Calpernia Addams is in some ways the
woman that so many transwomen aspire to be because she’s beautiful, talented, outspoken and smart. But her story is also the story of a Soldier’s Girl and came with more than its share of pain. She and Andrea James now run Deep Stealth Productions together, which produces and consults on a variety of video projects related to gender. At her website, Calpernia.com, you can find community forums, her diary about her Hollywood doings, and of course more info about who she is, what she’s up to, and how she became the woman she is today.
1) When you spoke last year at SCC, you mentioned that you’d be keeping an eye on representations of trans people by Hollywood. What did you mean by that, and what are you doing?
As a relatively out transwoman, I have been fortunate to make several friends and acquaintances in Hollywood who hold key positions in the business of television and film. I also regularly attend premieres and showcases for new media, where I’m often specifically sought out for opinions and input. I never want to be seen as an overbearing nag, but I always let the industry leaders in these situations know that I am watching their portrayals of trans people closely, and that I am available for anything from conversation to consultation to referrals if they are interested in learning more about the realities of our world. While there are many factors that go into shaping a piece of entertainment media, I do try to be present, available and vocal when I see something that uses an aspect of our community in it’s storytelling. Some of the results of the work Andrea James and I have done can be seen in the upcoming Felicity Huffman film “Transamerica,†for which we provided in-person and script consultation. I also appear as a Texas fiddle player in the film, and Andrea can be seen in a clip from our popular “Finding Your Female Voice†instructional video. The upcoming LOGO network documentary “Beautiful Daughters†will showcase our 2004 sold-out all-trans-cast production of “The Vagina Monologues†with playwright Eve Ensler and mentor Jane Fonda, which was the first event of it’s kind. We have also consulted on television shows such as CSI and many documentaries in the last two years.
2) Why did you & Andrea James call your company “Deep Stealth” when – as far as I can tell – that’s exactly the opposite of what both of you are?
“Deep stealth†is a slang term used in our community to describe those of us who live without question in their chosen gender. In many societies and subcultures, the decision to live deep stealth is a matter of survival. Living deep stealth often means leaving everything behind and starting over. We chose “Deep Stealth†as the name of our company for several reasons. Primarily, it was because it just sounded cool! But also, we work with a philosophy that offers resources for transwomen to blend into society as painlessly as possible so that they can enjoy all that life has to offer. While we don’t encourage a kind of stealth that can leave women feeling trapped in a web of fabricated identities, we do want to provide the tools that can help women live without the obligation of announcing their history to strangers before they are ready. Andrea and I are anything but “stealth†in a public sense, so the name is also a humorous wink to a term by which we are not bound, but instead have reclaimed as just another tool in our box of life skills.
3) There are transwomen who are offended by the idea that they should be lumped in with crossdressers, genderqueers, and all the rest who fall under the TG umbrella; some even who don’t want to be called transgender for that reason. Could you comment on that?
Speaking on a strictly personal level, as Calpernia and not as my company, I do feel that there is occasionally value in distinguishing between some of the more esoteric nuances of terminology in the transgender community. Not discriminating, mind you, but distinguishing. As a writer and literary person, I like to go back to the roots of words when looking at their meaning, and the Greek and Latin roots of words like “trans-gender†give us a nice, simple definition that works well for me. “Transgender†means “crossing gender†by those root definitions. Since “gender†is really just a definition made up by society that describes ways of dressing and acting for the various sexes, it becomes easy to fudge this word to mean lots of different things, but in it’s most literal sense it could be applied to anyone who presents themselves outside the basic gender guidelines of their society. Thus a woman with short hair or a man with long hair could be considered “transgender†in this most literal sense. Most people seem to find it more useful when applied in more dramatic cases, such as when someone “cross dresses†in clothing traditionally of the opposite gender or alters their body in such a way as to present as the opposite gender to which they were assigned at birth. Since the word “transgender†is so general, it is a simple, polite way to address many different people with different things going on in their lives. “Transsexual†more specifically addresses “crossing sexual†boundaries, with biological implications coming from the word “sexâ€. To me, this more accurately describes the medical/physical element of transformation that women like myself undergo with hormones and surgery. I express my gender with clothing, voice and presentation. I express my sex with hormones and surgery. SO, in a perfect world I think that people should be able to do as they wish when it comes to personal expression as long as it isn’t hurting anyone. If a hetero male wishes to come to work with feminine clothing or makeup, I say more power to him. But I do think there is a difference between getting a charge out of playing with the conventions of gender expression and pursuing what you believe to be your physical sex destiny through actual transition. So when it comes to certain legal and political issues, I do not believe it is in the best interests of everyone to view cross dressing for sexual play and medical gender transition as a monolithic singular community. Outside of those issues, we’re all human beings and I would love to see everyone helping each other out as friends and family.
4) Acting is a pretty tough business: how did you make the decision to act post-transition? How has it gone?
I’ve always been on stage in some form or other, from playing fiddle and acting in church productions as a child, to high school drama, to starting a theater company in the Navy when I was stationed in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Of course, after all that a seven year career as a professional showgirl and pageant winner followed. I am a dramatic person, so acting was never a question for me. Transition has simply been a stop along the way of a work already in progress. Hollywood is tough because viewing audiences, the people like you and me who turn on the television and buy movie tickets, are tough. If the person on screen isn’t attractive, entertaining and exciting in some way or other, Joe and Janet Middle America will turn the channel or not buy the movie ticket. It’s an art, but it’s also a business and the sooner actresses realize that the sooner they will learn to not take rejection personally. I can only be the best person I can be, and do my best. If people are entertained by that, then I will get work and have success. If I don’t feel like I’m getting what I need out of TV and film work, I will return to theater or do something else totally different. But working or not, I am always an actress.
5) What are you currently working on?
Right now Andrea and I are putting together the resources to do some additional shooting on our short film, “Casting Pearls,†a comedy about a series of auditions a trans actress endures which showcases all the horrible things we’ve heard people say to transwomen in this business. We are working on three new instructional videos, and are constantly updating and adding to our seven websites with over 5000 pages of free content that receive almost three million visitors a year. With our two other films mentioned above coming out this year, we are very very busy right now, and that’s just where I want to be.