I don't care one bit if an actor is trans or not, gay or not. I only care about 2 things: (1) is the actor credible in the role they are playing? and (2) is the role mocking gay/trans people?

In this case, in the trailer at least, Jeffrey Tambor comes across as completely believable as trans, and it seems like a very sympathetic portrayal of a trans person. So I'm totally okay with this.

And, Dan, you're not entirely right about all these movies being about wealthy people. Have you seen Love Is Strange? It's an adorable movie about an older gay couple (John Lithgow and Alfred Molina) that gets married. Half the movie is about one of them losing a job, and being forced to move out of their apartment, and all the turmoil that causes. So, not always wealthy characters. And by the way, both (straight!) actors are utterly believable as an older gay couple.

Oh my god. I hated William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Children of a Lesser God, now that I'm thinking about it. Thank you for validating my feelings about William Hurt.

I like Tambor's work, and this looks like it could be good, especially him. I do wonder how much his casting relates to the end of season 4 of Arrested Development, though.

I was talking to a trans woman in her 60s the other night about who she'd want to play her in a movie, and she said she'd be furious if a cis man was cast. She said that she was "old school" and that "back then the whole point was to totally be a woman" so the logical end to that would be being played by a cis female actor. I thought that was interesting.

Living as I did under the yoke of fascism, Kiss of the Spider Woman was the very first film I saw featuring an openly gay character. For some reason the censors allowed that film to be shown. Probably because the character was in jail and had been convicted sex with a minor.

It did endear him to me though. Unless you have lived it, you have no idea how psyche destroying it is to live in a place where gay people were absolutely invisible and you're gay. You think you're the only freak on the planet.

@3 That is very interesting. Good look at perspectives not necessarily common today.

That title, though ...

Amazon? Never.

Felicity Huffman in Transamerica: a cis-woman in trans role. Anyone who has not seen it must.

Vanessa Redgrave in "Second Serve"(1986). She played the male and female roles. I don't remember if it was good or not (probably not since it was a made-for-TV movie).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Serv…

Just so I have it straight,

It's perfectly okay for a Norse god, the deity of the whitest people on Earth, to be played by a black guy;
but it's NOT okay for a straight actor to play a trans person.

Got it! Being PC is hard once you're two decades out of college.

@8 - Transamerica is a fantastic movie and in my own movie awards, she won Best Actress that year.

The primary issue isn't and never was that the actor must BE whatever the role is. That's what the acting is for. The issue is that for decades there were no gay roles, and actors who were even suspected of being queer could barely find work, because "no one will believe you in a romantic role" etc... and now that there finally ARE gay roles being written, queer roles, trans* roles... who is playing these wonderful roles? Cis straight men, naturally.

At the end of the day, though, it makes sense from a business standpoint. Tambor is a known actor with a following. There may well be a trans* actor who could play the shit out of that role. I am certain there is. But no one, at the moment, knows their name, and no one is going to bankroll a project that they are anchoring.

I'm going to rejoice that the series was made, rather than mourn that it's perfect doppleganger died in development.

@12 You do know Marvel Heimdall is not actual Heimdall, right? He's an alien, not a god. He's also completely fictional. Trans people aren't.

It's always been this way in Hollywood. Remember old Westerns, with the Indians being played by Italians and Greeks? Micky Roon ey as Japanese in Breakfast at Tiffany's for heaven's sake. And it changed. Too slowly, and inconsistently, but it's better now than it was.

Right now we are at the point where simply having trans roles in movies is a big deal. Eventually we'll get to the point where trans people will have a chance at those roles, and when the person being trans is not the entire point of the movie.

Understandably, trans people are impatient with this process. And that's good - it's that impatience that will drive the change. People saying "This really isn't all that OK" is what makes them think a bit more next time they cast a movie.

I think the response has to be measured, though - it can't be so negative that they decide that making movies with trans people is too risky to do at all.

Interesting article about the show and its creator in the NYT magazine
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/magazi…

So far the show has 20 trans people in the cast and crew and "more than 60" trans people have been cast as extras.
Soloway (the show's creator/writer/director)'s father came out as trans a while back.

I remember Olympia Dukakis as a trans woman in the BBC adaptation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City. In the big reveal scene (bc main characters had no idea she was once a man) all they did was shoot her from a certain angle and her face looked very masculine.

THANK YOU! I did not believe Hurt in that role for one second. I would nominate it as the worst Best-Actor-winning performance ever.