Transgender characters in film and television have often been portrayed by cisgender actors, which is and always has been a problem. Hollywood's history with trans representation is spotty at best with huge corporations making missteps, such as with Disney's franchise LGBTQ+ mistakes. Even though there are now more trans actors playing trans characters than ever before, many trans actors still have a hard time getting roles. With more trans roles being written, it's especially important to give trans actors the opportunity to draw from their lived experience and bring their talents to screens both big and small.

To address the basics, according to GLAAD, a transgender person is someone "whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth" and a cisgender person is someone "whose gender identity is aligned with the sex they were assigned at birth." Hollywood has a complex and regularly problematic history with transgender characters, with them often presented as the targets of fear or ridicule. Trans characters have habitually been portrayed by cis actors. As society has shifted away from demonization and into understanding, the media has reflected and helped to encourage this change. A big part of this cyclical system is tied to the growing examples of trans characters who are authentically portrayed by trans actors.

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Though cisgender actors have been taking trans roles as recently as the 2010s, there is a growing understanding within the industry that it's preferable for trans actors to portray trans characters. Some people feel that acting is acting and that actors, whether cis or trans, should be allowed to take on any role they are suited to. That ignores the fact that trans actors are often overlooked for cis characters, and that cis actors far outnumber trans actors. It also doesn't take into the potential harm that comes from having a cis actor portray a trans character with current social trends. Now that more trans actors are being seen (sometimes even fixing plot problems, as in West Side Story), it's especially important to that it's still a problem for cis actors to play trans roles.

Hollywood's History With Cis Actors In Trans Roles

Mother Bates stabs through the shower

Hollywood's history with transgender characters is problematic. While explicit trans characters began appearing in films as early as the 1950s with the 1953 exploitation movie Glen or Glenda being one of the very first, many of these movies are relegated to historic footnotes about problematic trans representation and have few present-day fans. One of the earliest movies to come up in conversations surrounding trans representation that is still regularly watched by audiences is 1960's The Silence Of The Lambs are just two examples of films that feature villainous trans characters whose gender identity or choice of attire is, at least in part, meant to be scary.

It isn't just horror that perpetuates negative stereotypes about the trans community. Comedies often portray trans characters as having 'tricked' the protagonists, with the reveal that they aren't cisgender often causing disgust. A prominent example of this is 1994's Friends - and that still undermines any true representation of the trans experience while perpetuating systemic problems with how trans people are viewed.

While there have been well-intentioned attempts to portray trans lives with cis actors over the years, these are still fundamentally flawed, regularly reducing the characters to their identity as a trans person and little more. Even when this hasn't directly mocked or vilified the trans community, it still results in presenting trans people as a curiosity or a plot device rather than as characters in their own rights. This might have been a sign of the times at one point, with movies such as 1975's Dog Day Afternoon seeing cis actor Chris Sarandon portray trans woman Leon Shermer. However, this has practice has been consistent in high-profile productions up to relatively recent history. Other early examples of attempts at positive trans representation by cis actors include John Lithgow in 1982's The World According To Garp, The Danish Girl. Even the most positive of these play into the next problem.

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Cis Actors Taking Trans Characters Plays To Gender Essentialism

Rayon shops in a grocery store in Dallas Buyers Club

Gender Essentialism is the outdated belief that "a person, thing, or particular trait is inherently and permanently male and masculine or female and feminine" (via Healthline). The ideology boils the concept of gender down to genders assigned at birth. It is an incredibly reductive approach to an extremely complex subject. In reality, gender is defined by much more than simple physicality and is an extensive spectrum that includes a wealth of non-binary identities. When cis actors portray trans characters, they perpetuate ideas that a trans person is the same as a cis person pretending to be another gender.

Poor representation can occur even if the actor in question is a trans ally and has no desire to hurt the trans community by perpetuating harmful stereotypes. For instance, a cis man portraying a trans woman can still add to the dangerous societal prejudice that trans women are "men in dresses." This perpetuates the deep-rooted othering of trans people that has plagued media for too long.

