For one second all I know, everything is made of snow

[sovay]

I was just informed that there will be a television adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).

If the Gethenian characters are not cast with genderqueer actors, I will feel someone is missing the point.

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

In the department of chicken-and-egg, one thing I sometimes wonder is: how do genderqueer actors make it far enough in TV in the first place to be there to be cast when a show is actually looking for them? (My limited understanding of how TV acting works being that the casting and even the pre-casting is very very type-based.)

[sovay]

how do genderqueer actors make it far enough in TV in the first place to be there to be cast when a show is actually looking for them? (My limited understanding of how TV acting works being that the casting and even the pre-casting is very very type-based.)

It's a reasonable question and I don't know. The reason I think it might be possible is a couple of recent TV casting decisions that made news for casting actors of the appropriate ethnicity and gender identity even when it took extra looking: Buck on The OA and Bobbie Draper on The Expanse. Both performances have been really well received, too, which should encourage more shows to follow suit. In general, it is slowly becoming accepted that trans characters can and should be cast with trans actors. Genderqueer actors would be an analogous rather than identical situation, but it does not feel to me as though it should be absolutely impossible, especially with a sufficient name to anchor the ensemble as Genly.

[kore]

I think one thing that's come up is trans actors making their own projects, or being in limited distribution ones, and getting the notice of directors that way: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2017/05/03/five-movies-and-tv-shows-to-watch-starring-transgender-actors-in-trans-stories/101192498/ Tangerine was a big success story. But of course that depends on a cast director being able to find and appreciate talent without prejudice. -- I was always hoping that at first the indie film 'revolution' (heh, which turned out to be about as 'indie' as the grunge revolution) or the rise of digital filmmaking might finally wrench power away from Hollywood, so people could set up smaller studios or even temporary filmmaking setups in places that wouldn't be so locked into the male gaze and patriarchal beauty &c &c. But that doesn't seem to be happening much, as far as I can tell.

[sovay]

making their own projects, or being in limited distribution ones, and getting the notice of directors that way

I had not heard of two of the movies on that list, so thank you!

(I really need to watch Sense8. My father has been following it since the pilot and with the exception of the recent Christmas episode loves it, so I get regular reports and it continues to sound really good.)

[kore]

Sense8 is really good, and on a terribly shallow note, Freema Agyeman and Jamie Clayton are both super hot and super hot together. I would watch a whole show of them doing dishes or something.