Behind the scenes: Tilda Swinton and director Sally Potter on the Orlando set. Credit: sallypotter.com.
When I was 14, my friends and I went to see the arthouse film Orlando because we were bored and it starred an actor my friends had a crush on.
I couldn’t have predicted that that feminist film would subsequently consume my life: that it would alter my understanding of my sexuality, my conservative religious upbringing, and my vocation. Later that afternoon, that film inspired me to talk back to an airport security guard who was sexually harassing me. Referring to the title character Orlando’s journey from male to female, I told him to “Bend my gender,” and was nearly arrested.
