Full look, ERICA MYAT
Munroe Bergdorf On The Politics Of Perception
28 March, 2026
Words Christine Ochefu
Photos Rachell Smith
Styling Thomas George Wulbern
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In 2026, Munroe Bergdorf doesn’t spend too much time on social media. “I don't think about how people perceive me,” she says over Zoom, with the kind of certainty that suggests a hard-won distance between how she sees herself and how others choose to see her. After years of existing in the public eye as a trans figure, activist, and cultural commentator, she has learned the importance of that separation.
“I hate that we're in this time where we're encouraged to think of ourselves as brands, or emblems of something. I don't think it's healthy to overly control how people perceive you. There's an element of it we all do, because these are the times that we're in, and I share what I feel comfortable sharing. I'm actually quite shy, and I've gone through a lot in the public eye, so I'm reserved in what I share.”
That reservation does not mean retreat. Bergdorf has always been brave in showing what she feels needs to be shared, and nowhere is that clearer than in her 2025 documentary, Love and Rage: Munroe Bergdorf, directed by Olivia Cappuccini. Filmed over the course of three years, the project brought her private life to the forefront. Rather than a measure of PR or personal branding, instead it was a mission to document her community, and to create the kind of representation she herself once searched for herself.
As a university student, Bergdorf’s first experience of Black trans representation came through Paris Is Burning, the seminal 90s film documenting ballroom communities of New York. “I watched that when I was about 20,” she says. “That was just as I was starting to come to terms with my trans identity. The first trans friend that I made sat me down and put it on. She said, ‘you need to understand our history. You need to understand the reality of being trans in this world.’”
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Her own documentary became an extension of that lesson; a way of documenting queer life and community through her path. The title itself serves a nod to the trans pride movement, capturing both celebration and resistance, tracing her discovery of gender and identity through to coming-of-age relationships, media scrutiny, as well as grief and loss. And in an age where trans people are so often spoken over and scrutinised in the public sphere, it is also an act of reclaiming authorship.
“I didn't want [the documentary] to be just about me. I wanted it to be about all of us as a society; trans and cisgender and non-binary people, because transphobia affects everybody. I wanted it to reflect the general feeling in response to the love of being trans, of self and community, but also the rage about what is still happening. We've seen oppression of women, Black people, immigrants, gay people, and there's rage about the fact that we never seem to learn from our mistakes. That protest is the manifestation of both love and rage.”
Giving so much of herself to the public eye has never been simple, but taking back her own narrative remains essential. Reflecting on the release now, Bergdorf speaks on Love and Rage, her place within the media, and the importance of reclaiming authorship over ones own story.
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Why did you want to make the documentary, and what made you decide to tell your story in this way?
I was in the midst of writing my first book, *Transitional*, at the time. We could see the political landscape shifting towards a more anti-trans narrative; it felt important to me to show the world that being trans is just another way to be human. It's not this big, spectacular other thing; it's a very normal part of what it means to be human in this world.
Unfortunately, our stories are rarely given the opportunity to be shared. So when it came to me, I thought, what a great opportunity to tell my story on my own terms and to build that documentary from the ground up. I knew that Olivia [Cappucini] understood the subject matter, so I didn't feel like I had to explain anything and she would be sensitive to everything going on.
The documentary touches a lot on social media and the mainstream media. How has your relationship with this evolved over time, what's it like now for you?
There's a common thread with people who have been through things on the internet or in the media: they tend to pull back. I never understood it until I was in that position, and I feel much happier for it. We’ve arrived at this place where social media is enmeshed within perceived reality. Especially when people have grown up with the internet and don't know what a world looks like without it, they don't know that freedom. I'm trying to get back to that. I'm trying to feel free without being plugged into the noise of social media and the surveillance and the feeling of being observed or performing.
When you go through those situations, you start to see things for what they are; I don't pour as much into it as we are encouraged to, because I see the harms of it and I've been severely harmed by it. My time offline needs to be offline! I don't feel happy if I'm constantly outputting to people, the majority of whom I've never met, who have an opinion of me that is often extreme. You'll either be the best person or the worst person to someone, and that's not a healthy reality to live in.
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The film shows how your activism grew out of personal experiences. How do you think our conversations around race have moved on, if at all?
Nobody wants to go through a tough time where people severely misconstrue the kind of person you are and the kind of heart you have, that was the hardest part for me. We've arrived at this time where we see racism running unchecked. Now, a lot of people feel emboldened or allowed to say things that only a few years ago they would be condemned for.
