Cross-gender acting, also called cross-gender casting or cross-casting, refers to actors or actresses portraying a character of the opposite sex. It is distinct from both transgender and cross-dressing character roles.
Cross-gender acting often interacts with complex cultural ideas about gender. It has a diverse history across many cultures, including English Renaissance theatre, French theatre, Japanese theatre, Indian theatres, and Ethiopian theatre.
In many contexts, such as English and Indian theatres, cross-gender acting is linked to the oppression of women. Many societies prohibited women from performing on stage, so boys and men took the female roles. Female impersonation often decreased in popularity as women gained this right.
Female cross-cast roles are commonly young boy characters, or, in the case of theatre companies like the Takarazuka Revue Company, male heroes.
Some cultures, like Tang and Yuan dynasty China, had traditions of cross-gender acting for both men and women concurrently.
Modern American cross-gender acting, especially in musical theatre roles where men play women, is often employed for comedic effect.
During the early development of ancient Greek theatre in the sixth century BC, both Athenian women and men performed. By the fifth century, changing Athenian cultural codes excluded women from public life, and thus the theatre. After this point, men played both male and female roles.[1]
In Renaissance England, women were forbidden from performing on stage,[2] so female roles in the plays of William Shakespeare and his contemporary playwrights were originally played by cross-dressing men or boys. (See also Stage Beauty.) Therefore, the original productions of the above-mentioned Shakespeare plays actually involved double-cross-dressing: male actors playing female characters disguising themselves as males.[3] Academic research into the contemporary attitudes towards the practise have yielded a variety of interpretations. Historian Laura Levine argues that "an all-male acting troupe was the natural and unremarkable product of a culture whose conception of gender was "teleologically male".[4]
Cross-gender acting, while not specifically making a statement about crossdressing, helped produce negative judgements and statements about those who did cross-dress in the Renaissance era. In order to maintain a hierarchy and a gendered division of labour, a prominent feature of the Renaissance era, women and men needed to be distinct. Cross-gender acting disrupted gender distinction. Male-to-female cross-gender actors were either viewed as shameful, or they gained wealth and social status when playing women who married well-off men. In instances where boys acted as women, it was because they were seen as objects of desire, much like women, and they were also in a subordinate position in the hierarchy scale.[5]
Some instances of female-to-male cross-dressing in theatre allowed women to challenge patriarchal notions of gender and explore both masculinity and femininity within this hierarchy. In The Roaring Girl, the protagonist, Moll, cross-dresses for liberty rather than safety, and thus exists in both male and female spaces.
In order to believably portray women onstage, male actors needed the audience to believe that the characters were truly female, meaning MTF actors needed the audience to desire them.[6] Once male actors stepped into the roles of women, it was feared that they would adopt transgressive feminine traits, which led to the belief that crossdressing was an undisciplined act.[7] While troubling to some, the idea of female impersonation proved that gender was malleable when it came to England in the Renaissance Era.[8] Theatre was considered a more acceptable venue for crossdressing, chiefly because it confined the act to a distinct place.
When boy actors portrayed female characters, religious authorities feared that the boys would become the women they embodied in plays, and therefore would transform into objects of erotic thoughts for male spectators. This sense of desire would supposedly come from the boys' failed attempts to represent binary womanhood onstage. The female costume on a boy's body created a sense of confusion between knowledge and visibility; it was thought that this confusion forced male spectators to translate women's appearances to the bodies of boys.[9]
Shakespeare has been criticized for inciting male spectator desire on boy-to-female characters in his plays such as As You Like It, where boys played highly sexualized female characters.
In Chinese opera specialized male actors who play female roles (dàn) are referred to as nándàn (男旦); the practice arose during the Qing dynasty due to imperial prohibitions against women performing on stage, considered detrimental to public morality.[10]
Going back as far as the Tang dynasty, both men and women played roles of the opposite sex in theatre. For women in the Yuan dynasty, cross-gender acting was liberating, as playing men allowed to embark on scholarly pursuits typically restricted from women. Despite this partial liberty, female actors were treated like prostitutes.[11] During the Qing dynasty, women were prohibited from performing at all due to imperial anxieties about female sexuality. This led to the development of female impersonation techniques such as cai ciao (false-foot skill), which simulated a woman's bound feet.
Japanese kabuki theatre began in the 17th century with all-female troupes performing both male and female roles. In 1629 the disrepute of kabuki performances (or of their audiences) led to the banning of women from the stage, but kabuki's great popularity inspired the formation of all-male troupes to carry on the theatrical genre. In kabuki, the portrayal of female characters by men is known as onnagata. The practice is detailed in a story of the same name by the Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima. All roles in Noh dramas are traditionally played by male actors; actors playing female roles wear feminine costumes and female-featured masks.
