In an interview with LGBT glossy The
Advocate, Chaz Bono, the son of Cher and Sonny Bono, says his
former gender kept him from a career as an actor.
Bono came out as a transgender man in
2009. Bono's journey, including undergoing sex reassignment surgery,
was documented in the 2011 film Becoming Chaz.
Bono, who has appeared on The Bold
and the Beautiful and American Horror Story, stars
alongside Denise Richards, Jane Seymour and Brigitte Nielson in the
upcoming superhero-themed television action series Adi Shankar's
Gods and Secrets.
Speaking with The Advocate, Bono
said that he was previously uncomfortable playing female characters.
“[In acting] you have to be
comfortable in your skin to be able to do it,” Bono
said. “I'm a fairly hetero-normative guy. I was like that
when I was in a female body, and therefore to play a woman – I
couldn't do it.”
“I lived my life before really in my
head and completely disconnected from my body. I didn’t like what
was reflected in the mirror, it wasn’t me. It wasn’t how I saw
myself. So, there was a huge disconnect with myself physically. Now,
it’s about being able to pursue the life I always wanted to have,
but I wasn’t able to because I was in the wrong skin.”
“If I was born male, I would have
done what so many of my classmates [did] who... went on to college
and then started their careers and are still working. But I couldn’t
do that, and I had a 30-year absence almost to getting back and being
able to now finally start to do the career that I’ve always
wanted,” he added.
Bono also said that he won't pursue
transgender roles, saying that he fears being typecast.
“[E]very trans actor I know, [trans
roles] are all they get offered,” Bono said.