Candis Cayne is a trailblazer for trans representation on TV, but in a Monday episode of E!’s True Hollywood Story, she recalled that opening those doors wasn’t always easy. In a special entitled “Trans Hollywood,” the 49-year-old performer said she had to school a CSI director about the way her trans character was being portrayed.
While acting in what she called her “first big role” as a murder victim on a 2007 episode of CSI, Cayne spoke about feeling compelled to confront the director about a certain aspect of the character she knew wasn’t realistic. The part was originally written for a drag performer, she explained, who would be killed in a men’s bathroom stall. But as a trans woman playing the part, Cayne knew her character would have never entered men’s restroom facilities.
“I went up to the director and I said to her, ‘Listen, I’m trans and no trans woman would go into the men’s bathroom,’” Cayne said in a clip published online prior to Monday night’s episode. “And so I said, ‘I can’t do something that a trans person wouldn’t do on camera.’”
The director listened. “They said, ‘OK, we’re going to put you in the female room, and we’re gonna drown you in the toilet,”’ Cayne said, laughing.
Cayne may have won the battle, but the war for better trans representation on TV has continued on for decades. There has long been a trend of trans characters being killed off of television shows in extremely high numbers: In 2012, a GLAAD study of trans characters from the past decade found that 40% were a victim of violence or homicide. The study specifically mentioned CSI, criticizing the CBS procedural for the way its lead characters often mocked the bodies of trans murder victims.
Even the role that put Cayne on the map ended in death: Her trailblazing Dirty Sexy Money character, Carmelita, was ultimately killed off. In the True Hollywood Story clip, Cayne reflected on her path to landing that history-making role, which made her the first trans woman to play a recurring character on a primetime network show.
“In the past, all the trans roles would go to cis women,” she said, “and so I thought since this is a primetime network that they probably won’t go for the trans actor, but I got a call back and then they said, ‘You got it.’”
