Jeffrey Tambor says ‘Transparent’ has been life-changing
Playing a transgender woman who comes out to her family in her twilight years has done more than add a slew of accolades and awards to Jeffrey Tambor’s resume.
It’s also changed the life of the star of the heralded series “Transparent,” which is now streaming its third season on Shomi. The web streaming service announced Monday it is shutting down as of Nov. 30 after two years in operation.
“You can’t pick up a character like Maura and not go through change,” he said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“I think she’s challenged me as an actor. I think my acting got better. It’s certainly fun to go to work and try to play all these challenges.
“I think it’s made me a better daddy, I think it’s made me a better husband, I think it’s made me more present. I think it’s made me, first and foremost, a better citizen, because it’s made me more aware.”
Maura, a retired college professor in the Pacific Palisades of Los Angeles, even seems to have changed his cognitive development.
“I think that my word choice and my way of talking has changed since I’ve played Maura and that my humour is better,” said Tambor, who recently won his second Emmy Award for the part, which has also earned him a Golden Globe.
“I write more, I write better, I read better, my interest is more, I’m more aware, I get what’s going around.”
Tambor’s cast members have also been transformed by the show.
“I’ve never cried so much in my life,” said Amy Landecker, who plays the eldest sibling in the Pfefferman clan.
“I feel like all our hearts are just cut open by this experience in the best way.”
Season 3, which features a cameo from Caitlyn Jenner, finds Maura volunteering at an LGBT help line. When a distressing call from a black trans woman prompts her to head out to Compton, Calif., she realizes her trans experience has been much more privileged than that of others.
“She sees an element of this whole world that she’s never seen before and it knocks her for a loop,” said Tambor, whose previous credits include “Arrested Development” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”
“She’s not a saint in any way,” he added. “I think she’s a little spoiled, I do, and I think she didn’t think all of this through. Why would she?”
Maura’s children have come across as spoiled and selfish. But Gaby Hoffmann, who plays the youngest sibling, takes issue with critics who vilify the siblings.
“It was like the third question at a panel, ‘How do you guys feel? These are pretty unlikable characters.’ And I was just like, ‘Look, I haven’t seen much television in the last 10 years, but it seems like the most successful shows, the protagonist is a white man who is either murdering people, raping them, both, generally just a pretty ... bad guy who is somehow the hero because he’s the antihero because he’s also a little bit vulnerable.’ So we’re a little whiny?” she said, using an unprintable expletive.
Added Landecker: “Narcissism in comedy is the most successful base of a character, but when women are doing it, all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Ah, I don’t know.”’
Kathryn Hahn, who plays Rabbi Raquel on the show, said creator Jill Soloway has always tried to listen to what the audience is saying and reflect back to them.
“The idea of privilege has come up a bunch and how Maura’s transition is one of privilege, that most trans do not have access to the financial and emotional support that Maura has had going through this,” she said.
“I think episode 1 is her response, making sure that she knows that she is heard from audiences.”