Felicity Huffman on Her Character’s Sexuality: “It’s a huge question. …This part of Bree, she’s very shut down, very closed in, very frightened. Actually her sexuality is dormant. I know it’s a gender issue but sexually, it’s dormant. I know she has that sweet flirtation with Graham Greene who plays Calvin, sort of like a high school girl who goes, ‘Oh my God, I think he likes me!’
How I approached her sexuality was where she’s coming from emotionally and that was that people don’t see who she really is. She feels, ‘Everyone doesn’t see me, doesn’t appreciate me. My family doesn’t know me for who I am and I can’t manifest who I am in the world.’ She felt self loathing. We’ve all been there. We’ve all woken up and said I just can’t believe that I’m waking up in myself again. And she lives there. That’s where I took the sexuality.”
Felicity Huffman on Her What Drew Her to “Transamerica:” “The story, the script. It’s always the script. I mean, if it lives on the page, it lives on stage, as they say. I was so glad it wasn’t an ‘issue’ movie – transgender individuals are people too - and you go, ‘Yeah, and the other 103 minutes what are you going to do?’ And the part... If I could do it justice, it was just a fantastic opportunity and I hadn’t done anything close to that on film. I’ve done it on stage, not the gender thing but trying to transform myself, so those two things together.”
Felicity Huffman Walks Us Through the Hair and Make-Up Process: “It was so fast. I have about 90 minutes on ‘Desperate Housewives’ to make me pretty, [laughing] but Bree was fast because where she is in her transformation – she doesn’t want to go makeup shopping and go to the counter and ask, ‘What base do you think I am?’ So she does it through the mail and wants to be lighter and feminine so the base color wasn’t going to match, and it’s got to be thick because it’s got to cover any stubble. She’s had 350 hours of electrolysis but there’s still stubble.
At first we did a screen test where I felt it was a version of Tammy Faye Baker [laughing] so I was concerned. ‘Oh no, flag on the play.’ So we took it off and just put the base on and accentuated my features, which are long. That’s all we did. Jason Hayes made the wigs and the brilliant Danny Glicker did the costumes, which were all catalog and were all cheap because she wouldn’t go clothes shopping. She needed things that fit her. She didn’t know what color looked best on her – lavender is the color of transformation so she’s going for that. So within the boundaries of where Bree was, it was sort of a natural answer once you started investigating.”
Felicity Huffman on How Playing This Confusing Gender Affected Her Personally: “It actually did in an odd way because I’m not one of those actors just because I’m able to do it, I lost myself in the part and didn’t know who I was. I mean, I wish I could. Towards the end of filming, I walked into the ladies room in full regalia and I’m not kidding, I walked in and went, ‘Wow, I’m not supposed to be here,’ and I walked out. Then I said, ‘Oh no, I am,’ and walked back in again. [Laughing] It took me twice before I said, ‘Okay, I’m actually a woman,’ and walked into the ladies room. That was sort of frightening [laughing].
The other time I actually felt the part was living in me and getting me a bit off balance is when Duncan [Tucker, writer/director] came to me and said he wanted to shoot me by the side of the road and peeing. That wasn’t in the script, the full-on shot. To digress a second, wasn’t it interesting because it’s a moment that pulls you out of the movie just cause it’s so shocking? It pulls you out of the story and yet in at the same time. It’s a wonderful take there that switches you around. Oh God, no pun intended [laughing]. So when he said he wanted to shoot that, I burst into tears. I was sobbing and couldn’t breathe. He said, ‘What? What? It’s a prosthetic and it doesn’t matter.’ I realized that I was living with Bree so long that the idea of even doing it for the crew and showing that was humiliating because it wasn’t who I was, and it wasn’t who I truly am. I found it too vulnerable.”
Speaking of Body Issues… How does Felicity Huffman deal with her own body issues as an actress in Hollywood? Huffman said, “It’s a real struggle. I have to say that at times it feels there are gale force winds and I’m hanging on to the back of my chair going, ‘It’s alright. I really do like my body. I don’t care.’ And oftentimes I come out of wardrobe and costume fittings I can’t breathe and have to regain my balance. I’m a size 6, Geez! So I feel it constantly and it’s a struggle…
After I had my children, I have to say I like my body a whole lot better. I can actually eat and go, ‘Yes, I’m a size 6 or size 8,’ and that’s kind of hard to say for Hollywood, that’s big. I go about my day and have dinner anyway.”
Page 3: Felicity Huffman on Balancing "Transamerica" and "Desperate Housewives"
