To all trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse and the threat of violence every day: I see you, I love you and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better. But Taylor is not drinking Red Bull. It is exactly the kind of conversation that I believe that they would it just rang so true for the characters, and I thought it beautifully handled a father who genuinely loves his child, genuinely wants to be there and to learn, and admitted within the scene that hes trying, you know? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); You have entered an incorrect email address! Asia Kate Dillon was born on November 15, 1984 in Ithaca, New York, USA. I have three shows that I keep on rotation and Im very careful about what kind of media I intake, and how much I intake at once. Thats a conversation about racism, and it feels weird, right? Before we get to our final two questions, I definitely wanted to make sure that we get to talking a little bit about your advocacy in the campaign to eliminate gendered award categories. I think that theres been a lot of conversations that specifically talk about transgender representation in Hollywood, and this is going to be everything else, not that. Its time to be brave. And if Taylor, if this fictional character can exist in this fictional world and has been brave enough to get up and get dressed and go out there into the world and be who they really are, then I can too. But then I went to an alternative high school where you played whatever part they thought you were the best for. I can't say I haven't looked in the mirror and said, ''Work, bitch.'. How did you navigate that when you were younger? But tell me a little bit about animations role or presence when it comes to gender presentation and things like that. In 2017, when Showtime asked me how I want to be submitted for an Emmy, actor or actress, I thought, Well, I know that I use the word actor and always have, because actor is a gender-neutral word that has existed for at least a century before the word actress came into being. Featured Image byAsia Kate Dillon / Instagram. And obviously that is meant as a form of comedy, but I believe even RuPaul was like, Bugs Bunny had an influence on my own understanding of my gender and my presentation and my interest in drag. The discrimination towards trans people is rife, insidious and cruel, resulting in horrific consequences. Asia Kate Dillon is a fierce actor with arresting eyes and a buzzcut, known for breakout roles including a Nazi skinhead inmate in Orange Is the New Black and, currently, a calculating. Asia Kate Dillon - Net Worth, Salary. To your knowledge, have people told you whether or not thats actually true to life of the real-life hedge fund world? And because it is not the focal point of Taylors storyline on the show, the things that I talk with Brian and David about are financial stuff, stuff that has to do with the financial world, or what Taylor knows or doesnt know about certain things with regard to the job. In this week's episode of Hollywood Remixed, The Hollywood Reporter 's podcast about inclusion and representation in entertainment, Billions ' Asia Kate Dillon joins the show to talk about. And so those are the opportunities that are available to them, so thats what they can go out for. Thats awesome. And its been awesome to see that so far, peripherally, they are integral characters to the storyline, the story isnt about their gender identity necessarily. Theres also the sci-fi of gender nonconforming, non-binary people arent human. I mean, obviously sci-fi is the place where you can explore, but when its the only place that you explore gender outside of cisgender identity, you literally dehumanize it. Not everyone identifies within the binary. Theres still not enough, so lets keep going. Dillons Billions character of Taylor identifies as nonbinary as well a point that caused Dillon to weep with joy upon first reading the script. Meanwhile, Steven and Rebecca has talked about this, theyve talked about this rather extensively Steven is a gender nonconforming boy whos a little softer around the edges. Im gonna wade into this. Sun: Absolutely. Our costume designer, Luca Mosca, had a vision: Lets go high-femme, lets go European, lets go structured. Oh, please do!No I mean I dont even know what to say. Cardigan by Maison Kitsun / Shirt and pants by Agns B / Beanie by American Apparel. Wayfair Huge Deal-A-Thon - Up to 60% off everything! Thousands of new, high-quality pictures are added every day. Its incredibly significant and the significance of it sits alongside something that is a bit difficult for me, which is the fact that according to GLAAD they have this poll about whether or not there have been any trans or non-binary people in a major Hollywood film because The Adjudicator, the character that I play, is never referred to as they/them, which are the pronouns The Adjudicator uses, thats what the script was changed to reflect that, it doesnt count as representation because nobody watching the movie knows that. Asia Kate Dillon is a fierce actor with arresting eyes and a buzzcut, known for breakout roles including a Nazi skinhead inmate in Orange Is the New Black and, currently, a calculating hedge-fund intern on Showtimes Billions. But tell me a little bit about the existence of non-binary representations of color. Did it mean