Fact-based story about tennis pro Renee Richards, whose player status was challenged in 1976 when it was revealed that she was a trans woman. Flashback to 1964 before she was out as trans, a successful New York doctor with a great lifestyle, a flashy girl friend, and a secret life. Her psychiatrist mother refuses to deal with her and sends her to a colleague who diagnoses with a psychotic gender confusion, which he says can be unlearned. After a failed marriage and parenthood, she comes out as trans, with a new life in California.
Acting
Redgrave's physical transformation is subtle, specific, and never caricature.
Production
That 1976 tennis whites aesthetic? Impeccably cursed.
Writing
Refuses easy triumph; lets Renee be difficult, angry, and real.
Director
Anthony Page
Vanessa Redgrave
Renee Richards
Martin Balsam
Dr. Beck
William Russ
Josh
Alice Krige
Gwen
Louise Fletcher
Dr. Sadie M. Bishop
Kerrie Keane
Meriam
Richard Venture
Dr. David Bradley
Reni Santoni
Dr. Roberto Granato
Jeff Corey
Dr. Harry Benjamin
Alan Feinstein
Bill
Nina van Pallandt
Danielle
Michael Cavanaugh
Gene Scott
Kenneth Tigar
Ross
Alison La Placa
Nightclub Singer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Renee Richards herself consulted on the script and reportedly hated the final film, calling it 'depressing.' She then wrote her own memoir to correct the record.
This aired on CBS in 1986, the same year 'The Color Purple' was nominated for Oscars—yet this vanished. Trans stories got TV movies; Black stories got prestige. Neither got respect.
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