Sexy Trans Cinema

BY: Matt Elisofon

Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game (1992)

After fleeing a botched kidnapping that leaves Jody (Forest Whitaker), a British soldier, dead, IRA fighter Fergus (Stephen Rea) falls so hard for Jody’s gorgeous girlfriend, Dil, that even the discovery that Dil is trans can’t deter him. Our hats our off to Davidson, whose delicate face, build, and voice, makes Dil the most alluring woman on this list.

 

Tilda Swinton in Orlando (1992)

Although she’s not a trans character in the contemporary sense of the word, Swinton’s Orlando, through inexplicable means, transitions from man to woman (and back) in a story that explores the fluidity of gender and identity with unparalleled grace. Thanks to Swinton’s features, which are so striking and unique that they cannot be claimed by either sex, director Sally Potter is able to deftly defy the conventions of biology, time, and society in this epic Virginia Woolf adaptation.

 

Cillian Murphy in Breakfast on Pluto (2005)

Abandoned by his mother as an infant and sent to live with a foster family in 1940s Ireland, Patrick (Murphy) transitions to Kitten and embarks on a wild and dangerous odyssey. Murphy’s gutsy performance notwithstanding, it’s no surprise that this Irish heartthrob, with his piercing blue eyes and pouty lips, looks so good in lipstick and rouge.

 

Gael García Bernal in Bad Education (2004)

In Pedro Almodóvar’s subversive Spanish riff on film noir, Bernal plays Angel, a transgender femme fatale—full-lipped, doe-eyed and blonde. But Angel has more than one identity in this multilayered story about a film within a film (based on a story from the screenwriter’s past) that asks provocative questions about gender, art, religion and corruption.

 

Kitana Kiki Rodriguez in Tangerine (2015)

Fresh out of the joint on Christmas Eve in L.A., Sin-Dee Rella (Rodriguez, above right) is enjoying a doughnut with her best friend, Alexandra (Mya Taylor), when she learns that Chester, her boyfriend (and pimp), has been cheating on her with one of his cisgender hos. In her quest to find her rival and confront Chester, Rodriguez brings splendiferous wit, grit, warmth and authenticity (as a trans actress) to the part.

 

Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

Closely following the real-life story of a transgender man who was brutally raped and murdered in Nebraska in 1993, Boys Don’t Cry chronicles the tender romance of Brandon Teena (Swank), and his cisgender girlfriend Lana Tisdale (Chloë Sevigny). Swank delivered a powerhouse of a performance that won her an Oscar and Teena some of the respect and compassion he was so deprived of when he was alive.

 

Carmen Maura in Law of Desire (1987)

Maura electrifies as the sensuous Tina, a tragic character who underwent sex-reassignment surgery at the behest of her father/lover, who then dumped her. In this early Pedro Almodóvar melodramatic stew, Tina’s luck only worsens when she finds out that her new boyfriend, Antonio (Antonio Banderas), is actually her brother’s murderously jealous ex-lover.

 

Stéphanie Michelini in Wild Side (1995)

After returning home to tend to her dying mother—accompanied by two male lovers—Stéphanie (Michelini), a transgender Parisian prostitute, is forced to confront her past, present and future. Despite all of the suffering and disrespect that she endures at the bottom rungs of society, Stéphanie soldiers on, a total class act.

 

Lee Pace in Soldier’s Girl (2003)

The poignancy of this roiling drama about the relationship between a army recruit (Troy Garity) and a trans performer (Pace, above right) is undeniable. And as Calpernia Adams, the lithe, alabaster-skinned Nashville transgender showgirl who wins attention—both good and bad—from the soldiers stationed nearby, Pace is riveting. Unfortunately, the tragic hate crime that follows is based on actual events.

 

Rick Okon in Romeos (2011)

Even within the tiny pantheon of transgender films, there are relatively few stories focused on trans men, and even fewer, like this German film, about a trans man who is gay. Okon plays Lukas, a beautiful and boyish trangender man whose romance with the macho cisgender Fabio (Maximilian Befort) makes for a rare treat.