When Glee star Dot-Marie Jones was told that her character Coach Beiste was going to reveal she is transgender, she originally had reservations about this plotline.
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“I just didn’t want to let down the girls who are straight and tomboys that my character represented the last four seasons,'” she said about her character transitioning from female to male. However, her doubt about the story line did not last long. “But I got the script and I was, like, ‘Oh my God. This is amazing.'”
Coach Beiste’s new look will be revealed on the new season of Glee, which will air on Friday at 9/8c, and Jones is happy to have the chance to portray a character that people from the transgender community can identify with.
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“I had thousands of tweets from people. I was crying,” Jones explained of the reaction to the announcement that Coach Beiste would begin his transition. “Members of the transgender community were saying, ‘I never thought I’d see myself on TV. You have no idea what this means to me. Now, maybe people will get it.'”
And her transformation on the show is pretty incredible — something Jones thanks her makeup team for.
“People walk by me and I forget that I’m in [the hair and makeup to make me look like a man],” she told the publication. “I’ll say, ‘Hey.’ And they’ll say, ‘Hi.’ And then a few second later, they’ll run back, ‘Oh my God! Dot!’ It’s awesome.”
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