I'm a legitimate fighter who trained for years for this and I'm good, but suddenly, just because I'm a transgender woman, I fall into the category of 'freak show.'
I consider myself a woman. I happen to fall into the transgender category, but I rather describe myself as a woman first.
Lucian Bute had the world title for five years, he made nine defenses and he's a good, good fighter. The fight before that, I beat Andre Dirrell, who comes from a good pedigree and is a hell of a southpaw. It just shows you the kind of fighter I am when I focus and do my job.
I grew up in a family where I was told there were no limitations on me as a girl and I could be anything I wanted to be. It wasn't until I joined the military that I realized that just because I was a woman - just because I had ovaries - I couldn't become a fighter pilot.These structural limitations were the motivation for me becoming a fighter pilot in the first place.
I have learned that a woman can be a fighter, a freedom fighter, a political activist, and that she can fall in love, and be loved, she can be married, have children, be a mother... Revolution must mean life also; every aspect of life.
I always liken myself to the bearded lady. Because I'm an actress turned musician, a woman doing male-dominated rock & roll... I'm the oddity at the freak show, you know?
I'm trained as an actor for the stage - classically trained, believe it or not - and I worked closely with Stella Adler for years. People don't know that much about it. They just think I am these people. But I've been in this comedy racket, because it's just how everybody wants to see me.
I certainly was not the romantic lead. I couldn't be that, because I was not that good looking. And that is something about Hollywood that I do not like at all. Why can't a woman who is just normally good looking fall in love? I mean, everybody in the movies is so good looking.
Death doesn't make you sad- it makes you empty. That's what's so bad about it. All of your charms and beliefs and funny habits fall fast through a big black hole, and suddenly you know they're gone because just as suddenly, there's nothing left at all inside.
I think it's stupid to say a guy who has trained in jiu-jitsu for as long as I have is just a stand-up fighter. I have trained with some of the best black belts in the world. I am comfortable on the ground. I can fight wherever the fight goes and not be concerned.
I don't like the mentality that comes with rich Russian men. Because they have money, they think they can buy a woman - and they do. They can't just meet a woman and fall in love. And it's women's fault because they allow it.
I'm not saying transgender characters should be only interpreted by transgender actors - because that would be as rigid as saying transgender actors cannot play cisgender roles, and that's not the idea.
It's hard to find rap that I love, you know. I'm one of those rapping a** rappers, but I just fall into a different category because I'm giving the people what they want.
I like to remind the contestants where they are by playing the 'Bake Off' theme tune on my phone as they walk into the tent. They freak out, as it suddenly dawns on them that they're on the show.
Suddenly people were saying I was cocky because I'd done a Steven Spielberg movie and thought I was better than everyone else, which surprised me at first. I suddenly started feeling like a freak because everyone was treating me differently. It was confusing, and I did wonder if acting was for me anymore.
Marlee has said a million times, "Wouldn't it be funny if there was a camera trained on the two of us?" because we get involved in some very interesting situations. We'll be on a plane and she gets handed a Braille menu because they think she is blind, or producers that turn to the director of a show she's on and say, "Marlee Matlin is great, but is she going to be deaf for the whole show?" She used to freak people out with the speaker phone in her car by having me sign what they were saying on the speaker phone and then she would speak herself.
I never thought of myself as being that good looking, I was an actor, people saw me on television, and then they start to think you're good looking because of that presentation. I was no better looking before the show, than after - and before the TV show I couldn't get a date to save my life. So what changed? Did I suddenly become more good looking? No. I got lucky, I got a TV show. That's what happened.