Appearing in the must-see documentary
Disclosure, a clever and concise history of transgender and non-binary representation in the media, actress-writer Jen Richards made quite an impression on the creators of
Clarice, the new
Silence of the Lambs spinoff on CBS. Brilliantly deconstructing Hollywood’s pervasive trans killer narratives, Richards discussed the impact in her own life of one particular negative portrayal in
Silence: the character of serial killer Buffalo Bill.
“There was a moment many years ago,” recalls Richards, “when I wasn’t out yet as trans and, at my workplace, I started kind of feeling my colleagues out to try and figure out if I could safely transition and not lose my job. I mentioned it to one of my coworkers that I was thinking of transitioning, and she looked at me kind of quizzically and said, ‘You mean like Buffalo Bill?’ It was her only touchstone for what a trans person was, and that was horrifying to me in the moment. In my head, I
CBS Tackles Transphobia In New Episodes Of Clarice forbes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forbes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Tonight on CBS Clarice returns with an all-new Thursday, May 13, 2021 episode and we have your Clarice recap below. In tonight's Clarice season 1 episode 9
Thirty years ago,
The Silence of the Lambs was released, creating a sensation for several reasons. The following year, it swept the five major categories at the 1992 Academy Awards while queer activists protested in droves outside the venue over its depiction of its serial killer Buffalo Bill/Jame Gumb. Now the CBS series
Clarice has introduced a storyline featuring trans actress Jen Richards (also a consultant on the show) to counter and reframe the dangerous narrative that painted Buffalo Bill as “transsexual,” although “not a real transsexual,” Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal Lecter tells Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling in the film.
There’s a lot of narrative balls in the air in “Silence Is Purgatory,” the ninth episode of
Clarice, but there’s one that stands out above the others, largely because it’s the first time the subject has been broached. Julia Lawson (Jen Richards), a senior accountant at Lockyear, comes to Clarice with some files that can potentially help the case (NDAs prevent her from saying anything aloud), and while there, she confronts Clarice Starling about the fallout from the Buffalo Bill case specifically, how his being labeled as “transsexual” did immeasurable harm to members of the trans community like herself, and how Clarice never publicly spoke out against the conflation of serial killing and gender identity. This isn’t the first time the series has attempted to address real-world issues with mixed results. “You Can’t Rule Me,” the fourth episode, attempted to dive into the institutional racism and sexism at the FBI (an issue that pops up again here, with Ardelia