Tommy Dorfman publicly clarified her gender identity this week, telling Time magazine that she has been living as a transgender woman for a year.
The “13 Reasons Why” actor will be using the pronouns “she” and “her.” She was adamant, however, that her announcement not be deemed a “coming out,” adding, “Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman.”
“I view today as a reintroduction to me as a woman, having made a transition medically,” said Dorfman, before noting why she won’t be changing her name. “I’m named after my mom’s brother who passed a month after I was born, and I feel very connected to that name, to an uncle who held me as he was dying. This is an evolution of Tommy. I’m becoming more Tommy.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the 29-year-old shared her initial concerns over how living as her true self would impact her Hollywood career. “I feared that by actively transitioning in my personal life, I would lose whatever career I’ve been told I’m supposed to have,” she said. “But I’m no longer interested in playing ‘male’ characters — except for maybe in a ‘Cate Blanchett playing Bob Dylan’ way. Sometimes you just have to say, ‘No, this is just who I fucking am.’”
Professionally, she said she’d like to “infuse my trans body into film and television” moving forward, noting that Lena Dunham cast her in a female role in the forthcoming movie “Sharp Stick.” On a more personal note, she said she expected to “redefine” her relationship with husband Peter Zurkuhlen, whom she married in 2016.
“I was in a nine-year relationship in which I was thought of as a more male-bodied person, with a gay man,” she said. “I love him so much, but we’ve been learning that as a trans woman, what I’m interested in is not necessarily reflected in a gay man. So we’ve had incredible conversations to redefine our relationship as friends.”
“All I can do now is look to a future where I am, hopefully, just radically honest,” she continued. “That’s the person I am becoming.”
In addition to “13 Reasons Why,” the Georgia native has appeared in “Jane the Virgin” and “Love, Victor,” among other television shows. Last year, she had a starring role the Freeform pandemic-themed romantic comedy miniseries “Love in the Time of Corona.”