Felicity Huffman wouldn't do Transamerica role today

Felicity Huffman, Oscar-nominated for playing a transgender woman in the 2005 film Transamerica, says she wouldn’t do the role today, given awareness of the importance of casting trans performers in trans roles.

“I think we should reflect the audience, and that’s got to include everybody,” Huffman recently told The Guardian. “There has been such inequity for so long, and now the pendulum must swing the other way. But I hope it leads to a situation where anyone can play anything.”

Trans actress Alexandra Billings was offered the Transamerica role, but the offer was withdrawn when Huffman became interested, the publication reports. Billings encountered Huffman at an event in 2017 and said, “Did you know that you stole the role in Transamerica from me?” Huffman looked bewildered when The Guardian’s interviewer mentioned this, however, and said she didn’t recall the exchange with Billings, nor was she aware that Billings had ever been cast.

Huffman, best known as a star of Desperate Housewives, is now appearing as the supportive mother of a transgender son in Taylor Mac’s play Hir in London. “Paige has the enthusiasm of a new convert,” Huffman said of her character, who “pledges her allegiance to the LGBTTSQQIAA community,” as The Guardian puts it, but pronounces it “Luggabuttsqueeah.”

Huffman has worked little since being involved in a college admissions scandal. She pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud after paying $15,000 to inflate her oldest daughter’s SAT score, and she served 11 days in jail, paid a fine, and did community service.

“I did a pilot for ABC recently that didn’t get picked up,” she said. “It’s been hard. Sort of like your old life died and you died with it. I’m lucky enough to have a family and love and means, so I had a place to land.”