male or female, did it mean man or woman, and if they were dividing people by sex or gender, respectfully, why were they doing that? Im very curious to see what, for example, Joey Solloway, who I think is probably the most prominent non-binary creator in Hollywood they made Transparent and were a very respected indie film director prior what they will do now that they have come out specifically as non-binary and how to advocate for more voices in that space. Im remembering one of the earliest interviews you gave, I think it was on the Ellen show where you delineated the difference between the physiology of our bodies and I think what you called gender identity being what is between the ears. Something that is more about I dont want to put words in your mouth but I think more about a consciousness, it seems, rather than a biological expression? Why are men not allowed to access this characteristic just because its coded as feminine? And its not about their gender identity. Click here for your trial subscription: https:. I wasnt watching TV at that time, but when I got the audition I was like oh, I have to binge watch the whole thing. And I think that holds true for the entire Billions world, which is, if whatevers going on with you doesnt in the way of you making money or you making someone else money, then its not really actually a big deal. And if every character I played from now until I die onscreen or on the stage was non-binary, that would be awesome. The first Black person to do anything is both going to be celebrated and also scorned, because they didnt do it the right way and it wasnt enough for everybody. Dillon: Yes, I would say when I was first cast as Taylor and I was talking to Brian and David about the character, they told me that Taylor was going to be a major player in the show, that Taylor was going to play a really important role. Their role on Billions is the first gender non-binary character shown on American television. I think that non-binary identity is still sort of fresh for much of the industry. Whatever hope Taylor gave to other people once Taylor appeared onscreen, Taylor gave me that hope and sense of self first., Dillon also discusses with host Rebecca Sun (THR senior editor of diversity and inclusion) their campaign to remove gendered acting categories from awards shows, a move that the Grammys, Gotham Awards, MTV Movie and TV Awards and Berlin and San Sebastian film festivals have already done. Like when you go to fast fashion stores and youre like, Im going to get this gender neutral piece of clothing, its not a skirt. Keanu Reeves had the idea for a character who wasnt going to take up physical arms in this movie, who had a different kind of power, a quiet power. And theres good progress. Sun: Thats a such a universal maxim. And Im certainly happy as a light-skinned white person to play an antihero onscreen, because we have so many examples of white people as heroes. Transition music: A short segment from the intro theme. It depends. You unleash a fury of vile and demeaning rage that lands on the shoulders of the trans community, a community in which 40% of trans adults report attempting suicide. Most of the time when we think about gender, we think about it as a binary. Oct 14, 2020. Your casual summer style inspiration is here. I could use a little help and understanding: Is that the same as or different from or similar to gender nonconforming or genderqueer or gender fluid? The Masons Doug and Taylor are somewhat estranged, but its primarily because of the clashing ambitions between these two incredibly brilliant people, but still there were moments throughout that arc where I feel like viewers got a little sense of what Taylors coming out was like for both father and child. And then I dont know exactly when it happened, but I think probably last year, I cant pinpoint it exactly, I really came to an understanding that the choice between actor and actress in the context of award shows where those words only mean man/woman, male/female gender or assigned sex, asking non-binary or intersex or gender nonconforming people to choose between those categories is a false choice. Anyway, I have this because you never know if theres going to be food somewhere. Please subscribe to Hollywood Remixed on the podcast platform of your choice so that you dont miss it. What is that line? They are on Hacks and they just received an Emmy nomination for the show and has come out as non-binary. Ceed_Lab. You have to go to sources who are familiar with the way that your child is going to navigate the world. I have always felt non-binary, before I had the language to conceive or communicate what that was to other people. Sun: Yes, thank you. He is a gay man of color, and one of the things that he said really stuck out to me, and that was that queer white people get to be queer, and queer people of color are people of color first, which means that society looks at our race before it looks at our sexuality. ", "Finally undergoing bottom surgery has allowed me to confidently flourish in my new body and dismantle any remaining gender dysphoria. Elliot Page, Laverne Cox, Josie Totah and more actors and influencers share important reflections and lessons from their experiences as transgender people. They providevery different things. Below, some highlights from our quick but deep conversation. And, as a semi-religious