See Also: Felicity Huffman (Lynette Scavo) People Guide

Clearly demonstrating the amount of research and dedication she put into her role as a transsexual in TransAmerica, Felicity Huffman (Lynette Scavo) last week discussed at length how gender confusion affects people, and the pain of gender reassignment.

"I think it's an incredibly painful place to be in," she explained on Late Show with David Letterman," because they're given an untenable place of either being alienated from who they think they really are, or if they do the transformation they are alienated from society." Huffman said that having a sex change operation was something that had helped many people she spoke to. "As they say, gender starts in your brain. So if you don't sort of wrap your brain around it, it doesn't matter what the sexual reassignment surgery is. But yes, everyone I spoke to said it was a huge relief, and felt that they finally fit and they felt finally at peace with themselves."

Huffman added that it certainly wasn't a decision that anyone would take lightly, if only for the pain involved. "The amount of pain and energy these people go through. I mean, 350 hours of electrolysis," she said, referring to the process of a man to becoming a woman like her character in the film. "A tracheal shave [so] you don't have an adam's apple. The sexual reassignment surgery is lengthy and painful. I think it's your last option and one that you do when you absolutely have no other choice and that's really who you are."

She also explained that it was something most people knew from very early on in their life. "Most of the people I spoke to, and most of their biographies or autobiographies I read, they knew at a young age. They knew by the time they were five. Jan Morris, who wrote a wonderful autobiography Conundrum, said her mother was ironing one of her father's shirts [...] and said 'Look, one day you're going to wear this'. And he looked up and said 'I'm a girl, I'm never going to wear that, I'm going to wear a dress!' So it happens young."

Huffman said that the key to portraying a man becoming a woman, when she herself was a woman, was if it was "a foreign language" so that "nothing was familiar and easy". As well as her research, Huffman did also call on one other tool to help her in her role. "We were on our second day of shooting, and I had my various undergarments that I'd decided my character wore, but I realized that something was missing. And so I—," she stops as the audience laughs, "yes, that's what it was—, and so I went to like the Pleasure Chest, or some place like that, and asked 'Do you have this thing?' And a soft one. And he said he'd never been asked for a soft one before. So I got him, and named him Andy. I don't know why, except the costume supervisor went 'Oh my god, my last boyfriend was Andy and he was a real dick.' So it stuck."

TransAmerica is still on a limited release in North America, unlike films such as King Kong. This led to Huffman bantering with Letterman about the films, and Huffman revealing some surprising information. "Not many people know that about King Kong, but he was born a woman. He had some operations, and now he's a guy!

And regarding Desperate Housewives, Huffman had only one thing to say: "It's swell, I love my job!"

A trailer and showtimes for the award-winning TransAmerica can be found at the film's official website.

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