Cis Actors Take Trans Acting Opportunities From The Community

Bree in the car in Transamerica

Even today, with positive trans representation at an all-time high, many trans actors regularly have a hard time finding work and are typically restricted to playing trans characters if they can get a role at all. This limits the amount of work available to them, in turn making the industry much more competitive. In essence, it's harder to secure work as a trans actor. Having cis actors take trans roles only further imbalances that equation. While there are now several prominent trans and non-binary actors who have found mainstream fame and this is a big step forward, it's taken until relatively recently for it to happen. The number of well-known trans and non-binary actors still pales in comparison to the amount of well-known cis actors. For a long time, trans actors have struggled to be seen at all and even now most viewers would struggle to name more than a handful of trans actors.

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Trans People Understand Their Own Experience Best

Clarice casts actress Jen Richards

There's a depth to the trans experience that can only be properly expressed by those living it, even if cis actors sometimes play characters who become trans icons (like Dax in Star Trek DS9). As trans writer and actor Jen Richards puts it in Netflix's documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen (clip viewable below): "if I'm playing a trans character, I don't have to play the transness of it... someone like Eddie Redmayne... what's remarkable about his performance is the transness... but it reduces that person, in this case who was a real person, to a performance of transness... rather than as a whole person of whom transness is one aspect." Trans actors can simply focus on being as authentic and honest with their performance as possible, whereas cis actors have to put a lot of effort into making sure their performances don't read as false or as parodies. There are nuances to the trans experience that will always be more authentically reproduced by someone who has lived it than someone who has read about it.

More Trans Actors Are Playing Trans Roles At Last

Anne celebrating New York's new income law in Pose

Today, there are several strong trans characters played by trans actors in movies and television. Thanks to her work in 2013's Orange Is The New Black, Laverne Cox was the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy in an acting category. 2018's Pose features a core cast comprised mostly of trans actors playing trans characters (including MJ Rodriguez, Indya Moore, and Dominique Jackson). In of trans representation, other highlights include 2015's Tangerine and Sense8, 2019's Euphoria and Mrs. Fletcher, and 2020's Cowboys and 9-1-1: Lone Star. Trans actors have even appeared as trans characters in superhero shows such as 2015's Supergirl bringing trans representation even further into the mainstream. LGBTQ+ representation in Marvel and DC movies could be much better, but the world-famous franchises are both finally starting to be more inclusive and that can only be a good thing. Similarly, specific non-binary identities are now getting more screentime, if still in a limited capacity, with shows like Star Trek: Discovery including distinct trans and non-binary characters who are, crucially, played by trans and non-binary actors.

The 2021-2022 'Where We Are On TV' report (via franchises with queer histories like Star Trek). It's a huge increase from just six years ago, when the 2015-2016 report (via GLAAD) found that "of the 881 regular characters expected to appear on broadcast primetime scripted programming... 35 (4%) were identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual", that there were "no transgender characters... on primetime broadcast programming", "only three recurring trans characters... on cable (2%)" and that streaming had "the highest percentage of trans characters at 7% (4) with two notably being series leads." As is evident, trans representation is much stronger now than it has ever been. Most of the trans characters on television are finally being portrayed by trans actors. The percentage of trans characters on television is still strikingly small, though, and there's a lot of room for it to grow.

LGBTQ+ representation in film and television has come a long way in just the past few years. There's a lot further to go, though. It's still fairly uncommon for a story focused on a trans character not to look primarily at their gender identity. Of course, there's a place for stories about gender identity, but it will be refreshing when trans characters (portrayed by trans actors) can regularly prominently feature in media that doesn't even mention their gender. Though it happens far less frequently than it used to, cis actors are still sometimes being offered and taking trans roles and it's still a problem. Most big franchises, like Star Wars, fail at LGBTQ+ representation when they should be leading the charge due to their universal appeal. It is another complex aspect of a nuanced subject, but there is room for trans actors to more regularly be afforded the opportunity to play cis characters as well as trans, and that may well be the next step for on-screen trans and non-binary representation.

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