Cross-dressing in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain was frequent among actors, and the theater was at the time the most popular form of entertainment.[12] There was a fascination with female cross-dressers particularly (women dressed as men), who were "extremely popular" in the "Golden Age Comedia".[13] Male actors might play the "women dressed as men" parts. Spain eventually found this cross-dressing to be threatening to social order, and passed laws targeting female transvestites throughout the 1600s. Despite the negative reactions and disapproval, it continued to remain very popular in the comedia.
Much like England, France also had a tradition of cross-casting, but by the second half of the 17th century these roles had dwindled. They existed in unique forms during the reign of Louis XIV however—mainly in comedy, school drama, ballet, and opera. By the mid-sixteenth century, female actors in France became more and more common, but they were selective in the roles they wished to play. French female actors did not want to play unglamourous or “ugly” women, so these roles were often cross-cast. One example of this is the nourrice, or “nurse” archetype—a male-acted older, humorous, post-menopausal woman whose undesirability contrasted the primary female roles played by women.[14]
In the Ballet de cour tradition, men often played women. Famously, King Louis XIV performed in many such roles. For Louis XIV, cross-dressing in a theatre context was not satirical but rather a show of power. When performing, these men dressed in distinct costumes. They wore skirts, but their hemlines rose above the knee, displaying their thighs in a style that would have been prohibited for women but was permitted for men. This placed these roles in a third category that was neither man nor woman precisely.
A travesti is a theatrical term referring to the portrayal of a character in an opera, play, or ballet by a performer of the opposite sex. More specifically, a theatrical or operatic role in which an actress appears in male clothing is called a "breeches role" ("pants role" or "trouser role"), and roles once performed by a male soprano castrato may instead be performed by a female mezzo-soprano or contralto.
In the late 19th century, one of the most famous actresses was Vesta Tilley, who worked in a music hall from age five well into her fifties. In the late 1890s, she was the highest paid woman in Britain. What made her so famous was her tendency to dress as a man and act out "masculine" scenes and roles.[15] Centuries before, Julie d'Aubigny, aka "La Maupin" (1670–1707), had also been famous for her breeches roles.
In 1904, Nina Boucicault originated the theatrical tradition of cross-sex casting for Peter Pan, continued thereafter by Maude Adams, Marilyn Miller, Eva Le Gallienne, Sandy Duncan, and Cathy Rigby, among others.[16] In 1954 Mary Martin portrayed the title character in the musical Peter Pan. "The boy who would never grow up" is a classic trouser role, as is Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro (by Beaumarchais).
In pantomime plays that are traditionally adaptations of fairy tales and performed around Christmastide, the role of lead male was once commonly played by a principal boy—a young, attractive, female. This practise has fallen out of favour recently, with popular male television and pop stars taking these roles. Conversely, the role of a pantomime dame, a middle aged woman played by a man in drag for comic relief, is still one of the mainstays of panto.
Similarly, Georgy Millyar played a role of Baba Yaga, an ugly old woman with supernatural abilities in a dozen of films, including Vasilisa the Beautiful (1940) and Jack Frost (1964). He used to say that an actress does not ever allow anyone to make her that ugly, while he does.[17]
Into the 19th and 20th centuries, French anthropologist Jane Dieulafoy and her husband Marcel hosted private salons where they staged classical plays. The genders of the characters stayed true to the original texts, but the actors were cast blindly with no regard for gender.[18]
After the May Fourth Movement in the 1910s, women were once again permitted to perform in China, and both men and women were cast true to their gender.
Many of the characters in Chinese Opera were performed by men; they cross-dressed to play the roles of women. A famous cross-dressing opera singer is Mei Lanfang.
In the early 20th century, the Shanghainese Yue opera genre developed from an all male to an all female genre. During a particularly turbulent period of Chinese history, Yue opera offered female actors and audiences a voice beyond the nationalist narrative often associated with the May Fourth Movement and Cultural Revolution. In a society undergoing drastic social change, including shifting ideas of gender and family structures, Yue opera catered to two of the public's new fixations: women and romance. The singers explored the realities of womanhood, being an immigrant, urbanization, and voicelessness, creating a women's culture and supporting the idea that women should be at the forefront of a modern nation.[19] Although male performers were introduced into this opera in the 1950s and 1960s, today, Yue opera is still associated as the only all female opera and the second most popular opera in China.
