See Also: Felicity Huffman (Lynette Scavo) People Guide

Transamerica has a reputation for being a movie about a transsexual, and that is understandable as its lead character is a man who has decided to become a woman—a topic not often tackled in movies. But in recent interviews to promote the movie, Felicity Huffman warned against pigeon-holing the movie, and said it is a road trip movie that doesn't lecture its viewers.

"I have to say that [before I took the role] the overall thing that I knew was that it's an independent movie and it's about a transgendered woman," she told azcentral.com. "But when I read the script, I felt like it's an adorable story and I found Bree [Huffman's character] to be adorable. It's an easy watch. You think you're going to go in and say, 'It's an independent movie about transgender. It's going to be violent and deal with the darkness of her journey.' Actually, it's this light, funny road movie."

For Huffman, that was what made the role particularly appealing to her. "I loved that it wasn't an issue movie. I loved that it wasn't, 'I'm going to get a lesson about being transgendered.' It's not. It's a story of family and becoming a parent. [Bree] felt that the biggest thing for her was becoming a woman and the biggest thing was that she was becoming a parent. One of the things that stood out was her sense of humor. She throws out these little French phrases that her son doesn't know. I loved that about her. Her sense of humor got to me."

Huffman also spoke to NY News Day about the film, and described the complexity of the role. "I know it gets a little convoluted," Huffman said. "It's kind of a pastry wrapped up in itself, because I'm a woman playing a man playing a woman. But Bree's not pretending to be anyone. She's a transgendered woman, which means she was born with the wrong genitalia. She's becoming a woman physically, and feels like she's a woman inside and has been her whole life. Like she tells her mother. 'You know, you never had a son.'"

Huffman said she had to do a lot of research to be able to portray Bree accurately. "I did a lot, because it wasn't a community that I was familiar with at all," she told azcentral.com. "When I got the script, the first thing I had to do was research, because I didn't have the equipment to climb this mountain—no pun intended. I went online, I went to the library, and I read any biographies I could find on transgendered women. I watched any documentary I could find. I worked with several transgendered women and getting their stories, from 'When was the first time you felt you were a woman?' to 'When was the first time you went out and began dressing as a woman?'. Things like that I worked on."

She also attended some transgender conventions. "One of the conventions was at a hotel, where people would drive up in cabs or their car, and then they walk from their car to the hotel," she told NY News Day. "And I was standing with this woman who sort of escorted me around and we watched as this woman walked in and my escort said, 'You see that walk? That 40-foot walk she just did? It's excruciating.' Because she's out in the world and she's not comfortable until she gets in the room where people accept her. I thought, 'That's how Bree walks through her day.'"

Now the film is set for a limited US theatre release on 23 December 2005, Huffman urged people to give the film a chance. "We just have to get people into the theaters," she said to azcentral.com. "Just keep them in their seats for five minutes and they'll realize that this is a funny and heartwarming movie. It's about relationships and not just about the transgender issue."

The full interviews with Huffman can be found at azcentral.com and NY News Day.

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