Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Rebecca Root discusses new film roles
by Danielle Solzman
2018-10-03

This article shared 3210 times since Wed Oct 3, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Actress and stand-up comedian Rebecca Root—known to British audiences for her work on the BBC series Boy Meets Girl—appears in two new films, Colette and The Brothers Sisters. Root, who is also a prominent voice coach, spoke to Windy City Times about the films and the career challenges often facing transgender actors.

Windy City Times: One of the things that surprised me the most in watching and later reading about Colette was the progressive casting, in that it had not one but two trans actors in cisgender roles. What does this say to you, since, during your time, it has generally been harder for trans actors to find work?

Rebecca Root: I think Wash Westmoreland—the director—made inspired casting choices. I mean he didn't just cast trans people in cis roles. He cast actors of different ethnicities to the ethnicity that the person they were portraying at being in real life possibly. And I think that was inspired really and frankly visionary. I think we need to see more casting like that.

WCT: I know, it almost reminded me of the Hamilton musical.

RR: Right, although I haven't seen Hamilton. I've seen clips, so I know what you're talking about.

WCT: Regarding your role of Mayfield in The Sisters Brothers, how did you approach the role and what type of direction did you get?

RR: Well, I approached the role in the same way that I do any other role. So I do as much background reading as I can. I researched the period. I look at pictures, arts, read literature from that time. I tried to get a flavor of the atmosphere of the world that is being depicted. Obviously, I read the source material, so I read the novel. I like having to think about people that are similar that I could draw on, or maybe take some take some inspiration from. I felt that Mayfield had something of Margaret Thatcher about her—tending to be not motherly but certainly quite charming, trying to be charming and trying to make sure that everything's running smoothly but with a heart of steel or stone or iron—if there was a heart at all. That was the kind of inspiration that I had for Mayfield.

You asked about the direction. The direction came from one of cinema's great masters. Even though we were working largely through an interpreter, we already had established a close relationship in terms of there was great amity on set and certainly I felt I could just trust Jacques. I trusted him, so I just followed everything that he wanted and tried to deliver as best I could.

WCT: If you were in charge of an entire town, is there anything that you could do in real life?

RR: You really put me on the spot with that one. I would probably lower the age of voting. I would up the legal age of smoking. I would definitely aim for gender parity on pay—male and female need to be paid the same. I would certainly instigate working hours legislation so people can't be taken for a ride working 18 hour days without a break. That kind of thing. This is just completely off of my head.

WCT: Now things seem to be changing here in the U.S. ever so slowly. What's the current state of things across the pond? I know that you found success a few years ago in the BBC sitcom, Boy meets Girl.

RR: I think we are catching up with the States. We've got trans actors in two soaps. Annie Wallace is in a soap called Hollyoaks. It's a young kind of person soap. Ash Palmisciano is in a more sort of a middle-age kind of soap called Emmerdale. He is a trans man. Annie is a trans woman. Previously, we had we had Riley Carter Millington in EastEnders, which is a major soap in the UK. They're very visible in our in our TV screens. I think we're catching up. I think we're giving you guys a run for your money.

WCT: What else do you have coming up?

RR: I'm rehearsing a play in Dublin at the moment called Rathmines Road, which is a co-production with a company called Fishamble and the Abbey Theatre, which is basically the National Theatre of Ireland. It's part of the Dublin Theater Festival, which is a major international festival of theater. The play runs until the end of October. … It's a world premiere by a very exciting contemporary playwright by Deirdre Kinahan.

After that, I have a couple of TV things that I filmed earlier this year coming out; [the first is] a show called Flack in which I guest in one episode that's coming out sometime in the autumn or maybe new year. I'm also in an episode of The Romanoffs, which is the new Matthew Weiner piece. That's hitting Amazon—I think—in October or November. My episode is at the end of November.

And then I did a voice for guest role in a TV animated series called Moominvalley, which is based on The Moomins by a Finnish writer, Tove Jansson. So that's coming out in February. It's an exciting project. It has Kate Winslet and Rosamund Pike—a high-profile cast in that show. So yeah, lots of things coming up which I've already done. After the play, I have an empty diary. Hopefully, it will fill up soon.

