J.D. Pardo usually plays the heartthrob in many of his television and movie appearances. But this month, fans will see him play something totally different.

Pardo is starring in the TV movie, “A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story,” airing June 19 at 9 p.m. on Lifetime. The film is based on the true story of Araujo, a transsexual who was murdered in 2002.

Pardo says he was excited to play Araujo, a role that is the complete opposite of anything else he has done in his career.

“I wanted to do something that made me stretch as an artist and a person,” says Pardo, who has appeared in “American Dreams” and “Clubhouse” and in the Hilary Duff film “A Cinderella Story.”

Pardo says he stepped out of his element for the part, and that although it was a journey filled with emotion and physical demands, it also became a personal quest.

Pardo did a lot of research for the role, including watching documentaries on transsexuals and even taking the step of dressing as a woman and going out in public to see how other people would react to him.

“The best way for me to step into it was just to step into it,” he explains. “Step into high heels and dress up in a wig and walk around and get a first hand glance of what it’s like to want to be a different gender, to feel like you’re a different gender. That’s what Gwen felt. It was very interesting just to walk around and see how people react to you.”

Pardo says he had difficulty playing a non-fictitious character because of the pressure an actor feels to live up to the person’s memory. However, he says he did not feel too much extra pressure from others because he holds himself to a high standard when it comes to his acting.

“It is a big responsibility. One thing I had to keep in my head was this is ? entertainment ? and I say that very carefully, because it isn’t entertainment in the sense that we’re putting on a show. This is a very sensitive subject and we’re trying to tell this story,” he says, adding that the truth can be harder than fiction because there are more layers to it.

Pardo is proud of the finished project and hopes it will help educate people about transsexuals and how they feel and live their lives. He says at first he wasn’t sure if he was the right person for the role, but as filming got underway, he began to realize that Araujo was a human being too.

“I wanted to tell the story right and just doing my research, I got past the whole dressing up and you get down to the human being and you realize we’re all just human beings. Once I got down to that, it got a lot easier,” he says.

When asked if he had any hesitations about taking the part, Pardo says the only real questions he had were regarding how his life would be different if he was like Araujo, someone who didn’t feel that they were born in the right gender.

“Especially after I dressed up for the first time (and) I walked around, I could feel people looking at me. Getting those looks, those glances, really overwhelmed me with emotions and it became a, ‘lets see how far I can go with this.’ And if I was like this, would my friends accept me? Would my parents love me still? So it was my own questions that I was trying to find the answers to in this process,” he says.

Although Araujo was murdered, that was not the part of the story that attracted him to the film. It was her courage to live her life the way she believed was right.

“That’s what it is. Courage. It does take a lot of guts to go do that. To completely stand up for yourself and throw yourself out there and be completely alone in the process because no one else knows what you’re feeling – I think that’s what really attracted me to the role. The heart of Gwen – it was just all of those emotions,” he says.

Pardo says he didn’t get to see much of Vancouver, where “A Girl Like Me” was filmed, because he was working so much, but he did appreciate the clean air.

Pardo now plans to take some time off and gain back the weight he lost for the role.

“I’m really no in any rush to jump into any projects. I learned so much during this film. I learned that I am student of acting,” he says, adding that while he would never rule out doing more television, he feels he is more of a film actor. But when deciding his role, he looks past the medium.

“Whether it’s film, television or theatre, I’m attracted to the part.”






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