The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
Lio Mehiel
The transmasculine actor brings vulnerability to the post-transition experience in the Sundance award-winning film Mutt
Just two minutes into trans filmmaker Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s feature debut, Mutt, viewers bear witness to how exposed the main character Feña is to others’ projections about his identity. In the scene, Feña’s father refers to him by his birth name, Fernanda, when he calls and questions how he’ll be able to recognize him at the airport because of his recent transition; moments later, a passerby remarks “Nice Spanglish” after overhearing the call. Yet in situations where such othering has often led to stereotypical queer archetyping onscreen, Feña’s terse rebuttals immediately demonstrate he’s no downtrodden trans trope. “On the page, Feña was written as a lot more caustic and prickly,” says transmasculine actor and artist Lio Mehiel, who portrays Feña in the film (out Aug. 18) about a hellish day in New York City where everything seems to go wrong. “I’m naturally a pretty soft and sensitive person and I could have gone with a more combative vibe. But we decided for this … just be as much of you as you can be, because that’s the thing that’s going to invite people in.” Acceptance of that invitation means diving headfirst into Feña’s complicated relationships: with his Chilean father; with his white, 14-year-old half-sister, Zoe, who randomly shows up at his job after they haven’t seen each other for more than a year; and with his straight ex-boyfriend, John, whom he runs into at a nightclub. Early on, the latter pair shares an intimate moment that magnifies the sensibilities of Feña’s reality as a trans man who has had top surgery when John asks if he can see his chest and they rediscover their carnal desire for each another. The scene, which Mehiel describes as “beautiful and unlike anything I’ve ever seen onscreen,” is their favorite one in the film. “It’s so tender and so quiet. I’m literally revealing my body to this person who I love, who I’m not so sure loves me anymore,” says Mehiel. “It’s every actor’s dream to just bare their soul, and in a little bit
of a way I was doing that by sharing my body, which, as a trans person, can be quite vulnerable. I’ve had top surgery and I’m so proud of it and so grateful for it, but it’s vulnerable to be like, ‘Here are my scars.’ ” Mehiel, raised in Puerto Rico until age 5, graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in theater and lived in New York before relocating to L.A. to pursue acting. They recall emailing Mutt ’s director and writing, “You don’t know me, but I am Feña, and I will do anything to get this part.” Their veracious portrayal was well received at Sundance, where Mehiel made history as the first trans actor to win the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting. The recognition, says Mehiel, who’s now shooting a film about Latinx sisters titled In the Summers, has been both humbling and empowering. Their hope is that viewers will relate as much to Feña’s hardships as they do to his everyday mishaps, like locking himself out of his apartment. “I want to be of service to the queer community and the trans community, but also to folks who are not queer and trans, who don’t know about these experiences and want to feel connected and invited into these experiences. I think that’s what’s so powerful about Mutt. People walk away feeling like they have a new friend, and that friend happens to be trans, and, in this moment, we need stories like that.”