Trace Lysette Is Fighting for Oscar Consideration—And Deserves It

This story originally appeared on Vanity Fair.

A few weeks ago, IFC officially kicked off the Oscar campaign for its critically acclaimed film Monica—a bigger deal than it might appear at first glance. This is a movie of firsts, beginning with its world premiere at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where it became the first competition title in the festival’s 79-year-history to ever feature a transgender lead. Following strong reviews and a rapturous standing ovation, Monica was acquired by IFC and released in theaters this past spring; its Hollywood journey now continues this fall with a modest awards push. The face of that push, star Trace Lysette, adds considerable weight to the endeavor, since no openly trans performer has ever been nominated for an Oscar.

Best known for recurring roles on Transparent and Pose, Lysette just wants a fair shake. She knows that, in this era of year-round, studio-driven campaigning, the deck can be stacked against a film like Monica, which took years to get made on a small budget and which doesn’t have a ton of resources to work with in terms of marketing. (Accordingly, the film received a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, allowing Lysette to do press as the actors strike continues.) As an executive producer on the project, she’s seen firsthand the tough spot that indies find themselves in right now, amid so much structural change. Monica is the kind of quiet, affecting human drama that the industry is losing more of by the year—but in its careful, specific portrait of a community so underserved by Hollywood for so long, it also demonstrates the form’s enduring vitality.

Monica (streaming on AMC+ and available for digital rental) was directed by the rigorous Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro, whose Hannah won Charlotte Rampling Venice’s best-actress prize in 2017. He gives Lysette the space for a similar showcase here, in the story of a trans woman who returns home for the first time since being kicked out as a teenager. She comes back because her mom, Eugenia (Patricia Clarkson), is declining from Alzheimer’s; she doesn’t recognize Monica as her child, but in the film’s tough exploration of familial love, still develops an unspoken connection with her. Pallaoro’s spare aesthetic and tight framing hinges the emotional impact on his actors’ performances, and Lysette commits with resounding vulnerability and nuance. Opposite the great Clarkson, she shines in the sort of part that’d never been offered to her before.

On this week’s episode of Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast (read or listen below), Lysette goes deep on the meaning of mounting an Oscar campaign for the film—and what the journey so far has felt like.