See Also: Felicity Huffman (Lynette Scavo) People Guide

Ahead of its wider release on December 23, Felicity Huffman's (Lynette Scavo) TransAmerica tomorrow makes a limited debut in US theatres, and Huffman has continued to the rounds to promote the movie.

"One thing the hormones do not change is your voice so you can look like Kate Moss ... but you sound like James Earl Jones," she told Zap2it.com. "I worked with transgender women on it, and they didn't know how to work on it backwards. Finally I found a woman in New York, and we approached the voice work from the inside out. What does her voice express? It expresses discomfort, it expresses loneliness, it expresses self-consciousness."

Huffman said that her family found it hard to deal with her deeper voice. Her husband, William H. Macy, didn't even want to speak to her when she was in character. "Finally after about three weeks, he was 'Okay, I can't hear the voice anymore. It's too weird. Call me when work is all done.' So I'd have to wait until the end of the day because I couldn't break the voice," she said. "When he finally came to Arizona with my kids, it was a shock. My children didn't recognize me."

She also spoke to ET, and said that it was very important for her to represent the transgender community properly. "What I was concerned with was telling the truth and getting it right, because it's a small community, it's a minority, and its usually very marginalized, if not looked down on. So I wanted to make sure that my representation was true; that's what I was concerned with, not so much how I looked."

The film has also started to receive its first post–film circuit reviews. Awarding it three our out of four stars, CJAD 800 said that while the aesthetic side was of Huffman's character was very well done, it is Huffman's portrayal that was the essential ingredient. "It's what Huffman does internally—the sadness and the subtlety beneath the awkward exterior—that makes her so enormously believable. It helps greatly that writer-director Duncan Tucker, in his impressive feature film debut, has created a character who's not a freak or a stereotype, just a lonely, alienated person trying to establish an identity and find a little happiness."

Ben Kenigsberg reviewing for village voice said the film wasn't too intent on driving home a message about transsexuals. "Much of the movie is driven by simple suspense about when she'll reveal her history to him. [...] The relationship scenes are supplemented with casual moralizing, as a parade of weirdness-signifying supporting characters—an American Indian who wears a cowboy hat, a 'level four' vegan, a conclave of other transsexuals—drives home the message that you are whomever you want to be." But Kenigsberg seemed to say the film could have been braver, including with the casting. "It's hard not to see the casting as somewhat craven. With real hips, real breasts, and soft facial features—and only a prosthetic penis—Huffman doesn't have to stretch much to play a he who's nearly transformed himself into a she." He added that the film seemed "not as self-satisfied as it could have been."

This is a list of upcoming release dates:

• 2 December 2005—Los Angeles, California, and New York City, New York.
• 23 December 2005—USA (limited)
• 27 January 2006—Denmark
• 2 March 2006—Netherlands
• 3 March 2006—Finland

Showtimes for the movie can be found at Moviefone. The movie's official website, which includes a trailer, can be found here. The full interviews with Huffman can be found at Zap2it.com and ET. The reviews can be read at CJAD 800 and village voice.

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