Josie Totah plays Lexi on Peacock's rebooted Saved by the Bell series and in our exclusive interview with the actress, she shared her thoughts on playing a "mean girl" on the beloved sitcom, coming into her own as a transgender woman, Megan Thee Stallion, and the power of LGBTQ+ representation!
"I think it's so fun that we get to be part of a show with such a pop-cultural impact of its time," she tells PRIDE, thrilled at "the fact that we get to revamp it and make it more evolved and up to the times that 2020 is today, which is a crazy whirlwind."
Her character on the show is "the mean girl, the baddest bleep of the school. She's popular. She's a fashionista. She's like Paris Hilton on crack. She also happens to be transgender."
While the series explores her gender identity, Totah points out that it's definitely not her "sole character trait or her arc." It's "super cool that we don't make her gender identity all about her character. We explore so many different parts of her as well and I think that makes her really fun, smart, entertainment."
As a young transgender woman who only recently has come into her own, as well as shared her story with the world, the role carries some extra weight for Totah. Lexi is "a person that I dreamed of. I feel like we all kind of wish you were that girl. And I think being transgender, you sort of live in a shell of who you would want to be. You have all these dreams about who you wish you were and how you wish you could talk or be like, but to protect yourself and due to the nature of our world, you can't access that part of yourself. Getting to unlock all those dreams, all that and a bag of chips honey, on a show like this, is so fun."
In our full interview, Totah also shares her favorite memory on set, gushes over Megan Thee Stallion, and shares some words of wisdom for other LGBTQ+ people figuring out their identity.
Saved by the Bell premieres November 25 on Peacock! Watch the trailer below!
