'I think she's what I aspire to be, and that is patient and kind, someone who keeps a rueful eye on life and doesn't let it get to her.' 'She's the only character in the Tales series with a little bit more elevated consciousness than I have,' he explained. In an interview with The Mercury News, Maupin touched on which parts of him make up Anna in particular. 'Almost everybody at 28 Barbary Lane is, in one way or another, drawn from my own soul.

'Those characters and the way they react to things are just me,' Maupin said on NPR's Weekend Edition in 2014. And like all of the characters in Tales of the City, she was molded from Maupin's own life and experiences. With Barbary Lane, she created a found family of queer characters all looking for somewhere that they can feel like they belong. Suffice it to say, she has a well-documented place in LGBTQ+ history.įor those being introduced to Tales of the City for the first time, Anna is a transgender woman who grows marijuana in the backyard and opens her doors to anyone in need of a place to stay. But at this point, she may as well be: the character's life has been catalogued through nine books, three installments of the miniseries, a musical, and now this Netflix sequel. Of course, those familiar with the show's source material know that Barbary Lane's landlady Anna Madrigal, isn't based on a real person. Friday brings the arrival of Netflix's Tales of the City, a continuation of the groundbreaking 1993 miniseries based on Armistead Maupin's novels about 28 Barbary Lane, an apartment complex that's brought together a special set of people in San Francisco's LGBTQ+ community.

Mrs madrigal tales of the city