Tambor’s fate on ‘Transparent’ is uncertain
Jeffrey Tambor’s Transparent future isn’t quite so clear.
As Amazon Studios, which continues to investigate accusations of harassment, has not yet announced any decision on the show or its star, the actor says he isn’t sure he can return.
Tambor also has a role as family patriarch George Bluth on Netflix’s Arrest
ed Development, which recently finished production of Season 5. Netflix had no comment on the situation.
The actor, who has won two leadactor Emmys for his performance as a transgender woman in Transparent, said in a statement shared with USA TODAY by his publicist, Allan Mayer: “Playing Maura Pfefferman on Trans
parent has been one of the greatest privileges and creative experiences of my life. What has become clear over the past weeks, however, is that this is no longer the job I signed up for four years ago.”
He continued: “I’ve already made clear my deep regret if any action of mine was ever misinterpreted by anyone as being aggressive, but the idea that I would deliberately harass anyone is simply and utterly untrue. Given the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set, I don’t see how I can return to Transparent.”
Show creator Jill Soloway did not comment on Tambor’s status when she appeared Saturday at Vulture Festival L.A., Vulture reported. She said she would not discuss the matter to “protect the process, and … that it turns out fair.”
But she did talk about safety on production sets. And while she says she always has made it a goal to have a safe work environment, she believes more rules are worth considering. “What if we don’t have sex with people at work?” she said. “We don’t talk about sex at work, and we don’t touch people at work. Just to try it. I don’t know if it’s going to work. But you just check before you give somebody a hug.”
In fall 2016, Soloway told CNN that if she were to start the show over, Tambor would not be its star.
Tambor had been cast a few years earlier, “before our society had progressed as much as it had,” Soloway said. “And I really probably do believe were I to start all over, it would be unimaginable for me to cast a cis man in the role of a trans woman.”
The initial accusation against Tambor became public Nov. 8 when the ac- tor’s former assistant, a transgender woman named Van Barnes, implied in a private Facebook post that Tambor engaged in inappropriate behavior. After that report, Amazon confirmed that it was conducting an investigation.
Tambor issued a statement denying the claim: “I adamantly and vehemently reject and deny any and all implication and allegation that I have ever engaged in any improper behavior toward this person or any other person I have ever worked with. I am appalled and distressed by this baseless allegation.”
A second person, transgender actress Trace Lysette, who stars in Trans
parent, accused Tambor of misconduct Thursday. “Sadly, I must add my voice to the chorus. Jeffrey has acted inappropriate to me too,” Lysette told The Holly
wood Reporter. “Jeffrey has made many sexual advances and comments at me, but one time it got physical.”
On Friday, GLAAD tweeted a message of support to Lysette saying, “We stand with @tracelysette in her hope that the inappropriate situations she and others endured on set will be remedied, and that future seasons will focus on more of the many brilliant characters that audiences love and care about.”