Jill Soloway and the cast of Transparent nabbed their second Emmy nomination this morning for Outstanding Comedy among 10 noms for the groundbreaking Amazon series. “There is that fear that after year one the Academy and your peers would be like ‘great job, you had your moment’,” Soloway said today after the noms were announced. “We want to keep mattering, we want the movement to keep mattering, we want to show to keep mattering. So to have a second year where even more of our actors are recognized and things are getting bigger in terms of the show being taken in around the world. Its just thrilling. It’s a dream come true.”
Defending Lead Actor Emmy winner Jeffrey Tambor snagged a repeat nomination for his portrayal of Maura. “What’s interesting about this season,” he said, “is that most Season 2s do plus 10 percent and what Jill Soloway and company have done is just whole new beautiful creation,” he said. “You can’t make a mistake if it comes from the heart.”
Judith Light, who was also nominated, echoed similar sentiments. “The way they’ve created and masterfully executed the second season is something that really has to be acknowledged,” she said.
Soloway also spoke on the Emmys in general in terms of diversity among contenders. “It’s a tenuous piece of mass because the voting bodies are attempting to bring new people into the business, but the people voting on these awards are people that have been in the business, so it’s this weird confluence of the past and the future,” she said.
She added: “I feel incredibly lucky this show is recognized because we are attempting to take on something as simple and as grand as the notion of the female gaze. The show is nothing short of what to us feels like a revolution in terms of the protagonism to women and to queer people and to trans people and saying, ‘This is how it feels to be us’ rather then ‘this is how it feels to look at us or to name us.’ A lot of women, a lot of queer people, a lot of trans people are used to being the objects of storylines. We are taking the opportunity to place these people in the role of the subject. There is that feeling that awards may not recognize that because it feels so different, so we are so grateful that we are recognized.”
Season 3 will continue to follow Maura on her journey of self-discovery, Tambor says. She “has to decide what she looks like — that’s a major challenge” and “a very important confrontation.”
Said Soloway: “We go back in time again to a different part. We have Maura as a 10-year-old which is unbelievable.” With the flashbacks, Light said, “We begin to understand what makes someone operate in the way that they do. It reveals the psychological depth of who these people really are. Mora is still in the process of finding herself.”
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