Deputy's Bex Taylor-Klaus on being non-binary and playing a non-binary character on a network drama: "Representation saves lives"

The Hollywood Reporter

On the Fox police drama, Taylor-Klaus plays Brianna Bishop, Stephen Dorff's character's sidekick -- his driver, security detail and sounding board. But Taylor-Klaus, a lesbian who's nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, originally auditioned to play a character described as "a compact lesbian supermodel." "The difference between original script Bishop and pilot Bishop and then episode two Bishop is subtle, but there," says Taylor-Klaus. "For example, in the pilot, as we were still working through things, the suits are tailored differently. The whole undergarment situation is, like, a padded bra. And then by the time we get to episode two, it's like, no no no, Bishop is going to be an androgynous badass with some serious military experience. So we don't have to worry about like, are we feminizing this character, we have to go with the Brienne of Tarth route and make sure that this character is dimensional and interesting. I thought that was beautiful. And I don't in any way want to discredit the official description from the pilot. It's just really cool to see how, when putting in a new actor, it shifts this character on this really interesting new path." Taylor-Klaus adds: "I feel like as an actor, you get this unique challenge presented to you where you can either take this character somewhere new and work with the writers or you can just follow the writers lead. Either way, you're going to have an epic time and your character is going to go someplace you couldn't foresee in the beginning. But as I get older, it's been more and more exciting to be able to put in a little bit of my input and a little bit of my knowledge of the human process and the performance process."