I grew up poor, financially lower class. Worked in restaurants for 17 years while going to acting school and trying to become a working actor. Because I know what it's like to not have money, I turn down roles if I don't want to play them.
— Asia Kate Dillon
I spent so many years not understanding my own gender identity and not having the language for it, and not having those conversations, that now I'm so eager to talk about it. Then I learn more about myself and other people.
Art is so valuable that I think its misuse is really dangerous. When it's used well, when it's telling a story well or creating representation or visibility for something that's really lacking, it can really save lives.
It's interesting that people think that pants are masculine. Pants are pants.
Once people are made aware of things that they were previously ignorant of, I think people are a lot more willing to really try.
I was gender-nonconforming in high school in terms of the way I dressed, in terms of the way I cut my hair.
Honestly, from a very young age, before I had the language, really - anywhere that I encountered binary, whether it was in clothing or in toys or in media, it always made me uncomfortable.
In my real life, I'm a Black Lives Matter social justice activist, and so it was incredibly interesting to me to play somebody coming from the totally opposite side, whose beliefs are as deeply entrenched - as deeply felt, and given as much gravity, as I give my beliefs.
I spent so many years not understanding my own gender identity, not having the language to talk about it, and not feeling safe in many environments to talk about it.
Whether it's a song or a television show, or a book or poem, art is the thing that cracks me open and encourages me to go on a deeper journey to find my own compassion and empathy and humanity.
I love my ability to generate empathy and compassion within myself and others.
'Laramie' is a way in to replacing any hate in your heart with understanding, compassion, and acceptance.
If someone says 'she' or 'he,' and it's unintentional, I can tell if it's coming from a place of love. It's only when someone misgenders me on purpose that it becomes hurtful.
I'm really interested in going back in to the history of non-binary people and seeing how many people in history were non-binary but that didn't know it themselves or because we didn't have the language, couldn't talk about it. I know how that felt being a young person not having that language.
I do say gender fluid, because I experience my gender identity as being fluid because it's on a spectrum.
I'm very careful with my media intake. I try and monitor it pretty carefully.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that only gender non-conforming, non-binary, or trans people have a gender identity. But the truth is, everyone has a gender identity.
I moved to New York at 17 to go to school. At 24, I moved back to Ithaca, then moved back to New York at 28.
Labels can be really helpful when we have the autonomy to label ourselves. But when other people label us without our permission, that's when it becomes dangerous.
A lot of brands are saying they're going to make 'gender neutral' clothing. But clothing is gender neutral.
When you are not working in TV and primarily doing film, you're working with one director for a long period of time, so getting to work with 12 different directors in the span of six months is incredible.
'Orange' is fun. Even when we're doing super-intense, emotional, or physical stuff, we're having fun. We're checking in with each other; we know about each other's lives and know each other's families and relationships. We're really friends.
I'm always interested in, I would say, not only sharing my wisdom, but acquiring other people's wisdom as well.
When you see white, cisgendered, heterosexual men having conversations about gender identity where they go, 'Oh, those are your pronouns? OK, great. Let's get back to work,' it allows other people to say, 'Maybe if they can do it, I can do it.'
The very first time I buzzed my head, I was 21 - I'd had short hair since I was 14 - I just remember it was, like, 2 in the morning, and I just was like, 'I really want to do it. I want to see what I look like and what my head shape is.'
Capitalism in and of itself is based on the monetising of human labour, and the first evidence of that is slavery. And that has never changed. We are all participating in that.
We've been socialised and told that there is a way to describe people, and that way is by their gender or their sex.
I love that I dream big and go after my dreams with all I've got to give.
For all of the incredible messages I've received about how my visibility is helping people, those people who I follow on social media still receive daily death threats and the most derogatory, inhumane vitriol.
I can remember, actually, seeing the film 'Oliver!' and understanding so badly that I wanted to play that part, but that I would never be able to because I was a 'girl' and Oliver was a 'boy.'
Me feeling ambiguous about my gender identity has been a lifelong feeling, certainly.
I wish everyone could just be free.
I first started removing the 'she,' 'her,' and 'hers' pronouns from my online material. I was just using my name in place of a pronoun, and that felt really good. Then I read the script for 'Billions' and did a little more research into non-binary, and it just really clicked for me.
The United States has larger enclaves than one might suspect of communities that have simply never engaged with anyone different than themselves or anyone that has an ideology that's different or a background that's different.
I remember, in middle school, we did the musical 'Oliver.' I loved the movie, and I always wanted to play Oliver. It might not have been stated, but the boys auditioned for Oliver, and the girls auditioned for Nancy. But we also did a play called 'Li'l Abner,' and I was really excited that they let me put on a suit and a fake mustache.
I struggled coming to terms with the fact that I'd been assigned female at birth, but that I didn't feel like a girl or a woman or a man or a boy.
What we need to do is get rid of 'men's' and 'women's' sections and make sections that are, like, 'dresses for tall people,' 'pants for short people,' 'jeans for people with hips,' you know what I mean?
I really like working with different directors. It's really fun.
We have table reads for every episode of 'Billions.' The core cast is smaller than the core cast on 'Orange Is the New Black,' so in that sense, it has more of a theater vibe.
I remember specifically a couple of performances that I saw when I was young - River Phoenix in 'Stand by Me' and also Michael Jackson, in particular his ability to command such power and love while maintaining such deep vulnerability. It really moved my soul from a very young age.
Gender-neutral clothing is often, for lack of a better term, bags on bags. A baggy shirt with baggy pants, that sort of erases any individuality, as opposed to enhancing it.
Nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and trans people have always been around, just as long as any other type of person.
I want the United States to be having a much larger and more public conversation about racist capitalism. We need a radical reimagining of the economy in this country.
I see reflections of what I love about myself in the love and care I receive from my friends, family, and co-workers who, in turn, allow me to love and care about them.
I love that although the world is a dangerous place, I still find it to be beautiful.
There is still so much acceptance, representation and visibility needed for trans women of color and gender non-conforming people of color.
As someone who is non-binary gender identifying, I feel a particular responsibility to portray members of my community on stage and on screen, not only as fully fleshed-out characters who are integral to the plot, but as characters whose gender identity is just one of many parts that make up the whole person.
I think that it's important to say that trans people exist, and we are valid, whether we choose to transition or not. It's really up to anyone to decide what is going to make them feel the most like themselves.
My impression of Wall Street growing up was certainly that it was like the big, bad place where all of the men did the bad things with our money.
Some people's gender identity conforms to the sex they were assigned at birth, and some people's identity doesn't. That realization was certainly very freeing for me - and could be very freeing for other people.
