Last week it was announced that Matt Bomer would be playing a transgender woman in the upcoming movie Anything, a film produced by Mark Ruffalo. Within hours the internet, or at least the corners of it frequented by those of us who pay attention to both LGBTQ and entertainment news, exploded with articles and opinions. I personally found out while I was scrolling through Twitter and happened on a thread of tweets about the situation by transgender actress Jen Richards.
Yet another movie is coming out starring a cis man as a trans woman. It feels like the entertainment industry has hit a wall. We want to congratulate ourselves for being so progressive for telling and supporting stories about LGBTQ experiences, but it’s still considered taking it too far to have an actual representative of that community be the face of it. So many excuses. “Too much of a risk,” “just cast the right actor for the job,” “we need someone to be able to be pre-transition,” the list goes on and on. There are so many excuses, but really it boils down to one thing. As GLAAD’s Nick Adams writes in a guest column for the Hollywood Reporter, “it's yet another painful reminder that, in the eyes of so many people, transgender women are really just men.”
Ruffalo addressed the issue in a tweet. “To the Trans community. I hear you. It's wrenching to you see you in this pain. I am glad we are having this conversation. It's time.” I personally find this apology lacking. This isn’t a new conversation. Both Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer should have known better with all the discourse surrounding past movies that featured cis men as trans women.
Amid controversy Eddie Redmayne was nominated for an Oscar for playing a transgender woman last year, as was Jared Leto in 2013. Now, if the Academy Award part of that sentence is more important to filmmakers than the idea that it was in spite of the pushback from actual trans people, then they are focusing more on what trans stories can give them and not the real, living people behind those stories. As a rule.
If Mark Ruffalo auditioned trans actors and still went with Matt Bomer, then he should be aware that he is making this movie more for his benefit than for the people it is based off of. And that’s a fact. At some point he will have to own up to that to himself, and it won’t be for lack for trans people letting him know.
The idea of telling an important story amid controversy leads into a larger issue that has also been heavily discussed recently in light of the sexual assault allegations against Birth of a Nation star and writer Nate Parker.
With recent controversy over actors and filmmakers whose movies tell important stories but have, for one reason or another, cast a shadow over the production, the question has raised “should we still see and support the film?” It’s a question that I’m afraid I have no answer to. Did I really want to see Birth of a Nation? Yes. Will I go see it now after the reveal of Nate Parker’s actions at Penn State and lackluster apology tour? I don’t know.
Do I want to support LGBTQ stories? Yes, without question. Do I want to support this particular telling of a trans story? I don’t know yet. Probably not.
