RELATED: Mark Ruffalo responds to transgender community complaints. Click here.
Bomer plays Freda Von Rhenberg, the trans prostitute next door. And that detail triggered an eruption on Twitter and in the LGBTQ media.
Cis actor Matt Bomer will play trans sex worker in a new film bc cis people need awards https://t.co/APUz16d1C2 pic.twitter.com/VK2yq1jQlT
— 𝔥𝔦𝔰𝔭𝔞𝔫𝔦𝔠 𝔭𝔦𝔵𝔦𝔢 𝔡𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔪 𝔤𝔦𝔯𝔩 (@mathewrodriguez) August 30, 2016
I really hope you both choose to do some actual good for the trans community one day. @MRodOfficial @MattBomer https://t.co/9WHwNu7HFm
— Jamie Clayton (@MsJamieClayton) August 30, 2016
Yes, once again, a trans woman in a Hollywood production will be played by a cisgender (which means, not transgender) actor. The all-too common industry practice has been dubbed “transface,” following award-winning performances by Jared Leto, Jeffrey Tambor, Hillary Swank, John Lithgow and so many more. What makes it especially hurtful, in the words of Jen Richards, one of the stars of the Emmy-nominated web series, Her Story, is the kind of trans woman he’s playing.
When @MattBomer plays a trans sex worker, he is telling the world that underneath it all, trans women like me are still really just men.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Again & again cis men play trans women in media with the furthest reach, are rewarded for it, & tell the world trans women are "really" men.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Richards, the out trans writer, actress, producer and activist who cofounded the Trans100, revealed she had tried out for a part in the film.
I auditioned for this. I told them they shouldn't have a cis man play a trans woman. They didn't care. https://t.co/T7YFe6OeX9
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Make no mistake, many producers WANT someone audience will read as a man performing femininity, so many trans women don't fit their vision.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 31, 2016
While agreeing with the Hollywood concept that “anyone can play anyone,” Richards tweeted what she believes a trans actor would bring to the role that a cis actor cannot fake.
It will result in violence against trans women. And that is not hyperbole, I mean it literally. Cis men playing trans women leads to death.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Dear @MarkRuffalo & @MattBomer: if you release this movie, it will directly lead to violence against already at risk trans women.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
For his part, Bomer — or whoever manages his Twitter account — apparently decided enough was enough, according to Sense8 actress Jamie Clayton, who is herself trans.
It's sad that this happens instead of wanting to have a conversation about how to help. #transisbeautiful @MattBomer pic.twitter.com/k4Qpap5dLW
— Jamie Clayton (@MsJamieClayton) August 30, 2016
You’ve seen Bomer, who came out in 2012, in the Magic Mike movies, and TV’s The Normal Heart, for which he won a Golden Globe and co-starred with Ruffalo. Bomer turned activist last fall, joining Michael Sam in recording videos for the Human Rights Campaign to support antidiscrimination laws. So he’s gay, but… well, you do realize, Hollywood, that being gay is not the same thing as being trans, right? And what does he know about sex workers who are transgender (not “transgendered,” Variety)?
For that matter, what does the director who wrote the play this movie is based on know about being trans or prostitution, having to sell your body to survive? We don’t know.
McNeil is the straight cisgender actor and writer who you may have seen (if you didn’t blink) in Contact, Starship Troopers and Forrest Gump — McNeil played the “Have a Nice Day” tee-shirt designer — as well as in episodes of popular television shows from House (“patient #2) to Star Trek: Voyager (miner #2). Neither he nor Bomer appear to have any credits on IMDB that might suggest experience with trans roles, except Anything.
When the play opened in 2007 in Los Angeles community theater, one reviewer repeatedly referred to the character Bomer will play as a “transvestite.” One can only hope that this was the critic’s own, dated and skewed misunderstanding. There’s a huge difference between a man who seeks a sexual thrill and the men and women who yearn to live authentically, and set right a mismatch between their bodies and their brains.
That’s a difference a transgender actor knows better than anyone, a feeling that truly is unlike… anything.
Again with the transface, Hollywood? Matt Bomer booed for ‘playing’ trans