Felicity Huffman
Bree Osbourne, Transamerica
Age: 43
Birthplace: Bedford, New York
Essential filmography: The Spanish Prisoner (1997), Magnolia (1999), Raising Helen (2004)

PREMIERE: Who are your acting idols?
They keep changing. I love Dianne Wiest, Cate Blanchett. God, I think Cate Blanchett hung the moon. I love William H. Macy. [laughs]

Describe your character in this movie.
She is a transgendered woman who is very . . . she is kind of like your old biddy aunt. She thinks the greatest thing she can do is become a woman, and she realizes, through the course of the movie, that the greatest thing she can do is become a parent.

What was the toughest scene to play?
[When] I was on the side of the road, and Andy, as I called my friend who lived in my girdle [that is, her prosthetic penis], made his appearance. I’d been living in Bree’s skin so long that I didn’t want to show what she didn’t want to show. It felt like a betrayal of her—a betrayal of myself. I felt exposed and vulnerable and ashamed. I think it’s actually a really powerful scene, because it’s a moment that takes you out of the movie, and yet into the movie. You’re so shocked that it pulls you out. And yet it pulls you into Bree’s experience.

Any discoveries in this role?
I know it sounds trite, and I don’t mean to sound like a Hallmark card—I want to sound like a Shoebox card, ’cause those are actually pithy—but I guess what I discovered is those things that we think divide us are far less than those things that unite us.

If you weren’t acting, you would be . . . ?
I don’t know. I have no idea. I went to a progressive alternative school. Consequently, I cannot spell and I can’t do math or science. I’m really not fit for anything else.

Do you have any acting advice?
No, but if you hear anything good, will you pass it on to me? ’Cause I need it.