Trans representation in movies isn’t great — but in 2023, I feel more seen than ever

23.10.2023 - 16:33 / polygon.com / Bella Ramsey / Emma Corrin

Mainstream movies have a hard time addressing trans characters without making them into symbols. In 2023, it feels like studios are so scared to even acknowledge the existence of trans people, let alone express an opinion about us, that they decided to just not include us, for fear of starting a debate about how woke their projects are. And yet, in 2023, I’m seeing myself in more movies than ever, even if those portrayals are unintentional and sometimes messy.

At best, most mainstream studio movies featuring gender-nonconforming characters sideline them as bit players who are never acknowledged as trans, like Arcee in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, or Brianna Collier in Escape Room: Tournament of Champions. At worst, studio movies slip back into the decades-old habit of casting cis men like Eddie Redmayne or Jared Leto as trans women (in The Danish Girl and Dallas Buyers Club, respectively), taking roles from actual trans actors and continuing to tell our stories without our input. Even that represents a step forward from just a decade ago, when trans people in movies were usually the butt of jokes that were bigoted then and are bigoted now. So it’s a little strange that movies in 2023 have brought me a considerable amount of trans joy.

The recent movies that sparked this happiness aren’t overtly trans. Some of them don’t even feature trans characters. That’s a familiar situation in mainstream movies: In 2022, Billy Eichner’s commercial flop Bros accounted for 80% of the transgender characters shown on screen in the year’s 100 top-grossing movies. In plain numbers, out of 4,169 speaking characters in the biggest movies of the year, five were trans, one was nonbinary — and four of those six were in Bros. Contrary to what weirdos on Facebook might claim, we aren’t exactly infiltrating the media and turning up everywhere now.

There are great trans actors out there. Everyone knows Elliot Page’s bona fides, from Juno all the way to The Umbrella Academy. Indya Moore has been quietly building an IMDB page full of memorable genre-movie roles, like her character in Escape Room, Angel in Pose, and hopefully in the upcoming Aquaman sequel. Hari Nef is brilliant in Barbie, where she brings joy to some of the funniest moments, and was stunning enough to lock Ryan Gosling’s Ken in a daze for hours.

And Morgan Davies has had a meteoric career, thanks to the bloody Evil Dead Rise and the either great or terrible (depending on who you ask) One Piece live-action adaptation. And then there are Laverne Cox, Hunter Schafer, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and Elliot Fletcher, alongside nonbinary actors like Bella Ramsey, Emma D’Arcy, Janelle Monáe, Emma Corrin, and Misha Osherovich, all putting in great performances.

But while