Clarice casts Jen Richards in transgender role she helped create

Variety

The trans actress was first recommended by GLAAD to serve as a consultant to the writers, but she ended up landing the role she helped craft. “All I can say is that the character intersects with Clarice’s storyline in a way that her transness isn’t central to her storyline, but her identity as a trans woman prompts her to discuss with Clarice the complicated legacy of Buffalo Bill,” Richards said during a virtual premiere event for Clarice. Richards said she was interested in Clarice because of the negativity in the trans community attached to the monstrous character of Buffalo Bill, played by Ted Levine in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs. “Right prior to my coming out as trans I started to delicately tell a few friends and colleagues I was thinking about transitioning,” Richards said, “kind of treading water to see if I could do it successfully, and one looked at me and said, ‘Do you mean like Buffalo Bill?'”