I am eight and Dowling and I am with myself.
Hi Laverne! How are you?
I'm lovely. How are you?
It's so good to see you.
Yes. It is a pleasure to
actually talk to you.
Yes, after all these years.
Exactly. Yeah, first
time talking I think
yes, exactly, which I just
feel honored and yeah,
I'm I'm happy that you're
doing well-
you're doing well?
I just flew in last night.
So I'm a little
discombobulated.
I'm jet-lagged and I'm
really grateful to be here.
I'm really grateful to be
talking about this film. I
think this film So important.
I'm just so honored
to be a part of it.
I think it's entertaining
and funny and smart and
necessary and hopefully
will spark really
necessary conversations.
Oh my gosh. Yeah,
when I saw it, I was just like
I was hella triggered first.
Yeah.
Yeah. So like I'm trans right?
So I lived as a lesbian
as a Woman
until I was 22 so all of the
things going on in the movie
I had firsthand been
on one side and now
as like a white guy
and I'm kind of on
the other side
and I thought it was really
interesting to have
both of those things.
And so I want to actually
like honestly the
biggest question I had
for you which I think
is the most important thing
is that my fear is
that only women are
going to see this movie.
How do we get men to go
see this movie without
putting the pressure
on women to like hold
everything for the
man who sees it?
Wow, that's a really
that's a brilliant question.
I know I hadn't really
thought about that. I
think a lot of times,
you know, having been on
a show like Orange is
the New Black a
lot of them men, for years,
Like these hot guys
would come up to me
and they're like,
“Oh my God you’re
Laverne Cox !” and
I'd be like, “Yeah.” and
they'd be like,
“I love you on the show!”and
I was like, “thank you”
and I'd be like feeling
really cute and like
“I watch with my girlfriend.”
and I just feel like um,
“Are you still together?”
So No, dating opportunities
came out of it.
But what I found is a lot
of guys were watching
with the women that
they were in relationships
with obviously.
Everyone's not in a
relationship that
shouldn't be a way.
And if we should
—we're sort of maybe putting
on women to sort of
get men involved,
but I think I think for a lot of
men who think that they are—
I think a lot of men strive to
be good guys right
strive to be the best
guys that they can be
and don't think that they
would ever do anything that
would not be
consensual sexually
and I think that question is
something that
we still need to have a
conversation about.
I recently had a conversation
with a guy that I've known
I think 12 years ago.
We went on a few dates and
something non-consensual
happened on Our third date
and it was really intense to
actually talk to him about it.
And I thought I was able
to stop the situation
but like it wait went way
further than I wanted it to
and what was deep to me
is that - for him.
It was a turning point for him.
He had dated trans women
before me.
He had never experienced a
trans woman not wanting
to be sexual with him.
He never experienced a
cis woman not wanting
to be sexual with him.
He was a really attractive guy
when he was younger.
He had no idea.
and so I think that what I
hope would happen
for the man who go to see
this film is that I don't think
anyone really wants to be
in a situation where they've
crossed a boundary
and I think this film will
hopefully give men
a way to think about because
men are not demonized
in this film- I don’t think men
are demonized in this film.
Maybe you would disagree.
I think everyone is deeply
human and I don't think
anyone would consciously
want to cross-
Well, some people do want
to consciously cross lines,
obviously,
but a lot of people who
don't want to do that
I think there need to be
different conversations
around consent
and I still feel like in this
what I call a ‘post me-too’
moment We still haven't
had deep deep conversations
about what consent really
looks like and I think
that needs to happen.
Yeah. No, I love that Laverne
Thank you! I think that's one
of the biggest things is the
consent piece here-
that it it's wishy-washy
and when we look at it from
an outside view we look to
the film we’re like ‘of course
there's no consent there!’
So, I hope that other men
will be able to see that too.
So, thank you so much
for your time Laverne.
Glad to see you
and good luck with everything!
Wishing you the best.
So glad we could support
you and your work here,
and hopefully we'll have
some more interactions
in the future.
Yes. Thank you so much!