SALON

Wednesday, Jul 11, 2012 12:00 PM UTC

Chloe Sevigny: LGBT community’s made “huge strides”

Chloe Sevigny tells Salon about how she prepared for her strangest role yet -- and that prosthetic penis

By

Topics: Chloe Sevigny, LGBT,

Chloe Sevigny: LGBT community's made Chloë Sevigny in "Hit and Miss"

Chloë Sevigny has never stuck to playing it straight. In her 18-year career, she’s taken on memorable roles in provocative, controversial films from “Kids” to “Dogville” to “The Brown Bunny.” She’s won a Golden Globe for her role as Nicki, a steely quarter of the polygamous marriage in “Big Love,” and been a haute couture fashion muse off-screen. And throughout it all, she’s also gained fame – and won a devoted following – for her consistent, fearless work in projects with LGBT themes and characters.

She was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Lana Tisdel, the love object of the doomed trans man Brandon Teena in “Boys Don’t Cry.” She played a ’70s-era butch lesbian who falls for Michelle Williams in “If These Walls Could Talk 2.” She was Edie Falco’s girlfriend on “Will and Grace.” She narrated, as the voice of legendary Andy Warhol acolyte Candy Darling, the documentary “Beautiful Darling.” Now, in the new DirectTV series “Hit & Miss,” premiering tonight, she takes on what may be her boldest role yet. In the U.K.-produced series, she’s Mia, a pre-op transgender woman in northern England who suddenly has to take on raising the son that she fathered a decade earlier — and his half-siblings. Mia is also a contract killer. From Ireland.

The subject matter alone is sensational stuff – and indeed, in just the first few minutes there’s a murder and a scene of Sevigny stripping nude, right down to her male genitalia. (An experience she admitted earlier this year made her feel so “very exposed” she cried “every day when they put it on.”)

But what makes “Hit & Miss” unique isn’t the prosthetic penis. It’s its confident, measured tone and pace. In a summer sea of frantic entertainment, the series is atmospheric and downright thoughtful. At the center of it is Sevigny, accomplishing the feat of portraying a taciturn, transgender assassin figuring out how to navigate her relationship with an entire new family. And she does it all — the lady who used to be a bloke subtext, the squabbling, the killing — with an effortless accent. It’s the kind of complicated, challenging role any actress would dream of, but few would have the courage to pull off. Yet Sevigny does it with grit and nuance, creating one of her most indelible roles yet.

Salon spoke to Sevigny recently about her new series, her status as an LGBT icon, and what it takes to be a woman playing a woman who’s transitioning from being a man.

You’re known as an actress who’s done a lot of LGBT roles. What is it about these parts that keeps you returning to them?

Well, it’s been over [the course of] 18 years! It’s not something I’ve sought out; it’s always been a case-by-case basis. The first was “Boys Don’t Cry.” I had read about Brandon and I felt the story was something that should be told and wanted to be a part of it.

With “If These Walls Could Talk,” I was broke and needed a paycheck. But I was also more interested in the butch culture and that really intrigued me. And with Candy Darling, I was obsessed with Andy Warhol. I really had this fascination with her and her diary, and it seemed like a cool project.

Which brings us to “Hit & Miss.” What was it that drew you to Mia?

It’s her journey. It’s where you find her in the beginning of the story and how she blossoms. It’s how rich the character is and what changes and what doesn’t change. I thought, “What a great character to do.” The writing really spoke to me like nothing else.

How did you prepare to play a transgender character?

I definitely was concerned that not being English would color the performance. I talked to a few women in Manchester just to get everything correct, details-wise.

They were very forthright about things like how hormones affect you, and what it’s like to be with men when you’re pre-op, and when they first knew they were in the wrong body. I read Jonathan Ames’ “Sexual Metamorphosis.” I read one about a girl who’d posed for Playboy [the English model Caroline Cossey], and I drew a lot on her upbringing.

The big thing is that the femininity is a learned femininity. That can be really exaggerated. I got a little in there, but I didn’t want to do too much. I didn’t want Mia to be like Felicity Huffman in “Transamerica.” She had to be different.

It’s been 13 years since “Boys Don’t Cry.” What do you think has changed – or hasn’t – in how we perceive the transgender community?

I’m not in that community so I can’t answer for it, but I think the gay and lesbian community has made huge strides. Even in Manchester there are meetings for transgender people. I tried to go into one of them and they wouldn’t let me in. There would be people outside mocking them, and there would be people on the street catcalling them.

I know what that’s like having people criticize you and I know what it’s like to have people say rude things. But I can’t imagine what it’s like having people yelling at you on the street.

You’re a huge LGBT icon. How do you think audiences will feel about this role and this series?

It’s been such a responsibility to the community. That was one of the hardest aspects of it. Will people like it? Will they accept it?

Ultimately, anything that can help increase sensitivity toward people is a good thing. I think we all have to try to be a bit kinder to each other – gay, trans and straight.

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 15 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations