Interview with Kalki Subramaniam

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Kalki Subramaniam, a transgender rights activist from India, actress, entrepreneur, the founder of Sahodari Foundation, an organization working for the social, economic and political empowerment of transgender persons in India, and the editor of the English book titled ‘Law Beyond Gender’. Hello Kalki!

Kalki: Greetings Monika. It is a pleasure to know you.

Monika: For many years you have been involved in the legal rights campaign for recognising transgender people in India. Could you say a few words about them?
Kalki: In the Indian constitution, the fundamental rights under part III are enforceable human rights guaranteed to all citizens of this country, whether men, women or transgender people. We, transgender people, however are discriminated in the society because of our gender identity. Only legal recognition can assure our rights. The state has to come up with policies that protect transgender people and initiate measures to empower us.
On that line, I have been sensitizing the judiciary of this country for a better understanding of transgender people’s lives, the issues and problems we face in the society. These campaigns being done along with other transgender rights activists, will bring tremendous changes in the near future.

Interview with Aneesh Sheth

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Aneesh Sheth, a young Indian-American actress and transgender activist, an Advocate Magazine's 40 Under 40 list honoree, known for her roles in "Outsourced" (2011), "My Inner Turmoil" (2011), and "Arbore" (2012). Hello Aneesh!

Aneesh: Hi Monika! Thank you so much for this honor!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Aneesh: Sure! I am an actress and activist originally from New York City. In 2010, I made my way to the West Coast, first in San Francisco and then to Seattle in November of 2013, where I currently reside.

Monika: When did you decide to pursue an acting career?

Aneesh: I was lucky enough to have parents that were very supportive of the arts, and to live in New York where there is an abundance of it. Ever since I was very little, my parents took me to see lots of theatre and opera and somehow I got bit by the bug.

I think I was cast in my first show at age 7, and just continued my journey in theatre and film from there. When I was ready to leave for college, I made the choice to pursue a career in acting and I was very lucky to have supportive parents who encouraged me to pursue my dream.

Interview with Tona Brown

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Tona Brown, a talented African American Transgender violinist, vocalist, mezzo soprano, actress and host of a web TV series entitled "Conversations with Tona Brown". 

Tona was the first transgender woman to perform at Carnegie Hall and was chosen by the White House to sing the National Anthem for President Obama at a 2011 LGBT Pride Gala in New York City. She participated in such shows as “Now What” with BET producer Kevin E. Taylor, WHRO’s Hear Say with Cathy Lewis, the Anthony McCarthy Show, and the Marc Steiner Show. Hello Tona!

Tona: Hi Monika. It is a pleasure to speak with you and everyone that follows your work. 

Monika: You started as a classical violinist but soon you became a successful mezzo soprano diva. Would you like to keep both options open or you have already decided about your artistic future?

Tona: I would like to keep all options open because I enjoy making music no matter the genre or medium. Music IS my life!

Monika: Could you say a few words about your music career?

Tona: My decision to follow my dreams was the best decision of my life. As an artist I can express things that would be very difficult for me to express normally. Through my art I can release all frustrations and emote in ways unimaginable.

Interview with Alexandra Billings

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Alexandra Billings, a fascinating American actress, teacher, singer, and the first trans woman to have played a transgender character on television. She was born in Schaumburg, Illinois. Alexandra is also known for transgender characters in ER, Eli Stone, How to Get Away with Murder, Grey's Anatomy, and The Conners.I must say I am thrilled that I can interview such an iconic person. Hello Alexandra!

Alexandra: Well hi there, Monika. I’m glad we can chat like this. I love this cyber-age. You can do anything virtually. Well…almost anything.

No…wait. Literally anything.

Monika: You come from an artistic family. Is it the reason why you became an artist and your whole professional life focuses on beauty pageants, theaters, movies, and singing? 

Alexandra: Strangely I come from both an artistic and academic family. My Dad was the musical director at Civic Light Opera House in LA for many years, and my mother was a teacher, as was her mother and her mother before her. My Dad also taught as well as flew in the air force and retired as a Lt Colonel. So, I’m half bohemian, half professor. I think that’s why I’ve always had this strange sense of adventure mixed with a need to settle down and nest. I’m like a frustrated Carol Brady… on a dash of crack.

