In a recent interview, Josie Totah
talks about playing a transgender student in Peacock's reboot of
Saved by the Bell.
Totah is best known for her recurring
role on the Disney Channel's Jessie. She started performing at
10.
In 2018, Totah, 19, came out as
transgender.
Speaking with Variety, Totah
described her character of Lexi as the “it” girl of Bayside High.
“I would say [Lexi's] the most like
Kelly Kapowski [from the original show] in that she’s the 'it' girl
at the school,” Totah
said. “But I would say she’s a much more evolved version, a
much more upper-echelon, smarter, wilder person – in the best way.
What I think is so awesome about the show is the dynamic characters
and the fact that the writing is just so, so smart this time around.”
In an interview with PEOPLE, Totah,
also a producer on the show, said that the show's producers wanted
“to tell a story that normalized being trans in high school.”
“The entire character isn't based on
that one part of her. We have normal lives. We do normal things. And
there is so much more to us than our gender identities,” Totah
said.
Totah said that for her acting had been
an “escape” from not being able to be her “authentic identity.”
“I grew up in a small town [in
California] where I often felt like I was drowning because I couldn't
be my authentic identity,” she said. “All I wanted to do was
pretend to be someone I wasn't. Acting was an escape.”
She added that transgender people have
“said how much the show already means to them. It's humbling.”
“We've come such a long way,” Totah
said. “But there is so much more to go. I want to uplift people
and write about things that really matter. It's about telling
progressive stories – and shifting the way we view our culture.”