The Jared Leto Question

[yodajazz]

After a brief check, I see that Leto has made several appearances in drag. I would say that he is at least supporting gender non-conformity.

After a while some t-people will get tired of always seeing their kind, in lower class roles, as some Black Americans have. I would be happy to see t-people play sis-gender roles. I recently saw a Chinese movie, that did this. But they do have a long history of this in China.

[Prospero]

Ben Kingsley was actually born Krishna Pandit Bhanji, the child of an Indian father and English mother, but the general point is well-made.

Taking it back still further, I remember watching the film of Olivier's Othello at school and being taken aback by the black stain Olivier as Othello left on Desdemona's (Maggie Smith's) cheek after an embrace.

I didn't know that. Whoops...... Dork or dunderhead! You choose.

[Rabbiteyes]

i'm not saying it is unreasonable...i'm saying it is demeaning for a trans actor to be limited to that type of role because of their personal disposition. moreover, it moves nothing forward and would attract improper attention. the spectacle would be on that actor just because she or he is trans...not for their skill and that makes it far less meaningful than it should be.

that you don't understand that is pretty sad.

So you are saying what Laverne Cox has done is demeaning?

[Quiet Reflections]

Ben Kingsley was actually born Krishna Pandit Bhanji, the child of an Indian father and English mother, but the general point is well-made.

Taking it back still further, I remember watching the film of Olivier's Othello at school and being taken aback by the black stain Olivier as Othello left on Desdemona's (Maggie Smith's) cheek after an embrace.

Taken aback by the black face make-up or by the fact that some people see white women as forever stained for being with a black man.

[robertlouis]

Taken aback by the black face make-up or by the fact that some people see white women as forever stained for being with a black man.

The former. Naughty boy!

[Ananke]

If it's about the acting: it would be nice to have a real transsexual play the role but eventually it has to be the best actor for the role.
In my opinion, it is much more about the director: the actor can only depict the character as directed. If he is being asked to focus on stereotypes, it will not matter how good the actor is, the results will be awful.....

[Prospero]

It is a rather dishonest film but an enjoyable one. it does raise the central question (beyond the controversy over the casting) of how much a dramatisation should cleave the historical truth and how much creative licence is allowable to make it more 'dramatic." The recent film "Philomena" is seems plays terrific fast and loose with the historical facts (which on their own would have made a terrific story without unnecessary enhancement).

[the_corner]

Another issue here is that Dallas Buyers Club is supposed to be set in 1985. I would go on a tangent and say that a "tranny" of 1985 (almost 3 decades ago!) looked way different to what we're used to seeing today.

There was no hormone therapy as we know today, no silicon implants, etc. etc.

As such, a 1985 "tranny" would look more like a man in drag, maybe a man in drag that takes old fashioned contraceptives to "look more femme".

Does that mean that the production should have hired a gay man to play the role? I would suggest that you should cast whoever can play the role, regardless of sexual preference.

Perhaps the only objectionable thing here is that it appears that the producers did not even attempt to cast a transsexual, which maybe they should have at least tried, yet there are production variables that we can't see and hence, that we can't judge.

With that said, I find the work of Leto very remarkable and that the praises he is getting are well deserved.

[nysprod]

Another issue here is that Dallas Buyers Club is supposed to be set in 1985. I would go on a tangent and say that a "tranny" of 1985 (almost 3 decades ago!) looked way different to what we're used to seeing today.

There was no hormone therapy as we know today, no silicon implants, etc. etc.

Hell, there were parts of the city that didn't have electricity or even running water, you'd see people down by the river washing their chamberpots.

[APD2]

OK so you've got the role:a drug-addled transvestite street-hooker - someone who's mentally and physically very sick. The writer and director intend to depict her life and suffering in a tragi-comic manner.

The actor or actress in the role preferably has to be prepared to lose 3 or 4 stone,to show the effects of AIDS related wasting.

Which current transgendered actor is best placed to play this or similar roles?


I get some of the criticisms of the choice of Leto,but these criticisms could generally be extended to the profession of acting as a whole. Whichever way you cut it ,actors pretend to be something they are not and that is part of what entertains the audience .