Interview: Calpernia Addams and Andrea James

Calpernia Addams (left) and Andrea James may not have Hollywood marquee clout, but when Felicity Huffman stands to accept the numerous awards she’s bound to receive for her daring and fearless portrait of a transsexual woman in TransAmerica, you’d better believe you’re going to hear their names loud and clear.

The women run Deep Stealth Productions, a company dedicated to offering more accurate and positive portrayals of transgender people in the media. Huffman, taking on arguably the most layered and difficult role of her career, came to the women for help in preparing for her the film. If Huffman was to fully transform into Bree, a male to female transsexual just days before her final operation, she wanted to walk the walk, talk the talk and feel the emotions.

So Addams and James got to work.

Though the prep work presented them with challenges they’d never before faced (James, a voice coach who finds transgender women find their female voice, had never done the process in reverse before), both women were up to the challenge. Addams had been in the spotlight before, for far less enjoyable reasons, as the subject of Soldier’s Girl, the award winning story a young solider who was beaten to death for falling in love with a transgender nightclub performer. It was an experience Addams felt compelled to see told, but one that shattered her life and to this day is tough for her to talk about.

Now, with the release of TransAmerica, both women are ecstatic to be a part of a project they say has the power to change minds and open doors

GWM: So how did come to you both?

Andrea James: Felicity was doing research for the role, pouring her heart and soul into this before they started filming, and she found our information and called us up. So, you know, that’s always a bi of a shock.

GWM: She called you up herself, she didn’t have one of her people do it?

AJ: Well, she had someone helping who told her who we were and what we are all about, but she called us that day. It was very exciting to get that call because, at the time she checked in with us, Desperate Housewives hadn’t hit yet, but I knew her work from Sports Night and I’d always loved Magnolia. So it was early in the process.

GWM: What was she most concerned about learning from you?

AJ: (left, with Addams) One of the things she really wanted to get was the voice. So we looked through the script with her and we went through page by page and said, ‘well, this is a bit of a stretch plot wise,’ and she was able to get some things revised. But I guess the main thing about working with her … she really wanted to get a sense of what’s going on in this character’s head at that really difficult time of transition.

Calpernia Addams: And she said before that she really wanted to make this a unique individual character, having her own particular life experience. She never was trying to represent all trans women with this portrayal, and I think she really did a great job of that.

GWM: What were your primary concerns before taking on this project? Before pursuing any project, really?

CA: I always go into anything like this expecting the worst, unfortunately, because usually Hollywood and media in general likes to use trans characters as plot points that are a punchline, a prostitute or a psychotic killer.

AJ: Most movies about trans people, we’re portrayed as victims or criminals, and this is the first movie where it’s funny. It’s a nice movie where the laughs are not at the expense of the character.

GWM: The things that she goes through could happen whether she was trans on not.

AJ: Right. She’s really the first fully human character who has been portrayed. There’s a completeness to her that you usually don’t get.

GWM: Tell me a bit about the process of working with Felicity. I know you worked on so many things, but what were some of the main points she wanted to cover?

CA: She felt she had so much ground to cover to really familiarize