Gail Simone Quotes

There are no trans roles, and if there are, they go to Jared Leto or Eddie Redmayne or Elle Fanning... Will there ever come a point where I could play a woman in a realistic, naturalistic drama and have there not be the word 'trans' in the script?

There's been a huge history of cisgender success on the back of trans stories, which is something I'm deeply aware of. My take on it, I suppose, was that I do think actors should be able to play anything.

It seems only fitting that we have a trans superhero for trans kids to look up to. I wish there was a trans superhero when I was little.

There are only so many 'series regular' trans roles on TV.

It just so happens that I'm trans. It shouldn't have to be like 'Oh, that's the trans model selling the trans clothes.'

Now that we've seen broader representation of trans identities, I think it's safer to explore the fault in these trans characters and make them entirely human and three dimensional.

I don't want the same trans story to be told over and over again. I don't want people to get stuck on this very western idea of what it means to be transgender.

Between 'Orange' with Laverne, the show 'Transparent,' and Caitlyn Jenner, obviously we're in the middle of something enormous - a transgender movement. I'm just proud to be alive during this massive shift in the world.

I think there is much more queer visibility than there was when I was a kid. There is marriage, more trans visibility, and many more celebrities who are open about the sexuality. This was so not the case when I was a kid.

I am very close to a number of actresses who are trans and hungry for parts.

I think accurately presenting a trans character means not presenting them as perfect - I think there's been a pressure to do this with trans characters. They can have no flaws because they must represent the entire trans community.

Growing up, I never saw images of trans people succeeding.

Cisgender actors don't take trans roles out of malice. I think it's just failure to realize the context behind having cisgender people play transgender characters because we don't see the same issue with sexuality.

To see a trans body in this ideal space - on a cover, in an ad - these are spaces that have immense cultural power to dictate what is beautiful, what is glamorous, what is aspirational, what is sexy, what is clean. That can be very powerful and helpful in the de-stigmatization of trans bodies.

When I saw that Laverne Cox was on the cover of 'Time' magazine, I totally lost it. It was a coup for the girls!

What 'Billions' does so brilliantly is they just make it a non-issue. Damien Lewis' character says, 'Those are the pronouns you use? Great, let's get down to business. How can you make me money?'

I was pretty sure, going along the timeline, I was going to have to embrace being a role model for transsexuals in mixed martial arts, and I'm willing to embrace it - of course.

What's hurtful is when you have portrayals like, you know, when you have someone like Jared Leto who accepts an award for 'Dallas Buyers Club,' after playing a trans woman, standing in a full beard and looking fully cis male: it is communicating to our audiences that underneath all of that, it's still a man under that.

Having trans people play trans roles show that we are valid in our identities, and we exist.

What I'm really excited for is to see the evolution of trans characters and see more diverse stories be told, so that every time we're on screen, we're not really playing the part of educator and having to explain the experience to the audience, because it will have already been normalized.

More than 40 per cent of my viewers are female. When I do meetups and events, oftentimes the majority of people who show up are LGBTQ+. So I'm looking forward to better serving that community of fans.

I'm loving the fact that Hollywood is telling trans stories.

We can be whoever we want. We can do whatever we want. We can be superheroes, because in many ways we are. We've had trans representation in television for a while, but it hasn't been the right representation.

I lived what we call 'stealth' for a number of years. Even when I started acting in the industry, I didn't disclose. I didn't come out. My first job on 'Law & Order' was not a trans role.

For a long time, with a lot of women of the trans experience on television, people have only got to see one aspect of their life. With 'Pose,' it's broadened the scale.