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LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — For the record, producers and directors of trans-themed feature films absolutely should convince their financial backers (executive producers) to cast trans actors to portray trans roles. However, when it comes to other people’s money, this convincing is not something easily done. I explain why in an earlier article here: https://lexiecannes.com/2014/03/03/moving-on-from-jared-leto-why-trans-actors-dont-usually-get-trans-roles/

In this article however, I would like to make the case to freely choose actors from an artist’s (filmmaker) perspective, mine — someone who actually made a transgender-themed feature film.

When I began the project, first and foremost on my mind, I was going to use a trans actor. This was something I soon found out was . It was not so much the trans aspect, rather the human shortcomings aspect. Actors are human, and they come with foibles that can create chaos for even the best set of plans.

Cis or trans actors can be late, or not show, or won’t take direction, or have attitude issues, and so on down the line to not being able to pull off a convincing performance (even though some were actually transgender). As the filmmaker, I learned to focus on bits that were working in my favor, and adjusted the script accordingly, including the expansion of roles for certain actors. Others got reduced roles or cut out of the film entirely.

Talk to people in the movie business and they’ll tell you that films are made in the editing suite — this was especially true with my film. All the bad bits were trashed and a film assembled from the few remaining pieces. In order to make a coherent story, I’d take an actor with only a few foibles and shoot pickup shots, and when combined with editing tricks, the illusion appeared as if was my plan all along.

I had no intention of casting myself in the film when I began pre-production. And as it turned out, some great performances by other trans actors (late to the project) made it to the final cut. If I make another film in the future, I will certainly try best to fill trans roles with trans people, but do I want to be burdened with the insistence of using a trans actor for trans roles? No.

Look for a link to my film (“Lexie Cannes”) below this article.

My previous article on this topic: https://lexiecannes.com/2014/03/03/moving-on-from-jared-leto-why-trans-actors-dont-usually-get-trans-roles/

Watch LEXIE CANNES right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ

Or get the DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332

LEXIE CANNES in IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1391088/

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Categories: "Lexie Cannes" (the movie) and filmmaking, Transgender, Transsexual, Trans