Interview with Debra Soshoux

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Debra Soshoux, an American transgender advocate and activist, known for “Beautiful Daughters,” the documentary that chronicled the first all-transsexual production of “The Vagina Monologues”, and LOGO’s “TransAmerican Love Story”. Hello Debra!

Debra: Hi Monika! Thanks for inviting me to your webpage.

Monika: In 2004 you appeared in the 2004 V-Day production of “The Vagina Monologues”, featuring an all transwomen cast, including: Lynn Conway, Andrea James, Christine Beatty, Verba Deo, Calpernia Addams, Leslie Townsend, Valerie Spencer and Asia Vitale. How did you find out about the project?
Debra: By chance, on the Internet. I was instantly excited when I read about it but I’m not a trained actor, I had terrible stage fright (still do) and after laser voice surgery my voice was very weak and uneven so I never thought to be in the cast. I knew I wanted to be part of it and it was in LA! Then my friend Christine auditioned so I did too and voilà! I got an absolutely plum role as the old lady.

Interview with Andrea James

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Andrea James, a very prolific American artist, writer, film producer, director, businesswoman, and LGBT rights activist. Hello Andrea!

Andrea: Hi Monika—thanks for interviewing me!

Monika: Having so many talents, which profession do you enjoy most?
Andrea: I enjoy writing educational information because that fulfills my interest in teaching. Unfortunately, we live in a world where a large swath of people can’t be reached through the written word, so I also work in film and television.

Monika: In 2003, together with your business partner and entertainer Calpernia Addams, you co-founded Deep Stealth Productions to provide services to the transgender community. How successful is the company?

Andrea: I feel that our success is best measured by the nice letters and hugs we get from people who have been helped or moved by our work. We were never out to become rich selling specialty videos, and it’s not a big money-maker anyway. We often supplement the income from our work for the trans community through other kinds of production. Calpernia and I do not need a lot to live the lives we want, and that has freed us up to work on projects that are important to us.

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 Christine Beatty

Monika: Today I would like to introduce to you an amazing woman and artist. Christine Beatty is an American writer, senior software engineer, musician, and transgender activist. She was born in San Mateo, California. In 2000 she was distinguished as Transwoman of the Year by the Los Angeles Transgender Task Force. Christine helped to organize the 2003 Transgender Day of Remembrance in Los Angeles, and a year later she appeared in a Calpernia Addams’ and Andrea James’ all-transgender production of the Vagina Monologues. In 2011 she started a publishing company for the TS/TG community, Glamazon Press. Christine writes articles for Spectator Magazine, Transgender Tapestry, TransSisters, and other LGBTQ publications. She is the founder of the Glamazon rock band, and the author of a semi-autobiographical collection of short stories and poetry "Misery Loves Company" (1993) and biography "Not Your Average American Girl" (2011). 

Hello Christine! Welcome to “The Heroines of My Life”.

Christine: Hi Monika, thanks for asking.

Monika: How would you describe yourself? Musician, writer, transgender activist, or someone else?

Christine: First and foremost I’m a writer. So far it’s not paying the bills — yet — but it’s the one creative thing I do consistently. I do plan to get back into performing and recording rock music again. Also, I started taking film school classes last autumn.

Monika: Are you a feminist?

Christine: Most definitely, long before I knew I was a girl trapped in a boy’s body.

Monika: Where did you grow up?

Christine: In my memoir, I describe my terribly ordinary upbringing in a suburb twenty miles south of San Francisco. It was terribly middle-class and ordinary; I hated it. I instinctively knew I wasn’t destined for ordinary or “normal.”