00:00Wait, so you have a gift for me?
00:02Yes!
00:03I was like, you were at my birthday party, so you probably already have it.
00:07It's okay.
00:08This is going to be the easiest to unwrap it.
00:10Wait, maybe not.
00:13There is a Laverne Cox Barbie.
00:15She's sitting here.
00:17Round of applause.
00:18Now, I can tell you, as a...
00:21Am I a hetero gay guy?
00:23Like, what is my term?
00:24What is it?
00:25I don't even know.
00:26What is it?
00:27A straight gay, because I'm like really gay.
00:29A straight gay.
00:30I don't know my pronoun.
00:31I don't know my pronoun.
00:32As a gay, I ain't never had no doll.
00:34But I'm not only going to say thank you for the doll.
00:37We're actually going to...
00:38Go ahead and bring that in.
00:40We're actually going to...
00:41No, just come right over here.
00:43We're going to put her right here.
00:46Hi.
00:47So we have...
00:49Yes!
00:50Her hair should be styled, yes.
00:55This is a first that I'm really proud of.
00:57I'm the first trans person, openly trans person to have a...
01:00See, here we go.
01:01The first trans...
01:02See again.
01:03To have a doll made in their image by Mattel.
01:05I love that.
01:06I love that.
01:07And there's not an agenda.
01:09This isn't an agenda.
01:10There are trans folks, LGBTQ folks of all ages who are inspired by this.
01:17And who need to see this, you know?
01:19And people who aren't.
01:21And what's also been so beautiful about my life and career is that there are people who
01:24aren't LGBTQ plus or black or whatever who were inspired because I...
01:30Nothing that has happened in my career is supposed...
01:33Was supposed to happen.
01:34Like, there are all these black trans women, like, being nominated for Emmys or on magazine covers.
01:40No.
01:41Like, not before me.
01:42Right.
01:43So, none of this was meant to be or was supposed to happen.
01:46And so...
01:47And the evolution of it and you being groundbreaking doesn't make it your fault.
01:52As they will say, like, you're on the cover of Time or you have the doll.
01:55It's your agenda.
01:56It's an agenda you're the face of.
01:57People, I think, are connecting with your advocacy and your visibility.
02:02And you're being blessed because of the work that you put in.
02:04I have a right.
02:05And I have a right to live my dreams.
02:07Yeah.
02:08You know, we all have a...
02:09This is America.
02:10And I, you know, as many problems as this country has, I believe that everybody should
02:14be able to live their dreams here and be able to do with our bodies and with our lives
02:19what we should be able to do and what we want to do.
02:23And so, the fact that I'm a Black trans woman living my best life, genuinely happy, you know,
02:31making a lovely living, being visible.
02:34People are inspired by it because it's like this is not something that most of us grew up with.
02:39You know, the other kids growing up with it, which is wonderful.
02:42And it's just...
02:43I think my story is a testament to, like, you know, a lot of hard work, perseverance, and passion.
02:48There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into everything I do.
02:51And even if people think I suck at...
02:53People think I suck at acting or whatever.
02:55I do have four Emmy nominations for acting.
03:01Somebody doesn't think I suck.
03:02And honestly, but to be real, I've seen performances of mine that suck.
03:06I think that some of my favorite actors have done terrible performances.
03:10And that, like, inspires me.
03:12I'm like, and I'm not going to name any of them.
03:13I'm like, some of my favorite actors, like, I'm like, that was not good.
03:16And so, you know, like, hopefully I'll have a chance to do better next time.
03:21And I think that, like, as an artist, you have to take the risk to suck.
03:25You have to take the risk to, you know, maybe not do well at something.
03:30Because I think we often learn more from, quote unquote, failure or when things don't happen the way that we'd like them to, then we learn from our successes.
03:37But you watch your work back and criticize your own work?
03:39Absolutely.
03:40Because some people don't even watch themselves.
03:41I mean, sometimes it's hard.
03:43I mean, it depends on if it's really close to me, it's harder to watch.
03:46And I may need to take a couple of years to watch.
03:48I remember one of the second to last Emmy nomination I got, I couldn't even...
03:53Like, I remember watching...
03:54I watched the season right when it came out for Orange is the New Black.
03:58And I thought it was too much and I hated it.
04:01And I was like, oh, this sucks.
04:02And I just was like, ugh.
04:04And I talked to my acting teacher about it and she didn't agree.
04:07And then like a year later, I get nominated for an Emmy for that work that I thought sucked.
04:11And I was like, why?
04:13I watched it back and I was like, okay, this is actually good.
04:16But I needed a year to be able to kind of like be objective about it.
04:21And I think I was like, oh, actually, this is pretty good.
04:24But sometimes I think I suck, you know, and that's okay.
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