London-born model and LGBT activist Tschan Andrews has weighed in on the mounting controversy surrounding Zoolander 2 – calling the film transphobia “in its truest form”.

The two minute trailer, which was released last week, features Benedict Cumberbatch as androgynous model “All”, and has already spawned a 12,000-strong petition calling for its boycott – with activists calling it a “harmful” and “dangerous” depiction of the trans experience. “Cumberbatch’s character is clearly portrayed as an over-the-top, cartoonish mockery of androgyne/trans/non-binary individuals,” wrote Sarah Rose, the petition’s founder. “This is the modern equivalent of using blackface to represent a minority.”

23-year-old model Tschan Andrews is herself transgender, and has suffered a great deal of discrimination for it up to now; including ostracisation from her family and the loss of all her personal belongings. And, in a new interview with The Guardian, she explained why she felt that these claims against the film were completely justified.

“I do find it quite offensive,” she reasoned. “It’s a prime example of not understanding that actual experience. Even the name: All – that’s insulting. They want to reduce her to neither/or. And then asking if you have a hot dog or a bun, reducing the whole thing to genitalia... It’s othering the person and just another example of transphobia and sensationalism in its truest form.”

“It’s enlightening, really, how being trans is a hot topic, and that it’s now become a buzzword,” Andrews added. “I would never take that role, though. Zoolander is a joke, I get it, but any trans model willing to do that would be laughed at. It’s hard enough to get a job as it is. It’s such a responsibility and it needs to not be turned into a joke.”