I was forced out to the streets and I came across the youth center - at the time it was called the Jeff Griffith Youth Center - and I went to the center and they helped me a lot with housing and everything to pretty much get myself back on my feet.īut I was constantly surrounded by all these sex workers and drug dealers in the area, and I needed money and I was applying for all these jobs over and over and over and I was like "Why am I not getting any jobs?" So eventually I started applying for more, I did 146 jobs in one month and the last month that I applied for jobs, before all this movie stuff, was 186 jobs and I found myself being discriminated against and I could actually prove it. I left and I moved to LA with another family member, who actually treated me horribly. I was pretty much thrown away from my family when I came out to them when I was 18. Taylor: I've done sex work in my life and it's not fun, it's not easy and it's nothing that you can just get used to. And I have to thank her very much for doing that. They said, "Oh if you just would shoot this next year I would be more comfortable with myself," so for Mya to do this, I consider it to be extremely brave. There were some women that we met in the area who didn't want to participate in the film because of where they were in their transition and they expressed that to us. Sean Baker: I realize how brave it was for Mya to allow us to shoot the film at that moment in life. It's something that I was very apprehensive about at first, but then I realized it was the only way to go because it wasn't condescending to the subjects." "I was very thankful that she had this request because I'm not sure I would've gone down this road without her guidance on it. "I didn't know exactly how I would go about doing that it seemed like too hard of a balancing act," he says.īut in the end, he realized that turning the film into a comedy would broaden its audience appeal.
#Tangerine movie full
"I told Sean I wanted the story to be very real and I wanted it to be very funny because, like, who wants a theater full of crying people?" she tells Gross.īaker was initially reluctant to follow Taylor's suggestion. The idea to make the film funny came from Taylor. Taylor went on to co-star in the Baker-directed film Tangerine, an off-beat comedy that follows two transgender sex workers as they work the intersection on Christmas Eve.
I told Sean I wanted the story to be very real and I wanted it to be very funny because, like, who wants a theater full of crying people? She was that collaborator we were looking for." But then they met Mya Taylor and something clicked: "There was just something about Mya - she attracted our attention from 40 feet away - and we went up to her and introduced ourselves and started talking about this project and it was that 'eureka' moment where she expressed just as much enthusiasm back to us. Many of the women Baker and Bergoch approached assumed they were cops and refused to talk. But Baker's interest in the area went beyond the usual transactions: "I thought there must be some incredible stories that take place on that corner."īaker wanted to tell those stories, so he and co-screenwriter Chris Bergoch began walking the streets in search of a collaborator who could act as their "passport" into an unfamiliar world. The corner of Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard is "an unofficial red light district," Baker tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. When film director Sean Baker moved to Los Angeles three years ago, he found himself drawn to one of the city's most infamous intersections.
Actress Mya Taylor and director Sean Baker collaborated on the film Tangerine, a comedy about a friendship between transgender sex workers in Los Angeles' unofficial red-light district.
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