the audience all knew as a famous actress, it added another layer of humour.

YourOpinionIsNoted yes, like Blaire White. Bit of a fan!

Surely acting, like anything else, should be the best person for the job...without prejudice.

And under representation should be addressed by looking at the causes of that underrepresentation. Playwrights not writing enough parts for women - perhaps an award for the best play with a female lead? A particular ethnic group? Is that that people of that ethnicity are not applying to drama school, or that they are not accepted by drama school. Then address this.

As soon as you start giving people jobs because they are trans, or female, or Asian etc you are building expectations of special treatment. And, quite possibly, are not hiring the best person for the job/role.

The problem with those castings is that it gives the illusion that someone can have surgery, change sex and pass when it's not true. Both roles should have been given to men.

In "Friends", Chandler's transwoman mum was played by Kathleen Turner, putting a woman in a man's role.

In "Transamerica", same thing, with the transwoman played by Felicity Huffman, again putting a woman in the man's role.

I don't think women should play a character of a transwoman because it's not at all helpful. I don't think a transwoman should play a woman either in a drama that is supposed to realistic (not stylised or fantasy)
Not too bothered about minor characters without an obvious storyline. Assuming this character was supposed to be trans but no big deal is made of it I don't have a problem with that at all.
The problem with casting someone whose identity is based on stereotypes in an opposite sex role is that it pricks everyone's attention as pointed out in the posts above including mine.

MrsCollins sure. But in You, the character is a graduate student I believe. Not someone who is pregnant for instance. There is nothing distracting about this character being potentially transgender. The same way that a disabled person can play a character without disability being part of the storyline, I cannot see why the same cannot be said of a transgender person.

Doesn't it come down to whether their casting distracts the audience from the storytelling? Unless the disconnect is part of what the director is trying to achieve, you need actors who are believable in whatever the role is.

Happy yes, but it’s more complex than just saying that women are underrepresented and that no transwoman should have a female role. A much bigger problem for instance is young women playing the love interest of much older male characters and getting cast as ‘mum to a teenager’ roles in their early 30s. So younger women’s roles marginalise older women. White women’s roles marginalise women of colour. Thin conventionally attractive women’s roles marginalise women who don’t fit that mould. Men and women aren’t in direct competition for roles and there are many many shows where most of the cast is female. There are so few transwomen actors that I cannot get at all exorcised about a minor role going to one of them. And as said above, the character could be trans, it’s just not mentioned or relevant to the story. And hopefully we aren’t suggesting that trans people are only allowed to play a character where them being trans is central to the story.

They're under represented in that they have less lines, storylines, have shorter careers and are token characters in children's TV than male characters.

You was more about Beck and her friends and HN played a minor character anyway.

White women are not an underrepresented group. And even if they were, trans/GNC people are even less represented. The character in You may or may not be trans. It’s not part of the storyline so I can’t see why it’s denying anyone else an opportunity by having a trans actor. It’s not like they have her playing someone who is pregnant or anything is it? What if Blythe actually is supposed to be trans but it’s just never mentioned?

Most recent series of Jessica Jones had a transwoman playing the secretary. Was obvious to me the actor was male pretty much instantaneously. Can be difficult to tell from a photo (at times), but as soon as they move/speak it's clear.

Thinking this through.

It's entirely about whether the audience will entirely accept the actor in the role, and if they're the best at the audition.

If there's a great trans actor up for a trans role, it seems right to cast them, for verisimilitude.

If they're up for a non trans (I don't use the c word but I don't know any other that would be acceptable) role, then why not, if they do a great audition and it's undetectable that the actor is trans.

But how realistic is this? I can only think of one, Nicole Maines in Supergirl, but then I think her character IS trans.

@Pota2 - Women are an underrepresented group. It's a fun and interesting part that could have gone to a woman (of any colour) instead of a white male.

Lol Ozgirl that’s what I thought too. Now that I look at a clip it’s obvious but it just didn’t occur to me when I first watched it because the storyline had nothing to do with anyone being trans.