Alex Thomas-Smith is happy to have a conversation with people about What It Feels Like For A Girl, the BBC’s new coming-of-age drama. “But you have to have watched it first,” the actor stipulates.
The series, based on the soul-baring memoir of trans journalist Paris Lees, centres on Byron (Ellis Howard) growing up in Nottingham in the early noughties. In venturing into their first queer space, Byron begins a journey of self-discovery and self-destruction billed as being both “hilarious and heartbreaking.”
The reason why former West End star Alex has conditions about who they will talk about the show with is simple. “I don’t want people to say, ‘this show is one thing,’ who hasn’t watched it.
“I’m happy to have a conversation where you share your opinions. I share mine. Maybe we’ll both learn something right about each other, but we have to start at an even playing field.”
They say the show’s eight episodes offer “just a glimpse” of the lived experiences of trans people. But they believe this show, coming out when it is has the chance to educate people even a little.
“If one person watches our show that has never met a trans person and if they have a change of beliefs or opens their minds, then we’ll have achieved something special.”
Sitting down with PinkNews, Alex, known for stage roles in & Juliet and Dear Evan Hansen, describes the show as “a chaotic but truthful story of sisterhood, womanhood, and growing up queer”.
They make an interesting distinction that “it’s nothing like I’ve ever seen” regarding British TV. Asked how it relates to something like Pose Alex concedes it’s a good reference point. “Imagine Pose meets Skins” – a wild idea. “Who wouldn’t want to watch that?”
Alex plays Sticky Nikki, one of ‘The Fallen Divas,’ a “gang of kindred spirits,” that help Byron along their way. Alongside them are Lady Die (Laquarn Lewis), Dirty Damian (Adam Ali), and Sasha (Hannah Jones).
Alex likens ‘The Fallen Divas’ to another iconic quintet – The Spice Girls. “We’re all so different,” they explain. “You’ve got one who’s this, one who’s that, different colours and shapes. Hopefully everybody can be like, ‘that person is just like me,’ which is so important.”
That idea of relatability, more commonly discussed in media and entertainment circles as ‘representation’, is key. As efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion are undermined in places like the arts, diverse stories need to remain – not only for people to feel seen, but for the soul of society.
Alex and I broach this well-trodden topic by discussing the differences between stage and screen. Their move from one to the other being in part propelled due to a lack of queer roles and stories in theatre.
Alex argues that away from the “machines” of long-running shows like Les Misérables that require actors to assimilate to a predetermined role without any creative freedom there is very little in the way of inclusive storytelling.
“There’s just so much more scope for telling new stories [in TV and film] where I feel like in theatre, especially as queer, gender nonconforming, POC people, we haven’t got there yet,” Alex posits. “So, unless I want to suck it up and put on a [metaphorical] suit and tie, there’s not really the opportunities for me right now.”
Alex attributes this to audiences wanting something they’re familiar with as well as producers being reluctant to find their show at the centre of a ‘culture war’ backlash. Even when a show like & Juliet comes along, in which Alex portrayed the non-binary character, May, there’s the danger of homophobic abuse from the audience – as the cast experienced themselves. So, you can’t win.
While theatre “lags” behind, Alex recognises that TV and film appears to be stalling too when it comes to representation too. Last year, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy organisation, GLAAD, found that the number of LGBTQ+ characters across 256 films in 2023 had dropped from the year before. The number of trans and non-binary characters also fell, from 13 in 2022 to just two.
Alex, who identifies as trans femme non-binary, is wary of being “pigeonholed”. But one of the things they enjoyed most about Sticky Nikki was the undefined nature of their gender.
Sharing more of how that came to be, they say there was a conversation around whether Nikki’s gender should be mentioned explicitly. It isn’t.
“If people assume that she’s trans or non-binary, who cares? So what? That’s what I love to embody in myself, not specifically one or the other. I love to float between the spectrum of gender. So, when we had that conversation about Nikki, I was like ‘let them wonder because it’s no one’s business.’
“The sooner we stop having to know the specific details about everyone, the better. And I love being able to pull from my own experience and throw her out there for everyone to see. It’s fab!”
Alex sees this approach as the next step in the conversation on representation. “It’s literally my dream to play a role that isn’t specific to who I am as a person.
“I just want to play a role where my identity isn’t the selling point of why I’m playing this role. I don’t know if we’re there and I don’t know if we’re going to be there anytime soon, but…
“When people say what are your dream roles, I’m like, ‘I don’t have dreams. I have plans!’. I hope moving forward we can stop worrying so much about who people are and let them tell their story.”
What It Feels Like For A Girl will air on BBC Three and the iPlayer on 3 June.
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