Maybe you’ve seen Laverne Cox‘s tweet about Her Story, or maybe you’ve heard that Transparent‘s Jill Soloway inspired trans writer Jen Richards (I Am Cait) and her writing partner Laura Zak (Hashtag) to put pen to paper and write their story. Or perhaps you caught the trailer’s exclusive premiere on People.com, drumming up interest on the internet for as wide a range of an audience as People reaches. Buzz is growing for the show, and Her Story is fundraising to finish in post-production so that it can debut for free online this fall.
Her Story is a love story about what happens when we fall for the unexpected because it is wrapped tightly in the unknown. In some of the greatest love stories, two protagonists will trek to other countries and travel many miles to fall in love with each other; But in Her Story, we trek to the other’s experience while staying where we are; namely—one who is lives as a trans woman and thinks she loves exclusively men, and one who is a cisgender lesbian who is forced to redefine her definition of what it means to fall in love with a woman. Two people happily on their way when suddenly, they fall for each other, causing them to question the very labels that they’ve allowed to define them.
The show spurs an interesting discussion between lesbians and trans women about how we interact, how we love, and how we live in relationship to one another.
And what better way to answer these questions than to pair the very talented writer/actor/activist/trans woman Jen Richards with proficient writer/actor cisgender lesbian Laura Zak. Add this to the fact Her Story was made by an entire queer and trans person crew and cast, and you’ve got yourself a series for the community, by the community.
Yet still, there’s only so far this dialogue can go without trust. And that’s what makes this story unique, the trust that co-creator’s Jen and Laura share to ask each other the dumb questions, the safe questions, real questions; they’ve allowed themselves to explore what it means to be humans in relationship with each other.
Better yet, Her Story, like all good art, seeks to have the conversation without emphasis on the conversation. It is an exploration of connecting through storytelling.
We sat down with the creators to talk about the story, how it contributes to our overall landscape of Hollywood, and why it’s necessary to just make good TV that’s reflective of who we are.
AE: How did you start writing together?
Laura Zak: Jen and I met on the set of Hashtag in Chicago and Jen had a short cameo in Hashtag as a waitress who had chemistry with my character. In real life we actually did hit it off in that way, and started off a friendship at that point. Originally we were talking about doing a Hashtag spinoff but that got a little complicated with keeping the same characters so we decided to scratch that and create an entirely new world where our relationship was the center of the story line, which is a cis lesbian dating a trans woman. We kept that she was a waitress and that’s about it.
AE: And so, when you say that you guys hit it off off-screen are you saying that there was romantic chemistry there? Or just romantically creative chemistry?
LZ: I think we can each speak for ourselves but I think it was one of those connections that it was both, when you meet someone that you were just drawn to and you feel very connected with. I think the storyline came from that, what would this be to have like, two people fall for each other who are coming from these worlds? I think we were compelled towards working together.
Jen Richards and Laura Zak
photo by Shadi Petosky
AE: So Laura, is your character’s arc, is she exploring what it would be like to be a lesbian dating a trans woman?
LZ: That’s part of it, she is someone who identifies as a lesbian and who has only ever dated cisgender women. And who sort of has framed her identity and defined herself by being a lesbian. So she’s not someone who has ever been close minded about trans women but it still was something that was foreign to her world, but when she meets Violet, the fact that it’s a trans woman is new for her but it’s something that brings out questions for her—especially because they’re both friends—the question of is it less lesbian to be drawn to a trans woman?
On the other side, there’s a trans character who has historically been attracted to men and women but is now dating this lesbian woman and her attraction to her is making her question her instinct to date men as a trans woman because she felt like dating men kind of confirmed her femininity. So they both challenge themselves in that way.
AE: It’s really such a rare storyline, but it totally makes sense that when you fall for someone-I mean it’s not that different across the board. You are inherently out of your comfort zone in a ton of ways.
Jen Richards: Yeah, from what I’ve seen on this topic it’s often highly polarized and highly politicized. I thought, what would it be like to have two people that the audience liked together and wanted to be together, that they would have to get over the politics of identity issues to be together.
AE: What do you guys think are the challenges that you faced with addressing this topic?
JR: A ton! I think what we wanted was to make a story about people rather than politics, that’s a decision we made in how we would interact together. I think we just want to integrate people into their lives.
LZ: And I think we tried to address the more political tensions that we talk about—there certainly are trans women who have difficulty being accepted into lesbian circles. And we have a friend in our story that does personify that ignorance, but even in her storyline we show what it is about her life experiences that has led her to this place, rather than making her a pure villain.
JR: I want to add to that, even like in accepting socials there is still a total lack of trans women. Like, think about it—how many trans women do you see at socials, or queer women circles?
AE: You’re totally right, though.
JR: Yeah, so we’re addressing different levels of intersection. It’s one thing to be someone who is liberal and thinks of themselves as progressive and then to be confronted with an experience of how do you treat this person and how do you engage with this person in relationship, that’s where the rich and most telling reveal is of how you think about it.
AE: I love that: “in relationship.” I noticed, too, that the trailer was very educational in a way, on top of being entertaining. Was that purposeful?
LZ: I think part of that is when Jen and I became friends I was interested in her and her story and her perspective and how she saw the world, and because I hadn’t been close to her before, I felt that there was a lot there that we didn’t realize or know. So, hopefully it doesn’t come across too educational in a forced way—but there’s certainly a lot to be learned in what happens in the show.
AE: Definitely not. But it’s really—I noticed that it wasn’t afraid to answer the questions that people are afraid to ask, or that they didn’t know they have. I think it’s like any characters that you develop that they want to show their vulnerability and they want to feel understood. It feels like real life, and that’s what I like about it is that I feel like these could be my friends and situations that are really happening.
JR: That’s great, I’m glad to hear that. It’s probably because, again, I met Laura, I had feelings for her, I hadn’t dated a woman as a woman and I didn’t know how to do that. And I was struggling with that. And the other woman in the series, Angelica, who plays the character of Paige, I was living with her for two years and watching what she was going through trying to date, so I’m hoping it was all based on relevant accessible experiences.
AE: You guys hit on something really great, just stoked for you. So, Kate as producer. This is your first production as a production company, way to go big.
Kate Fisher: Yeah I mean, why not, when you have a script and the talent involved to do something impactful, and good. If you’re going to do it, do it right.
AE: Anything else you all would like readers to know?
JR: I think what we’re hoping to do, is to ask the question “How do trans women fit into queer women’s circles and what kinds of relationships can we have across those differences?” Like, how can we legitimize each others experience, like my body is different than Laura’s, but how do celebrate that difference in a way that we don’t de-legitimize that experience.
LZ: I think that’s a really interesting conversation especially for AfterEllen, given your readership, we’re able to put that out there and hopefully prove in a simple way what happens when we all kind of work together, we don’t separate, we don’t put hierarchies on anything. What happens when we’re just queer and trans women or queer and gay and lesbian and gay communities and all come together to create something special whether that be art or politics.
KF: Yes, and you have a special opportunity to be involved in helping Her Story continue to come to life, please visit our Indiegogo campaign and think about becoming a supporter.
Her Story will be presented online in early October. Contribute to their Indiegogo campaign.
