'Roseanne' Star Ames McNamara Embraces 'Gender Fluid' Role

Ames MacNamara, who plays Mark Conner-Healy in the new season of Roseanne, appeared on Good [...]

By Michael Hein

Ames MacNamara, who plays Mark Conner-Healy in the new season of Roseanne, appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday to discuss his controversial new role.

Ames plays Darlene Conner's gender non-conforming son, Mark, who self-identifies as a boy but prefers to wear girls' clothes. He featured heavily in the season's second episode, where the Conner family worked to understand his behavior and hopefully protect him from bullies.

On Good Morning America, Ames emphasized that the takeaway from Mark's story should be that he is just like everyone else, and that his personality has far more depth than his clothes.

"Mark's just a normal kid," he said. "He likes to do art, he likes playing basketball and wearing girls' clothes is just a small part of Mark."

When asked if he had known about gender non-conformity or fluid gender identity before doing the show, he had a remarkably down-to-earth answer.

"I was aware that certain people liked to wear clothes from the opposite gender," he explained. "I knew a kid who was like that in a play that I did, but I wasn't aware of the term."

More than anything, Ames was excited to have a chance in a major TV show on national television.

"Roseanne is a great actress, but what I love about her the most is that she treats me like a fellow actor, not just a kid. For example, if a joke was funny and they took it out she would be like, 'Ames that joke was funny. Let's get that back in,'" Ames said.

Production on Roseanne has already wrapped, and Ames is back home in Hoboken attending sixth grade, but he said he can't wait to get back on set for the next season.

"I'm still Ames to [my friends], it hasn't really changed," he said. "I personally don't wear girls' clothes, but I respect anyone who does. I believe that everyone should express themselves however that may be."

"I'm so excited to go back for a second season," he added.

Tuesday night's new episode of Roseanne will reportedly focus more on Mark's older sister, Harris Conner-Healy, as she comes to blows with her grandmother, Roseanne. The episode will feature women across three generations hashing out issues that may get political once again, according to a tweet by Roseanne Barr.

The 65-year-old actress wrote, "the next episode shows Harris (my tv granddaughter) calling me a stupid old hillbilly-watch how I handle her and her very liberal mother!"

The episode premieres on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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