EastEnders has cast a transgender actor to play a long-running trans character in a first for UK soaps.
As Larry Olivier said to Dustin Hoffman once, why not try acting?
EastEnders has cast a transgender actor to play a long-running trans character in a first for UK soaps.
As Larry Olivier said to Dustin Hoffman once, why not try acting?
For the same reason we don’t cast men as women and vice versa.
Matthew L
I take it you’ve never seen a Christmas panto, then.
“David Suchet makes an inspired Lady Bracknell,”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/11711048/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-Vaudeville-Theatre-review-a-trial.html
This isn’t even Dustin going off and doing his immersion into method which is odd, perhaps, but considering his performances in Rain Man, Tootsie and Hook does seem to deliver. This is just virtue signalling by the BBC. Hopefully they’re shit at their job and it all crashes and burns.
They also cast Danny Dyer to play Danny Dyer, so not really a change policy.
Philip Scott Thomas: Of course, there’s plenty of exceptions in both cases. In Shakespeare’s time all the roles were played by men. Still the same reason though – in the absence of a reason, why not have men play men, women play women, trans play trans, Moors play Othello etc.
“There aren’t any good enough” is a perfectly acceptable reason, by the way.
Matthew,
Your use of man and woman appears to imply some definite meaning to those words. If gender identy politics and trans activism has taught us nothing………(tumbleweed blows through).
“Your use of man and woman appears to imply some definite meaning to those words.”
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2014/02/20/sex-differences-are-real/
Christ Almighty. I didn’t know Peter Kay was a tranny.
Also, I’m pretty sure Pat Butcher was a drag queen.
It worked for Clint Eastwood…
I Sneeze In Threes wins this thread…
Eastenders, and indeed any of the godawful British soaps, would probably be improved by a 100% tranny cast.
Didn’t Coronation Street have one years ago, or was that just a minger?
This is essential so that Eastenders accurately reflects society. After all, all squares in the East End now contain transsexuals, homosexuals and possibly one white married family with children who may or may not be their own depending on the need for high ratings in the next Christmas special.
If Eastenders actually reflected life in the East End today most of the cast would be Asian and the pub would not be there, let alone a transsexual.
The BBC must be really desperate. Netflix and Amazon Prime must be really cutting into the viewing figures.
MC – Didn’t Coronation Street have one years ago
Yes.
I sneeze – They also cast Danny Dyer to play Danny Dyer, so not really a change policy.
Eastenders would be great if every character was Danny Dyer, like Being John Malkovich, but more Danny Dyer.
Matthew L, so you’d be content to see Anthony Hopkins play Nelson Mandela and Denzil Washington play James Bond?
Just confirms my suspicion that BBC drama these days, nay the whole of BBC output, is not about drama at all, but is a thinly disguised attempt at social engineering, designed to make white homosexual people feel they are the minority, and everything else is normal.
I wonder which toilet “he” will use on the set.
Its just more “normalisation” of the freaks…
Steve: “Christ Almighty. I didn’t know Peter Kay was a tranny.”
From the look of that photo he must have been eating white dogshit not just joking about it.
Mr Ecks – yes, xe looks distressingly greasy but also unaccountably pleased with xerself.
I’ve never eaten white dog doo, but I did once binge-eat white Toblerone and that had similarly unpleasant gastric effects.
I can’t wait till Eastenders: Lady Looks Like A Laddie.
Int. Queen Vic.
Danny Dyer: “Oi! Wotcha? Are you a fella or a bird?”
Les Jenner-Bender: “Yes.”
DRAMATIC DRUM SOLO
BBC had odd attitude to this sort of thing. set a radio play in India or Africa and they’ll get Indians and Africans to play the parts. They have gone to the trouble of doing the production in the country it’s set in.
For something in Europe they usually can’t even be bothered to get a cast to try and do the accents, they just use regional UK. Life and Fate sounded odd to me because most of the cast had UK accents.
@Edward Lud. I’d be happy to see Denzil Washington play me in a film. But he’d have to lose a bit of weight.
Matthew L
Are you really linking to that narcissistic nutjob PZ Myers?
Recusant, it’s always amused me that Myers hosts his screeds and rants at an organisation revelling in the title ‘Freethought’, which is surely the thing he hates most…
“Matthew L, so you’d be content to see Anthony Hopkins play Nelson Mandela and Denzil Washington play James Bond?”
Didn’t read my comment that well, did you.
“Are you really linking to that narcissistic nutjob PZ Myers?”
On economics he’s a nutjob. On biology he knows what he’s talking about.
One of the reasons I find myself out of step with other trans people is that I couldn’t give a stuff about campaigning for trans rights – treat me as you find me and I’ll do likewise is plenty good enough.
I do not expect trans parts to be played by trans actors. I expect them to be actors who can convince me when in the role. In other words, irrespective of sexuality, gender identity, and colour of skin, are they goods actors? That is all that should matter.
As for Big Enders, never watched it and have no plans to.
The recent prequel bit for doctor who had a very racially diverse crowd scene, shame it was supposed to be a medival castle scene, a time when diversity most probably meant employing someone from 5miles away.
The HBO series PRoject Greenlight had one person arguing for one couple to win a directing competion on the grounds of promoting diversity. Matt Damon (or ben affleck, forget which) shut them down straight away, saying diversity was for crew and casting this was about picking the best person.
Longrider – you’re missing out.
Eastenders is the British Lost. It takes place in the opposite universe to Mary Poppins.
*Everybody’s* miserable. Including Lofty, Arthur Fowler, and Wellard the dog.
A surprisingly high percentage of the characters are gangsters, con men, murderers, or Danny Dyer.
Ian Beale’s torments at the hands of the scriptwriting deities make Jonah’s suffering look like a stubbed toe.
Christmas in Albert Square is celebrated with homicide, rape, or good old fashioned domestic violence.
The meta story is that Albert Square is a suburb of Hell, but none of its inhabitants realise they are dead. So they are doomed to forever repeat the cycle of petty cruelties that they experienced in life.
It’s like a gritty modern retelling of the tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice. If they constantly beat each other up and screamed “you slag!”
@steve
Suddenly it all makes sense
If Eastenders has got one, and Coronation Street had one, then the Archers must have at least two.
Pretty soon they won’t be able to cast one to play one because there will be more transsexuals on the BBC than actually exist in real life.
Given, you know, that to a first order approximation there are no Gay people in Britain and even among the Gay people, to a first order approximation there are no transsexuals.
and even among the Gay people, to a first order approximation there are no transsexuals.
Sigh… Transgenders and transsexuals are no more likely to be gay than you are.
If you are going to make a sensible point about numbers, try not to spoil it with nonsense.
There is an argument that we shouldn’t be lumped together with gays and lesbians because, er, for the most part, we are neither. Probably a sensible idea. It will never catch on.