Actress Abigail Thorn on the rights and wrongs of trans representation on-screen: ‘Producers – be less timid’
metro.co.ukMetro.co.uk that she’s seen brilliant trans roles written into and then cut out of scripts after producers were left ‘timid’ over the decision to include them.‘Things are definitely getting better,’ she explained. ‘I think there are more roles for trans people out there and we’re creating our own stuff now which is good.
I think writers are definitely getting bolder – I’m getting more scripts now with trans characters in, and writers are also getting good at saying, “Hey, we want a trans person to come on and help us shape this.” ‘And also something that this country’s particularly good at – I go up for trans roles and cis[gender] roles, mainly cis roles actually.
It’s really good now that casting assistants and casting directors are getting trans actors in for cis parts. We’re not just getting stuck in a rut.‘Where I’d like to see it go – first of all, representation doesn’t help with stuff like equal rights, or reforming the NHS.
Representation’s good but you can’t pay your rent with it. The other thing is that writers are definitely getting bolder [but] in my experience, producers are still a little bit timid sometimes. ‘There have been been quite a few occasions where I’ve been given scripts that have really, really good characters in, that have something really powerful to say about transness, or have a really well-written trans character, and everyone gets excited about it and work on it and I, often doing the consultant role, put in a lot of work to help develop that, and when it comes close to the time, the producer says, “I’m not sure about this,” and it gets cut.’Abigail added that there have been times when she’s gone to set with sides in her hand to find out that producers have cut the scene.
