By: Valerie Milano
Palm Springs, CA (The Hollywood Times) 1/11/25 – They’re called “tranny chasers,” men who are sexually attracted to transgender or transsexual people, generally in a fetishistic way. Driven by thrill or curiosity, they “chase” after male-to-female transwomen, and are prevalent in the transgender scene in every major city where transgender women are prevalent.
A portion of society may consider these men gay, but make no mistake, these men do not like other men and are only attracted to transsexuals because they look like women. These “chasers” will tell you they are not gay because it is widely accepted that gay men do not like male to female transsexuals because, well, gay men like men not men who look like women.
No matter what your personal position is on the gayness of these “chasers”, there is a common thread running through the community of men who date transgender women. They all seem to be after one thing, and it’s not love.
Spencer Wardwell and Dylan Wardwell on “Sweet Talkin’ Guy”
This phenomenon is the subject of “Sweet Talkin’ Guy,” an intriguing short by sister/brother filmmakers Dylan and Spencer Wardwell that follows three men as they pursue the same fantasy with a transwoman. The film is short and sweet at 4 1/2 minutes as the transwoman, played by Dylan, who is a non-binary French and Portuguese model, endures the men grappling with their fragile masculinity.
Dylan and Spencer sat down with The Hollywood Times recently to talk about their film and the “chaser” phenomenon. Inspired by her own experiences in the dating world, Dylan said she thinks all men are clumsy when it comes to dating.
Click below for our exclusive interview:
“My lived experience is that a lot of men just don’t know how to act,” she said with a laugh.
Dylan billed as “Miss Dylan” in the pivotal role as the object of the three men’s desires makes her home in New York City and is making her acting/writing/directing debut with this film. She went on to address the fetishistic element to dating, and said it isn’t always the case that men are trying to check off a fantasy on some sexual “bucket list”. However, it may seem that way in the film, with the ultimate question from each of the 3 suitors at the end, in that they are all rather excited to perform oral sex on her.
“Quite frankly, that’s a rather extrapolated example in a lot of cases, but when there is that juxtaposition, I find it extremely funny and ironic, and I thought it was extremely appropriate in the short. But it is what it is for everyone.”
Director Spencer Wardwell and director/star Dylan Wardwell discuss their Sundance-selected short film Sweet Talkin’ Guy.
Spencer pointed to his role as an experienced filmmaker with several short films to his credit as advisory to Dylan’s effort to communicate her lived experiences.
“We’ve wanted to collaborate on something for a very long time,” he said. “I was there to facilitate her vision.”
That vision comes to life in “Sweet Talkin’ Man” as these 3 guys work their butts off to make sure the woman knows they are straight – or more accurately, as they try to convince themselves that being with a transwoman doesn’t make them gay. Dylan has no dialogue in the film, rather allowing the words and actions of the men to do all the talking as she speaks volumes with her eyes and body language.
As for the question of, how does this kind of non-stop pseudo-justification and fetish denial by the men make her feel as the woman she most definitely is? Dylan said it is truly a disappointment to her.
“It’s disheartening to hear a man say these things where they are confused by their attraction to a transwoman, and shouldn’t be,” she said. “They’re a straight man who is attracted to a woman. But it is always kind of jarring when someone is confused by this. I don’t understand their confusion.”
Sarah Welden’s cinematography adds power to the impact of this truly entertaining film. Spencer said it was his first time working with her, but her enthusiasm and attention to detail made this a “very special” collaboration.
“Sarah was recommended to us by multiple sources, and she came on board very early on in the pre-production process,” he said. “She has a really great eye. We had a limited budget, and she was working under extremely limited constraints, and she just knocked it out of the park.”
Film editor Mario Fierro is a classmate of Spencer’s from the American Film Institute, and a chance meeting in Los Angeles led to his involvement in the project, which is scheduled to be screened at the Sundance Film Festival in Short Program 4 on January 25th.
“I didn’t get the opportunity to work with him at school, but we were searching for an editor, and I happened to bump into him,” Spencer said. “We were working hard to meet that Sundance deadline, and he did a really great job as well.”
“Sweet Talkin’ Guy” also features Jimmie Fails, Daniel Olson and Pierce Abernathy as the three gentlemen who wrestle with their sexual identities in this impressive first effort by Dylan.
The film was produced by April S. Changan an L.A.-based producer from Atlanta, and filmmaker/producer Vicki Syal, also based in L.A. with roots in Brazil and India. Justin Floyd and Louie Torrellas were executive directors for the film.
