“I haven’t really wrapped my head around being a superhero, first of all, and being the first trans superhero on television,” Nicole Maines tells Variety in a new interview. The history-making transgender actress is joining the cast of the CW’s “Supergirl” for its upcoming fourth season. Maines doesn’t take the opportunity lightly. “It feels fitting to say with great power comes great responsibility,” she observes. “I’m very hopeful. I’m very excited. And at the same time I’m nervous because I want to do it right.”
Asked why it’s “taken so long” for the superhero inundated small screen to introduce a trans caped crusader, Maines responds, “We’ve had trans representation on television for a while, but it hasn’t been the right kind of representation. When I was first coming out to my parents in the late ’90s, we had trans people on television portrayed by cis men as sex workers and drug addicts — which painted a very specific image. Having trans women portrayed by cis men contributed to that idea that we are men in dresses, and that was damaging for a long time,” she emphasizes.
“Now it’s very relieving and hopeful to watch creators and writers and directors and casting offices opening up to put trans people in trans roles so we can portray ourselves and we can start to disprove some of those stereotypes about us,” the up-and-comer says. “I think we’re in a time right now where more than ever representation in the media matters. And what we see on television has a very dramatic effect on our society. I’m just beyond thrilled to be able to do that in a super suit!”
Strides are being made towards a more inclusive industry, but there’s room for improvement. Across the top 100 films of 2017, there was not a single trans character, and there were only 17 regular or recurring transgender characters on broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms during the 2017-18 TV season. Four of those characters were portrayed as nonbinary.
Maines will play Nia Nal, aka Dreamer, on “Supergirl.” Her special powers allow her to foresee the death of others. In the DC comics, the character is not specifically identified as transgender.
“More than anything, I want fans to take away an understanding of trans people that we can be anybody,” Maines emphasizes. “We can be whoever we want, we can do whatever we want, we can be superheroes, because in many ways we are. More importantly, I think as a trans character whose storyline is not necessarily revolving around her being trans, I really want viewers to take away that trans characters don’t have to be the trans character. They can be so much more.”
Maines appeared in the 2016 HBO doc “The Trans List” and is the subject of the 2015 New York Times bestseller “Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family.” She recently finished shooting “Bit,” a feature about a teen transgender girl who moves to LA and and falls in with a gang of intersectional feminist vampires.
