‘Silence of the Lambs’ is located in the center of Trans Row About Buffalo Bill Role
Ted Levine said The silence of the lambs “maligned” transgender people, calling aspects of his portrayal of serial killer Buffalo Bill in the horror film “f—— wrong” as the Oscar-winning thriller finds itself at the center of a renewed cultural row over transgender representation.
RadarOnline.com can reveal that Levine, 68 – who was 33 when he starred opposite Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 shocker – made the comments in an interview to mark the 35th anniversary of the film’s release.
In the film, Foster’s FBI trainee Clarice Starling seeks help from Hopkins’ inmate Hannibal Lecter to identify Buffalo Bill, a murderer who skins women in an attempt to create a “woman suit.”
Although the script includes dialogue stating that there is “no correlation… between transsexuality and violence” and that Bill is “not a true transsexual”, critics have long argued that the character reinforced harmful stereotypes.
Speaking about what he described as “transphobia criticism” surrounding the film, Levine has now said: “There are certain aspects of the film that don’t hold up very well.
“We all know more, and I’m a lot wiser about transgender issues. There are some lines in that script and that movie that are unfortunate.”
Levine continued, saying, “(It’s) just over time and I’ve become aware of and working with transgender people, and understanding a little bit more about the culture and the reality of the meaning of gender. It’s a shame that the movie vilifies that, and it’s damn wrong. And you can quote me on that.”
Levine added that he played Bill as a “damn straight man” rather than a “gay or trans” character. The distinction, he suggested, was clear to him at the time, but perhaps not to the public.
Advocacy groups say Levine’s comments reflect a broader reappraisal in Hollywood.
An LGBTQ media campaigner said, “Transgender people have pointed out for decades that Buffalo Bill has become shorthand for a dangerous myth, that gender nonconformity is linked to violence. Even if that wasn’t the filmmakers’ intention, the cultural impact was real.”
A film historian added: “The film is a landmark in American cinema, but it also fits in with a series of thrillers that used gender variance as shorthand for deviance. That tension is why it remains controversial.”
Edward Saxon, one of the film’s producers, also acknowledged missteps but denied that Buffalo Bill was written as transgender.
He said: “We were very loyal to the book. When we made the film, there was no doubt in our minds that Buffalo Bill was a completely deviant character, that he was not gay or transgender. He was sick. In that respect we missed it. From my point of view, we were not sensitive enough to the legacy of many stereotypes and their capacity to cause harm.”
Saxon added: “There is regret, but it didn’t come from malice. It actually came from meeting this man. We all had dear friends and family who were gay. We thought it would be very clear that Buffalo Bill was adapting different things to society, from a place of incredibly sick pathology.”
Released on Valentine’s Day in 1991, the film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Hopkins and Best Actress for Foster.
In recent years, 79-year-old Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to the “late, great Hannibal Lecter” at campaign rallies, sometimes comparing him to illegal immigrants.
Saxon said of those comments: “Comparing people who come across the border in search of a better life to Hannibal Lecter is about as perverse as anything we could have come up with in the movie.”
