On Saturday, Leyna Bloom became the first transgender actress of color to star in a movie at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, Danielle Lessovitz’s “Port Authority,” bears eerie resemblance to Bloom’s own life.
Leyna Bloom, 25, is the first transgender actress of color to have a lead role in a film at the Cannes Film Festival. She stars in the film"Port Authority."
So when the academy refused to allow her to dance as a female — or even transfer departments to, say, musical theater — she decided to head to the Big Apple. She trusted, she said, that “the universe will never put you in a position you can’t handle,” and she was right. I want people to look at my movie and ... say: ‘Your movie changed my life. It inspired me and gave me the oomph I needed.’Bloom lives her best life as she poses for photographers at the Cannes Film Festival photo call. “A lot of places I go in the world, I’m the first to do something. This is a continuation of having to go through that, and it’s a very surreal moment,” Bloom said, a few hours after getting off a plane from New York, where she lives in Brooklyn.
Damian Bao, the casting director on “Port Authority,” found Bloom at a voguing ball in Philadelphia. She’d been a part of the ballroom community since she was 15, when she began walking in the Face category and picking up trophies and checks for $500 or $1,000. When she met Bao and heard what the indie film was about, she felt like the part was meant for her.
“It’s a hard conversation to have with someone in a professional context, but it was like, ‘OK, Leyna, what’s your favorite position? How do you feel most loved?’ And that’s what we did,” recalled Lessovitz. “It was so brave of her to trust us, that we were going to honor her experience. It was her first film, and her first time baring herself like this with a film crew. Knowing all the trauma that’s around these girls and how their bodies are viewed by other people? She’s such a hero.
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