The Takarazuka Revue is a contemporary all-female Japanese acting company, known for their elaborate productions of stage musicals. Female performers act in both male and female roles.[20]
Takarazuka was created in the early 20th century by Ichizō Kobayashi Takarazuka. The performers attend the Takarazuka Music School (Takarazuka Ongaku Gakkō) for two years to receive training. Actresses specialize in either male roles (otokoyaku) or female roles (musumeyaku), with male-role actresses receiving top billing. The performers are evaluated based on appearance, behavioral performance ability, and facial/body signifiers (e.g. jaw structure, eyebrows, height, shoulder span).[21] Additionally, behavioral test runs examine the voice, mannerisms, and overall persona of the performers.[22]
Despite providing opportunities for women onstage, the structure of Takarazuka still reflected the patriarchal control of Japan. The musumeyaku represented fictional, masculinist recreations of women. As for the otokoyaku, their roles aimed to emulate a model man that women would desire.To further explain the role of the otokoyaku ‘male’ character, Lorie Brau contends that, "The otokoyaku does not represent a 'nama no otoko', that is to say, a 'man in the raw', but an idealized, 'beautiful' man—a man without dirt, sweat, roughness, and a need to dominate. The otokoyaku's female following see her as a version of this kind of androgynous, safe beauty rarely found in real men".[23] Therefore, while the otokoyaku presents a male guise that is the “risoteki na dansei” (ideal man) women are attracted to, the otokoyaku also represents a type of androgynous freedom for the female viewer. Fans see women breaking the confines of societal expectations, as well as embracing the feminine side of the male-masculine image.[24] However, despite this progressive multi-dimensional role of the otokoyaku, the reality of expressing these interpretations onstage is limited for the performers. With the creation of the Takarazuka Revue Company, Ichizō Kobayashi intended to use the troupe to reinforce the patriarchal status quo of Japan by training his female performers how to be obedient women and “good wives and wise mothers”. Despite the non-conventional otokoyaku, Robertson states that Kobayashi believed women would, through their performances as men, "[learn] to understand and appreciate males and the masculine psyche”.
Throughout the 20th century, a Western theatre tradition developed in Ethiopia, starting in 1913 with the play Ye Awrewoch Commedia by Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam. All parts were played by boys. As the tradition grew over the decades with the development of new theatre companies, the boys themselves were unhappy playing women; some feared embarrassment, while others were afraid of being recognized in their feminine roles. At the boys' urging, the troupes began actively recruiting girls.[25]
At the Empress Menen Girls' Boarding School, Ethiopian scholar, writer, and politician Senedu Gebru wrote and directed plays for her female students between 1942 and 1955. With the students' parents as audience members, these plays were performed at the end of the school year.[26] Girls played both male and female roles.
After the fall of the Government of the Ethiopian Empire and with the opening of the Theatre Arts Department at Addis Ababa University, the 1970s saw further efforts to involve women onstage. Male-as-female cross-casting thus fell out of fashion.
In the Indian context, Parsi, Gujarati, and Marathi theatrical traditions from the 19th and 20th centuries cast men in female roles. Where women lacked public visibility, these roles introduced audiences to the idea of women in public life. Female impersonators allowed audiences to engage with femininity. Women could then use the traits that were considered acceptable in theatre characters as a pathway into their own public life. Within theatre itself, female impersonators also created niches that female performers could occupy later.[27]
In animations and video games, it is not unusual for female actors to voice young male characters. Notable examples are Nancy Cartwright voicing Bart Simpson in The Simpsons and Junko Takeuchi voicing Naruto Uzumaki in the anime series Naruto. Voice actress Tara Strong has voiced multiple young male characters such as Timmy Turner and Ben Tennyson. Instances of male actors voicing female characters have also occurred, including Bob Peterson as Roz in Monsters, Inc. and Brad Bird as Edna Mode in the Incredibles franchise.
In musical theatre, some characters have become synonymous with cross-sex acting. The musical Hairspray frequently sees a male actor portraying the female role of Edna Turnblad, whilst the role of Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical is traditionally a male performer. However, whilst Edna was played by a cross cast John Travolta in the film adaptation, Miss Trunchbull in the film of Matilda was instead played by actress Emma Thompson.
When the casting director of a production decides to employ cross-sex acting, selecting the actors in this way is sometimes also called "cross-sex casting" or simply "cross-casting".
