40 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine isn’t that… Y ou’vebeencalledaheroyourself.Canthatbe overwhelming? It’s never overwhelming. It’s just strange to hear. It’s the same kind of thing when I’ll be bantering with my friends and they’ll say, “Oh, you’re famous.” I’m like, “Oh, okay. Sure.” I’m, not going to say that, but if you want to say that, it’s okay. I’m just here doing my best. If that makes me a hero in some people’s eyes, that’s very touching. It means a lot to me. It just feels weird when I say it. So I don’t. WiththecharacterofNia,howdoyouhopetoseetrans- genderrepresentationevolve? I hope, especially with Nia, we are in a time now when we are seeing so many amaz- ing trans characters on television. I think with each new trans character, there is less weight on each character and actor’s shoul- ders to perfectly portray a transgender char- acter. Back in the day, maybe when we’d only have one or two trans characters, there was so much pressure on those characters to rep- resent an entire community. That’s impossi- ble to do when you’re one person. Whenyoucanonlyrepresentanindividual. Exactly. Now with so many different characters across so many different genres of television shows, I think that actors and writers are going to have more freedom in It must be a breath of fresh air for the rest of the cast and crew to have someone who’s that excited on set. I don’t know. Maybe. I feel like one day I’m going to overstep. Walking in- to Comic-Con that first day, I always felt like I’d go through the front door. Here I was going through the back and into the green room with the cast. I totally felt like I was some fan who’d managed to slip past someone and get in through the back door. I feel like I’ve tricked someone into letting me be here. You said you watched a lot of television growing up. Who were your superheroes? Growing up, one of my favorite shows was That’s So Raven. I absolutely adored Raven-Symoné. As I got older? I love Hele- na Bonham Carter. Yes.She’saqueen. Right? She can do no wrong for me. Now when I watch TV shows, I am in love with Viola Davis. She’s incredible. But growing up it was Raven-Symoné. When I was first looking at names when I was tran- sitioning, I considered changing my name to Raven, but my parents told me no. It’sabeautifulname. Yeah, but I’m not a Raven. I couldn’t pull it off. how they portray a trans character and ex- perience. I’m hoping then when we look at a character and say, “Well, trans people aren’t like that,” we can say back, “No, but this person is like that; this character is like that.” We’ll be looking at an individual’s storyline and not the trans storyline. I don’t think it’s fair to expect an individual to rep- resent an entire group. CanyoutellmeaboutlivinginVancouver? Vancouver is the cleanest city I’ve ev- er been to. It’s so weird. It’s a good food city… But I don’t think it tops Portland, Maine. As I’m saying that, a red dot ap- pears on my forehead… What’syoursociallifelikethere? The cast of Supergirl is amazing, so I hang out with them. We just went to see the Kate McKinnon, Mila Kunis movie, The Spy Who Dumped Me. It’s good. It’s rough, though. Sometimes my scenes get squeezed into one day, so I’ll have the rest of the week to not really do anything. I’m, like, sitting in my apartment, just kind of waiting. Justhangingout,beingasuperhero? Costumes will call and ask if I’m free, and I’m, like, “Yes! I’m free. Free to do any- thing. I’m free. Let’s go.” n Bettina strauss: the CW © 2018