Story | eliteGen Team Photography | Taylor James, Courtsey of Cassandra James
Cassandra James has never shied away from speaking her truth.
The Vancouver-raised actor, who has played Dr. Terry Randolph on the popular American daytime soap opera General Hospital for several years, is a trans woman. And her commitment to amplifying trans voices extends beyond the TV screen. She is passionate politically about the trans community and is outspoken about visibility and diversity in the entertainment community.
So James isn’t afraid to call out and combat transphobia. In fact, she took to social media last year to respond to an offensive transphobic tweet that had been shared by General Hospital costar Ingo Rademacher (Jax) on Instagram Stories.
“I am aware of a transphobic post shared by a fellow GH actor,” she responded, “Shame on you. You have some serious
unlearning and education to do. I feel deeply disappointed that such a public display of ignorance could come from our GH family.”
“Misgendering trans folks is violence and if you come for one of us, you come for all of us. The cis (gender) world doesn’t get to decide which of us is valuable. I am so proud of the fans for always holding us to a high standard, for calling out transphobia and violence.”
The fallout from Rademacher’s comments was swift. He immediately came under fire from fans and offered up an apology for his post, which he took down. Many of the show’s other cast members came out on social media to support James and the entire transgender community. He is no longer on the show.
In an interview with eliteGen that took place a week before the Lunar New Year, James explains: “I feel like it’s my responsibility to speak my truth and be as fearless as I can when it comes to speaking out against transphobia, misogyny, and racism. Every artist gets to calibrate their own relationship to their activism, but for me, I feel like the ability to be out and in public life as an actor is a great privilege and my devotion to representing the intersections of my identity with grace, vulnerability and fearlessness is in direct response to that great honour.”
Her fearlessness in speaking out and giving voice to those who aren’t often heard from has led to her breaking even more boundaries in her role as Olympia on the ground-breaking CBC original series Sort Of, that premiered across the globe last fall and is still available to stream on CBC Gem.
A tribute to anyone going through a transitionary period in their life, Sort Of is a big-hearted series that follows Sabi (played by co-creator and star Bilal Baig), a 20-something, gender-fluid South Asian character who straddles various identities—from bartender at an LGBTQ bookstore/bar to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family, to the de facto parent of a downtown hipster family.
Sabi feels like they’re all in transition, in every aspect of their lives—from gender, to love, to sexuality, to family, to career. When Sabi’s best friend 7ven presents them with an opportunity to live and find themselves in the “queerest place in the galaxy”, Berlin, Sabi instead makes the decision to stay and care for the kids after their mom has a serious bike accident.
For James, the show’s title perfectly encapsulates the idea of giving ourselves “permission to live in the in-between, the unknowing.” She recounts how “in my own healing and spiritual practice I use the word ‘both’ a lot. Sort Of feels similar to me in this way. We are never finished, the answers are never black and white. We contain multitudes, both masculine and feminine, we experience both joy and sorrow. Sort Of feels like Sabi’s natural response to these ideas, the uncertainty of youth, of someone just beginning who is comfortable not having all the answers.”
James plays Olympia, a proud trans woman who becomes a mentor to Sabi in the show Sort of.
The series unapologetically pushes against the walls of underrepresentation on TV to create space for queer people of South Asian, Muslim backgrounds and of colour across Canada and beyond. It also proudly boasts a racially, culturally, trans and gender diverse team—in front of and behind the camera.
It was essential for the show and its creative team that trans and non-binary actors be cast in the trans and non-binary roles, and that the casting also prioritize having LGBTQ+ actors play roles that were not specifically scripted as such, to create a world within the show that did not draw a stark dividing line between cis, straight and LGTBQ+ characters.
For James, playing the character Olympia was impactful for her: “It’s so meaningful to me to play a trans woman who’s thriving, who is charismatic and free. And to connect with all the other queer characters that make up the world of Sort Of is so impactful. We’re often the only trans person in the room and to not only work with other queer artists but to portray a group of people who love each other was gender euphoric for me as an artist. I hope that translates to the audience.”
Olympia is a character that the show’s protagonist meets later in the series, but who deeply affects their sense of being. Much like James’ own life journey, Olympia is a proud trans woman and becomes a mentor to Sabi.
James plays Olympia, a proud trans woman who becomes a mentor to Sabi in the show Sort of.
“Queer mentorship isn’t as prevalent as I wish it were. We’ve lost so much light in our communities, and I owe so much of my own success and light as a trans person to the incredible souls I’ve met along the way, the sisters and mentors that showed me a life I never dreamed possible. I know Olympia and the other queer characters in Sort Of will be that for queer audiences and for the world at large. You don’t have to be queer to understand ‘becoming’. As Olympia says, ‘we are all in transition’.”
When asked about her initial reaction to reading the role of Olympia, James recounts: “I was introduced to Olympia before I was really introduced to Sort Of as a whole. Olympia immediately felt familiar to me. The original sides had a lot more of Olympia’s backstory and I connected with her heart right away. Something about a woman who uses her sense of self, freedom and sensuality as a protection from the harsh realities of the world was moving to me, a woman whose sense of joy and wisdom had come at a great cost. And her openness towards Sabi, her eagerness to share her light with others, that appealed to me and made Olympia very attractive as a character. When I got the scripts for the first season I was delighted. The show felt distinctly Torontonian and with Bilal at the show’s centre I knew Sort Of was going to be revolutionary.”