Increasingly, modern American theatre is cast "blindly," in which roles are determined based on talent, regardless of "gender, race, age, and body type."[28]
| Release year | Title | Actor | Role | Direction | Role | Language | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1914 | A Busy Day | Wife | comedic | English | ||||
| 1914 | Sweedie the Swatter | male to female | comedic | English | The first of a series of Sweedie films, made between 1914 and 1916. This short was released 13 July 1914. | |||
| 1920 | Treasure Island | female to male | dramatic | English | ||||
| 1921 | Little Lord Fauntleroy | Cedric Errol | female to male | dramatic | English | Mary Pickford starred as both Cedric Errol and Widow Errol. | ||
| 1924 | Peter Pan | female to male | dramatic | English | ||||
| 1932 | The Old Dark House | Sir Roderick Femm | female to male | dramatic | English | credited as 'John Dudgeon' | ||
| 1936 | Stars on Parade | male to female | musical | English | The first of 17 films with Old Mother Riley | |||
| 1936 | Sathi Leelavathi | M. K. Mani | Lakshmi | male to female | dramatic | Tamil | [29] | |
| 1939 | Wilton's Zoo | Jan Grovers (Boefje) | female to male | dramatic | Dutch | 45-year-old Annie van Ees plays the 16-year-old Boefje. She had played this role since 1922 in theatre. | ||
| 1942 | Cactus Makes Perfect | Ma Stooge | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1949 | Kind Hearts and Coronets | Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne | male to female | comedic | English | Alec Guinness plays eight members of the aristocratic D'Ascoyne family. | ||
| 1954 | The Belles of St. Trinian's | Headmistress Fritton | male to female | comedic | English | Alastair Sim plays both Millicent Fritton and her brother, Clarence Fritton. | ||
| 1957 | Blue Murder at St Trinian's | Headmistress Fritton | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1959 | The Mouse that Roared | Grand Duchess Gloriana XII | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1962 | Sjors en Sjimmie op het pirateneiland | Sjimmie | female to male | dramatic | Dutch | Sjimmie is played by director Henk van der Linden's daughter in blackface. | ||
| 1965 | Sjors en Sjimmie en de gorilla | Sjimmie | female to male | dramatic | Dutch | |||
| 1967 | Bhakta Prahlada | female to male | dramatic | Telugu | [30] | |||
| various | male to female | comedic | English | |||||
| 1977 | Sjors en Sjimmie en het zwaard van Krijn | Sjimmie | female to male | dramatic | Dutch | credited as 'Mar Fikkie' | ||
| 1977 | Kurt | female to male | dramatic | German | voice dubbed by Oliver Rohrbeck | |||
| 1978 | Monkey (Saiyūki) | female to male | dramatic | Japanese | ||||
| 1979 | Brian's mother | male to female | comedic | English | ||||
| 1980 | The Empire Strikes Back | female to male | dramatic | English | voice dubbed by Clive Revill original release version only | |||
| 1981 | Göta kanal eller Vem drog ur proppen? | Queen Silvia | male to female | comedic | Swedish | Cameo | ||
| 1981 | Sopor | female to male | comedic | Swedish | Small role | |||
| 1982 | Fanny and Alexander | Ismael Retzinsky | female to male | dramatic | Swedish | |||
| 1982 | The Year of Living Dangerously | Billy Kwan | female to male | dramatic | English | Hunt won Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role | ||
| 1983 | Trenchcoat | Ronald Lacey | Princess Aida | male to female | comedic | English | ||
| 1985 | Florentine | male to female | comedic | German | ||||
| 1986 | Crocodile Dundee | Gwendoline | female to male | comedic | English | The character is a male-to-female transvestite. | ||
| 1986 | The Golden Child | The Golden Child | female to male | dramatic | English | Reate was nominated to a Young Artist Awards for Best Young Actress[31] | ||
| 1986 | Haunted Honeymoon | Aunt Kate | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1988 | Hairspray | Divine | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1988 | Coming to America | Extremely Ugly Girl | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1989 | Back to the Future Part II | Marlene McFly | male to female | comedic | English | Michael J. Fox plays three characters - Marty McFly, Marty McFly Jr. and Marlene McFly. | ||
| 1989-1997 | Mystery Science Theater 3000 | Gypsy | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1991 | Hook | Gutless | female to male | dramatic | English | Cameo | ||
| 1991 | Nothing but Trouble | Eldona | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1992−1997 | Martin | Sheneneh Mama Payne | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1992 | Swordsman II | Invincible Asia | female to male | dramatic | English | Asia is a man who has castrated himself. | ||