person who went to Catholic school, I have come to believe that God made me transgender. I have gender fluid friends who say that theyre gender fluid, but also because some people arent really familiar with that very specific term, theyll just choose non-binary. Some friends are like, Nope, its not the same. But its always safest to use it as an umbrella term, and then very specifically ask somebody, What is your gender? Which show has better food? But the very first person that Taylor had an impact on was actually yourself, which I think is kind of beautiful. Did you watch Billions before you were cast on the show?I didnt watch it before I was on it. The Masons and these are just mild spoilers , Dillon: The Masons! The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003-2023) Jane Fonda ( Grace and Frankie (2015)); Asia Kate Dillon ( Billions (2016)); guest DJ Stephen Boss. And that applies to representation on television and film. The clothes are almost all vintage Thierry Mugler. So yes, its going to happen soon. Thank you for doing all the research you did before coming into this. Thats a message of self-care, is what youre saying: Dont expose yourself to problematic portrayals. Art is so valuable that I think its misuse is really dangerous. March 31 is Trans Day of Visibility. We need to see roles written for them that are Emmy-, Tony- and Oscar-worthy. And I know that just from Instagram or reading something on Variety or Deadline or The Hollywood Reporter, thats the way that I learn about that. The thing that I really love about these representations is that they come at the non-binary identity from two different angles. Sun: Or even, since Billions, is there a change in the types of things that youre reading for? Everybody else around Pat was obsessed with Pats gender, which if you talk to trans people, non-binary people, thats kind of what the world is like now. The level of sensitivity with which those characters have been afforded, the level of humanity that they have been afforded, is not anywhere near what it is now. So thats GLAADs poll, and also people saw the movie and tweeted at me or messaged me and said, like, I cant believe theres a non-binary character in this movie. I mean, every press release that came out about the movie where I was talking about it, I was very upfront: This character is non-binary, it wasnt written that way, the studio and Chad Stahelski and Keanu, they loved it. And so it is both a means to identify how I feel, how I experience my gender, and also a way of illustrating that the sex and gender binaries are not real. Sun: Thanks again to Asia Kate Dillon and THR associate editor Abbey White for joining us on Hollywood Remixed today. These are characters that come with very, very specific personality traits, physical traits. The fact that they're the most sensational things for you, as a non-trans person, as a cis person, I think says a lot about how we've framed trans people as these objects of dissection, of modern-day freak shows in a way. Is that how you are?Yeah, I would say so, yeah. The truth is, despite feeling profoundly happy right now and knowing how much privilege I carry, I am also scared. Our Place's Beloved Always Pan Is Officially Ready to Get Baked, The Best Chef's Knives Are a Cut Above the Rest. I like schedules so that I can just figure out how Im going to bob and weave through it all. To see a trans body in this ideal spaceon a cover, in an adthese are spaces that have immense cultural power to dictate what is beautiful, what is glamorous, what is aspirational, what is sexy, what is clean. Sun: Yeah, in other words, I think that theres a detector for whats a bad faith versus a good faith question. the government, the planet, the race forces her to undergo a conversion therapy of sorts to go back to a they, which is really interesting. They are able to just walk into a room with everything that theyve got, and say, like, Can you handle it?. Adult animation has had gay, trans, non-binary characters. I love wearing wigs. Fast & Furious: Crossroads: Gameplay Trailer. And it is incredibly unfair and kind of limiting because it means that our stories are limited in and of themselves, but I do think that people of color are increasingly being represented. So it wasnt really a thing that had to get sorted right away. I feel like a lot of art these days is just entertainment for entertainments sake. So I dont know if youve you had heard of that. Dillon: Yeah, I think its essential. The nonbinary actor, who plays nonbinary characters in Billions and the new John Wick film, wants to expand the conversation around gender identity, onscreen and off. Sun: Im glad you mentioned that. I think that Taylors wardrobe is actually just very human and very neutral. With Star Trek, just so people know when you talked about the first official representation of a non-binary character, that is Star Trek: Discovery, and that was just this past third season, an actor named Blu Del Barrio, who I believe is non-binary themselves, plays a character who is explicitly identified as non-binary. Dillon: I was told my whole life that my body meant that I was a girl and a woman, so I really couldnt conceive of how to separate my experience of myself versus what I was told I was supposed to be because of what my body looked like. Asia finished the Meisner training program at The Actors