Solo Mission: A Lesbian Spy Story

Product Information

LGBTQ STORY I'D LOVE TO SEE ONSCREEN"One that makes my blood boil with confusion and rage that I wasn't able to come up with it first, something completely unexpected and impolite." Gershon: I just thought I'd be inspired. I certainly was inspired with tattoos and stuff. I ended up choosing my own tattoos and where I wanted them and all that stuff. I FIRST FELT REPRESENTED WHEN I SAW "Mario Cantone host a TV show in the '80s called Steampipe Alleyon a New York City channel. The minute I saw it, I knew." With a GLAAD Media Award for outstanding comedy series and a Rising Star nod from the Outfest Legacy Awards, Saracho has been praised for creating opportunities for Latinx and LGBTQ voices and for showcasing them on camera on the Starz series Vida.

THE TOP OF MY QUARANTINE BINGE LIST" Feel Good. My good friend Ally Pankiw directed it. And my fellow Canadian Mae Martin wrote and stars in it. Lesbian female director directing a lesbian hero in a story is the perfect remedy to a down day in quarantine." I'LL FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOLLYWOOD'S LGBTQ REPRESENTATION WHEN"Movies and shows stop queer-baiting and just start writing more queer characters and storylines."I FELT MOST PROUD TO BE PART OF THE COMMUNITY LAST YEAR WHEN"Seeing the cast of Pose thriving and enjoying the respect and admiration they deserve." At her company, Killer Films, the veteran indie producer of movies like Caroland Boys Don't Cryhas taken both pride in and heat for bringing to screen a broad range of LGBTQ characters. Vachon's upcoming projects see her reteaming with director Todd Haynes for a documentary on The Velvet Underground, producing a Netflix mini­series about fashion designer Halston (starring Ewan McGregor) and delivering on a just-inked first-look deal with MGM. Tilly: [The rating board] said, "It looks like they're really doing it." And the [Wachowskis] go, "Let me get this straight. If the girls weren't such good actresses, you wouldn't have a problem?" They were embarrassed, and they said, "Yes." RELATED: Conrad Ricamora Talks 'How to Get Away With Murder' 16. How to Get Away with Murder ABC's "How to Get Away with Murder" stars Viola Davis as Professor Annalise Keating. Bob D'Amico / ABC

I'LL FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOLLYWOOD'S LGBTQ REPRESENTATION WHEN"The characters are three-dimensional human beings and not simply just clownin’ as the archetype, the magical queen sprinkling fairy dust all over the world." In some cases, women had their own blinkered views of female leadership to overcome. Barely 30 when she was recruited in 1940, Fourcade had lived abroad, and relished the liberated environment of 1930s Paris. Still, she was astonished when “Navarre,” the code name for Georges Loustaunau-Lacau, asked her to be his deputy. Being a woman surely ruled her out, she protested to the World War I hero, who was secretly mobilizing citizens worried by Nazi aggression in Europe. That was precisely why she would be above suspicion, he told her. “Good God—it’s a woman!” cried another recruit, who became one of her most trusted aides. After Navarre was arrested in Algiers in 1941, Fourcade became the undisputed leader of Alliance. Few have done more for LGBTQ representation in Hollywood than Murphy. The prolific creator, who has two children with photographer husband David Miller, has devoted his career to telling the kinds of queer stories he never saw on TV growing up. From Glee to American Horror Story to Pose, Murphy has succeeded in building his own inclusive content universe — and he's continuing to add to it at Netflix, where he's dropped queer-centric shows like The Politician and Hollywood and has the upcoming movie The Boys in the Band.

Brian Wright

The Australian delivered stand-up's ultimate mic drop with 2018 special Nanette. But instead of being the swan song she intended, one in which Gadsby disavowed self-deprecating humor, it made her a global comedy star. Netflix released her latest special, Douglas, on May 26, earning universal praise and solidifying her status as one of the biggest names in comedy — queer or otherwise. I FIRST FELT REPRESENTED WHEN I SAW"Bugs Bunny outsmart the status quo with a wink and a witty remark." Gershon: Look at your body. Honestly, whenever I wasn't sure of what I was doing I would just stare at your chest.

