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Transparent holds up a mirror to Jeffrey Tambor

Transparent star explains how a ground-breaking role helped him discover more about himself.

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It was when he won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Comedy that Jeffrey Tambor thanked his Transgender mentors for helping him find “more of Jeffrey than I have ever known in my entire life.”

Such is the power and resonance of his role as Mort / Maura in Transparent, a character in gender transition late in life.

Visiting Sydney this week, Tambor told TV Tonight the importance of a role such as Maura weighed heavily on him, but it was one he relished.

“I was lucky enough to have three wonderful mentors from the Trans community as consultants: Rhys Ernst, Zackary Drucker and Jennifer Finney Boylan. We met at the Algonquin in New York and had a wonderful meeting,” he said.

“Zackary and Rhys mentored me through the project on questions and answers, taking me out on field trips, and just day by day involving myself in the life of Maura.

“Maura is a great teacher too, she’s so beautifully written so she taught me. She’s very early into her transition too so she doesn’t quite know how to make herself up yet, and she hasn’t quite found where she is in fashion.

“All she has is this authentic break for freedom.

“So she’s taught me more about me being Jeffrey. People ask ‘What did you access?’ but it’s not so much that you access your feminine side. I was able to access more of Jeffrey than I’ve ever been allowed to. I’ve found out more about myself.”

After reading the script by writer / director Jill Soloway, Tambor -who has previously appeared in such comedies as Arrested Development and The Larry Sanders Show– leapt at the opportunity.

“I got off a plane and my agent said ‘You must read this script.’ On my way to the hotel it was 15 minutes later I emailed to say ‘I’m in! I’m in! I’m in!’ And he said ‘Do you have to meet with Jill?’ and I said ‘I’m in! I’m in! I’m in!’

“I all but threw myself at Jill because it’s a wonderful project and it leapt off the page in every single aspect, not only the role of Mort / Maura, but the family and how it read.

“I met with Jill and had fabulous meeting. That afternoon she sent me the link to her movie, Afternoon Delight, and I was in.

“These roles don’t come along in a lifetime let alone at the age of 70. I knew it was a huge opportunity and Jill is one of our biggest creative forces.

“It’s expertly written and delineated, so you follow the crumbs on the road.”

Transparent has been embraced by the Transgender community, undoubtedly thanks to its understanding of complex issues and Tambor’s performance. Playing for truth was crucial to Maura’s wider acceptance.

“She sort of led me, I sort of led her. There’s a wonderful adage about acting: you’re stuck with a character and the character is stuck with you. Maura has an arthritic left knee and she’s a little hard of hearing in her left ear and wears reading glasses. She’s very human but I like that aspect,” he explained.

“My mission was to make her as human as possible. To make her real and not cast her as a saint but as a person who has foibles and can be grand and less than grand.

“It continues to be a huge responsibility because lives are at stake. This is a community that has been misunderstood. There are phobias and hatreds about it, so my responsibility is to get it right.

“It’s time. It’s in the zeitgeist now. It’s nothing less than civil rights. It’s time to do it correctly, with honour and correct representation.”

Yet despite a senior man undergoing the profound effects of transition, Maura’s adult children are arguably more unsettled than she. As another dysfunctional TV family, it’s a point not lost on Tambor.

“I think the kids are a little scared at what’s going on in that family. There’s a huge change going on, and they are thrown –probably on a conscious and unconscious level,” he explained.

“I think they are set in motion by this change. They are now on their voyage to discovery and authenticity. Maura, ironically enough, becomes a true parent for the first time. She is much more effective as Maura than in her former state as Mort.

“But I think our series answers a very basic question through humour, pathos and all of the elements, laughter and tears: if I change, will you still be there, will you still love me?”

Reactions from the publics ugliest they will. Tambor commonly hears feedback that falls into three categories.

‘There’s ‘I had no idea what to expect’, which I think is code for ‘I’m not quite comfortable with the subject’ or indeed, ‘I’m not quite comfortable with you playing this role.’ The second is ‘I loved it, it blew me away.’ The third is invariably something to do with their lives, or a transgender in their family, or one they knew. Or even something about their grandmother,” he says.

As he readies for the second season to begin filming in June, Tambor doesn’t mind which reaction he encounters most. It’s all good. And it’s all important.

“I sometimes think ‘Don’t wake me from this! Whatever this is don’t wake me!”

Transparent Season 1 is now streaming on Stan.

6 Responses

  1. Love this show,ad Jeffrey Tambor’s performance in particular.I was surprised to read that he was 70 in the article.I thought he was quite a few years younger than that.

  2. Love Maura but geez I can’t stand the children! Would prefer more emphasis on Maura’s journey than the self-obsessed lives of the children.

    But still top notch stuff.

  3. I started watching Transparent with not really understanding what it was and fell in love with it straight away, Jeffrey is absolutely fantastic and the show is an honest account of families today

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