WE WERE THE ONES WHO… Â COACHED FELICITY ON PLAYING A TRANSSEXUAL
To prep for her role in Transamerica, Huffman was coached by transgender activists Andrea James, 39, and Calpernia Addams, 35. “Males talk from their chests, and women talk a little more in their head,” explains James. “She was really concerned with getting it right.”
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All Things Considered
By Brad Balfour
March 2, 2006.
What research did you do?
I did a lot. I am so sorry to run down the litany – but I did not know a lot about the transgendered community; as Andrea James, a wonderful transgendered woman [who advised us] says. So I read every biography and autobiography I could get my hands on and watched every documentary I could. I went to the library and looked through the articles. And I went to a couple of transgender conventions and met a wide spectrum of the community.
Was there long line for the ladies room?
That’s prurient on your part… (laughs) I worked with a woman named Dinae Doyle who coached men on how to become women; I worked with Andrea and Calpurnia Adams who helped me go through script and tell what worked and didn’t. And the final linch pin was the voice – not because I wanted to do it last but because I couldn’t figure out how to do it. It was the last thing to fall into place.
by Michael Giltz
February 28, 2006
In Transamerica the difficult challenge for costumer Danny Glicker was making a small and feminine woman like Huffman convincing as awkward at being a girl. “Felicity has a gorgeous body and is so petite,” says Glicker. “When I first met her, I thought, How am I going to do this? She’s gorgeous! So we did lots of little tricks. I dropped her waistline slightly so her waist was sitting at her hips. Felicity has a gorgeous, tiny waist, but of course [her character] Bree has a more masculine waist.”
One big help came from trans people, specifically film consultants Calpernia Addams and Andrea James, who run a company called Deep Stealth to help in all facets of a person’s transition. “One of the things Andrea and Calpernia pointed out to me was that very often when you transition later in life, as Bree has, you haven’t been building your wardrobe your whole life,” says Glicker. “You have to go out and buy everything all at once. And when you go out on that sort of shopping trip, you have as many mistakes as you do successes.”
Archive at:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Extreme+makeovers%3a+how+did+the+stars+of+Capote%2c+Breakfast+on+Pluto%2c…-a0143009614
Leeza Gibbons invited us to return to her four-hour live KBIG launch on February 26, 2006.
— as told to Sharon Ward
February 22, 2006
Transsexual Andrea James, 39, was Felicity Huffman’s coach for the movie Transamerica. Here, she tells how her own life story shaped Hoffman’s Oscar – nominated performance.
Felicity approached my business partner Calpernia Addams and me to coach her when she was researching her part as Bree in the film Transamerica. We run a production company and are both transsexual women, so she felt we had a lot of wisdom and advice to offer her.
First of all, she wanted to know our stories. I was brought up in the Midwest in a tiny town where transsexuals weren’t discussed or even known about. But as a boy I didn’t feel right about myself or the body I was in. I was very in tune with my feminine side and often wished I’d been born a girl. I found out what “transsexual” meant when I was 12, but I couldn’t speak to anyone about it.
I moved to Chicago when I was 21, and that’s where I first met transsexual women. I knew that at last I could achieve my childhood dream – to be a woman. The first thing I did was have my facial hair removed, and then I started growing my hair to look more feminine. I took female hormones to make my figure curvier and I practiced making my voice higher.
My transition began in 1995 and ended in 1998 when I had my final surgery which is what Bree is waiting for in Transamerica.
Felicity was particularly interested in the emotions a transsexual woman goes through during the final transition. She came to our office once a week and sometimes we went to her home we read the whole script and wrote down our thoughts on what her character would be thinking at specific times in the movie she was particularly interested in getting her voice right for the part men tend to talk more from the chest, and we worked on giving her voice a deep hollowness.
Both Calpernia and myself appear in the movie I was breeze vocal coach just like in real life!
