A Fantastic Woman: The Story Behind the Oscar-Nominated Transgender Drama

For more than 20 years, Chilean filmmaker Sebastin Lelio has been trying to figure out a way to use the Alan Parsons Projects Time in one of his movies. When I made my first short film in 1996, I tried to buy that song and I couldnt afford it, the filmmaker says of the British art-rock bands 1981 easy-listening hit, a celestial lament about a love affair torn asunder by distance and circumstance. I have loved it forever. I consider it a masterpiece. It perfectly combines human [connection] with a cosmic backdrop. Told that the band was never the hippest of musical outfits, Lelio shakes his head in protest. I love filmmakers that have the ability to take some cultural piece that is not considered great and elevate it by recombining it somehow, he says. I think thats a talent.

Audiences may come around to his way of thinking: Time is brilliantly woven into the fabric of his Oscar-nominatedA Fantastic Woman(which officially opens on February 2nd after a brief qualifying run last year), providing an aural complement to the films tough, touching story of a singer ravaged by grief after the death of her older lover. Favored to win Best Foreign Language Film at next months Academy Awards, the wistful drama follows the journey of a heroine whos rarely been positioned as a screen protagonist: a transgender woman named Marina, played with fire and vulnerability by Chilean transgender actress Daniela Vega.

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What came first was a question: What would happen if the person you love dies in your arms?' Lelio explains, adding that hed been affected by observing his sister, whod recently lost her boyfriend. Thats the worst place in the world for a person to die, because you [feel] unwanted. You are the rejected one. But as he and cowriter Gonzalo Maza started brainstorming ideas, another thought occurred to Lelio: What if this happened to a transgender woman?

That notion intrigued him and also, frankly, scared him. It sounded dangerous, he says. I told [Maza] to stop writing. Lelio knew transgender women in Berlin, his current home, but he wanted to educate himself about what the experience was like in Latin America, hoping to look at the broad stereotypes about the community hed absorbed from old movies and then strip them away. The clich is the transvestite that has a tattoo made in jail, walks with a broken high heel, drunk at night after being beaten, he says dismissively. I thought, Ugh, I dont want to make that film.' Realizing that he needed to research the transgender community in Santiago, where the film is set, before they went any further, he pressed the metaphorical pause button and decided to pay the city a visit.

And the more time he spent with transgender women in Chiles capital, the more he noticed the normalcy of their lives, as well as the oppression they still faced. It was very revealing, he recalls. And they all said, You should meet Daniela.'

Before being introduced to Lelio, the relatively unknown Vega had worked as a singer and actress. Speaking through a translator during a separate interview, she recalls that her childhood desire to perform went hand in hand with her acknowledgment of her gender.

When I was little, I wanted to be a girl, Vega says. That was the first thing that I realized I wanted: to be more feminine. After that, I started singing I thought of it as a hobby. But then I started to express myself through clothing and fashion to make sure that people got the message. Then I discovered David Bowie and glam rock. That art was communication, and I used that to communicate to everyone who I really am. After that, I discovered acting.

I was really fascinated by Dani, Lelio says of their first meeting. I found her very charming, beautiful, challenging and witty, but I wasnt looking for an actress.

Initially, the idea was that Vega would be his consultant, helping to inform the scripts milieu and provide it with as much authenticity as possible. In A Fantastic Woman, Marina isnt just grieving the loss of her man Orlando (Francisco Reyes) she suddenly must grapple with his bigoted family, including his scorned ex-wife, who feel betrayal and revulsion at the fact that this transgender woman wants to insert herself into their funeral arrangements. Lelio began drawing from Vegas personal experiences for the story. Eventually, though, he recognized that it wasnt just his collaborators memories and worldview that were crucial to shaping the film. It was Vega herself. Towards the end of the writing process, Lelio says, I realized Daniela was the star. Her presence, her body and the story that her body tells brought something that a cisgender actor could have never brought to that part.

Its not a cause film. Its not a social film.I found that subversive: [A Fantastic Woman] is not well-behaved in the sense of what a film about a transgender woman should be.DirectorSebastin Lelio

Vega took three days before deciding to commit to playing Marina, who shouldnt be read as an autobiographical portrait of the actress. I just contributed ideas and thoughts, my perception of the world and my life, she says simply. Without me knowing, he put everything I was saying into that character. But I didnt specifically say, Oh, make the character this way or that way.'

Nonetheless, A Fantastic Woman is a love letter to both Marina and Vega and their shared struggles even more so because it allows Marina to be a complicated, sometimes frustrating main character. Her temper can get the best of her; there are hints that Orlandos ex has reason to be angry since Marina may have stolen her husband away. This emphasis on complexity and a disinterest in reducing a heroine to a sad-sack victim extends to Lelios hyper-vivid aesthetic, which drapes the film in surreal dream sequences, beautiful colors and left-field soundtrack choices like Time during a pivotal emotional scene.

The logical way to make this film would have been social realism, says Lelio. Because its about a transgender woman, you have to film her with handheld [cameras] with natural light. But I felt, No, lets do it flamboyantly, with the flavor of a mid-Forties melodrama. You know, that scale and that elegance. Lets take someone that society rejects and put her at the absolute center of the film, like an act of love.

Its not a cause film, he continues. Its not a social film. Those are layers that are there but, first of all, its a movie. I found that subversive: [A Fantastic Woman] is not well-behaved in the sense of what a film about a transgender woman should be.

Its been nearly a year since A Fantastic Woman had its premiere at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival, which has given Vega plenty of opportunity to reflect on how the movie has changed her life. Shes grateful for the heightened exposure, but some familiar hardships remain. When it comes to having a problem at an airport, at the hospital or with a police officer, Vega notes, I have the same disadvantages as others in my community. Im no different from everyone else.

And even if A Fantastic Woman takes home the Oscar, that achievement wont mitigate the transphobia thats still rampant. Vega lives that reality, but she remains hopeful, especially as shes been promoting the film across the globe. Traveling around the world and meeting people from everywhere, she says, Ive realized that what people have in common is that theyre all talking about these bad times that are coming in our near future this wave of darkness. But then theres this counterwave thats also coming with more positive messages about respect and dignity and empathy. Theres a great need out there for us to push toward progress. The counterwave is there we just dont see it.

There are flowers out there, Vega adds. Its just hard to see them when its nighttime, when its dark. But we can light a torch to find them again.