Trace Lysette perfectly reads the Academy for not nominating more trans actors

Trace Lysette is reading the Academy for filth.

In the film Monica, actress Trace Lysette plays a trans woman who returns home to take care of her ailing mother (Patricia Clarkson) who hasn’t seen her since she kicked her out of their house when she came out. Both stars have been praised for their performances, with Lysette’s performance specifically being singled out as Oscar-worthy.

Still, Lysette has been shut out of many award season roundups and interviews, the film has gotten very little press, and so far, her only nomination is for Best Lead Performance from the Independent Spirit Awards.

One of the outlets rightfully giving Lysette the flowers she deserves is Variety, who put Lysette and Clarkson on the cover of their awards season issue. In the issue, Lysette minces no words when talking about the lack of attention Monica and her performance, which earned an 11-and-a-half minute standing ovation when the movie premiered at the Venice Film Fest, have been getting.

And when asked about the way a lack of money has kept the movie out of a lot of awards processes (studios often spend $5-$25 million on awards season/Oscar campaigns), Lysette said she was disappointed, but not surprised.

“I try to deliver it in a nice way that won’t alienate people or turn people off, but it is a sobering reality for me,” she said. “It’s tough to want to be real about this awards journey and about how much bigger it is than a simple trophy. Not only for me, but my community — I think a lot of it is based in survival. And being a late bloomer — I’m 42, I’m a transsexual woman. And as a minority in this business, I often feel invisible.”

Then, she cut to the real truth.

“I know this performance is worthy and solid — Venice told me so. But even that, it’s just been such a battle,” she continued. “I sometimes wonder if a cis actor went to Venice and got an 11-and-a-half minute standing ovation for playing a trans role, I feel like the Academy would be coming in their pants and the press opportunities would be insane.”

“So it’s disheartening,” she added. “But I’m trying my best to lean into the good. However it pans out, the work has already changed people’s lives. And so that’s what I cling to.”

She’s not wrong. When Jared Leto won an Academy Award for playing a trans woman in Dallas Buyers Club, critics were amazed that he “stayed in character” for the entire 25 days of the shoot.

When Eddie Redmayne played historical trans woman Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl, he received a “nearly ten minute” long standing ovation, almost two minutes shorter than Lysette’s, and would go on to be nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

Unfortunately, Lysette is right when it comes to the attention the industry and media pay to actual trans people. Despite delivering one of the best performances of the year in a movie that is changing the lives of trans people and their families, once again, trans performers are being denied a seat at the table.