We first saw the movie at a press screening in Hollywood and thought it was an amazing accomplishment. One of my favorite scenes is where Bree visits her parents. It’s played for laughs and it’s very over the top, but it rings true for the shock and anger many parents express when I first see their child after the transition.
I was lucky – my dad supported me from the day I told him but my mother was afraid for me now she’s accepted the changes and is proud of me and my career.
Felicity did a wonderful job as Bree. It’s so easy to use transsexual people as a joke, but she portrayed her character is a very real human being. We’ll be cheering for Felicity and the movie at the Oscars – she deserves to win the best actress award for sure!
Thanks to director Duncan Tucker for the mention in thisJanuary 22, 2006 piece by Lydia Martin!
By Madhusmita Bora
January 19, 2006
At four locations in Indianapolis, Roma Thadani plucks away on her American dream, seven days a week, one eyebrow at a time.
Thadani’s chain Eyes by India offers threading, a tradition of hair removal popular in her native India and the Middle East.
Armed with cotton strings, the 44-year-old and her 10 employees tame unruly eyebrow hair, giving male and female clients that perfect arch often associated with actors from Bollywood — the Indian film industry. They also clean upper lips, foreheads and cheeks, and occasionally shape a beard for a male customer.
Although popular in New York City and California, the art of removing unwanted hair by twirling and twisting a thread around it is a recent phenomenon in the Hoosier heartland. But it’s definitely catching on in retail locations that include malls and ethnic grocery stores, challenging the domain of spas and salons that offer waxing.
Hair removal — including threading parlors and products — is now a multibillion-dollar- a-year business, estimates Andrea James, owner of hairfacts.com, a consumer-oriented Web site.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060119/BUSINESS/601190386
by Calpernia Addams
January 17, 2006
People tend to notice Andrea James. She’s tall and blonde, and you can still see the Midwestern girl smiling in her eyes as she mingles at Hollywood parties or delivers information in boardrooms across the country. Leaving behind a successful career at a top advertising agency in Chicago, she traded ads on the Super Bowl for a creative arena much closer to her heart. As cofounder of Deep Stealth Productions, Andrea now focuses on creating and supporting work that recognizes the truth and value of transgender women in the media. She also maintains a Web site at Tsroadmap.com full of information and support for the transsexual community.
I first met Andrea several years ago in Chicago on a break from filming Soldier’s Girl, an award-winning movie that showed us firsthand the power of film and television to change hearts and minds. Shortly thereafter, I left behind a seven-year career as a theater actress to move to Chicago, where together Andrea and I founded Deep Stealth before relocating to Hollywood. Now in our fourth year, we are looking forward to an exciting and busy 2006.
CALPERNIA ADDAMS: So Andrea, what excites you these days?
ANDREA JAMES: I’m glad you didn’t ask who excites me, because I’m currently entertaining offers for that position! I’m excited about being involved in three films and documentaries out now and in early 2006: Transamerica, Middle Sexes, and Beautiful Daughters. Who wouldn’t be excited to work with Felicity Huffman, Eve Ensler, and Jane Fonda?
If you had to take 24 hours off and have some fun, what would you do?
What is this “fun” of which you speak? [Laughs] Oddly, I moved to Hollywood to settle down a bit. I had a blast in Chicago, but it was getting in the way of my artistic aspirations. Reader suggestions for “fun” are welcome!
So many people look to you for advice, from your Tsroadmap.com Web site to film and television consults and your consumer activism. Where do you go for answers to your own life’s questions?
Wikipedia. Seriously, I feel it’s a model for social organization and collaborative content unlike anything else out there. A grand experiment. Great, now everyone knows I am a geek—so much for dates!
What do you want to be remembered for?
Helping others. I’ve been lucky enough to be in a position to do that for the last ten years. When you give without expectation of reward, it comes back to you in amazing ways. (I also want to be remembered for turning my Frontiers profile into a giant personal ad!)
For more information on Deep Stealth Productions, visit www.deepstealth.com.
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