Warren Beatty praises 'revolutionary' transgender son

07 Oct 2016 |

Warren Beatty has labelled transgender son Stephen his "hero" in a touching interview about the 24-year-old.The 79-year-old actor has never spoken publicly about Stephen's struggle with his gender identity, but opened up about his child during an interview with Vanity Fair magazine. Stephen, the offspring of Warren and wife Annette Bening, was born Kathlyn Elizabeth, but started transitioning when he was just 14 years old.

Speaking about his son, Warren told the publication: "He?s a revolutionary, a genius, and my hero, as are all my children."Stephen has become a transgender activist since his transition, and appeared in a video for WeHappyTrans back in 2012, thanking his friends and peers for their support over the years. Meanwhile, a tweet in December, 2014, saw Stephen referring to himself as a "survivor" of transphobic abuse. Stephen is the eldest of Warren and Annette's four children.

The couple are also parents of son Benjamin, 22, and daughters Isabel, 19, and 16-year-old Ella.The Hollywood couple live in Los Angeles with two of their four children, with Warren also talking to Vanity Fair about how it feels to see his other kids leave home. "There?s something about the empty nest that makes you say, ?Well, maybe I should go out and make a movie,'? he said. ?It?s like Cocteau said (quoting the French poet Paul Valery), ?A poem is never finished, it?s only abandoned.? And that?s the way it is with movies - like children. You continue to work on them, and work on them, but then you have to let them go.

"Warren's latest film is Rules Don?t Apply, in which he stars as eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. Lily Collins stars as an actress in 1950's Hollywood in the film, while Alden Ehrenreich plays a driver who embarks on a forbidden romance with the screen beauty.