Workshop of Ithaca and was the youngest student to enroll at the age of 16 while they were still in high school. Getting to wear drag is super fun. Sun: You are so gracious to lend your expertise to this topic. Asia Kate Dillon is back as Taylor Mason on Showtime's hit series "Billions" and the actor says the remainder of season 5 is going to be wild. Good Omens is a really great example. And those personal moments are important. And after having gone on this whole journey with his sister, he makes the conscious choice with his partner to not gender their baby. immyukily. Everyone has a gender identity, actually. I very much do think they are. Catch up on all the episodes of Hollywood Remixed, including last weeks conversation about Asian masculinity and the martial arts trope with Shang-Chi star Simu Liu, and subscribe to the show on the podcast platform of your choice to be alerted when new episodes drop. Its this adventurey place. When I encountered the character breakdown for Taylor, and it did say female non-binary something happened where everything aligned for me, says the actor, who plays the genius hedge fund executive Taylor Mason on the Showtime drama, whose fifth season resumed on Sept. 5. Taylor is able to feel the most free when there are very clear boundaries. Like, what if I had to be in a place where my gender didnt align with something that somebody could immediately clock? Everyone Is Just Scrambling: Hollywood on Edge as Writers Guild Talks Go Down to the Wire, Beef Creators Break Silence on David Choe Controversy, W. Kamau Bell Interviews Multiracial Kids in HBOs 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed Trailer (Exclusive), Warner Bros. Studios Celebrates 100th Anniversary With Diverse Shorts Re-Creating Warner Bros. Lets keep going. Were you comfortable with that? Weve long had queer villains, but were getting queer heroes, queer love interests, smart queer people and strong queer people. Abbey, thank you so much for joining us on this podcast today. Sun: Pat even got their own movie, didnt they? Billions and Orange Is The New Black actor Asia Kate Dillon has a neck tattoo that reads, in twirly script, einfhlung. Einfhlung, the German word for empathy, is something Dillon (surprise!) And it doesnt dictate what my gender identity is. Your character has had some nude scenes, including a sex scene opposite Mike Birbiglias venture philanthropist character last season. What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled? And I say, Well, Taylor wouldnt say policemen, they would say cop' or some gender neutral version of whatever the word is. We also have Xavin, who is an alien but is a non-binary alien in Marvels Runaways. (Laughs.) In my real life, Im a Black Lives Matter social justice activist, and so it was incredibly interesting to me to play somebody coming from the totally opposite side, whose beliefs are as deeply entrenched as deeply felt, and given as much gravity, as I give my beliefs. And Ive said this before there, there were a handful of times, particularly season two, season three, and there will occasionally still happen where theres some phraseology that comes out in a script or a certain word. The first question is the Hollywood Remixed, which is: Is there a depiction of a non-binary character in pop culture that you would order a do-over for, and how? And the teaching moment didnt hit anyone over the head with this is the righteous way to be because it rang true to the characters, and I think that is a credit to the extraordinary writing we have on the show. Dillon: I will play whatever part I am the right actor for. Sun: It unfortunately is. And the pussy hats not all pussies are pink, but that association is totally exclusive, and not just of nonbinary people, but of trans women and people of color. And it makes a lot of sense that Star Trek, based off of its founding principles that it has carried through its entire franchise over decades, would be progressive in conversations about gender. Sun: Precisely. Most casting breakdowns specify male and female roles. The John Wick movies have always been very representative of all different kinds of people, whether its ethnicity or sexual orientation, and so it just felt really right for the world to have gender diversity as well. And when it comes to non-binary identities, I think that also just holds true: White non-binary actors white characters, really, and thats really what this is. Its about changing and evolving the material that is created within quote-unquote Hollywood.. I know all of those characters, and I remember Pat very clearly. I dont necessarily like when the attempt is offensive, but to get something right, you also need to know what you got wrong. But its through the media. Its part of the set design because its true to the world. In this weeks episode of Hollywood Remixed, The Hollywood Reporters podcast about inclusion and representation in entertainment, Billions Asia Kate Dillon joins the show to talk about how non-binary representation changes lives starting with their own. I think a lot of the womens movement is perpetuating the synonymous use of woman and vagina, and not all women have vaginas, not all people with vaginas are women. (Laughs.). Maybe because it feels like not a safe space. Sun: Hes not toxic? Like, why am I a man? Its Pat. In person, Dillon also exhibits an extraordinary