John Early Says He Wrote 'Maddie's Secret' in a Fury Almost Out of Necessity: 'The Blindness Was Deliberate'

John Early's directorial debut "Maddie's Secret" stars the comedian as the titular character in his own John Waters-esque dramatic comedy. Early plays innocent dreamer and food influencer Maddie, and he told TheWrap his portrayal of the wide-eyed ingenue was not a commentary on trans-visibility instead a grounded comedy in which he happens to play a woman. "To me, the joke was never that I was playing a woman. The joke was playing an ingenue," Early told TheWrap at the Toronto Internal Film Festival Friday. "I understand that there might be some sensitivity around that, but . . .