Sitting in meetings with her at the prominent literary agency where we both worked left me feeling weak. Usually never short of things to say, in her presence, I’d marvel at her ability to drain all quips from my mind, leaving my mouth bone-dry. But I knew the cliché and I refused to succumb to the stereotype of being the young, ambitious 25-year-old who screws the boss. In the latest episode of the Disney+ series Hawkeye, we got to meet a new member of the Lesbian Cop Club, Wendy Conrad. While she may be the latest queer character to be introduced into the MCU, she shares a long legacy with other lesbian cops in TV and movies. I'LL FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOLLYWOOD'S LGBTQ REPRESENTATION WHEN"There is a healthier variety of queer stories and characters whose queerness is not their defining factor. And when roles are cast across the board based solely on an actor’s ability and how right they are for any given role, regardless of their sexuality or the character’s sexuality."

Lilly Singh

I FIRST FELT REPRESENTED WHEN I SAW"As someone who identifies as nonbinary, I’m realizing I don’t think I ever felt represented as a kid — especially because I thought of myself as cis and female at the time. TV mostly made me feel like I wasn’t enough and reinforced a more awful, awkward prism of how women are valued for beauty over most anything else." Her husband reacted surprisingly well too, suggesting that they enrol in therapy to help both of them exit their long-standing relationship. I took this as my cue to make a commitment and said I would move to the suburbs to be with her and her three children, once her husband had moved out. Gershon: I really liked the hip [tattoo] that wrapped around my hip and crept up. You saw the top of it coming out of my pants sometimes. I thought that was really sexy. I had seen that on some girl at a bar, and I was like, "Oh that's hot." Since her landmark coming-out in 1997, DeGeneres has risen to the highest levels in Hollywood. She started her 2020 with the Golden Globes' Carol Burnett Lifetime Achievement Award — and her daytime talk show, credited with endearing much of America to LGBTQ persons, is in its 17th season. As a producer with scripted and unscripted efforts, she remains committed to giving voices to marginalized talent. Gershon: Susie Bright, she was supposed to take me around. The Wachowskis thought it was important that I meet her. She was an authority figure, and [a writer] in the lesbian community. I was really excited to talk to her.

To know that I could finally come clean to my worrisome friends felt liberating beyond belief. I didn’t care about sacrificing my youth to move to outer London with a swarm of forty-somethings. All I wanted was to be with her full-time, and for it to be out in the open that we were together.Tilly: I did have so many girls come up to me—and so many drag queens saying their drag name was Violet. It really made me feel, in a weird way, like I had a responsibility when all these girls would come up to me and say that they came out of the closet and realized they were gay after they saw this film. Gershon: I was coming right off of Showgirls, and I was so ultra femme in that. [I cut] all my nails and my hair off, and I started boxing. I had been dancing for five months, so I was so floaty and I wanted to be in my body more like a boxer…Marlon Brando, Monty Clift, Robert Mitchum. I went to all those guys. There's a certain quietness. I wanted to be like all the guys I project [my ideas of heroism and masculinity] on to. MY MENTOR IS"I don’t know that I have a specific mentor, but I am incredibly inspired by my kids’ generation because of their open-mindedness and acceptance." MY MENTOR IS"My former boss Stephen Friedman, who gave me my first shot as a freelancer at MTV — I’ve never worked so hard to get a job and never learned so much from one person." Wright is known around the halls of the streamer as "the Ryan Murphy whisperer," but running point on the showrunner's series is just one piece of his job. He's responsible for Netflix's substantial and still-growing collection of YA shows and has made a habit of shepherding projects — including Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, Special and Atypical— with inclusive casts and characters that explore themes of identity, self-discovery and representation.