Tangerine is So Much More Than “The Film Shot On An iPhone”

Tangerine (2015) was a breakthrough for transgender representation in film. The collaboration between the actresses, Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, and the co-writers, Sean Baker and Chris Bergoch, is what made Tangerine real and raw - not the camera choice.

Before watching Tangerine I was reminded of the impression it had made for being shot on an iPhone 5S; almost every review I read mentioned this. Although this unusual camera choice is what originally drew me to the movie, it was the story and collaboration between the writers and actors that made me love it afterwards. To be honest I barely even noticed or recognized the iPhone quality throughout the movie. I was sucked in by the story and performances by the actors. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez (Sin-Dee) and Mya Taylor (Alexandra) starred in the film and their chemistry on screen was amazing because of their close offscreen friendship. Taylor knew Rodriguez through a LGBTQ+ Center in Los Angeles and introduced Rodriguez to director Sean Baker. When Baker “...saw the two of them together, [he] knew they’d make the perfect on-screen duo,” - which they soon became.

In an interview with NPR, Baker described his first interaction with Mya Taylor as an instant click after he pitched the project to her. Baker was interested in the world surrounding the corner of Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. He and co-screenwriter Chris Bergoch searched the streets for a collaborator from the inside of this world. The pair eventually found Mya: “There was just something about Mya - she attracted our attention from 40 feet away - and we went up to her and introduced ourselves and started talking about this project and it was that 'eureka' moment where she expressed just as much enthusiasm back to us. ... She was that collaborator we were looking for.” 

Taylor and Kitana both guided Baker and Bergoch in writing the script, to make it as authentic as possible. In an interview with Los Angeles Magazine, Baker described their partnership as fundamentally respectful: “We started collaborating on finding a story. We fleshed that story into a treatment and passed it by Mya and Kitana, and they approved. It was important to keep it collaborative and be respectful, that we got their approval on everything.” Taylor also described how, “Some of the people in the area, they talk in a certain way, and [Baker] wasn’t quite familiar with that” so she taught him how. Taylor also added how “[Baker] wanted to make it close to the way we actually are in real life, our actual conversations, and I like that.” The real and raw feeling that comes from Tangerine is not a result of the infamous camera choice, but the collaboration involved in the story and characters.

Rodriguez and Taylor are both transgender women and their involvement in Tangerine was a breakthrough for transgender representation in the film industry. Hollywood has a history of casting cisgender male actors for roles of transgender females in movies - like Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, for example. Films and tv-shows like Tangerine and Euphoria are breaking through this habit by casting and working with transgender actresses. Trans actress Hunter Schafer stars as Jules Vaughn in the series Euphoria and her character resonated with many trans young people. In Teen Vogue’s interview with trans teens on their opinions on Schafer’s character, one interviewee, Clementine Narcisse, a 15-year-old trans girl, described how she loved how Jules was introduced as a normal teenage girl who happened to be trans. She explains how “before the show started [she] was worried because a lot of transgender characters in the media are represented horribly, but [she] was blown away by her portrayal.” Another interviewee, 17-year old Zoe, addressed how Jules was from a privileged background and many trans women are not. Characters like Jules, Alexandra and Sin-Dee are only the first steps, and do not reflect the whole transgender community, but they are steps in the right direction towards increased representation of transgenders in film and tv. Every person deserves to see representation of themselves on the screen and the stories of characters like Jules, Alexandra, Sin-Dee and others need to be shared. 

As a cisgender female, Mya Taylor’s character Alexandra resonated with me for a different reason. As an artist I related to Alexandra’s experience paying to perform at a nightclub on New Years Eve. I’m a filmmaker and I have spent quite a bit on submission fees for film festivals. Like Alexandra, I just want to have my art out there and seen - this comes at a cost. Although I relate to Alexandra in this sense, I understand that I am in some ways more privileged than her and I do have opportunities for artistic visibility. In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Baker explained how the pay-to-play scene “also played into what these women have to do to express themselves. All Alexandra wants to do, her dreams, her aspirations, are just to get out there and be seen and heard. She’s an artist at heart. She’s an entertainer at heart. She is a transgender woman of color sex worker with so little opportunity due to discrimination and oppression, but she’s still working her hardest just to get her art out there.” 

Tangerine taps into the world of transgender prostitution and the need of many trans people to resort to sex work because of the difficulty in finding employment. Mya Taylor worked as a sex worker prior to starring in Tangerine simply because she was not getting any of the jobs she applied for, and needed money: “...I was constantly surrounded by all these sex workers and drug dealers in the area, and I needed money and I was applying for all these jobs over and over and over and I was like ‘Why am I not getting any jobs?’ So eventually I started applying for more, I did 146 jobs in one month and the last month that I applied for jobs, before all this movie stuff, was 186 jobs and I found myself being discriminated against and I could actually prove it. So you have to ask yourself, ‘Why are there so many sex workers on Santa Monica and Highland?’  Me personally, I did it, because I could not get a job. (NPR)”’
Tangerine is so much more than a film shot on an iPhone 5S: it dives deep into the world of transgender prosititues in L.A. and the struggle to earn money due to discrimination against transgender people. Tangerine is a comedy, a drama, a thriller and voices the hard truth about the lives of many trans women today.