Categories: FilmNewsSlider

Is the Director of the Trans Drama ‘About Ray’ Transphobic or Just Ignorant?

Published by
Share
Elle Fanning in ABOUT RAY, whose director is at the center of a brewing controversy

2015 has been a banner year for the trans community. The trans comedy Transparent from Amazon is a huge success and earned 11 Emmy nominations this summer. The very public transition of Caitlyn Jenner, for better or worse, depending on how you look at it, opened the subject to mainstream America in a way that had never been done before. This summer, the film Tangerine starred two trans actresses and was met with stellar reviews and awards talk. John Oliver gave one of the most comprehensive breakdowns of transgender rights and what it means to be transgender on his show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO. People are beginning to understand how to talk about and to trans people with respect.

Last week the Gaby Dellal, the director of the upcoming trans drama About Ray, starring Elle Fanning as a teenager transitioning and the impact it has on his family (his mother is played by Oscar nominee Naomi Watts and grandmother played by Oscar winner Susan Sarandon), gave an interview to Refinery29 in which she repeatedly using ‘she’ and ‘girl’ in describing the film titular character.

In the article she says:

[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” class=”” width=””]Dellal stands by her decision to cast a cisgender actress in a trans role. For one, she says, the part is for someone who hasn’t yet transitioned. The director uses female pronouns when discussing Ray. “The part is a girl and she is a girl who is presenting in a very ineffectual way as a boy,” Dellal explains. “She’s not pretending to have a deeper voice. She’s just a girl who is being herself and is chasing the opportunity to start hormone treatment. So to actually use a trans boy was not an option because this isn’t what my story is about,” she says. [/box]

While it seems that Dellal is not being malicious in her conviction and reasoning for not using he, him or boy in her description of Ray it’s that conviction that is troubling. In the same interview she admits that as of three and half years ago the concept of people transitioning was “news to me.” Again, troubling. Why would a producer choose a director to helm a film like this if they didn’t even have a basic working knowledge of the dialogue of its subject?

Messages to Dellal have, as of now, gone unanswered. It’s doubtful she’ll be able to avoid the controversy, as the film will be playing the Toronto International Film Festival next month just ahead of its September 18th release. No word from the film’s distributor, The Weinstein Company (who paid a whopping $6M for the film), but I imagine they’re scrambling a bit to find the right PR angle for this encroaching mess. Hopefully for Dellal (and the film) it’s just a misstep of language and not something inherently worse.

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013. He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

Recent Posts

48th San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival to Kickoff with Juneteenth Celebration

Frameline48, the largest cinema showcase in California, runs June 19-29, 2024 and will announce the… Read More

April 30, 2024

May the Force Be With You: Ranking All 11 Live-Action Star Wars Films

In what feels like a long time ago, in our own galaxy not far, far… Read More

April 30, 2024

2024 Tony Nominations: ‘Stereophonic,’ Breaks Play Record, Ties Musical ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ to Lead with 13 Each

Two music artist-driven shows found themselves on the top of the Tony nominations this morning… Read More

April 30, 2024

77th Cannes Film Festival Jury Includes Lily Gladstone, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Nadine Labaki and Omar Sy

The Jury for the 77th Festival de Cannes, chaired by Greta Gerwig, will include Turkish… Read More

April 29, 2024

AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 229 – Reviewing ‘Challengers’ and Our Favorite Horny/Sexy Movies

On episode 229 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch… Read More

April 29, 2024

‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ Teaser: Barry Jenkins-Directed Prequel Takes Us to the Beginning

The King is back. Disney unveiled a first look at Mufasa: The Lion King, the… Read More

April 29, 2024

This website uses cookies.