 "Why Matt Bomer's role as a trans sex worker in an upcoming film is sparking a controversy")
Matt Bomer, who became famous for his for as the conman Neal Caffrey in White Collar has sparked controversy over his new film Anything, which hasn’t even begun filming. [caption id=“attachment_2984692” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Matt Bomer. Image courtesy: Flick/Creative Commons[/caption] The film is going to be produced by Matt Ruffalo and reunites American Horror Story veteran John Carroll Lynch with Bomer. (Two are going to be co-stars on American Horror Story Season 6) Timothy McNeil will be making his directorial debut with the feature and the film is based on McNeil’s play of the same name. The plot will follow a man (Lynch) who moves to Los Angeles after the death of his wife. There, he meets a transgender sex worker (Bomer). The two soon come to terms with each other’s histories and find companionship, reports
Variety
. The controversy comes over Matt Bomer, who is cisgender (someone who identifies themselves with their biological sex), being cast as a transgender in the film. The backlash echoes the way famous cisgender stars have portrayed trans roles in recent films, and have even won accolades for their performances. Case in point: Eddie Redmayne’s role in The Danish Girl earned him an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor, Jared Leto’s role in The Dallas Buyers Club earned him alot of critical acclaim. Leto even took home the Oscar statuette for Best Supporting Actor for the same film. Activists criticised Leto for
his acceptance speech
, where he did not thank the transgender community while accepting the statuette:
This casting choice angered Jamie Clayton, transgender star of Sense8 who took to twitter saying:
Then quickly posted this tweet:
Other users on twitter too criticised this casting choice: