Asia Kate Dillon, who plays the role of Taylor on the hit drama “Billions”, stopped by “Ellen” on Monday to discuss being the first non-binary gender identifying actor to be on a mainstream TV show.
Dillon has had small roles on shows like “Orange Is The New Black” and “Master of None”, but now the actor has made history with their role on “Billions”.
Sitting down with DeGeneres, Dillon discusses identifying as non-binary with the host, explaining what it means to identify as such. Dillon also tells DeGeneres how to use the pronouns they, them and their in a gender-neutral singular fashion.
Ellen is big fan of “Billions” and invited the actor on her show to learn more about them. Taylor, the character Dillon plays on the show, also identifies as non-binary. “Non-binary is a term used by some people, myself included, who experience their gender identity as falling somewhere outside of the boxes of man and woman,” Dillon reveals.
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Dillon says playing Taylor helped their own identity discovery. “Something I learned when doing research for the character of Taylor I play on ‘Billions’. Taylor is female and non-binary. After doing some research, I realized, ‘oh sex and identity are different,'” they reveal. “Female is a sex, and sex is between our legs and gender identity is between our ears.”
Dillon describes how watching the film “Oliver” at a young age triggered feelings towards being ambiguous about their gender. “Before I had language to put to those feelings, I remember it feeling unjust,” they explained when seeing the film and wanting to play the role but not identifying with either gender.
Dillon’s family is incredibly supportive, they reveal to DeGeneres. The actor is mindful of people’s questions regarding their non-binary gender identification and hopes it is a learning opportunity for everyone.
DeGeneres even admits to having some confusion regarding the pronoun usage, but Dillon notes this is an education opportunity: “It’s a learning process for us too and of course it’s going to be a learning process for everyone as well.”
Watch the entire interview above.
