20 Quotes by Brian Michael Smith

I've been acting since I was a child doing church plays and stuff like that.

When I got to high school and college, I was more involved in athletics then I was in acting. At that time, I was trying to figure out what my identity was and roles became more gendered, it was a little bit more challenging for me to stay with the acting.

I've had a sense of self-determination and strength that have carried me through. Hopefully I can bring that into my work and guide other people to do the same.

If people want to see more representation of trans people you just have to look around, because with the explosion of digital creation, lots of trans actors and film makers have been creating their own content and it's readily available.

I'm trying to limit the screen time because there's so much crazy news and you can only binge-watch so many TV shows.

There's this belief sometimes from people who haven't lived the trans experience that's just like, 'You should tell everyone. You owe it to them.' But the truth is, you don't know how people are going to respond. And many people don't even have the language to talk about what their trans experience is, or what it could be.

That's something I really like about 'Lone Star,' is that they allow my character to just be who he is, while also at other times exploring his trans experience and giving room for that as well.

Not too long after 'OITB' debuted, I was at NewFest and I saw 'Black Is Blue,' a short film by Cheryl Dunye about a Black trans man trying to make it in Oakland. It was the first time I could recall seeing a Black trans man on screen and this was in 2015.

I wanted to play characters that were going to make me better and really challenge me to raise my skill level up or that were just interesting to me personally. I want to be the best actor I can be, and I want to be the most creative actor I can be. I want to take on roles that will move the chain to where I finally want to go.