This month, the Casting Guild of Australia officially announced their Rising Stars of 2024, a diverse group of promising young actors who the CGA believes has the potential to reach international stardom. Among them is Janet Anderson—a vocal trans advocate who shares just how important this award is for both herself and the wider trans community.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s been such a nice surprise,” Jane Anderson tells Not Safe For Queers about being named a Rising Star. “When I got the call from my agency telling me that I was selected, my first instinct was, like, I don’t remember applying for this. So, to be told that it was something I’d been selected for, it was really nice.”
While Anderson has more than half a dozen acting credits under her belt (including in Paramount Plus’ The Last King Of The Cross and ABC Studios’ Reef Break) she still very much considers herself as being a budding actress, making this award all the more momentous.
“Being at the beginning of my career as a trans actor—in this country in particular—I felt nervous whether that was really a viable option, or whether my work would be received how I wanted it to be. So, this has relieved some of those doubts, which is nice,” she says.
For Anderson, however, this award is much bigger than herself; being named a CGA Rising Star sends a message to the wider trans community that they can, in fact, thrive in Australia’s entertainment industry.
“It’s not something I take lightly at all. It’s something I think I have to spend a lot of time sitting with,” Anderson says. “Being a young queer person and not really seeing myself on screen, it’s really hard, you know? And while I had seen trans representation, I don’t think I’d ever seen Australian trans representation. So, it was all a bit of a pipe dream.”
“But ultimately, I hope that this will lead to more work—not only for myself—but for other trans actors in this country. I hope that other, younger trans and queer people (other than myself) can see it as a pathway for them. Because I’m nothing without my community. So it would be silly to shut the door behind me.”
“I think it remains to be seen whether that will happen, but that’s my hope, you know, that representation leads to more representation,” she adds.
Moving forward, the Rising Star’s hope is for capabilities to eclipse identities in conversations like these. “I would love to be respected as a talented actor rather than as an important piece of representation,” she expresses.
“I hope that my abilities as an actor can sit outside of my identity, and that, as a trans actor, I can, sit among other actors, and we can all just be considered rising stars, regardless of where we came from.”
“Because often when we integrate actors, whether they’re from the trans community, whether they’re black actors or disabled actors, or whether they sit at different intersections, I think sometimes they’re not given their due reverence. Like, they’re just as—if not more—talented than their white, cis-hetero counterparts, you know?”
“So, I think that that’s the main goal: to just be considered one in the same.”