Pinay transgender Ivory Aquino called ‘Hollywood’s next big thing’

A few weeks ago, one of America’s top networks, ABC, aired a compelling mini-series about the struggles of LGBT civil rights movement in the US featuring Filipino transgender Ivory Aquino (featured in Funfare several issues ago), reportedly a niece of former Pres. Cory Aquino.

ABC News dubbed her the show’s “breakout star” while The Hollywood Reporter described her as “Hollywood’s next big thing.”

The Manila-born Ivory is in the stellar lead cast of ABC’s mini-series When We Rise, the eight-hour drama which chronicles 45 years of the LGBT movement which was written and created by Oscar-winning filmmaker Dustin Lance Black whose 2008 radical biopic Milk won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Black and Best Actor for Sean Penn.

As Funfare reported, Ivory, 26, played HIV/AIDS and transgender activist Cecilia Chung, one of the five real-life LGBT pioneers depicted in the drama. The other four central characters were played by Mary-Louie Parker, Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths and Michael K. Williams. The supporting cast included Phylicia Rashad, David Hyde Pierce, Rob Reiner, T.R. Knight, Rosie O’Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg.

For the role of Chinese-American transgender woman Chung, Black told Buzzfeed he specifically asked the casting directors to find him a real trans actor. And they recommended Ivory to play Chung, and sent her tape along to Black, who still had no idea Ivory was trans even after seeing the tape.

“I got a little angry with them,” Black confessed. “I said, ‘I want to cast trans — go work harder, go find a trans actress.’ They said, ‘Ivory’s going to be calling you.’ She came out to me on the phone as trans.”

According to Buzzfeed, casting trans performers in trans roles has been a challenging task for Hollywood, from The Danish Girl to Transparent to Dallas Buyers Club. But not in the case of When We Rise, thanks to Ivory.

She’s simply thrilled that her performance got rave reviews from critics who called her acting “great” and “thoughtful,” among other things. One critic wrote, “And Cecilia Chung must repeatedly explain that she’s a woman to people who just don’t get it. Newcomer Ivory Aquino shines in this role.” (Chung is the first transgender and Asian woman to head the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Celebration. She is still active as an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness and at the Transgender Law Center.)

“This is my first trans role because I have played cisgender roles on stage,” Ivory told IndieWire during the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in January. “I have been in New York doing theater, doing Shakespeare. I got to play Juliet two seasons ago in Bryant Park, and no one knew I was trans. And it didn’t matter to the audience because they were so invested in the story. After playing Juliet, for me, I was telling a cast mate, ‘I could go to heaven now’.”

Ivory has impressive stage credentials, which she hopes would help her bag more TV and even film assignments.

Apart from playing Juliet and Isabella in Bryant Park Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Measure for Measure, respectively, she performed with the Drilling CompaNY in Othello as Desdemona, Julius Caesar as Marc Antony and Henry V as Katherine; and in the world premieres of Over the Line and On the Possibilities of Endings. With Leviathan Lab’s Quartet Project, she played Rosalind in As You Like It; and as a company member of the Bats at the Flea Theater, she appeared in Offending the Audience and Waiter, Waiter. Other Off-Broadway credits include 365 Days/365 Plays with Ma-Yi Theatre Company at the Public Theater and Ms. Oriental at Lincoln Center.

Lauding Ivory’s versatility in Julius Caesar and Othello, respectively, The New York Times called her portrayal of Marc Antony “so moving” and proclaimed, “Ivory Aquino’s Desdemona exudes affection;” while NYtheatre.com noted that in Julius Caesar, “she balances the irony, genuine feeling, and cold political maneuvering perfectly.” A feature in Backstage Magazine described Ivory further: “…awed by her physical and vocal presence…She had no limitations. She was a powerhouse,” and of her performances in Bryant Park: “Ivory Aquino captures your heart.”

“You spend your whole life dreaming of these things,” Ivory told Pink News. “And it’s really humbling when your dreams come true.” — With a report from Edmund Silvestre

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)