Original subtitles

(door opening)

(light switch flicking)

♪

(door opening)

Man: Paddy, where are you?

Paddy: Oh, come on back here!

Okay.

Ah, there you are.

Hi, honey. How are ya?

How are you?

(kissing)

So good to see you!

I’ve got the perfect pair of shoes for you.

That’s perfect!

Now, wait here and I’ll show you how they match.

Oh, my God!

Look, the match is just perfect, Paddy.

You’re doing every detail perfect this time.

It better be!

I’ve been working on this since January!

(laughing) Oh, my God.

Oh, my.

You have to match inside and outside.

What colour is your underwear?

Maybe we’re gonna have to get you some pink underwear.

What do you think?

I just won’t wear any, how’s that?

(laughing)

Then, it’ll match.

I’ll find --

I’ll find some pink underwear for you.

Wait a second.

Wait, wait, wait.

Here we go.

Pink undies!

I will say one thing, it does match.

I think that’s kind of sweet.

I never thought of that.

I don’t know what else to say.

I’m going to say, we’re going to get up on the chair,

and we’re going try on the dress.

Okay! Here we go!

♪

Right up until I was about 40,

my mother kept saying, "Are you still stripping?"

And I’d go, "Mom, I’m 37.

Mom, gave it up years ago."

At 26, I went back to school to Ryerson.

The only reason I went to Ryerson

was because I was just a stripper,

and I wanted to get a degree.

After I graduated in 1985,

that’s when I ran the ad in the paper,

"Take a walk on the wild side.

Who’s that girl? It could be you."

An opportunity for a man to be made to look like a woman

with makeup and costumes.

And the phone rang off the hook.

When I had my store in 1987,

the first day, August 1st, I had three customers booked,

and two costumes.

That was it.

It was so simple.

All we did mostly was talk.

Then, I did makeup for them,

and we talked for an hour.

The thing is, people needed to be encouraged,

and so, I encouraged them.

That’s a nice perfume.

Ah, Gucci.

Mm!

All right, come on out. Come back here.

Customer: I just want to quickly take a look at some shoes.

Like, do you want leopard?

Oh, no, no. What do --

Black, just black.

Just black. Yeah.

But the, um...

These look nice.

Oh, Paddy, they look fantastic. Look at those.

You want to try the other one on?

Yeah!

Why do they call them teacher shoes?

Well, I call them teacher shoes

because that’s what the teachers I went in grade school,

this is what they used to wear.

Really? Oh!

Didn’t your teachers wear shoes like this?

No, I didn’t have, like, kinky teachers.

(both laughing)

I’ve seen some other women wearing them.

They look great, you know?

Lean.

(laughing)

Come on, girl!

Lean against what, the wall?

Yeah, just kind of like, yeah, you know?

All right, now, you come back and forth

and then go into the light, and turn around a bit.

Okay, how’s that?

Good, now just relax.

No big deal, yeah.

Fabulous, fabulous, okay.

Nice.

(blowing kiss)

Very nice.

Okay.

See, they turned out great.

Come on in.

I have a beautiful new hair for you.

You usually like it when I pick out a wig.

Yeah.

Do you want me to pick something out for you?

Yeah.

Okay, I got a chair here

’cause I know it’s hard for you to walk.

Yeah.

I’m gonna bring the chair right here!

Look at me.

Oh, okay, hold on.

Your glasses are coming down.

Were you ever blonde before?

Oh, yeah, I had a number of blonde wigs.

Uh-huh, did you have any long blonde ones?

Well, they were sort of medium.

Dum, de dum dum...

There we go!

What do you think of that?

All right.

All right? Just all right?

Um, I don’t know about that.

It’s not doing it for ya?

No.

How about red?

Yeah.

Check this out.

Okay, put your head up.

This is cute.

All right, you ready for the look?

Yeah.

(Paddy laughing)

Cool.

Cool, that’s the best one yet, isn’t it?

Uh, that is.

Is that the one?

Uh, I liked it.

That’s the one.

You look 20 years younger in this hair.

That’ll make me 49, ’cause I’m 69

Are you 69?

Yeah.

I’m 61!

We made it into our 60s!

How do you feel about turning 70?

Well...

Another year older.

Not an hour richer. (laughing)

♪

Afternoon.

Back in 5.

Thanks.

Paddy: New boots?

Uh, same ones.

With the way that my foot is,

I decided these would be comfortable.

They fit a little tighter.

Yeah, good.

Okay, relax.

You do some of your own plucking at home?

A little bit with scissors, if I can find them.

Oh.

That’s such a man thing to do!

I... I don’t need to pluck them, I got scissors!

So, 1992 you were coming, eh?

Where were you living back then?

Barrie.

And are you still there?

No. I’m up in Acton.

Oh, great.

Yeah, but it’s still 40 --

It’s still, what, a two-hour bus ride.

Is this a secret?

I got to watch myself in Acton

because there’s only certain hours

I can get away with being dressed.

When the kids are around, I got to be careful.

Especially the morning,

if I have to come out in the morning.

I’m going to put your wig on now.

Mm-hmm.

And then, we can see what you look like.

Mm-hmm.

And this is the Alexis that you have been

ever since I met you.

Every time that wig wears out, you get a new one.

Mm-hmm.

What do you think?

That’s you!

Oh, my.

They fit!

Cinderella, here are your slippers.

Oh, they really feel nice.

Come and stand up.

There, what do you think?

Beautiful, fantastic.

(laughing)

Let’s get the dress!

Let’s get the dress. Okay.

You ready to go up on the table?

Here we go.

Okay. There.

All right,

now hold onto that little thing.

I’m gonna get your dress.

Okay.

All right.

Better take these off.

Make like you’re on the diving board.

Put your arms in here.

Arms in here.

Good.

No, don’t turn around.

You leave it up to me.

Okay!

(zipping)

Oh, I haven’t gained any weight. Good!

And it’s beautiful. Perfect.

I’m not that macho,

but neither am I that feminine.

This is just a side of me that I’ve always fancied,

and wondered, "Could I do it if I really tried?"

So, this is my "really tried."

(fabric ripping)

And what is the idea of the mask?

It’s just like you can be anyone you want to be,

instead of someone recognizing the shape of your face,

is it this way,

I can be whoever I want to be.

And I don’t have to say a word.

I just became Eve.

Almost.

Paddy: People might find another place

to buy a wig,

or another place to buy breast forms,

but people still want a store.

They can go online, but they want physical contact

where they’re seeing somebody in the room with them

and talking to them.

And at the end of that conversation,

at the end of the transformation,

and I go, "So, don’t worry now. You come back and everything,

and I won’t tell anybody."

And they look at me and they go, "It’s okay, I trust you."

So, I’ll be here for a long time to come,

and I will have customers for a long time to come.

♪