I think we're all building up, we're all standing on the shoulders of each other and trying to make it easier for the next person. I faced a lot of backlash that perhaps I wouldn't have experienced today, but I'm glad that I opened the door to a conversation that a lot of people hadn't had, or were unwilling to have, and that's the point.
I want to live in a society where everybody can live alongside each other. I'm of dual heritage, I'm mixed race. It's in all of our interests to find a way to live together, but we can't get to a place where that can happen unless we're honest about the way society is set up. Whether it's violence against women and girls, systemic racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, or religious intolerance, if we don't talk about it and identify the thing, then the thing grows and becomes something we can't control.
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Watching Love and Rage, the scenes with your friends, especially on your birthday, are very touching to watch. What does queer community mean to you?
It's everything. I can't separate myself from my queerness, it's the lens that I've always seen the world through. It's rooted in all parts of me, and it brings me joy; it's where I get my support, hope, compassion, empathy. It's the source of my emotional intelligence.
You know, queerness is a beautiful experience. So many people are convinced it's something we need to hide or minimize, and to be able to step fully into being a queer person, whether you're L, G, B, or T, is a beautiful experience. Having a platform and being able to be part of that process and helping people come to that realization, rather than feeling like they can't be themselves, is important. It's heartbreaking that a lot of people still feel like that.
That has been alleviated with the fact that there are so many different trans people in the media now, and we're all so different. Looking at Kim Petras releasing incredible music, alongside Arca and the legacy of SOPHIE and Ethel Cain, and Alex Consani being one of the biggest supermodels in the world, to Hari Nef in Hollywood movies, Laverne Cox being the icon that she is, Indya Moore – there are so many of us now.
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Was there a moment in the documentary that felt particularly difficult for you to include?
The amount of loss that was happening at that time was hard. The tougher moments of losing my ex-partner, realising that she had passed, were difficult to go through on camera, because grieving is a personal process and not something you often do whilst being observed. I didn't know what to do with myself in those moments.
With some days of filming, I knew that in order to be honest in this documentary, I had to be vulnerable. There were days where I wanted to stay in bed and didn't want to do anything, and that's what I did; on a day where Olivia wanted to check in and see if I was okay, I would say I didn't feel like filming, but I knew we probably should and just crawled into bed. That was real. That was how I was dealing with that situation.
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One of the strengths of the documentary is that it's so important for trans people to be involved in telling their own stories on screen. What kind of conversations do you hope the documentary will start amongst viewers?
It's hard to say, because I haven't seen it for two years. I watched it in the editing suite and then I told myself that was going to be the last time I watched for a long time; watching it feels like a sequence of home videos. It's hard to see yourself impartially, or through the eyes of other people. I don't see myself in the same way that other people see me; I don't particularly think I'm that eloquent and I see the internal narrative a lot of the time. When I look back at things, I see how I feel rather than a person being filmed.
But regardless of what people are going through, I hope they can take some strength from the documentary and realise their story is shared by somebody in the world. I hope it encourages people to speak and share their story, even if it's just with one person or their community, or their parents or loved ones.
I think that's important, not keeping things inside. I grew up and didn't know what being trans was, because I'd only seen trans people on ‘Jerry Springer,’ or murdered on cop shows, or being used as a punch line in Hollywood films, I felt like I was the only person feeling what I was feeling. There were no empowering trans stories where being trans was a part of someone's personhood rather than the all-consuming, deepest, darkest part of their identity. Instead I hope that people feel a lightness, and that it gives them strength to open up in whatever way feels good for them.
Love & Rage is streaming now on Prime Video.
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Credits:
Talent: @munroebergdorf
Publication: @definedmag
Photographer & Editor: @rachell_photo @wibagency
Casting Director: @theannabelbrog
Producer: @nicolakrusted
Writer: @noir_christine
Styling: @thomasgeorgewulbern @archtheagency
Makeup: @biancaspencermua
Hair: @marcialuvlocks @forwardartists Using @blbluxurylacewigs
Set Design: @paulina_piipponen @henhouseartists
Set Assistant: @zachdelf
Defined Socials: @riyajhaveri
Defined PR: @rmpublicityofficial
Photo Assistant: @cameronsmith.co.uk
Photo Assistant: @georgetomlinsonphoto
Studio: @loftstudioslondon
Film Edit: @heyjoshcooper
Post: @voyteckretouch
Thanks to: @curtisbrowntalent