She adds: “It was a total joy and gift to get to come back to Toronto and film Sort Of! I had really fallen in love with Olympia and to get to be on a set during a pandemic and play and work with such incredible artists was truly such a blessing. I love Olympia’s presence in this first season.”
James had supportive family members (her mother is from Hong Kong, her maternal grandparents from Shanghai) who encouraged her to express herself in her choice of toys, including Barbies and dolls, and clothing, and supported her during her journey to selfdiscovery.
However, she still struggled with feelings of isolation and not fitting in as a youngster. As a child growing up, she describes herself as being “very effeminate”. At first, she recounts that she was still “very comfortably identified with the gender I was assigned at birth.” “I’m not one of those trans people who ’always knew’ and yet my transition really took years and years to formalize and begin. I was always divinely feminine and lived androgynously for many of my adult years when the confines of masculinity began to take their toll.”
She came out to her family as being gay in 2015, but she still didn’t feel she was living an authentic life. She came out again—this time as a trans woman—and her perceptive Chinese mom later told her she had known for a while that “being gay wasn’t the final destination.” James also recalls her father’s response as being “amazing” and noted how he always wanted a daughter anyway.
In hindsight, James comes to the realization that, “I think my family had ample time to get used to the idea [of being trans] long before there was any ‘coming out’ to reconcile with. And I know that I have been truly blessed by the love and support I received from my family and my environment when I finally did come out. One night at my grandparent’s assisted living place in California, I found myself at the dinner table with my Gung Gung. I took the opportunity to thank him for allowing my mom and I to stay with them (James and her mom stayed with them when she first moved to Los Angeles) and to thank him and my Pau Pau for accepting me as their granddaughter. His response was classically Chinese in its conciseness. ‘We love you. That is all that matters.’ He took my hand and patted it warmly.”
On the topic of her Pau Pau, who recently passed away—James describes “this profound time of grieving” as having brought her “the closest I’ve ever felt to my roots as a Chinese woman”—she recounts: “I spent some quality time with my Pau Pau before she passed, and she told me she wanted to hear my entire trans story before she died. She asked me about my transness, how I saw myself, my relationship to my body and my sexuality, nothing was off limits. She wanted to understand this part of a grandchild she deeply loved, and I will never forget this gift of love and understanding she gave me.”
James sang in choirs and took dance classes through elementary school. She moved to Toronto and attended Ryerson University’s School of Performance. She also made an impact at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Canada’s most influential queer theatre, making her way through their Youth Program after culminated in two premiere performances during their 2013 season. It was her time spent in Canada’s largest city that led her to be such a vocal advocate for her trans community.
“When I was first coming out, I was living in Toronto, and I went to a support group at a local community centre. It was
there that I met all kinds of trans folks of all different races and socio-economic backgrounds, and it was there that I was first confronted with how lucky I was to be navigating my own transition with a great deal of privilege, privilege I didn’t necessarily see reflected in the amazing humans around me at group. It was real and equally heartbreaking and uplifting. I made a choice in those early days to be committed to educating myself and others because for many trans folks that’s not an option when literal safety and survival are constantly at the forefront. There’s deep poverty that plagues our community, violence and oppression that takes on many forms and I want to always do what I can to protect my transgender family. My voice and my visibility became my greatest tool and I wield it proudly today.”
A few years later, she moved to Los Angeles and the rest is herstory.
For James, ensuring that trans, non-binary and people of colour are represented truthfully—and not just in a symbolic manner—has always been her guiding principle when accepting acting roles. The creators of Sort Of were very intentional in making sure that the TV series didn’t perpetuate stereotypes—such as street life, crime, sex trade and drug abuse—that contribute to the dehumanization of trans people and people of colour.
As Bilal Baig, the show’s co-creator and James’ co-star noted: “When we see these images over and over again, it reinforces for us that this is the only kind of way trans people can exist in this world. Either that, or we don’t exist in stories at all.”
Studies indicate that trans women of colour are most at risk of anti-transgender and anti-female violence. This is also
especially true of trans people of Chinese descent, who often face the added cultural barriers from their own family.
While cisgender people—those who identify with the gender they were born to—who are gay or lesbian have made strides in more widespread acceptance within the broader Chinese community, Chinese trans people continue to face
discrimination, not only from western society due to racism and transphobia, but also from within their own Chinese community.
Being transgender in the Chinese context is so unfocused that there is still no official Chinese term, even though male
actors playing female dan characters in Peking Opera have historically been widely accepted and encouraged.
For James, having been raised a “third culture kid” (Chinese, American and Canadian) and exposed to “the rich Asian culture that exists in my hometown of Vancouver really helped me to feel less at odds with being trans and Chinese.” She adds: “My upbringing was inherently layered and complex, and I learned how to navigate intersectionality from a very young age. The place I feel conflict sometimes is in my career. Asian representation in film and TV is still very marginal compared to other minorities and I do find that media and culture at large is more interested in my transness than my race. But I am proudly Chinese, American, Canadian and trans and I look forward to continuing to represent my communities with grace, empathy and love.”
James and her family recently celebrated Lunar New Year. “I still celebrate it with protective charms for the year and red envelopes and mandarin oranges by my bed.” She hopes that this new year will bring her back to Toronto once again to
reprise the role of Olympia in Sort Of.
James once wrote that “representation matters and it’s very critical that trans actors tell our stories.” Her presence in the debut season of Sort Of—and hopefully for many more seasons to come—perfectly epitomizes this statement.
Sort Of is available in Canada on CBC Gem, CBC’s free streaming service.
