hi I'm Laverne Cox and we're in studio
with the hollywood reporter Laverne Cox
congratulations thanks for being here
today thank you so much I'm so happy to
be here it's nice to see you I know
you've had a crazy day and a crazy few
weeks so how are you doing
I'm exhausted I've been up since 3:30
this morning but I am so grateful to be
alive and relatively healthy and
celebrating my third Emmy nomination for
Orange is the new black as the final
season is now streaming on Netflix what
a way to celebrate what a way to
celebrate this show our entire cast I
shared this nomination with everyone in
our cast and our crew I love all of you
thank you thank you thank you for seven
incredible years Thank You gingy Cohen
seven seasons third Emmy nomination
historic run for you what does it feel
like I mean to get your first you made
history but then to amazing and then
three what does that mean it never
becomes an easy thing to process if I'm
being honest it's just this time around
I wanted to the for the first time I
made a pact with myself that I would be
I would stay in the moment and enjoy it
because I didn't know if it would ever
happen again
the second time I I literally had a
panic attack the day it happened and
that was like shaking and had an anxiety
attack for like two days and I had to a
text to do so and I was like I am
freaking out like why don't help she's
won two Emmys I'm like she's a good
person to talk to and she just hope she
doesn't mind me saying is I think it's
it's funny because I've been saying it
all week and she said can you give it
over to a Power greater than yourself
can you surrender to an energy that is
bigger than you for the second one and
that's really where I'm at this time
what the day it happened that guy I
cried I was in London shooting a film
and then I thought because I was really
I was even more surprised about this one
than the other two I was like if this is
um happening now there has to be a
bigger reason and I think this year
particularly and the year wouldn't show
like pose is is on the air and I
honestly thought I would no longer be
the only
trans person nominated for an acting ma
and no other trans actors were nominated
this year I thought okay this is an
opportunity to lift up those
performances to talk about this you know
like in invite the television Academy
members to consider the brilliant work
of some of the trans actors who are
working on television certainly you know
an image should be about but the work
and the talent and and what you've
brought to the craft but you know in
2019
why should there just be one trans
person who's been nominated for an
acting at me talk to me about how your
life is different now because this show
catapulted you into a different area of
the business and a different area of
your career and you can afford to do
some things I know you bought a house
too but but this condo but still you own
some property which is incredible it's
amazing and especially considering where
you were when you got this part oh I
love that story of bar you know buying
your friends GRE steady ether I did my
research and I didn't have to write it
down I just knew it because it's such a
great story and it's it's a classic
story of actors who may want to give up
and we've heard it a lot because it's a
tough business but here you are now
seven years later can you summarize this
experience for you of this show and what
it means to you both you know I mean
financially of course but also just
professionally when I moved to New York
City in 1993 I thought I would be a
superstar in two three years tops and
that didn't quite happen and it wasn't
till twenty years later that I finally
got my breakout role in orange is the
new black 20 years after I moved to New
York and in 2012 in May of 2012 I I
turned 40 and I turned 40 and was on a
payment plan to avoid eviction from my
apartment I was in tons of debt and
barely surviving even though I was
working really hard working in a
restaurant writing and audition you know
I was working but I just wasn't making a
lot of money like so many people around
this country and I thought I should it's
time to do
thing else I was actually I was working
in Lucky Chang's and I was talking to
someone who used to work there and they
had just gone to school they just um
they were about to graduate from
graduate school and they were like you
need to you need to go to school and I
was like and I just it was it was sort
of a devastating sort of realization
it's like okay you're 40 years old by
that point I had you know done some
television and done a number of
independent films and I thought well
maybe that's all God want it for me in
this business and I thought that maybe
this is all I'm supposed to do and now I
should just listen to what the universe
seems to be telling me about this acting
thing and try something else and so
that's what I was all to do and then I
got this audition and it turns out that
God had a different plan mm-hmm so you
never know and seven years later in
three Emmy nominations later you get to
say goodbye to Sophia and I love that
this episode in particularly you were
nominated for for an Emmy was directed
by a fellow member of the cast talked to
me about what laura Prepon did for you
in this particular episode and what it
means to you to take this journey with
other members of the cast who have moved
into the director's chair it's been so
great just getting to know everyone I
mean I went to Berlin with with Laura a
few years back we didn't have a lot of
things together in there in the
trajectory of the show but we traveled
internationally together and she's so
cool and when there was a moment when I
had the scene with Nic the first scene
with Nick and no it was it was the
second scene when the offer comes to you
know get this money and to have an early
release and I was you know it's in in
the circumstances but just Laura just
said something very gently to me in the
way she I think was the way she said it
that's just something new dropped in
around the stakes of it all and it was
very simple about the circumstances but
it just was just absolutely the right
thing that I need to hear and it just
felt like such a gift because I sat down
for the next take and something
something new happen
and for me I always want something new
to happen for every tag I am I know some
actors cuz I've worked with a blessed to
have worked with a lot of actors now
they get it and they keep doing it the
same way and I like to try it a lot of
different ways that I'd like to give the
director options and I want to hopefully
find something new and in the in the
moment and so with Laura's help and with
my fellow actors help and the scenes I
found new things that I didn't expect
and ended up being quite a day was it
there was a moment where I just
completely broke down and for one take
they didn't use it it rarely used those
days which is interesting but what was
it always about crying but whatever
happened something I recently watched is
so hard for me to be objective about my
work but we should literally shot that
two years ago and I watch your nose I
and I understand what I want to know now
though is what were you thinking when
you got to see yourself or or act
through the experience of Sofia being a
free woman Wow
because it's it's not just you and your
characters journey which it is but it
also symbolizes so much more and I think
that you probably carried a lot of that
with you of this woman's journey and how
far she came to the course of the show
and what it could mean to a transgender
person who may have been incarcerated
than to see Sophia on the outside now
that it's done I think I can talk about
some of the some of this stuff and I
think um one of my matching mentors
Susan Batson and has this concept that
comes from Meisner but it's different
Meisner talks about the need of the
character but Susan Batson talks about
the unfulfilled need of a character and
she believes that every human being
develops an unfulfilled me by the age of
five years old and so Sofia is
unfulfilled neat which it was to be free
I think that is the the reason she ended
up in jail was because she stole some
credit cards to finance her transition
because she needed to be free and what
she was in jails she still needed to be
free and and and not just free from the
walls of the prison but just free in
terms of her own sense of self we can
create prisons for ourselves and so it's
really interesting that on this HOOPP
sort of mayor
for achill level our brilliant writers
in orange wanted to fear contemplating
freedom as she was being released from
Litchfield Wow
she's so heavy let's keep the fun going
and end with something fun I notice you
popped up in a couple fun pop-culture
moments recent okay I've seen you on
Twitter and some Taylor Swift videos and
things so so tell me about that and what
was really going on with Taylor I mean
she got the nickname drunk Taylor but
mhm you've said that that's that wasn't
exactly the case to my knowledge Taylor
wasn't drunk I mean I I saw her having a
little cocktail you know I had a
Smirnoff cocktail that night but just
because you've had a sip if something
does it mean you're drunk we were just
having fun like you know that's if we
were teenagers again which is fantastic
it's fantastic I hope you had some fun
today I know I did you so much for
spending some time with us and good luck
at the upcoming Emmys I'll see you there
do you know what you're wearing yeah
there are they're conference calls mood
boards meetings there's a whole we don't
know yet though fits in the works can't
wait to see how it all turns out thanks
again you guys orange is the new black
is streaming now on netflix and stay
tuned for more from Laverne Cox thanks
so much