ACTOR REBECCA ROOT TALKS TRANS REPRESENTATION SINCE BOY MEETS GIRL, AND WHY THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR TRANS PEOPLE

WORDS CARRIE LYELL

PHOTO SAM IRONS

It was 2015 the last time I interviewed Rebecca Root. Back then, she was busy promoting Boy Meets Girl, an award-winning BBC Two sitcom which became something of a game-changer for trans representation on British telly. It was something of a game-changer for Rebecca’s career, too, and the last three years have seen her busy with Hollywood blockbusters including The Danish Girl and forthcoming ilms The Sisters Brothers and Colette.

“Boy Meets Girl was kind of a natural stepping stone to more work and more exposure,” the 49-year-old tells me when I call for a catch-up. “Since then, I’ve done more TV, more plays, more ilms. I haven’t had another starring role in a BBC Two sitcom, but you can’t have everything, can you?” she laughs.

It’s incredible to me how much has changed for trans representation since Boy Meets Girl. While far from perfect, most soaps now have a regular trans character, we’ve seen shows like ITV’s Butterly receive critical acclaim, and more and more trans actors are being given opportunities in both film and TV. What part does she think Boy Meets Girl played in laying the groundwork for the representation we’re seeing now? Rebecca is contemplative. “It’s never been repeated, it’s not been on the telly again. So on one level, it’s sort of been and gone… But what it did do was feed into a national – and international, to an extent – conversation about gender identity and trans representation. So although people now might not have heard of the show, many people did and they remember it with fondness. In terms of the openness with which trans people are accepted now, the show was part of that. That probably is the ‘legacy’, if you want to call it that.”