Article: Jessica on gender: Oscar winner Jessica Lange talks about taking on the emotional challenge of a transgender story line in HBO's Normal. (television).(Interview)

Jessica is one of the greats," says out writer-director Jane Anderson, describing Jessica Lange's performance in the HBO original film Normal, set to debut March 16. "I think she's a national treasure."

Having watched the glamorous Lange put Dustin Hoffman's panty hose in a twist in the gender comedy Tootsie, one finds it startling at first to see her peering over her bifocals as a small-town Midwestern wife who learns that her husband of 25 years is transgendered. Yet the Minnesota-born two-time Academy Award winner knows plenty about small-town life--and Normal is rich with the big dramatic challenges she savors.

Adapted by Anderson (If These Walls ...

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