amount of empathy: In conversation they (more on that pronoun in a bit) graciously express empathy for Donald and Melania Trump, and they show it whenas we grab a quick lunch for this interviewthey are approached by a rather bold young gentleman (who could have walked straight off the Billions set) for an all-too-presumptuously familiar chat. My mom was an SNL hound. It is something that I must cultivate and it is something that I must consciously do or it will go away. Its basically about a boy and his talking dog who go into this Land of Ooo. The gender binary does not exist. Shes a funny character, but I remember immediately just latching on. To be clear, I am not trying to dampen a moment that is joyous and one that I celebrate, but I want to address the full picture. I feel lucky to be writing this. In John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum, currently in theaters, the actor plays The Adjudicator basically the head of international assassin HR enhancing the action franchise with a nonviolent, nonbinary, high-glamour authority figure. This is not a side character who just happens to be non-binary to check a box. And so if you want to avoid being the answer to a do-over question, expand your universe to have it be more inclusive and look more like what the world actually looks like. I really like a structure. To some people it feels a little dated, but I think that is really kind of the conversation that were having about the history of non-binary identity. And I think that that even what you shared is emblematic of the fact that theres an evolving understanding and hopefully, like you said, in the future when it becomes more normalized, then the non-assumption will be normalized because I noticed that oftentimes the burden is specifically on non-binary people to offer their pronouns. So thats what I did. I know it saved my life years ago.". Its so fun to play a character that doesnt use any machismo or bravado. And I feel like Hollywood treats babies like props anyway. So thanks for letting me (Laughs.). You know its interesting that people think that pants are masculine. Thank you again. And to have people listen and be sensitive to them. So thank you. In 2020 alone it has been reported that at least 40 transgender people have been murdered, the majority of which were Black and Latinx trans women. And so to me, actor historically is a non-gendered word and thats the word Ive always used, but I needed to pose the question to the Emmy board, what actor and actress meant to them. Are we at a place where we accept and welcome trans writers, non-binary writers? If youre pitching a show to an executive and an executive has a very rigid gender binary and doesnt really understand what youre saying, you could just be like, Well, theyre not human, so why would they have that binary? And that is an easier way to get that through and have that conversation. They can be in literally anything. All of it to me is a great example of how it could go. Asia Kate Dillon is one of the first non-binary gender stars on mainstream TV. But now because of Billions people are recognizing me for Orange more. They use multiple pronouns, they are referred to as boy and girl and all kinds of things. It isnt just about abolishing the categories. Sometimes you say it until you believe it. "I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I just had literally no example, but I also knew that she/her didnt feel right to me, but I also didnt know how to claim another set of pronouns if I wasnt changing my body, because I had a sense of what they call imposter syndrome. White: Its definitely interesting when you start to think about how aggressively gendered our culture is. Theres no question. We know that there is a reality in which trans, non-binary, intersex, gender nonconforming people are the targets of hate, bigotry, violence, discrimination, whether its job discrimination, housing discrimination, they have higher rates of bullying and suicide than any other marginalized group. And so we need all different kinds of stories. Asia Kate Dillon appeared on the silver screen alongside Keanu Reeves in "John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum." In an interview with Insider, the actor revealed how they advocated to bring a bit of their own identity to their role as the Adjudicator in "John Wick." Sun: No, I appreciate that. I say that with a lot of affection, theyre like sociopaths. Oh, this person is starring in this thing. And its a little remarkable given that the characters are otherwise all kinds of assholes. Their role on Billions is the first gender non-binary character shown on American television. And I would argue that live-action non-binary and trans characters have also done this. And we really havent really had much of that. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. And that to me is also historic and something Im really proud of. Will breakdowns look less binary? So its realistic to think that we might see this someday. Another one that I think about a lot and Ive been thinking about increasingly in the past couple of years is Adventure Time. Ill just say the queer community at large, but particularly and specifically trans, non-binary and gender nonconforming people. (Laughs.) Weve always been having conversations about gender. 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