Trace Lysette in Conversation with Tatiana Maslany, on Dream Roles and Finally Becoming a Leading Lady

It would not be an exaggeration to call actor Trace Lysette a trailblazer, who has been at the forefront of trans visibility on screen for years. And while you may know her from her roles as Shea in Transparent, or Tracey in history’s greatest movie about con artist strippers, Hustlers, her latest part, in Monica, as the title character – a woman who returns to her hometown to care for her dying mother – is the most intense of her career, revealing yet another layer of her versatility as a performer. 

As she wound down from the huge undertaking of her first ever starring role, she sat down with fellow actor, Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany, to discuss her acting process, how her roots in Dayton, Ohio, as well as the ballroom scene in NYC affect her performances, and her dream roles, exclusively for Polyester.

Tatiana Maslany: Hi Trace. You look so cute!

Trace Lysette: Thank you! You look gorgeous. 

TM: How are you?

TL: I'm okay. It's my grandma's birthday. So I just woke up and said happy birthday to her. I have this little urn that I brought. I brought this to set every day when I was doing Monica, because she passed earlier that year. So I just woke up and said happy birthday to her and kissed her and all that stuff.

TM: Did you have a ritual with her on set? Was there a place that you put her?

TL: Some days she just chilled in my backpack to be honest with you, but because that's how crazy it was. But I made sure to keep her with me. So she would sometimes sit on the table when I did my makeup – not that I wore any makeup. But when I would, you know, do my actor exercises, she would sit there on the table with me.

“Dance is so innate in me. Maybe that is why I'm so physical in all my roles. That just feels like home to me.”

TM: I'm so curious what that was for you. I would imagine the prep at the beginning of the day was very specific.

TL: It was just about getting in my body, and shaking out whatever stress and anxiety I had. I typically just do like these weird, different things like I’ll flop over and come up one vertebrae at a time, or I'll do my diction exercises where I say like, you know, “Seashells on the seashore can see stones on the seascape” and  “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck” and all those good ones!

Then I try to warm up my voice, because my voice is an octave lower in the morning, and I don't really like that. So try to get her to feel a little more current for me. I do this swirling like, hip movement thing that one of my old acting teachers told me I should do, where I just really just get in my body. It's kind of like hula hooping. I'll dance sometimes – really get my heart rate up to just so that by the time I get to set, I'm loose, and I don't feel tense.

Once I figured out the shell of who Monica was, and how she talked and how she moved and how she was different from Trace, I knew the heart was already going to be there just because parts of her story connected so deeply with me and other trans women that I know. So yeah, that was the prep. I didn't do a lot of over-preparing on each day, because I like to come to set and also just kind of find it.

TM: I'm always struck by how in your body you are. And you do that in all of your roles. They're very physical. Even if you're not playing like a physical character, you act with your whole body, How much of that came from your dance history? 

TL: I grew up in the drag scene in Dayton, Ohio. I was a teenage drag queen in Dayton in the 90s. So, you know, dance and Vogue and the ballroom scene and all of that are my roots. I think because they're so innate in me, dance is so innate in me. Maybe that is why I'm so physical in all my roles. That just feels like home to me. 

TM: I love that. The fact that you grew up so close to where you were filming Monica must have been a trip. And I know that you and I had that conversation while you were working. You were in Cincinnati.

TL: You were so gracious and kind and guiding and wise. I was just dealing with the rigorous production schedule. I remember talking about breathing with you, and how that can affect the work and keeping yourself open. 

I'm curious, how do you stay connected on the days when you are like dog ass tired? Sometimes, if you don't take care of yourself, it could affect the work. Now, I know that you and I both are probably too proud to let it affect the work. But if we're not careful, it could. So how do you avoid letting the fatigue affect your performance?

TM: That’s a huge thing. It’s about finding ways… even that conversation that you and I had, because it was us talking about work and about process. I just felt like we both really connected and it felt very respectful and caring. And sometimes that doesn't happen when you're on set. You're just working, and you're just trying to survive. And you don't have those moments to check back in with like, “What am I actually feeling?” You know, “What do I need to feel like safe and protected in this moment?” That might even just be connecting with someone on the crew who is just a real person, you know what I mean? 

TL: Yes. Like, “Who's going to be real here with me? Who's going to be a human being in this weird shitstorm of a production?” And understand that oh, by the way, I do need to eat, I do need to take a shit. I do need to sleep. I probably need like, at least six hours of sleep if you want me to be any good. And sometimes it can get a little crazy. And as much as I love being on set – I love the long days, I love working hard in an artistic space – sometimes I just felt the need to remind people like, “Hey, I need to go to the bathroom or hey, I need to like, take a minute. I'm a human being, I'm not a robot.” So like if I need you to not talk to me right before I'm about to cry in a scene, that's what needs to happen. I know how my instrument works. I know how sensitive it is. 

 “She goes from being rejected on the phone for being trans to “Oh, okay, well, I'm still a woman. I'm gonna go sit on this dick in this truck. And what are y'all gonna do about it?” It's very, “I'm gonna take my power back. And I'm just gonna go have a fling.””

I think shooting on film helps if I'm being honest, because there's that extra time you get before each take, sometimes when they’re reloading the camera. I grew to love those moments – a little bit of the analogue world rearing its head. And I was like, “Oh, thank God, they're reloading the camera. Because that means I have five minutes to sit here and find what I need to find in my emotional toolkit, and give them what they really want in this scene.”

