Liev Schreiber says his 16-year-old daughter Kai never actually told him and her mom, Naomi Watts, she was trans. “Kai was always who Kai is,” the “Ray Donovan” star told me Thursday morning. “But I suppose the most profound moment was her asking us to change her pronouns. To be honest with you, it didn’t feel like that big of a deal to me only because Kai had been so feminine for so long.”
Kai will join her dad and his wife Taylor at the Ali Forney Center’s A Place at the Table Gala on Friday night in New York City. The center provides housing and support for homeless LGBTQ youth. The center currently serves more than 2,200 young people through its 24/7 Drop-In Center and network of 13 emergency and transitional housing sites. [Editor’s note: Variety’s Marc Malkin is a co-chair of the gala.]
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While Kai, who made her modeling debut in March walking the runway for Valentino before starring in an ad campaign for the luxury fashion house, may not be facing the same hardships as those seeking help at the center, Schreiber explained their need to step up.
“This isn’t just about representing the trans community,” he said. “This is actually a community of people who don’t have great resources, who don’t have access to help, who aren’t being protected and looked after by their families. These are people who are being rejected. These are people who are experiencing the harshest version of humanity that we can offer, and some of them are not surviving it.
“We got to bear that in mind when we go out there and glam ourselves up and get ready to be seen, you know?” Schreiber continued. “That what we’re doing is actually raising money for a community that desperately needs it.”
Kai is embracing her space in the trans community like never before, Schreiber says. “Kai is such a fighter,” he said. “It’s important that she goes, ‘Hey, I am trans,’ and, ‘Look at me,’ and, ‘Fuck you. Fuck off.’”
Schreiber chooses his words carefully when asked to offer advice to parents of children coming out as trans. “I don’t know the answer for your kid,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s like for you to be a trans dad. I don’t know how you were brought up. I don’t know what religion you encountered or what your spirituality is. And for me to tell you what I think about my kid feels like an overstep.”
But then he adds with a laugh, “I guess if I would say anything to someone who’s having trouble with their trans teen or their adolescent trans kid it’s ‘Teenagers are a fucking headache. They’re hard.’ It doesn’t matter whether they’re trans or not because you’ll come out of this. But a trans teen is going to be a teen. They’re such a pain in the ass so much of the time, and Kai is as feisty and outspoken as they come.”
Schreiber isn’t oblivious to the political attacks against the trans community. Most recently, the Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s ban on trans service members in the U.S. military as lower courts hear cases trying to overturn the president’s executive order.
However, Schreiber explains he remains hopeful. “I don’t like to dwell on it too much,” he said. “To some degree, I feel like I don’t want to overcook that fear or that anxiety. There’s enough in the world to be anxious and afraid about.”
For more information about the Ali Forney Center and A Place at the Table Gala, go to aliforneycenter.org.
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