One of the first – and only – trans TV stars in a leading role has spoken out about being a ‘pioneering’ actress, but shared her fears for the future in the industry, and on a personal level.
Rebecca Root made history in BBC sitcom Boy Meets Girl when it first aired in 2015, playing 40-year-old Judy alongside Harry Hepple and Loose Women’s Denise Welch.
Having previously starred in Eddie Redmayne’s The Danish Girl, she went on to hold roles in Sex Education, Heartstopper, Annika, and most recently, Monsieur Spade.
However, despite her range of film, TV, voice and stage acting, she’s opened up about her worry that there are few roles available for women her age, despite the increase in representation generally over recent years and success of the likes of the afore-mentioned dramas and hit shows like Euphoria.
Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, the 55-year-old said: ‘I get the impression that there is a lot more representation, [but] I suppose my one caveat is that I think a lot of the representation today seems to be from a younger generation of character.
‘I was in my mid 40s when I did Boy Meets Girl, and I felt that was in itself representation. I’m now 10 years older, and there aren’t so many parts for women of any gender in their mid-50s, but when you throw into the mix a trans woman in her 50s, you see far fewer roles out there, whereas, if you’re 20-something, and you’re kind of a starlet, then those are the sort of parts that you see a lot more of nowadays.
‘And I’m not diminishing or taking away from the success of those people who are taking those roles, because they need work like anybody does. But there is, it seems to me, a lack of parts for trans women my age.’
She went on: ‘And let’s not also forget, trans women are only one aspect of the trans community. We’ve also got a lack of representation with transmen and non-binary characters.
‘And I think that’s also probably the next area which is going to have a moment in the limelight, and about time too, because I think people in society understand the idea of trans-ness, but when we start having conversations about non-binary identities, I think that often confuses people because they don’t necessarily understand what a spectrum is. So I think those identities need to have greater illumination.’
However, despite advocating for ‘greater illumination’, Rebecca worries the spotlight may be moving away.
According to this year’s GLAAD report, of 348 LGBTQ+ characters counted across streaming, scripted broadcast and cable programmes in America, there are 24 transgender characters (5.1% of all LGBTQ+ characters). This is a decrease of eight characters from the previous study.
Of those, 11 are trans women, five are trans men, and eight are trans non-binary characters.
And it’s not just trans characters that have been axed. Over recent months, Sara Ramirez’s controversial Che Diaz, who is non-binary and introduced as a love interest for Miranda Hobbes in Sex And The City spin-off And Just Like That has been dropped.
The GLAAD report adds that there are 16 non-binary characters, but notes that ‘many of these characters have so little screen time they only barely meet our methodology criteria’. This is a decrease from last year, in which they counted five trans non-binary characters and 20 additional non-binary characters.
Talking about the decrease in numbers, Rebecca admitted she was ‘surprised’, before saying: ‘It’s disappointing, really, isn’t it? With a lot of aspects of entertainment, we have had in the past and we will, I’m sure forever, have aspects that have moments in the limelight.
‘They have an illumination… and when certain communities are caught in the spotlight, or they have a moment in the spotlight, you find that storymakers, producers, script writers, etc, all scrabble around to try and have some of that.
‘And after a while, a few years perhaps, it’s kind of like, “What’s the next thing?” It may be that spotlight is just kind of being shifted elsewhere.’
She added: ‘Now, I would have been a lot more upset if the percentages had gone down even more. I think that’s still a fairly respectable towing.’
Speaking of remaining ‘hopeful’ for the future, she went on: ‘The thing with trans identities, of course, is that we are in a minority. There’s no question about it. We’re in a tiny minority.
‘You might see on a typical day one other trans person walking down a street, and if you live in a reasonably sized town it’s less than 1% so if we’re having a realistic depiction of 21st century society… you’re going to see fewer numbers.
‘You’re going to see fewer trans people in your everyday life, but I think what I would wish to see is whether a character was written as trans or cis, just to see more trans-identifying people taking those parts and without there being any sort of mention of them.’
She added: ‘I would say, if we’re going to see more trans people on screen, then really they don’t have to be playing trans parts. They can be playing anything.’
She cited roles she’s held where her identity was never discussed and ‘completely irrelevant to the storyline’, including the role of a doctor in Last Christmas, starring Emilia Clarke and Emma Thompson.
Meanwhile, after Juno and Inception star Elliot Page came out as transgender in 2020, they were introduced as Viktor in The Umbrella Academy, having previously played Vanya. In the show, his character informs his family that he is now Viktor not Vanya, but it simply becomes another facet of his identity rather than a focus point of the series.
