Is Silas Howard the Trans Director Hollywood’s Been Waiting For?

Last year, Silas Howard directed two episodes of Jill Soloway's phenomenal Amazon dramedy Transparent, becoming the show's first trans-identifying director. Since then, the Vermont-hailing artist has had no problem finding success in the TV industry, leading to gigs on Freeform family drama The Fosters and NBC's emotional smash This Is Us—not to mention Transparent's third season, for which Howard directed two episodes and acted as consulting producer on the season's first four installments.

Howard's recent success is reflective not only of his own decades-long progression as an artist unafraid to work in a variety of mediums—from playing guitar for 1990s queercore punks Tribe 8 to sharing writing and directing credits on the 2001 feature film By Hook or By Crook—but also of the increased inclusiveness and diversity in television, from the types of stories being told today to the people responsible for telling those stories. Progress is, as ever, slow and gradual, and there's still a very long way to go—but it's still progress.

"I keep saying that we're not breaking into TV—TV's breaking into us," Howard tells me while taking a lunch break from shooting an episode of This Is Us on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles. "We have all these rich, nuanced stories, and the younger generation has a lot of access to different points of view. They're savvy, they detect bullshit, they value authentic storytelling, and they have a wider reach of interests."

Howard's career is just beginning. His latest feature film, The Lusty, which focuses on the true story surrounding the world's first exotic dancers' union, should go into production over the next year; he's also helming an upcoming six-part documentary series for the MAC AIDS Fund Transgender Initiative, More Than T, with Jen Richards (Her Story). "We focus on really amazing people within the community, where their trans aspect is really just a lens through which they do all of this really amazing work," he explains. "I'm really fixated on storytelling—whether it be through film, writing, or setting up performance spaces—and the fact that I've gotten to this level is a surprise."

VICE: Television used to be considered a low art form, but over the past decade, the medium's engaged in more artifice and experimentation than ever before, especially in terms of the variety of stories it tells. Why do you think that is?
Silas Howard: The generation of people that are getting shows greenlit have a certain set of values. I've been obsessed with looking at the ways our generation went through the AIDS crisis, which really informed the style of urgent storytelling 25 years ago—and I think a lot of the culture we're looking at now is influenced by that time. The internet really shifted the whole game, too, as well as the activism and social change that made it so that we're represented more. We want TV to look like us, [and now there are] queer shows with groundbreaking characters that screw around with concepts like foster care, immigration, and racial politics—a full array of topics and different tones, all breaking ground. I can't believe that I can go from a show like Transparent, that's definitely like nothing else, to shows like The Fosters and Faking It that are doing something similar with a totally different approach. It's exciting.

This season of Transparent was the first in which you were a consulting producer—tell me about how that experience differed from your previous work on the show.
Being brought back on for the third season was like prepping for a long movie. I got to be in the room with the writers as they developed it, and they were incredible. I'm so onboard with Jill Soloway—she takes it to the next level, and it's really inspiring. People's voices get heard, and people get included through the trans-affirming hiring policy, which needs to happen holistically for all positions.

Mark Ruffalo recently faced criticism for the casting of Matt Bomer, who does not identify as trans, as a trans sex worker in Anything, an upcoming film he produced. The criticism triggered a conversation regarding on-screen trans representation.
I really love that this conversation can lead to change, instead of just shutting things down. We need to talk about action, allowing people access to roles, and how we center stories. But the conversation is happening, and it makes us look at race, gender, and class—and it really challenges us, as a country, to examine how we define people and people's rights. We need to be able to see one another as human, because once you actually know someone, you know them as a human with flaws. Once you've seen them through a narrative, you can give them heart.

[Trans actress] Trace Lysette has a really important episode with [Transparent's Jay Duplass] this season that's totally groundbreaking, and Alexandra Grey is an actress who's a trans woman of color and appears in the first episode. The casting for the show is really trying to be proactive, and I love that. There are shows like Her Story, too, which was made by an all trans-women cast and writers and director—an Emmy-nominated web series that achieved change without operating through the typical channels. I spent my life building structures outside of the system because I couldn't see myself inside them. But to be able to get out there and go as wide as possible just means that it reaches more people.

Lately, it seems like LGBTQ issues are being discussed everywhere except in the current US election cycle.
I know! It seems like things are moving in a good direction—except for this terrible, Nazi-like presidential campaign. This country hasn't learned how to deal with issues around race and class, and now we're paying very dearly for that and it's killing a lot of people. Look at what's happening with sports and certain athletes taking a stand—the old systems are breaking down, and there's a lot of chaos around that. The term "politically correct" is now a term that the conservative right uses to address anyone that's talking about something not white—like, "You people want to be treated equally? Wow, that's very uptight and politically correct of you." It's a crazy time, and we have a target on our back when we take up space. It's a real thing, and it's very scary.

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