“I was excited about it, but I really wasn’t very thrilled about the character at that time,” Jesse recently told Entertainment Tonight. “It didn’t feel like the representation I wanted to bring to TV. But my agent convinced me to still go to the audition. I ended up booking it, and they ended up talking to me, having a real conversation about who I think this character is, who I think the character could be … They actually changed the role and made it, I think, quite a drastic improvement.”

“I will say though, at the end of the day, I am still playing a trans sex worker on television,” Jesse adds, referring to a nagging trope for trans characters. “I think the difference is I’m not playing ‘She-Male Hooker No. 5,’ a dead body on Law & Order. I’m a leading character. You really see [Jerrie’s] hopes and dreams as a musician. Later in the series, you’ll see quite a bit into my character’s past and her heartbreak and who she is as a person and where she comes from.”