Hari Nef did sun in Greta Gerwig’s new picture, Barbie. ( Getty/Instagram/@barbiethemovie )
Nef may not be well-known yet, but millions of people are watching her since she first appeared in Barbie as a doctor to assist Ken ( Ryan Gosling ) with a surfing injury.
After a promotional banner featuring Dr. Barbie was released, Nef shared a letter she wrote to writer/director Greta Gerwig about what being cast in Barbie meant to her as a transgender woman, writing:” Barbie‘s the normal, she’s The Girl, she’s truly THE doll. Me and my girlfriends–okay, yeah, me and my other transgender girls – we started calling ourselves” the figurines” a couple of years back…
” Maybe it’s a bid to ratify our femininity, to smile and sneer at the standards we’re held to as women … we call ourselves” the dolls” in the face of everything we know we are, never will be, hope to be. Because the term is important, we yell it. And no mannequin matters more than Barbie.’
Nef is Hebrew and moved to Boston when she was five after moving from Philadelphia with her mother. She said she grew up” a strange, plump, famous and artistic” Jewish kid who started off as an “overachieving, over- designed public school student” and eventually became a “rebellious teenager” who did drugs and snuck off with boys.
Nef’s families have always been friendly of her and her shift
Nef made her acting debut in the Transparent set on Amazon as Tante Gittel, a cross-dresser in Berlin before being assassinated during the Holocaust. Nef was nominated for a SAG prize for the position, and the show received an Emmy.
She also starred alongside Suki Waterhouse in the Sam Levinson thriller Assassination Nation, and she also starred alongside Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd in the recurring roles in The Hero and The Weeknd.
The second trans model to work for IMG was Hari Nef.
Due to acting, Nef made history as the first explicitly transgender person to sign with the famous analysis company IMG Worldwide, which has also signed Gigi Hadid, Gisele Bundchen, and Hailey Beiber.
Nef graduated from Columbia University just before she graduated with a theater level. – when she first partnered with IMG and participated in Ekhaus Latta’s dHood by Air runway show at New York Fashion Week.
She also appeared in strategies for tote designer Mansur Gavriel and the traditional department store Harrods.
Nef was also the first transgender model to look on Elle UK’s cover in September 2016.
Nef has long spoken out in support of her area. Again in 2015, Nef tweeted:” I’m handed options in 2015 as a white transgender person. 9 have been slain in the U. S. in 2015 because they were transgender girls of colour”.
She has said that she never meant to be an “activist” for trans people but that she also was n’t going to sit by and be “passive]about ] the injustice” that she’s seen.
Nef stated more recently that she hoped that trans people would find her presence in the movie inspiring after making an appearance in Barbie.
Speaking to Out Magazine, Nef said:” As much as there’s a party of sexuality and being a woman in this]movie], there’s even an assistance of letting go of the schedule we ascribe to living and living your life, and being in your system, your manner, on your own words”.
” The best that we can do as women, as trans women, is be there for]one another ] and take ourselves at face value, without relying on the green light from anyone else”.
She also shared her desire to see more stories focused on trans people” that are n’t merely redemptive, that are n’t rooted in transition or discovery”.
” I’m excited for trans a*sholes on screen. I’m excited for trans anti- heroes on screen. I’m excited for trans scammers on screen. I’m excited for trans sex on screen. I’m excited for trans nudity on screen. There are a lot of things that we have n’t actually seen yet”, she said.
Hari Nef does n’t want her gender to be a “big deal.”
Nef is open about her transition and her life as a trans woman, but she also wishes that gender, or gender in general, was n’t so significant.
” I believe that my gender identity frequently obscures my work. Identity is a dead end, so I do n’t want it to be a big deal. It’s a snoozefest”, she told The Guardian.
” My identity will always affect how I perceive the world and how I perceive it. But I am an unremarkable person. The more we fixate on it the less we, as a community, ]will ] feel normal and safe in our day- to- day lives. I just want to grab a meal and, you know, go on a date”, she continued.
Nef’s casting in Barbie was not directly related to her transgender identity, but rather her talent. This is why gender is n’t a big deal for her.
Even so, Nef is proud to be a trans woman, and she previously claimed that her transition helped her gain confidence in acting:” Finding my new voice, my new body, and a new set of roles to play… felt so much more authentic. I frequently make fun of the fact that I perform better than I do as a man.