| 1992 | Orlando | female to male male to female | dramatic | English | The character of 'Orlando' changes gender, female to male.[32] | |||
| 1993 | The Beverly Hillbillies | Jethrine Bodine | male to female | comedic | English | Bader also plays Jethrine's twin brother Jethro. | ||
| 1993 | Iron Monkey | female to male | dramatic | Cantonese | ||||
| 1995 | Filmpje! | Annie de Rooij | male to female | comedic | Dutch | Paul de Leeuw introduced the character of Annie de Rooij in 1992 in the third seasons of his television show De schreeuw van De Leeuw. Annie was married to Bob de Rooij, also played by Paul de Leeuw. | ||
| 1996 | A Very Brady Sequel | Mrs. Cummings | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1996 | The Nutty Professor | Mama / Granny Klump | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 1999 | Fluisa | male to female | comedic | English | ||||
| 1999 | Tyrone | Cherone | male to female | comedic | English | Coolio also plays Cherone's brothers, Tyrone & Jerome | ||
| 1999 | Liang Po Po The Movie | Jack Neo | Liang Po Po / Liang Xi Mei | male to female | comedic | Chinese and English | an 85 year old granny played by Singaporean filmmaker and actor Jack Neo. | |
| 2000 | Mama / Granny Klump | male to female | comedic | English | ||||
| 2000 | Kevin & Perry Go Large | Perry | female to male | comedic | English | |||
| 2002 | EvenHand | Toby | female to male | dramatic | English | |||
| 2003 | Girls Will Be Girls | Evie Harris Coco Peru Varla Jean Merman | male to female | comedic | English | All the female characters in this film were played by males. | ||
| 2004 | male to female | comedic | Dutch | |||||
| 2004 | My Nikifor | female to male | dramatic | Polish | Feldman won 2005 Polish Film Awards for best actress | |||
| 2005 | Diary of a Mad Black Woman | male to female | comedic | English | ||||
| 2005 | Alatriste | female to male | dramatic | Spanish | ||||
| 2006 | Madea's Family Reunion | male to female | comedic | English | ||||
| 2006 | Black Christmas | Dean Friss | Agnes Lenz | male to female | horror | English | ||
| 2007 | I'm Not There | Jude Quinn | female to male | dramatic | English | Jude Quinn is stylized after Bob Dylan | ||
| 2007 | Hairspray | male to female | comedic | English | ||||
| 2007 | Norbit | Rasputia | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 2007 | St Trinian's | Miss Camilla Fritton | male to female | comedic | English | As in the earlier St. Trinian's films, a man plays the character of the Headmistress, Miss Fritton. | ||
| 2007 | Negima!! | Negi Springfield | female to male | dramatic | Japanese | Live action adaptation of the manga Negima! Magister Negi Magi. The main character, Negi Springfield, is a 10-year-old mage. | ||
| 2008 | Meet the Browns | male to female | comedic | English | ||||
| 2009 | Horst Schlämmer – Isch kandidiere! | male to female | comedic | German | ||||
| 2009 | Madea Goes to Jail | male to female | comedic | English | ||||
| 2009 | Miss Camilla Fritton | male to female | comedic | English | ||||
| 2011 | 30 Rock | female to male | comedic | English | Cho was nominated to an Emmy for her guest role | |||
| 2011 | Jack and Jill | Jill Sadelstein Monica | male to female | comedic | English | Sandler plays both Jack and Jill Sadelstein | ||
| 2012 | Cloud Atlas | Nurse Noakes Georgette Talbot Yosouf Suleiman | male to female male to female female to male female to male | dramatic | English | |||
| 2012 | Moron 5 and the Crying Lady | Beckie Pamintuan Albert's mother | male to female | comedic | Tagalog | |||
| 2014 | Black Butler Live Action | Earl Kiyohara Genpu | female to male | dramatic | Japanese | |||
| 2014 | Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie | Agnes Brown | male to female | comedic | English | |||
| 2014 | Peter Pan Live! | female to male | dramatic | English | [33] | |||
| 2014 | Predestination | female to male | dramatic | English | The character changes gender, female to male. | |||
| 2015 | Bon Bini Holland | Judeska Gerrie | male to female | comedic | Dutch | |||
| 2016−2019 | Baskets | Christine Baskets | male to female | comedic | English | Emmy Award for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series | ||
| 2018 | Suspiria | Dr. Jozef Klemperer | female to male | dramatic | English/German | One of three roles played by Swinton in the film | ||
| 2019 | The Twentieth Century | Louis Negin Annie St-Pierre | male to female male to female female to male | comedic | English | Film deliberately intended to come across unrealistic and dreamlike; also utilizes colour-blind casting in two other roles. | ||
| 2025 | Juffrouw Pots | Juffrouw Pots | male to female | comedic | Dutch | [34] |