Asia Kate Dillon credits non-binary Billions character for their gender identity
Asia Kate Dillon at the 29th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in 2018 in New York City. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images for GLAAD)
Non-binary actor Asia Kate Dillon has said that their role in US TV drama Billions informed their own gender identity.
Speaking on Wednesday’s Late Night with Seth Meyers (March 14), Dillon explained that their character Taylor Mason, who identifies as “non-binary female,” helped them realise who they are.
“Prior to reading the character breakdown for Taylor, I was familiar with the terms non-binary, gender non-conforming, transgender, and I even identified as gender fluid,” explained the 34-year-old actor.
“But all of the transgender [or] non-conforming, non-binary people I knew had taken some medical step to transition to fully come into their identity.”
Asia Kate Dillon: “I knew that I wasn’t a boy or a girl”
Dillon, who also starred in Orange is the New Black, continued: “From a young age, I knew that I wasn’t a boy or a girl, but I certainly didn’t have the language for it.
“Nor did I have any representation either of a real person or a fictional character who was non-binary but hadn’t changed their body.”
Watch Asia Kate Dillon’s interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers below:
They explained how when they got their part as Taylor, the character was described by producers as “female non-binary.”
Dillon continued: “I just didn’t understand how those words could exist next to each other.”
“From a young age, I knew that I wasn’t a boy or a girl, but I certainly didn’t have the language for it.”
—Asia Kate Dillon
The star said they then “discovered” that the term “female” denoted an “assigned sex at birth,” while “non-binary” is a gender identity.
Asia Kate Dillon: My character in Billions made me “feel free”
“For me, it just came together,” they explained.
“We all have an assigned sex. A gender identity is placed on top of that.
“I don’t need to change my body in order to be valid as a non-binary person or as a trans person.
“And I was finally able to fully feel free to live in who I am, in my identity.”
The fourth season of Showtime’s Billions is set to premiere in the US on March 17.