Yet, Rebecca confirmed ‘more needs to be done’, highlighting the responsibility of that lies at the top.
She explained: ‘There’s still a blockage, and we still need to have people being proactive and on the front foot and saying, “Well, why don’t we cast a trans person?” Or, “why don’t we have this actor, whether they’re trans or non-binary or something else?” I think what a lot of people say is that this person, this type of character, looks like x so, you know, tall skinhead, thuggish for a bully, and smaller, a bit rounder for a kind of a middle-aged mum sort of character. And there are set patterns… It’s just lazy casting.
‘It’s lazy entertainment, because people buy into those stereotypes and they’re constantly being perpetuated. So it does take somebody brave to say, why not just shake up the paradigm? Why not just change things and say, “Yeah, let’s have somebody who’s of a different colour or a different physicality.” What about a disabled person being your doctor? What about blind or deaf people as well as all the other differences that is human society.’
She pondered whether it’s down to be people ‘not having time’ for a ‘big, extensive, nationwide or international search for somebody to play a small part’, before pointing out, after working in drama schools, the sheer number of non-binary and trans people coming through the doors.
‘The number of trans people coming through is phenomenal. So that the talent is there. There are people there. Casting directors and producers just need to be a bit more proactive and find them,’ she said.
Rebecca added: ‘I do feel slightly frustrated by that lack of front footedness. Also it’s not just in on screen and TV, it’s in radio, drama, audio books, it’s on stage.’
‘Certain aspects of entertainment are a closed book to anybody who doesn’t fit the pigeonhole stereotypes of what those people want. You might say, “Well, that’s because it’s my club, and I get to choose who has a place in at this table.” Well, it’s not really fair, is it?’
Despite the somewhat disappointing figures of trans and non-binary actors in TV shows now, Rebecca remains hopeful after the success and cultural reframing of her own programme.
Speaking of Boy Meets Girl, which was commissioned in 2014 and aired the following year, she said: ‘Beyond the obvious nature of the fact that it gave me a huge career change, beyond that, it changed the landscape. It was part of that cultural reframing of the trans community and to be part of that was an extraordinary privilege, and one that I feel very proud of actually.
‘Looking back on it, I feel like we have come a long way in 10 years, but there’s still more that can be done. For that time in 2014 I think it was something unparalleled, and it was very exciting to be part of something so radical, which you never thought you’d say about a sitcom being radical, but it kind of was.’
Despite needing Loose Women star Denise to remind her of how ‘pioneering’ she was, Rebecca praised the decision-makers at the top who took ‘a bit of a punt’ with the show in the hope that it went down with audiences.
And it’s certainly paid off, especially for the trans community and many who have reached out with their own personal stories to Rebecca.
‘You get a lot of people saying, “This has helped me understand a sibling or a family member who is trans,” or I have messages from trans people saying, “I sat down with my parents and watched Boy Meets Girl, and it changed their perspective of who I am”.
‘Obviously the part I played, Judy, she’s a fictitious character as we know, but to see yourself represented, or to see your community represented on screen, is a very powerful message to send to somebody who is going through some difficulties, maybe they’re considering transition, or they’re going through transition, and they don’t have a reference point to share with a family member who might be either not as supportive, or just a little bit confused, but just sort of unsure.
‘Speaking to a lot of trans people, and I know from my own experience, when you transition, our greatest fear is rejection from people who love us, but a lot of people actually just want their loved one to transition safely and for them to be happy.
‘And I think what Boy Meets Girl did so brilliantly was that it showed somebody who was some years post transition, so all the focus of the story wasn’t Judy’s transition, and we came to her just living her life. And I think that was one of the great strengths of the show, that it didn’t dwell on the navigating transition phase of someone’s life, and we instead simply saw her dating and just going about earning a living to keep a roof over a head, that sort of thing. And I think that helps a lot of people in their own in their own journeys.’
She added: ‘I think there’s a lot more understanding and empathy towards trans-people now, both in society generally, but also in a viewership. I think at the time, if there was a trans-storyline on TV, it was generally as a subplot or something in a negative light, and Boy Meets Girl started showing trans experiences in a more positive light.
‘That was part of its remit of course, and that’s continued through the championing work of Heartstopper, Sex Education, Doctor Who. It’s really profound to see trans people in a much more positive lights, in playing characters that are not all doom and gloom or bad guys, bad people, we’re just regular folk.’
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