TM: It's so interesting that like, when the film slows down, you're able to also. When you're shooting on digital, it's like, you can't move: boom, boom, boom, right? But going back to an analogue thing is almost a more human way of working.

TL: It is. And you leave space for those human emotions. I've heard film is making a comeback. I don't know how true that is. I mean, I would love it if that's the case, because I just think that we left parts of the analogue world behind that were so important to our quality of life. Like miscommunication, for example. The amount of miscommunication I have in a single day, over emails and text is in sane, whereas back in the 80s and 90s, a phone call, or a written note meant so much, because there's no room for miscommunication. You're not having 30 emails fly back and forth. Like, you know, that thing got moved, or that got put over here? What are we even doing anymore? Like, why do we think that this is efficient? 

I think that we need to revisit this digital world and how beneficial it is. Obviously, we're speaking over FaceTime right now which is really cool. So there's things that are awesome. But this is a face to face conversation, which reminds me of that intentional communication that we used to have back in the day. 

TM: You've been working for years, years and years. And Monica is your first lead role. And it's like, this should have happened so long ago. I've been such a fan of yours for so long, and it seems like you'll never shy from a challenge or from something totally different from the last thing that we've seen you do. So I’m curious. What kind of character do you dream of playing?

TL: Man, I dream of options. Oh, God. You know, once we get through this [WGA] strike, I hope that the impact of Monica allows me to just have a little bit more wiggle room in my career. When I dream – when I let myself dream, I mean – I dream about those really wonderful, complex characters like the ones Julia Roberts used to get to play in the 90s. And even lighter stuff like, you know, Pretty Woman. I joked the other day about wanting to remake that with a trans woman as the lead.

I am really inspired by Cate Blanchett’s career. Even Tár last year – I would just love to step outside of my box some more. I don't think I always need to play roles that are trans specific. The character part of it is the shell. The heart and everything I've lived is always going to be there inside, if we could just figure out the outside and get the right dialect coach, the possibilities should be endless. It is sometimes hard to dream when there's these restraints put on you because of your identity. I have action dreams too, let's be real. Because I'm extremely athletic and I think kicking some ass and being athletic on screen would be so fun because I was naked and crying the whole time in Monica!

TM: I'm curious about creating Monica's look, because I was so aware of the fiery red that we see – in her car, in her hair, her clothing. And then she goes home and it becomes these blues. There’s these chameleon-like shifts that she goes through colour-wise.

“The heart and everything I've lived is always going to be there inside, if we could just figure out the outside and get the right dialect coach, the possibilities should be endless.”

TL: Yeah, the hair was fiery, and strong and cool and different from me. Her wardrobe was interesting, too. It was just kind of like, comfortable for most of the movie. But then she has that one night where she hits the bar and like, you know, needs to like feel her femme queen energy a little bit. And, you know, go and have sex with a guy without disclosing, which is one of my favourite parts, because I feel like that's so liberating. You know, when I watch that scene, it's like she goes from being rejected on the phone for being trans to “Oh, okay, well, I'm still a woman. I'm gonna go sit on this dick in this truck. And what are y'all gonna do about it?” It's very, “I'm gonna take my power back. And I'm just gonna go have a fling.” 

She goes from being rejected by whoever she was supposed to meet at the bar to hooking up with a guy in a truck, and then him wanting her to stay. It's that shift in the power. I've had that happen so many times in my own life, where my transness comes into play. It’s like this fall from grace that happens, you know, where a guy will approach me, and it's giving, “I want you to be wifey” energy. And then I tell them I'm trans and there's this fall from grace, and they could not be bothered, or it turns very sexual. And it becomes this late night DL creepy situation. And that's because trans women, by and large, we're not a status symbol to men, and they're very status driven. So I think in that moment, you know, she's just saying, “Well, you don't deserve to know this part of me, if we're just gonna indulge in each other's physical bodies.” 

TM: I know that Monica was a long time coming, and that there were times when it wasn't you weren't sure that you were gonna get funding, or that it was going to happen. So when you finally found out that it was going to happen, what did you do to celebrate? 

TL: I went to Michigan first to spread my grandmother's ashes because she had passed earlier in the year. It was summertime, and I went to where she grew up. And I was able to just kind of have this really peaceful moment where I spread some of her ashes and kept some some with me. And I took them down and spent a week with my mom in Dayton, and then I went down to Cincinnati [to start filming]. 

So in terms of celebrating… God, have I celebrated? I mean, we celebrated in Venice [at the film’s premiere], too. But then it was all these question marks of like, “OK, but are we going to get distributed? Like wow, 12 minute standing ovation. That's great. Oh, wow, great reviews, but wait, do we have distribution?” So it was hard to be carefree in that moment. Whereas like, I think after the theatrical release in the US, it was a little easier to breathe and, you know, go to a dinner and have some drinks. I went to dinner the other night – Lorene Scafaria, who directed me in Hustlers, took me and a group of my friends to this wonderful dinner. She reminded me, “You need to celebrate this.” 

Photography: Andrea Riba | Styling: Michy Milli | Hair: Gregg Lennon Jr Makeup: Abby Smith | Lighting: Felix Bartlett