Just months after making her Paris Fashion Week debut, Kai Schreiber is speaking candidly about her aspirations as a young transgender woman in the fashion industry.
The 16-year-old daughter of actors Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts told Interview magazine in a Q&A published this week that her dream early on was to be “a beautiful, glamorous, influential woman, like Marilyn [Monroe].”
“I want to be a supermodel. Period,” she told the outlet. “I’ve been practicing my walks in the kitchen for years; my mom can show you all the videos I forced her to film. Struggling with gender identity from a young age most likely had something to do with it.”
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When asked about her role models, Kai Schreiber said she’s “always going to look up to the older generation of transgender people, especially in fashion,” naming actors Hari Nef (“Transparent”) and Hunter Schafer (“Euphoria”) as two of her current inspirations.
“It’s so great that there’s a strong community of us in the fashion world; it’s really a doll takeover,” she explained. “It’s important to all of us to have a sense of community, especially when we’re under such hostile attack.”
The Interview chat appears to be the first time Kai Schreiber has addressed her gender identity on the record. She has, however, been stepping into the spotlight regularly in recent months.
After walking the runway for Valentino as part of her Paris Fashion Week debut in March, she appeared in an ad campaign for the Italian fashion house.
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Speaking to Variety last month, Liev Schreiber recalled the “profound” moment Kai asked him and Watts to change her pronouns.
“Kai is such a fighter. It’s important that she goes, ‘Hey, I am trans,’ and, ‘Look at me,’ and, ‘Fuck you. Fuck off,’” he said.
When asked for his advice to parents of children who may be coming to terms with the trans identity, Liev Schreiber offered a measured response.
“I don’t know the answer for your kid,” he told the outlet. “I don’t know what it’s like for you to be a trans dad. I don’t know how you were brought up. I don’t know what religion you encountered or what your spirituality is. And for me to tell you what I think about my kid feels like an overstep.”
In addition to Kai, Liev Schreiber also shares son Sasha, 17, with Watts. He and the “Mulholland Drive” actor were in a relationship from 2005 to 2016. In 2023, he married Taylor Neisen, with whom he shares a 1-year-old daughter, Hazel Bee.
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