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Rose Morgan
The Sandman star talks Oscar wins, transsexuality and the meaning of femininity
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The first time I met Academy acclaimed actress Rose Morgan, following the release of her box-office smash debut in the subtle coming-of-age drama Fragile Things, she struck me as one of the most open young actors in Hollywood today. “I’m not ashamed of anything I am,” she told me, sipping her Coke. “Anyone who doesn’t like that can shove it.”
But it seems Morgan was less than entirely honest with the press, and perhaps with good reason. Since the out-of-the-blue confession as she accepted her first Oscar for her role in the recent adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, in which she played the personification of madness, Delirium, she’s received hate mail by the sackful, had crushing reviews by pro- and anti- LGBT movements and been insulted to her face live on Fox News. But she hasn’t let it stop her.
“I’ve said a thousand times over, I’m proud of who I am, so honestly I don’t give a crap if you judge me for it,” are the first words out of Morgan’s mouth as we sit down to coffee in LA’s Harlem Café. The twenty-year-old has good reason enough to be defensive after setting the media abuzz with her startling revelation at last week’s Academy Awards; accepting the award for Best Supporting Actress, the slight young Californian forwent the customary weepy thanks, instead stepping up to the podium to make a thoroughly unconventional acceptance speech.
“I’d like to thank the Academy and so on, yadda yadda,” Morgan begins in a speech that has become a viral hit across the blogosphere, “but for me that’s not the big deal here. Not that I’m supposedly the best actress, but that the world accepts me as an actress. Because when I was a kid, I never thought that would happen. I dreamt of being where I am today but it seemed impossible, because when you’re born with a dick and a Y chromosome, picking up an Oscar for being a great actress seems pretty farfetched. So yeah,” she continues over a hubbub of sudden noise from the audience, “I guess my big secret’s out. I was born a dude. Let the witchhunt commence!”
Let the witchhunt commence: Morgan finishes her infamous Oscar speech
with a defiant challenge to the media.
So, since she knew what a big splash this would make, what made her put her career on the line by coming out so spectacularly?
“My publicist almost fucking killed me!” she laughs when I bring it up (she’s never been shy about swearing to the press; be warned, this interview is peppered with F-bombs and is most certainly PG-13). “But I figured, you know, what the hell? It seemed like only a matter of time before it came out anyway, what with all those yearbooks from all boy’s schools giving my name as Simon Morgan. I’m honestly pretty shocked nobody cottoned on years ago! But at least by announcing it in my own time it’s my call, you know, it’s in my control. And I dunno, I guess part of me was hoping I’d make a real impact, yeah? When I came out as female, I was only sixteen and I felt, you know, like there wasn’t anyone I could look up to. And then I met all these other trans kids online and hey, they all felt the same. I just want kids like me to understand that just because they were born with a dick doesn’t mean they’re any less feminine, or that they can’t be beautiful, successful, famous, loved, amazing women.” She laughs into her coffee. “Well, at least I prove they can be famous women. Can’t do much to prove the rest.”
I point out the recent FHM polls which put her in the top 100 sexiest women on the planet. She literally spits coffee across the table; her blush seems very much at odds with her in-your-face public persona.
“Fuck off!” she splutters. “They did not! You’ve got to be shitting me. Ok, so FHM readers have no taste, but you get my point.” Talking to Morgan, you get a lot of these self-deprecating outbursts. “I wanted to show that being trans isn’t something to be ashamed of. It’s part of who I am and it made me the girl I am today. I’m no less of a woman because of it, despite what a lot of people seem to think. And yeah, it’s upsetting getting an inbox full of hatemail and getting spat at by the media, no offence, but fuck that. I didn’t choose an easy path but I think it’s the right one.”
She seems genuinely upset for the first time at the idea that she misled her fans, though. “The only thing that’s really hurt my feelings is when people say that I lied to them about being a woman, because I’m like, uh, no.” She puts down her coffee to gesticulate. “Because this isn’t the lie, you know, it would be a lie if I put on men’s clothes and pretended to be a guy just because I was born in that body, because that’s not who I am. I’ve always been a woman, even before I looked like one and dressed like one, and people can fuck off saying otherwise.”
With her short hair and slight, elfin figure, Morgan has always been something of an androgynous figure in any case, but she rejects the idea that she has been seeking a middle ground.
“I’ve had a lot of people ask that, actually, and it’s another fuck off question, you know? I think it’s just fucking sexist, actually. Forget the fact that I’m trans for a moment and think about it, because what you’re actually saying is that to be a proper woman you have to be a fucking Barbie doll. That’s not me.” She gestures at the clothes she’s donned for our photo shoot later, a short red Vivienne Westwood dress and chunky black New Rock boots. “This is me. I’m small and tough and yeah, I don’t like frills and pink things, I can’t walk in high heels, and the only boob job I’ve had got me all the way to a B cup, but last time I checked you didn’t have to be a clone of Katie Price to be a ‘real woman’.” She makes the quotation marks around ‘real woman’ very clear, rabbit ear fingers and all. “I am who I am, and to those who think that’s some kind of middle ground between male and female, I’m just gonna say take a really long, hard look at your idea of what makes a woman, because I think you’re missing something.”
Unfortunately for her, it seems as though many people are struggling to take the defiant young actress at her word. LGBT support group Link has publicly condemned Morgan for what they see as a publicity stunt in the name of a serious issue, while on the flipside of the coin, many far-right and Christian fundamentalist groups have named her, among other things, a liar, a pervert and a freak.
“They can fuck off,” is Morgan’s spectacularly blunt response. “If there’s a God out there, he made me this way. And if he hates me for what I am, then he’s the one who fucked up, isn’t he?” Of Link’s controversial statement, she adds, “There’s no conceivable way you can call this a stunt. I’ve probably royally fucked up my career, apart from anything else. I have great respect for the group, you know, I admire anyone supporting the LGBTQ community, but I don’t want to live in a world where coming out in the public eye gets you shot down from both sides. Fuck that.”
I have to wonder, though, whether she really does feel she’s sounded the death knell for her career so soon. She shrugs.
“I dunno,” she admits. “I haven’t heard any cancellations or anything from the Cold Waters guys [Lost In Cold Waters, the tongue-in-cheek zombie flick Morgan will be playing the lead role in, slated for release in January 2017] but if that falls through, there’ll be other movies, and if there aren’t then fuck it. I only ever meant to act on the stage anyway, getting into film was kind of an accident.” She laughs, hiding her face behind her cold coffee. “But hell, if even that doesn’t work out, I might just have to get a real job! The horror!”
She’s laughing, but her PR department must be working overtime in the face of this media frenzy to keep her from that particular disaster. Still, looking at the defiantly tough young lady sitting across from me, I can’t help but feel wherever her life takes her, she’ll make the most of it. Whether you think she’s a cold manipulator of the mass media, a man dressed as a woman, or just a hugely vulnerable young actress, there’s no denying that she’s got balls. Metaphorically speaking.