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Trace Lysette on Her 'Monica' Moment and Leading Lady Status
Trace Lysette knows how powerful a good relationship with your mother can be. When she came out in the ’90s, most parents lacked the resources and information to know how to support a trans child.
“There wasn't much out there on transness back then except for these awful talk shows and whatever kind of representation we had back then,” Lysette says of her childhood. “And so you can imagine how that would inform the minds of our parents like, ‘what does that mean for their baby’ and ‘what kind of life is that for their baby?’”
Thankfully, now, she and her mother are in a great place and she says she “loves her more than anything in this universe.”
...It’s such a simple message, shown in quiet, beautiful ways. It exposes how shallow hatred and ignorance are. Once Eugenia no longer is beholden to the fear she had around the word “trans,” she can see her daughter, and connect with her in ways she never was able to before.
Monica mostly shows this connection in small, intimate moments: a glimpse of recognition while Monica helps Eugenia in the bath, the two cuddling after Monica has a difficult night out, Eugenia placing Monica’s hand on her shoulder in a family photo.
“There wasn't much out there on transness back then except for these awful talk shows and whatever kind of representation we had back then,” Lysette says of her childhood. “And so you can imagine how that would inform the minds of our parents like, ‘what does that mean for their baby’ and ‘what kind of life is that for their baby?’”
Thankfully, now, she and her mother are in a great place and she says she “loves her more than anything in this universe.”
...It’s such a simple message, shown in quiet, beautiful ways. It exposes how shallow hatred and ignorance are. Once Eugenia no longer is beholden to the fear she had around the word “trans,” she can see her daughter, and connect with her in ways she never was able to before.
Monica mostly shows this connection in small, intimate moments: a glimpse of recognition while Monica helps Eugenia in the bath, the two cuddling after Monica has a difficult night out, Eugenia placing Monica’s hand on her shoulder in a family photo.
https://www.advocate.com/film/trace-lysette-monica-leading-lady