By Garry Maddox
Australian actor Zoe Terakes has described as dehumanising and heartbreaking Kuwait’s decision to ban the horror film Talk To Me solely because it features a trans actor in the cast rather than anything on screen.
“Representation is hope. Representation is a light at the end of the tunnel”: Zoe Terakes as Hayley in Talk to Me.Credit: Maslow
The Wentworth and Nine Perfect Strangers star, who identifies as non-binary and trans masculine, plays a student hosting a seance in an Australian film that has become a critical and commercial hit in the US and Australia.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kuwait and other Gulf states have regularly banned films featuring LGBTQ+ scenes or references, including Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Thor: Love and Thunder, Lightyear, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Eternals and West Side Story.
But this is believed to be the first time a film has been banned because of the gender identity of a cast member, which is not referenced in the movie.
“It is believed to be a new development and could represent the start of worrying trend going forward when it comes to LGBTQ talent,” the entertainment industry magazine reported.
Terakes wrote on Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, that it was “devastating and terrifying in its own right” that Kuwait banned films with queer or trans themes or scenes.
“But our film doesn’t have queer themes,” they wrote. “Our film doesn’t actually ever mention my transness or my queerness. I am a trans actor who happened to get the role.
“I’m not a theme. I’m a person. Kuwait has banned this film due to my identity alone.”
Terakes described the ban as a precedent that is “targeted and dehumanising and means to harm us”.
“As much as it is very sad to be on the receiving end of this, what is even more heartbreaking is what this precedent means for the queer and trans people of Kuwait.
“Representation is hope. Representation is a light at the end of the tunnel, a reason to keep going, something to hold on to in the dark, a voice that whispers things can be better than they are.”
Terakes, who will be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first transgender actor in the TV series Ironheart, wrote that eliminating trans actors on screens would eliminate a lot of hope.
“Our film doesn’t actually ever mention my transness or my queerness. I am a trans actor who happened to get the role”: Zoe Terakes.Credit: Nic Walker
“And hope is such a large part of how we live as marginalised people,” they said. “It’s how we learn to move through the hatred and the mistreatment and the violence.”
The Hollywood Reporter said Talk to Me, which is directed by popular YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou, had been released without cuts in all other Gulf territories.
Amid the Barbenheimer frenzy - the simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer - Talk To Me has taken an impressive $US22.1 million ($33.6 million) in its first nine days in the US.
Barbie has also run into obstacles in the Middle East, with Variety reporting that its release has been delayed until August 31 while Warner Bros responds to edits requested by censors about LGBTQ-related narration and dialogue, though there appears no controversy over trans actor Hari Nef playing one of the Barbies.
Email Garry Maddox at gmaddox@smh.com.au and follow him on Twitter at @gmaddox.
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