Jamie Clayton Kisses And Tells

Thomas Jane's character Ray Drecker has serviced a number of ladies on HBO's controversial series Hung, but his latest client has a secret past. Actress Jamie Clayton made her scripted primetime debut Sunday night as Kyla, a young woman who procures main character Ray Drecker's "services" as a date for her high school reunion. It was the first of a trailblazing two episode arc on the HBO show because the actress who plays the strawberry blonde with the raspy voice shares more than striking features with her character: They're both women who happen to be transgender.

The show notoriously explores a Detroit man resorting to prostitution to make ends meet and it continues to push the envelope with the introduction of Kyla. Clayton, who has also previously appeared on Vh1's TRANSform Me, says that she hopes to be judged for her work and not her past and she's auditioning for different types of roles. Speaking to The Insider, she talks about the audition process and bursting into tears after hearing she had the part, as well as how welcoming the entire cast and crew of the show was. "I honestly started crying when my manager called me the night [he told me that] I got the part," Clayton said. "I started bursting into tears and I called my mom to tell her." While her mother was thrilled, Clayton was more ecstatic for nabbing the role; not because she gets to make out with series star Thomas Jane (though she did find it to be an "absolute pleasure"), but for the fact that the thespian gets to exhibit her acting chops in front of a larger audience and not just be looked at as a transgender actress. "I want to act," Clayton said. "I want to do movies and television shows. I want to audition for all different kinds of parts, not just transgender roles. Hopefully, once people see the show, they will believe in me."


Janet Mock also interviewed Clayton for a piece on People.com, in which she spoke more about her character's storyline, and how her relationship with Thomas Jane's character evolves. "Obviously this storyline is different for Hung," Clayton admits. "The writers really just trumped all of the things that I knew were going to bother people [about Kyla]." After some initial tension, Clayton says Ray's character sees Kyla for who she really is, and says "I really hope that people walk away from the episodes with exactly what Ray walks away with: knowing that Kyla is a beautiful girl who deserves to be treated like everybody else."

Clayton, 33, is a former makeup artist, who first made a splash in 2008 when the New York Observer proclaimed the San Diego native the "Second Most Beautiful Girl in New York" in what she calls a "kitschy" profile. "I'll never forget the day the article came out. My whole life just completely changed," she reflects of making the decision to be "visible to the public" as a transgender woman and in effect say, "I'm here, I'm this girl. I'm totally like everybody else."

And that sense of normalcy is what initially attracted Clayton to Kyla, which is her first acting role. "I love that she's just a regular girl, and I love that she wanted Ray to know [she's transgender]," the actress says. "With Kyla coming into Ray's life he has a big lesson, and I think it shows people we're constantly growing, and if we open ourselves up to new experiences we become better people." But how did she feel about her leading man Jane – and their steamy makeout scenes? "He was an absolute gentlemen from the minute that I met him. I was just completely mesmerized by him," she says. "He was very patient with me and he was so, so good."

Though she won’t divulge personal details, Clayton goes into more depth about her past and her career in an interview with The Advocate. Obviously it’s really rare for trans actresses to actually get cast on TV of any kind, especially non-reality, and usually when there’s a trans character, non-trans actresses get cast for those roles. So how did she get involved with Hung? "They actually found me through an article that was written about an acting studio that I attend," she recalls. "There was a big article in the New York Times, and writers were reading this and when it came time for them to start auditioning people for the role, they contacted my agent and I submitted an audition and before I knew it I was in LA fitting wardrobe and on set filming."

There is, of course, a savvy feminist undercurrent to Hung (hearing Jane Adams’ madam character Tanya explain that porn is bad because of the male gaze is one of TV’s finest moments) but the show is not trying to be overly PC with Clayton's episodes. When asked if she thought some of the language used on the show is there to help show an evolution on the part of some of the characters, there is an adamant response. "Definitely, I think that as much as the storyline is about as much as watching Kyla’s story evolve it’s also about Ray," she insists. "It’s about watching him evolve. So I think that the language that’s included, they’re very real reactions. These are characters in Detroit … I think the writers just wanted to stay true to the characters and true to the storylines, and I think its great because I think that by the end of the episodes you see Ray comes around and embraces Kyla 100."