Interview with Adèle Anderson

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Adèle Anderson, an inspirational British songwriter, actress, and member of the acclaimed British cabaret group Fascinating Aïda. She is a patron and humanist celebrant of Humanists UK (formerly known as the British Humanist Association), specializing in non-religious weddings. Hello Adèle!

Adèle: Hello, Monika. What would you like to know?

Monika: Last year Fascinating Aïda could boast the 30th anniversary of its creation. You joined the group, a year later, in 1984. So you have been singing with Dillie Keane for almost 30 years. (Liza Pulman joined the group in 2004.) How have you managed to stay together for so many years?

Adèle: First of all, I hugely admire Dillie and her extraordinary talent. We discovered that we just “clicked” as a writing partnership. She has made me a much better songwriter than I would ever have been on my own.

Secondly, it is extremely satisfying to perform a show that one has written and to enjoy the reactions of the various audiences up and down the country and, sometimes, abroad. Dillie and I have learned to be upfront about any disagreements and not to be offended if one of us doesn’t like a lyric that the other one has written, or thinks it isn’t good enough.

Interview with Michelle Hendley

Monika: Today I am meeting Michelle Hendley, an American young actress and video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube, known for her role as Ricky in the film Boy Meets Girl, directed by Eric Schaeffer. Hello Michelle!

Michelle: Hello Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Michelle: Hmm, well I am 22 years old, I live in Missouri (USA) and I am a cosmetology student.

Monika: Why did you decide to share your transition details on YouTube? 

Michelle: When I first started my channel a couple years ago, I really didn’t know what I wanted to say on YouTube. For a while, I just made little updates about my life, and around that time I had my “gender realization.”

Interview with Calpernia Addams

Monika: Today I have invited a special guest. Calpernia Addams is an American author, actress, musician, spokesperson and activist for transgender rights and issues. Calpernia grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. She served as a hospital corpsman with the Navy and United States Marine Corps. She is a co-founder of Deep Stealth Productions, providing educational and entertainment material around gender-identification matters. Calpernia is known for her performance as a transgender woman in the 2005 film Transamerica, 2006 documentary film Beautiful Daughters, and a 2008 reality television series entitled Transamerican Love Story. Hello Calpernia!

Calpernia: Hello, Monika!

Monika: Having so many talents you seem to be more focused on acting. Which film directors or movies are your inspirations?

Calpernia: Well, Frank Pierson was a legendary writer and director going back many decades who eventually came to direct the film about my life called "Soldier's Girl". He has been the most personally influential director in my life, and if you look back at his body of work, anyone would see why he is very inspiring to me as an artist.

On a deep and personal level, I am inspired by the films of Marilyn Monroe. I know it can be a cliché to say that one likes "Marilyn", but I do feel a deeper personal connection to her story as a woman and an artist after studying her life, films, and myth-making process in depth. Living in Hollywood, I pass by the places she knew and went to almost every day, so she is sort of in the air.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 5

Monika: Apart from acting, you directed over 20 theatre plays. How did you find theatre directing?

Aleshia: Directing seemed a natural extension of my years spent touring in dinner theatre. As with most things that occurred in my life, it just sorta happened as a matter of course. The opportunity presented itself and I took it. There had, of course, been courses in directing as part of the curriculum in both undergraduate and graduate school.

Once out in the real world, I gradually began expressing my desire to direct, then negotiating this as part of my contractual acting agreement with several theatres. Nothing ventured; nothing gained. It worked out nicely. I truly love directing, perhaps more than I adore being on stage. Later, when I became a professor of university theatre, the foundation for directing main stage productions was already in place. From time to time, things do just seem to fall naturally into place.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 4

Monika: Before you started your movie and theatre career you were a female impersonator. How would you define this kind of vocation? Could it be regarded as a piece of art or just another form of entertainment or show business?

Aleshia: As I must always stress, Monika, the only assessments I can make on ANYTHING are based on personal experience. I cannot speak to the experience of others. Nowhere would this be truer than when answering your question concerning female impersonation. There are many people, both straight and gay, who are devotees of impersonation as an art form. My experience ‘backstage’, behind the façade at Finocchio’s in San Francisco, was limited and merely a respite during my gender journey. I was a neophyte, a “new Nanette”. I became a headliner at the prestigious nightclub in the late ’50s and early ‘60s because of how I looked, not because of any professional expertise and/or show business acumen.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 3

 
Monika: Aleshia, in our previous conversation you stated that your true acting career took place in the theater. How would you compare these two artistic worlds?

