Sydney Mae Diaz: An Actor Who Hopes To Bring To Life Storylines He Couldn't Find on Screen Growing Up
TV’s latest Gen Z drama is Genera+ion, an HBO Max show about a group of Orange County high school students exploring love, sexuality, friendship, and family while living in a conservative community. The show features Sydney Mae Diaz as J, a thrill-seeking stoner with impeccable wit. Sydney chats with us about his character on Genera+ion, the importance of trans representation on screen, and his upcoming projects.
You play J on HBO’s Genera+ion. How would you describe J? In what ways do you relate to him?
I would describe him as fun, and he's also very easygoing. He gets along with everyone in the group. I see a lot of the teenage boy that I wish I could have been in J. I based a lot of the creation of J off of my youngest brother. I feel like I've been out of high school for a little bit, and he's the most recent person I know on a deeply personal level who has graduated from high school. I grew up with my brother, and we've shared almost our whole lives together. So there are a lot of similarities between me and him that I've also incorporated into the character that I hope shines on screen, at least for people who know both me and him.
How does your own high school experience compare to your characters?
I made a playlist that I would listen to when I would get into costume before I’d go to set. I put songs on that playlist that would reignite how I felt as a teenager and that fire that every teenager has in the pit of their stomach. In my teenage experience, I hung out with a lot of wily boys because I wanted to be a wily boy. I feel like that energy is very much in J and is reflected in the group scenes that we have on the show.
Tell us about the experience of making the show! What was it like on set? What did you like most about working on this show and with this cast?
I loved this experience. It's unlike any other project I've been a part of. Working with this cast is a literal dream come true because everyone is so talented and seeing everyone do what they do best makes you want to work so much harder because you want to be playing on the same level as them. I think everyone else genuinely feels that way too. So we all really step it up when we're with each other. The cast and crew are a very queer set, and we all just feel so comfortable with each other. It really shows because, with some of the topics that we cover, you have to be comfortable to be able to do an adequate job. I really think that all of us feel so comfortable with each other and being comfortable with the crew and the creators really shines through in these episodes.
Why is Genera+ion such an important show for people to watch in 2021?
I think it's an important show because you see characters on screen that you really haven't seen before because they haven't been given the spotlight. It's almost like you wanted to and you needed to see these characters on screen to either find something within yourself or to be able to see other people's stories that you aren't exposed to or can't relate to. It really gives them that humanity. I think that the topics and the characters and everything combined makes it an important show that everybody needs to be exposed to whether you relate to it or if you haven't been exposed [to these kinds of things before]. It shows that these are actual, real people.
Growing up, did you ever feel like there wasn't enough LGBTQ+ representation on television?
Yeah, I’ve definitely felt that. There have been so many times I’ve felt troubled because I couldn't find myself, and I couldn't see myself, and I would dig deep in whatever media that had any inkling of queer characters or even hinted at queerness to sink my teeth into, whether that was TV or movies or books. In recent years, it's really come through. I have seen myself on screen, meaning other actors playing roles close to who I am and how I identify, which is incredible. I know firsthand how important that is. So I feel like for a whole new generation of people and a whole new wave of kids it's important for them to be able to see themselves on screen too because I know what it's like to not have that.
What are some examples of the earliest LGBTQ+ characters that you saw on film or TV?
I have to think about whether it was a legitimate example or if there was an example that I projected queerness onto, which is a popular thing when you don't find yourself, so you find other characters that you do relate to that you almost project onto a little bit. I can't think of an early example, but I can think of one example that really changed the tide within myself and that would be Elliott from the TV show Shameless. Seeing that character on screen really ignited something in myself that I didn't know I needed to see. I had people recommending the show to me, and I never understood why. Sometimes I get very annoyed when people are constantly telling me to watch something. But once I got around to seeing it, I understood why people wanted me to see it. I could tell that they saw characters that I needed to see.
As a trans actor, have you faced any challenges in the industry? Has the industry been generally accepting throughout your career?
I'd say throughout my career I've been very lucky, and I have been generally accepted, and I do voice when things don't make me necessarily comfortable or when things aren't necessarily right. I feel like I do sometimes face a little bit of resistance, and not necessarily out front in my face, but things that may have happened that you didn't think of in the moment. Maybe someone is a little off-putting, but you can't quite put your finger on it. But that's not common. I say the majority has been overwhelmingly positive, and I don't take that lightly, and I don't take it for granted because I know there are a lot of people who face way worse than I do in this industry, outside of this industry, and just the world in general. I realize I'm a very privileged trans person.
In what ways do you think the industry can do a better job at representing transgender people?
Listen to trans people and hire trans people. If you want to tell trans stories, you'd better have trans people on your team. That's all I can say about it.
How do you hope to help transgender youth find their voice?
I hope, and as far as people who identify closely and relate to myself, them seeing me perform or me on screen, gives them the same kind of hope that I feel right now [despite] a lot of the anti-trans rhetoric. That seems to be all you're hearing and seeing in relation to trans people. I hope that seeing a trans person in a positive light makes them see that it's not hopeless and that there's so much more to being trans than all the negativity you hear. As far as people who don't necessarily relate to myself and my specific identity, I know seeing the stories of other trans people succeed has inspired me to keep pushing and keep doing my thing, whatever it is that I love to do because if they can do it I can do it no matter what. It’s like when I see the cast of Pose. I get very emotional and overwhelmed watching Pose because watching so many trans people and trans women and transfeminine people on screen doing their thing is so incredibly overwhelming to me. I haven't even made it all the way through season two yet because I just get so emotional watching it that it's not something I can sit and binge. Watching them succeed and watching them flourish and shine on screen is something that's so powerful and incredible to me. And even though that's not my identity and their stories don't necessarily reflect mine, I do feel a sense of community and family within that, even though I don't know them personally. I hope that how I feel when I watch Pose is what others feel when they watch me.
You’re also making your movie debut in November in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. What are you most excited about for the release of this film?
I am most excited to know what happens. The whole filming process was so secretive that they would just tell us the situation. I know the more main characters have more of a clue of what’s going on, but for the group of kids, a lot of us had no idea of what exactly was going on. So I'm just really excited to see it.
You’re also a singer/songwriter. Can you tell me a little bit about your band? Any new music coming out soon?
My band “Anxious Hum” is me and Matt who plays bass. We have an EP called Myspace Demos that I released solo a few years back, and then we released a single in February that we had both worked on. We played around Long Island a bit and we played a few shows in Brooklyn previous to the pandemic. Between when I wasn't filming things, we were out playing shows maybe a few times a month. My plan is once we wrap Genera+ion, I’m going back to New York and recording some songs so we can have stuff to release.
A fun question to wrap things up: If you were starting your own new city, what are three things that you would require from all inhabitants?
Everything I want to say goes with a general sense of tolerance, respect, and empathy. Those are my three. Even though I feel they all are very similar, I think those are very important qualities to have in a community.
STORY JACQUI PASH
PHOTOS BRET LEMKE