Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox is an American actress, reality television star, television producer, and LGBT advocate. She is best known for her portrayal of Sophia Burset on the Netflix television series Orange Is the New Black, for which she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer/musician Angela Morley in 1990. In 2015, she became the first openly transgender person...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actress
Date of Birth29 May 1984
CityMobile, AL
CountryUnited States of America
There's not just one trans story. There's not just one trans experience.
I'm always skeptical about representations of trans people, especially when trans people are not making the work.
The preoccupation with transition and with surgery objectifies trans people, and we don't get to really deal with the real lived experiences.
Seeing a black transgender woman embracing and loving everything about herself might be inspiring to some other folks.
Whether you're transgender or not, most of us get to a point in our lives where we can no longer lie to ourselves.
What took time for my mom was getting the pronouns right and calling me by a different name. Laverne was my middle name before I transitioned.
I wanted to be famous; I wanted to perform. Those things I really, really wanted more than anything else.
When people find out you're an actress, they Google you.
I was really creative. I started to dance very young. I loved to dance. I begged my mother to put me into dance classes, and finally, in third grade, she did. Tap and jazz, but not ballet.
I just have to be myself. I'm not perfect, and I'm going to make mistakes; I might say the wrong thing. I have to be responsible to my community, and I feel like I am, but then I have to not be so hard on myself.
I'm so grateful that I had the luxury of transitioning in private. Because when you transition in the public eye, the transition becomes the story.
I'm terrified of saying the wrong thing on stage with bell hooks.
We shouldn't demonize the woman who wears high heels and we shouldn't demonize the woman who doesn't wear high heels. We should accept all forms of comportment.
Writing a book is quite an undertaking and I wouldn't want to do it just to do it.