Aleshia: Ah, Monika, that is a subject on which I could easily drone on for hours, one on which someone could write a book – and indeed many have. Accomplished actors still argue over whether performance styles must differ markedly between stage and film. I tend to agree with those artists who argue successful acting for film is more self-contained. The film is the more intimate medium. Obviously, on stage, the play’s ideas are projected into a three-dimensional space peopled with actors whose goal is to reach and move the theater audience. This requires a project of both voice and manner. Even with a long run of the play, the actors must speak their lines as though they had just thought of them, the “illusion of the first time.” I would further contribute that theater appeals to feelings first and to intellect second.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 2

Monika: Today I would like to focus our interview on your movie acting. Your first movie role was Sherry in „The Love God?” (1969). Did you have to go through any auditions to get the role? How did it feel to be an actress for the first time?

Aleshia: Oh, yes, Monika, Universal had seen every tall redhead in Hollywood by the time I auditioned. That, at least, is what I was told by my agent, with whom I’d just signed. I was so new in the business that I didn’t even have headshots – which almost proved my undoing. Some Universal executives feared I might not photograph well on screen but the director, Nat Hiken, fought for me. Bless that man! I was absolutely stunned by my good fortune, loved every single moment of the process, and promptly buckled down on set to learn my craft. It was a glorious experience.

Monika: Sherry was an extremely sexy lady that accompanied the main character played by Don Knotts. How do you recollect your work with him?

Aleshia: I adored Don Knotts. "The Love God", in my estimation, was a testimonial to Don’s comic genius. The film was ahead of its time, no doubt about that, but Don Knotts was perfectly cast as the misguided sex symbol. His improvisations still make me laugh when I see the film.

Interview with Maria Roman

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Maria Roman, a model, actress, show business celebrity, social activist, and transgender icon. I must say you are my idol, Maria!

Maria: Thank you Monika for giving me this opportunity to share a bit about myself. I think it is so beautiful when we can share love and admiration for one another. I am so flattered that you even would say I am your idol. That is a beautiful thing!
Monika: When I look at you, you always radiate with a natural smile and innate kindness? How do you do it?
Maria: Well, life has challenged me in so many ways. I have dealt with homelessness, discrimination and at moments in my life, I have felt hopeless. However, even in those challenging moments in my journey, I always remembered the people that made an impact in my life and to me those that were kind and loving human beings that offered me love without any expectation in return.
I try to live as honestly as it is possible for any human being, and I firmly believe that we are here to love one another, so every chance I get to smile at another human being is an opportunity to share some love with them.
We are so blessed to be given an opportunity in life to be who we want and follow our dreams and that is defiantly something to smile about.

Interview with Marlo Bernier

Monika: Today I am going to introduce you to Marlo Bernier, an American actress, writer, producer, US Air Force veteran, and creator of Myrna, an original drama television series.

She was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. After her USAF service, she spent a couple of years in Germany, playing music in a few bands on the club circuit until the end of 1985. She settled down n Baltimore, spending the better part of a decade on the stage, delivering great stage work in AXIS Theatre's; Angels in America, Love! Valor! Compassion! and God's Country. Hello Marlo!

Marlo: Hi Monika!

Monika: What are you doing these days?

Marlo: Well right this minute I’m attempting to behave during this interview – we’ll see at the end what the verdict will be.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 1

Monika: Hello Aleshia! I am very happy that you accepted this interview to be included in my series of “Interviews with Transgender Icons”.
Aleshia: Thank you for asking that I participate, Monika. I blush a bit at being labeled an “Icon”, but hopefully by my age, one has learned to embrace any and all positive comments that come along – while summarily dismissing the negative.
Monika: What are you doing these days?
Alexia: I recently turned seventy-five, hooray-hooray, so thankfully as a rather long-in-tooth retiree my time is pretty much my own. Gone are those bothersome pressures of younger years. Much of my time is now spent writing, having just finished the first novel. It comes on the tail of my two published memoirs and several produced plays. Most importantly, however, I’ve found contentment which I never even dream might be possible when I began my transsexual odyssey in the late 1950s.