The Wachowski siblings have taken to an unusual new medium: Netflix. In Sense8, a Netflix Original science fiction series, the two are illustrating that the streaming giant has the ability to command serious Hollywood names from behind and in front of the camera. This drama isn’t just a victory for Netflix, though. It’s also a major breakthrough when it comes to diversity, representation, and exploration of identity in Hollywood, as it marks the first time a trans character has been played by a trans actress and been directed by a trans woman in a major television series.
Sense8 revolves around the lives of eight people who find themselves plunged into a mental link. They live in disparate places around the world, from San Francisco to Berlin to Mexico City, leading very different lives and identities. As they try to unite and resolve the mystery of their strange association, they’re also being targeted by forces afraid of what they might symbolize when it comes to evolution and the future of humanity.
The series contains the usual hallmarks of Wachowski productions, with a profound exploration of technofuturism, the fate of humans, and meticulous art direction. They’re assisted by fellow producer J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) as well as directors Tom Tykwer (Cloud Atlas) and James McTeigue (V for Vendetta). Notably, all three are famous for being involved in deliberate, thoughtful, complex, fundamentally elegant works that challenge viewers and force difficult conversations to the surface.
One strong characteristic of the show is an exploration of issues that are often left out of mainstream science fiction, including race, gender, and religion—issues that will be just as pressing in the future as they are now. With each episode focusing on the life of a different character and interactions with other Sensates, as they’re known, the series provides a superb opportunity to probe into lived experiences all over the globe, a critical development in a television landscape that’s often highly linear and uniform.
That makes it reminiscent of The Matrix, but also Orphan Black, a wildly popular technofuturistic programme that’s exploring cloning and its relationship with gender identity, reproductive rights, and fundamental questions about whether people can ‘own’ DNA. Both programmes push at the boundaries of technological innovations and their future for human evolution, with Sense8 joining a long and complex tradition that’s bringing social issues to the fore of storytelling, while still trying to focus on telling the stories rather than emphasising the use of diverse characters and settings.
That’s especially true in the case of the character of Nomi Marks (Jamie Clayton), a writer and activist living in San Francisco. In many ways, she embodies everything San Francisco, even as she struggles to adapt to her life as a Sensate, and critics are already saying that she repeatedly steals the show from her fellow characters. It’s a mark of her immersive, passion acting and a sign that she’s a talent to watch, but she’s also remarkable for another reason, as one of the few transgender actresses on screen at all, let alone one permitted to actually play a transgender character.
Clayton’s casting was no doubt a highly deliberate response to repeated discussions and debates about the use of cis actresses in trans roles, but it’s about more than that. For Lana Wachowski, it’s a personal matter, as she knows firsthand how cutting it is to see trans talent cut out of Hollywood—without the backing of her brother and her strong earlier career, it’s unclear whether she would have become as high profile as she is now, which is a troubling testimony to the contempt with which Hollywood views women.
The Wachowskis directed every episode of Sense8, illustrating their extremely hands-on approach to production, and that’s an especially important move when it comes to the groundbreaking move of a trans director handling a trans woman playing a trans character. Trans directors understand the trans experience much more authentically than their cis counterparts—even in the case of those who claim that they ‘know what it’s like’ because they have friends, family, or partners who are transgender. Lane Wachowski is familiar with Marks’ life firsthand, making her a particularly fine choice of director, and Clayton shares that awareness and lived experience.
This may explain why she’s been a runaway hit with reviewers, as she’s not just inhabiting a role, but also inhabiting her own experiences. Marks has an authentic, raw feeling to her that’s about more than just drawing upon research and acting; while transness is only part of her identity (and Clayton’s), it is a component of who she is, and it plays a role in her life and presentation. The deliberate decision to veer away from a transition-focused, speculative, gawking approach to a trans character is also no doubt due to Wachowski’s influence, but it’s an intelligent one: At long last, we may be seeing more nuanced and respectful depictions of transgender women in the media.
Should the series do well, it could be a landmark moment for trans women and Hollywood, proving that it’s possible to have transgender characters outside ‘issue television’ who are simply transgender, with stories that revolve around their lives, not their genders. Moreover, the fact that a trans actor will succeed in the role could send another signal to producers and the public: Yes, you can cast a trans person and the world won’t end—in fact, it could even improve the quality of a series substantially, and make it a bigger hit with viewers and the media.
Sense8 premieres on 5 June, and it’s likely to become a Netflix marathon staple. Along the way, let’s hope that viewers admire not just the innovative storytelling and striking inclusion of social justice themes, but also the rarity of trans representation from the bottom up. Sense8 should be forcing awkward conversations and raising questions about why producers, directors, screenwriters, casting directors, and more ever think it’s appropriate to cast cis actors in transgender roles—it shouldn’t take a Wachowski to force Hollywood’s hand on the issue.
I hadn’t heard of Sense8 till I read this article, and when I looked it up – bam!- I was hooked. I could not stop. The story line is intriguing and the characters so diverse – from SKorea, Kenya, Mexico, etc. And the fact that the characters come from different walks of life, rich, poor, kick-ass underground fighter, homosexual, transsexual, etc. It’s a very refreshing, deep, and explosive show that’s so inclusive of global and everyday issues.