00:00Being a trans actor in Hollywood, I mean, I can't say that I've met other trans teen actors.
00:07It just seems that there's not that many opportunities.
00:16It started out as a cis boy named Ben, and he was going to be bullied for, like,
00:24being feminine and stuff. And then I auditioned, and my agent was like,
00:29what if the character was a girl, and she was being bullied for a similar reason?
00:35And then I got it, and I found out I was trans, like, shortly after that.
00:55I was kind of figuring it out, like, before I auditioned and as I was auditioning and stuff,
01:02and I don't remember exactly when it was, but I know that the casting process, like, took a while,
01:11and, like, somehow in there, I kind of found out I was trans. And I told them,
01:19and the writers were really cool about it, and they thought, like, oh,
01:22this might be a really good opportunity to, like, tell the story of a trans character.
01:28And so we talked about that and stuff, and that's just kind of what happened. And they
01:32were all, like, really cool about it, and everyone on set was really good with, like,
01:37pronouns and stuff. And then, you know, he changed his name to Ben, so it was kind of full circle.
01:42Yay, it's a boy. Mom.
01:53So am I.
01:58Anything they've done for him related to his transition felt really genuine and not, like,
02:05overdramatic or anything, and I am really proud of that. I feel so honored to be a part of a
02:13project that would let me do that, and the way that the scene, his coming out scene, turned out,
02:20I just felt like it was really powerful, because you see a lot of coming out scenes that end badly,
02:28and that does happen in real life, but I think it was so special to just see some mom who was
02:36really accepting, and it just meant a lot to me. And it was similar to my story, too,
02:44and my mom was really accepting as well. And so it was just very, it was really authentic for me to
02:52do that, and I felt like it's important to have representation where the characters are just
03:00accepted and it's okay. This is gonna sound, like, really cliche and dorky, but I didn't really know
03:13that I wanted to be an actor until I started working on Good Girls, because it was kind of,
03:18like, one of the first things I did, and I had done smaller things, but that was when I kind of,
03:24like, got a feel of it, and working more frequently, I just realized it was so much
03:30fun and so exciting to be on set, and yeah, that's when I knew I wanted to be an actor.
03:39I've been going out for a lot of cis boys, which I enjoy. I do really like playing queer roles,
03:46though, which there aren't a lot of, but occasionally I'll get some that come along.
03:56But there are definitely more cis guy roles, which I would be really happy to play,
04:01and I'm still kind of figuring out, like, what kind of roles I would like to play.
04:06There's slowly more representation and better representation, which is really important.
04:12Like, shows like Pose, it's really inspiring, especially to see trans women of color in, like,
04:19the lead roles and stuff. That's really inspiring for me. So I think Hollywood is changing, but
04:25there's a long way to go, and there's, you know, it has its moments that, you know,
04:32and there's, you know, it has its moments that, you know, there's a lot of work to be done.
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