Page 1 / 2 - Home

To writer/director Duncan Tucker's credit, the all-important relationship between Bree and Toby is handled with humor and compassion. Their verbal sparring rings true, and Tucker has written Toby as a wounded and likeable character. There is no sappy “turnaround” for Toby, his problems are not easily solved. But in him, Tucker has created a character with hope and a certain sweetness.

But the story fully belongs to Bree, as does the film to Felicity Huffman. Tucker's research and personal friendships with transgender people inspired him to write and make the film, and his admiration for Bree's humor, courage and tenacity is evident in the script.

Huffman conducted her own extensive research for the film, altering every aspect of her voice, carriage and physical responses in order to be as authentic as possible. In publicity materials for the film, Huffman recalls, “I had to learn everything from the outside in. I learned how to walk, how to hold my arms and hands. For example, men's arms are longer and their hands are much bigger, so to hide this I stood with my elbows severely tucked in and my hands neatly folded over each other. I learned how to stand, walk and gesture. For me, interestingly enough, a large part of the transformation was training to be more feminine.”

At a recent press conference, AfterElton.com asked Huffman how the role affected her own opinions and experiences of gender. She replied, “When you talk to transgendered women or men, they say the fact that there are two genders and you have to choose between them is ridiculous. It's like saying there's only chocolate and vanilla. They say there are many different permutations of gender, sexuality, of who you want to sleep with, who you don't want to sleep with. And it opened it up to me. And also what was really interesting is with that the hormone research that I did—all the things that I thought were particular to me as a woman or to someone as a guy are just hormones. It's SO just hormones.

“When you read books that describe male to female [change] – little things like people who say as a man they felt like a destroyer moving through the ocean. You know, the ocean comes but you're pretty steady as you move through the water. But they start taking hormones—and this is before the sexual reassignment surgery—and six months into it you start to feel like a little tug boat--the wave goes up and you go up, the wave comes down and you come down. You're so affected by life and you get upset about things, and you have a fight with your girlfriend or your boyfriend and you can't get over it for days and it lives in you…Or temperature—you know, guys who are never cold and women are cold all the time. They start taking hormones and they're like, ‘Oh my God, I feel a breeze. I hate the cold!' Those are small incidents, but they did make me realize that so much of who we think our personalities are is just biological.”

The role and her preparations for it had a clear impact on Huffman, as she has stated in publicity materials for the film, “I started to be able to comprehend the heroic journey gender dysphoric people take. If they are brave enough to fight for who they truly are, they are viewed as freaks and alienated from society. If they choose not to, they are alienated from themselves. I started the research for this movie thinking gender dysphoric people were interesting but at best an odd anomaly. I ended the film knowing that these are some of the bravest people in the world.”

Transamerica is a smart and interesting film. Tucker's tart script and strong acting by all the players make for an entertaining bi-coastal journey. And Felicity Huffman may just need to clear a new space on her mantle for the Oscar that could join her Emmy.

Get more info at the official website

Page 1 / 2 - Home