WCT: What advice would you offer to a trans actor looking to break into the industry?

RR: Read. Read plays. Go to the theater. Read screenplays. Go to the movies. Watch DVDs or watch movies on Netflix. Try to get an understanding of the industry. Listen to radio. Listen to radio dramas. Listen to audio books. Listen to what people do with the voices. Train your voice. Take class. Do improv class. Engage with the industry. It's not just all about being a star, but being part of an industry. Support your union. Pay your subs. It's all about the practicalities of being an actor. Being famous or getting a Hollywood star on the Walk of Fame or whatever—that's really kind of the icing on the cake. The cake itself—the 99% of the rest of it—is all about the work that you put in, the spade work, the hours, the craft that you build, develop, polish and hone over the years. Things don't necessarily happen quickly. Keep going. Have faith. Believe in your ability. Believe in your talents.

I would say that talent wins out. So if it doesn't happen this year, it may happen the following year. Just keep going. Never give up. That's my advice.


This article shared 3210 times since Wed Oct 3, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97 2024-03-22
- series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds 2024-03-21
- It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman 2024-03-21
- Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition' 2024-03-15
- Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer 2024-03-08
- Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor 2024-03-01
- Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctor—a film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...


Gay News

Dorian Film Awards: 'All of Us Strangers' takes top prizes 2024-02-27
- February 26, 2024 - Los Angeles, Ca. - For its 15th Dorian Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics fully embraced All of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh's fantastical and tear-inducing tale of two ...


Gay News

SAG Awards honor Streisand, few LGBTQ+ actors 2024-02-25
- Queer entertainers made their mark—although not a major one—at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, held Feb. 24 in Los Angeles. The event was live-streamed on Netflix for the first time. Indigenous and Two-Spirit actor ...


Gay News

WORLD Caribbean ruling, Pussy Riot, Russian raid, Canadian warning, anti-trans bar 2024-02-23
- The top court in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines dismissed a challenge to colonial-era anti-gay laws, Reuters reported. Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish—two gay men who had pushed to decriminalize ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Kristen Stewart, Rock Hudson, Talia Keys, 'True Detective,' Marvel comic 2024-02-23
- At the Berlin Film Festival, Kristen Stewart defended her photo shoot for a Rolling Stone magazine cover that went viral and divided audiences on social-media platforms, per The Hollywood Reporter. "The existence of a female body ...


Gay News

Second Glance Productions hosts LGBTQupid Soiree 2024-02-16
- In celebration of Valentine's Day, Chicago based film and media production company Second Glance hosted The LBGTQupid Soiree. The event, which was focused on spinning attitudes on this particular day, was presented at The iO ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Elton John, Hannah Gadsby, video game, Jennifer Lopez, queer thriller 2024-02-16
Video below - Sir Elton John has sold his Atlanta home and is now auctioning off more than 900 of his personal items that were kept in the 13,500-square-foot condo, The Daily Mail noted. The massive collection includes rare ...


Gay News

GALECA announces nominees for the Dorian Film Awards 2024-02-07
--From a press release - Feb. 5, 2024 - GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, consisting of over 500 entertainment critics, journalists and media icons, today announced the group's democratically chosen nominees for its 15th Dorian Film Awards. All of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ JoJo Siwa, Tom Holland, Bowen Yang, Pet Shop Boys, Mariah Carey 2024-02-02
- In the wake of Nigel Lythgoe exiting So You Think You Can Dance, queer personality JoJo Siwa is returning to the series, per Deadline. Siwa, who was a judge on season 17 of the Fox show, will replace Lythgoe, who left ...


Gay News

Leather Archives & Museum announces 2024 Fetish Film Forum 2024-01-27
--From a press release - CHICAGO, Illinois—After a wildly successful inaugural year, including a 10-film series at the Leather Archives & Museum and a 5-film series at FACETS, the Leather Archives & Museum is thrilled to announce the continuation of Fetish ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.