Exclusive: "Ugly Betty" cast on the transgender storyline...
Maybe it was due to the absence of Rebecca Romijn but when the cast of "Ugly Betty" participated in a panel at the Television Academy this week, the storyline involving Romijn's character of Alexis - a transgender male-to-female - was not discussed in depth. Alexis was the mystery woman to conspired with Wilhelmina (Vanessa Williams) to take over Mode Magazine. The twist is that Alexis is formerly Alex, the presumed to be dead son of magazine owner Bradford Meade (Alan Dale) and his wife Claire (Judith Light) and brother of the magazine's editor Daniel (Eric Mabius).
With the attention LA Times sportswriter Mike Penner's transition to Christine Daniels has gotten along with Barbara Walters' special last week about transgender children has had me thinking about the subject more than ever. I discussed this with Mabius and Light before the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences event began:
Says Mabius: "I think it's funny because Rebecca Romijn to a lot of guys is one of the most beautiful women alive and you see guys start to look at what they understand as beauty and what they understand as orientation roles and identity roles. It's forcing people to re-examine things. Like Middle America saying, 'Oh wow. That's a pretty heavy and odd storyline but if someone is meant to be something they are not because of a random genetic choice, we get to see how difficult that can be to get back to what they essentially believe to be their true identity. It's really important."
When I asked Light about her TV son, she quickly corrected me with "my dauighter." I asked that other than using the correct pronouns, what does she think people can learn from the storyline?
Said Light: "Acceptance. Love. Appreciation. Connecting to the choice that a person makes about who they know who they are.and supporting them in that choice."
Light added that it is "exactly the point" that the storyline is playing out in a way that it is not hitting the audience over the head with a message of tolerance but it does not gloss over the emotional difficulties it has brought to this family.
"They wrote me this wonderful speech and I say how glad I am to have my son back and how I'm glad my son isn't dead. I'm asked 'How can you be so accepting of this?' And I say, 'Because I thought the child I had was dead and now I have him back.' And then I correct myself and I say 'her.' That in itself is funny and delightful, poignant and passionate and powerful and educational all at the same time. These writers know how to to that, brilliantly."
Light has for decades been on of the most visible straight allies of the LGBT community and can speak with great knowledge of the journey many must take on the road to becoming their authentic selves.
"It's a very powerful and inspiring [transgendered] community which I've always said that the gay community is because of the nature of what they have to do," she said. "What they have to face in order to come out, stand up for everything they believe in in the face of losing everything. That kind of courage is not heralded enough."
Mabius likens the transgender storyline, which heavily impacts his character of Daniel, to the Showtime's series "The L Word" about the lives of lesbians. He is a former cast member.
"I did 'The L Word' and it was the first show of its kind on American television and I think it was important. Now it's not like a novelty and that was the goal in creating a show like that," he said. "And introducing the [transgender] storyline on the show, it's the same thing. Proximity, I think, breeds tolerance over the course of a long timeline and I think that exposure to it is better than a lack of exposure. I'm not expecting people to understand it, just to respect that that's someone else's choice.That's the bottom line and that's the universal essence of the show. Not to get preachy, but we're all living on the same planet."
I gotta say, it's so nice to interview thoughtful and intelligent people like Judith Light and Eric Mabius even if they don't get as much attention as Britney Spears or even Sanjaya Malakar. We should shine the spotlight more on people who actually have something to SAY.
Greg Hernandez has covered the entertainment industry for the Daily
News since 2001. He's considered a bit odd by some for his obsession
with box office numbers, has been known to camp out near the kitchen
at premieres for first crack at the hors d'oeurves, and Greg's never
seen a red carpet he didn't want to stroll down.