DAY FOUR  November 6, 2005
Duncan Tucker's TRANSAMERICA Chronicles Unique Road Trip
by Brent Simon
Road trips are a staple of the American movie diet, and with good reason. As anyone who's ever driven across multiple state lines can attest, they offer up ample opportunity for soul-searching, bickering, bonding and just enjoying the abundant strangeness that this country has to offer. (Drive across the United States a few times, in fact, and you might start to believe that David Lynch is a documentarian.) It's safe to say, though, that there have been few road trip movies like TRANSAMERICA, writer/director Duncan Tucker's new film.
Starring Felicity Huffman, the film centers on Los Angeleno Bree, a transsexual one week away from the surgical procedure that will finally make "her" a woman. A bump in the road comes in the form of a sudden, unexpected phone call from New York; a young man (Kevin Zegers) jailed for turning tricks has named Bree as his father. When her therapist (Elizabeth Peña) threatens to withhold the signature approving her surgery, Bree grudgingly makes the trip across the country to try to start the process of healing and reconciliation.
On the eve of the film's special screening tonight, November 6, at 6:30 p.m. at ArcLight Theatre 10, Tucker took the time to speak about his research on transsexuality, his artistic influences and forebears and, believe it or not, Bree's similarities to Frodo.
AFI: What was the inspiration or seed of the idea for the movie? And, be honest now, did it all flow from the great title?
Tucker: The main character of TRANSAMERICA is a transsexual woman, but the movie is not about transsexuality. It's about growing up, about connecting, about family. It's about what it's like to feel different and alone, and about learning self-acceptance. I think of it as an epic journey--THE LORD OF THE RINGS of transsexual movies. Both Frodo and Bree have to go on a journey to get rid of something they don't want--a ring, a son. I was thinking about these themes, about a parent and child who both feel like outsiders, and a woman I'd known for a month or two told me she was trans. I had had no idea. Her stories were amazing--funny and heartbreaking. A light bulb flipped on in my head. Sorry, the title came later.
AFI: What, if any, further research did you do into transsexuality?
Tucker: I met a lot of trans women before settling down to write the script. It was difficult--the trans community is often very self-protective. These women and men have lost friends, family, jobs, and can be physically endangered. For example, I couldn't get an invitation to any trans support groups. The women I finally met were as often as not difficult to read, as once-upon-a-time men. After years of hormone therapy, not to mention electrolysis and possibly even facial reconstruction surgery, trans women often don't look like men in dresses. Fat is redistributed, muscle mass changes, bone density changes. Anyway, their stories informed my creation of Bree and Bree's story, though Bree is not based on any one person. I also read tons of books--from a biography of Christine Jorgenson to the autobiographies of Renee Richards, Tula and Jan Morris, to non-fiction treatises on transsexuality and transgendered lives.
AFI: How do you approach an actress and say, "Hey, I think you'd be great to play a pre-op transsexual?"
Tucker: In the screenplay I made it clear that Bree would be played by a woman--that she was awkward but not a figure of ridicule, that she deserved respect, was smart, had a sense of humor, was a survivor. Felicity read the screenplay and she was courageous enough to leap to the challenge. She approached Bree without vanity, and with a determination to hold tight to the emotional truth of the character. She did her preparation, and then she was like a daredevil on the set, closing her eyes and doing a triple backflip off a cliff, willing to take chances, to embrace surprise.
AFI: How would you describe Felicity's approach? Does she prefer much rehearsal or not?
Tucker: Felicity is a skilled, theatrically trained actor, and has a deep reservoir of technique at her disposal. She and I went over the script in great detail before we began shooting--analyzing every scene, why it was there, what it meant to the story, what Bree wanted, where she was emotionally in her journey. And we rehearsed for a week before shooting (with co-star Zegers), which was incredibly valuable.
AFI: What if anything--in your opinion and if you've seen it--does TRANSAMERICA share in common with BROKEN FLOWERS, another film in which a fractured protagonist sets out to (possibly) meet an estranged/abandoned son?
Tucker: I haven't seen BROKEN FLOWERS. I want to, but I've been so busy I haven't seen very many movies for over a year. Also, once I went into preproduction, I didn't want to look at other movies. I wanted to stay clear of influences. That said, my filmmaking hero is Jean Renoir, who brought a deep love of humanity to all his work, and who always kept his eye on characters and story first and foremost. His movies never felt like "issue movies," even if they had great social or political relevance. He said that everybody has his reasons--he tried to understand all his characters, and as the saying goes, understanding is forgiveness. He's my model--I tried to the best of my ability to make every character in TRANSAMERICA as real and alive as I could. Actually, somebody told me tonight that TRANSAMERICA reminded them a bit of a couple of Chuck Palahniuk books--but I've never read anything by him.
AFI: How do you feel about the film screening at AFI?
Tucker: Are you kidding? I'm thrilled. Or, as my dad would've said: It's better than a kick in the pants.
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