Laverne Cox embraces groundbreaking status, but that's just part of who she is
Actress Laverne Cox is proud to bring attention to transgender people, but that's just one element of her identity.
Cox, a star of Netflix's Orange Is the New Black, will become the first transgender actress to play a trans network-TV series regular on CBS' Doubt, due early next year. She'll play Ivy League-educated attorney Cameron Wirth in the legal drama, which stars Katherine Heigl as a lawyer who falls for her client (Steven Pasquale).
Cox spoke about the milestone and the steps leading to it Wednesday at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills.
"It feels really exciting to be alive at this moment and to be the vessel for these moments that were inevitable," Cox said. Years ago, "I couldn't get into an audition room. I couldn't get an acting job. A friend of mine who is a drag performer in New York said, 'I think that this trans thing is going to become a thing because it's inevitable and you're really smart and talented and I think you're going to be at the forefront of it.' "
Cox noted the varietyof her roles in Orange (as inmate Sophia Burset), Doubt and as the star of Fox's upcoming remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
"I've been arrested in Orange and now I'm an attorney (in Doubt). I'm also a doctor and a lawyer in one year. I'm Dr. Frank-N-Furter" in Rocky Horror, she said.
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In acting, "I get to show all these different sides of who I am and my talent. Yeah, I'm trans, but before I knew I was trans, I was a performer. I started dancing when I could walk and I've been performing my whole life. And so, just getting to do what I love doing most is so amazing," she said.
But she says it's important to speak up for people who are subject to mistreatment.
"I don’t have to talk about being trans. I talk about it because I think it’s important," she said. "Another trans woman was found murdered just this week. I think the total is 17 trans folks who have been murdered this year. And people might not say that’s a lot, but for a community that’s truly small, that is a lot. And I think that talking about diversity, talking about race, talking about gender is important."