With various "firsts" in her already impressive career, the Emmy-nominated actress, documentary film producer and prominent equal -rights advocate Laverne Cox, continues to make history in her career and significant strides in her activism. Debuting on the scene in the groundbreaking role of Sophia Burset in the critically acclaimed Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, Cox is the first trans woman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television show.
Cox has earned numerous honors and award nominations for her work and advocacy, from being featured on the cover of TIME Magazine, to an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series," to a SAG Award for "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series."
An advocate with an empowering message of moving beyond gender expectations to live more authentically, she was also named as one of Glamour magazine's 2014 Women of the Year, one of The Grio's 100 Most Influential African Americans, one of the Top 50 Trans Icons by the Huffington Post, and honored with the Courage Award from the Anti-Violence Project and the Reader's Choice Award from Out magazine, among other accolades.
Recently, Cox has partnered with the BAND-AID® brand Johnson & Johnson and ( RED ) to #BandTogether in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Every purchase of ( BAND-AID® ) RED bandages is enough to provide a day's worth of life-saving medication to someone living with HIV.
Cox was interviewed at West Hollywood Andaz Hotel's red suite.
Windy City Times: My first one I ask everyone, it's the same, and you can interpret it as you wish. Modesty aside, how would you describe yourself?
Laverne Cox: Oh, wow! It depends on the day. Todayoh, my God! I guess I don't think about this much. I like to call myself an artist. There was a moment I went to the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Alabama, and I started studying dance when I was in third grade, but I didn't study ballet until high school, so when I auditioned for the Alabama School of Fine Arts, I needed to get a scholarship and I didn't think I would be able to get the scholarship if I hadn't ever studied ballet before. I had been writing a lot, and so I submitted myself as a creative writing major, and got in and got a scholarship, and the very first piece I wrote at the Alabama School of Fine Arts had the recurring line, "I would like to call myself an artist."
I think that has been the throughline of my life, that at every point when I feel adrift or unsure, uncertain of myself for my direction, something artistic gets me back on trackand even now, at this point in my life, I am so blessed. This year has been so transitional in so many ways, with "Orange" ending. I started the year feeling like this is a transitional year. I don't know where I am transitioning to and where I am at now, is the art.
WCT: You seem to be on top of the world, with your career, coming off Orange in The New Black, all your other projects, a film coming up, covers of Cosmo, Time and British Vogue.
LC: The interesting thing about perception is that it is complicated. This means, you said, that it seems like I am on top of the world and there are so many things that are quite wonderful about my life and my work, so many dreams have come true. I am really living the dream in so many ways. But at the moment, I mean I am being quite honest, I broke up with my boyfriendor he broke up with me, I should sayat the end of June. We were dating for almost two years, and I was madly in love, and I am still heartbroken. So, my career is kind of wonderful right now in so many ways, but I am also heartbroken, so it is complicated. So, yes, I am living a dream that a lot of people I think would like to live.
WCT: Well, you just humanized it. Because the public seems the outside for the most part, but might not realize that you have your own challenges.
LC: It almost feels like this: You know I had a moment, especially after my Emmy nomination. I was, like, "I have an Emmy nomination." Then the British Vogue came out, and it was my first Vogue cover. And I am like I am on the cover of Vogue and this Emmy nomination and I am, like, heartbroken. I end up waking up crying, you now, because I miss him, I mean I miss us. I think it is for the best, you know the spiritual part of me knows that things happen for a reason and there is a plan bigger than my understanding. But the grief process is the grief process, you know that when you have been in a relationship with someone for two years and have healed so much trauma and shame in that relationship and all of a sudden, it's over; it's devastating. So, yeah! It just sobers the whole experience of what it means to be on top of the world.
WCT: Your immense success is notable and impressive, but it's even more significant when one factors in that you are a transgender woman of color. How would you reflect on your career when noting all the glass ceilings that you have broken?
LC: I think we have to because there is a case going to the Supreme Court [in which] a trans woman named Aimee Stephens was fired from her job for being transgender. Her employer concedes that is why he fired her, and the Supreme Court may decide that is legal to do. We have to keep talking about it because transgender people are banned from serving openly in the military; we have to keep talking about it, because this current administration wants to discriminate against us in homeless shelters and in healthcare. We have to keep talking about it because trans people are being murdered in record numbers and 78 percent of trans youth are bullied in schoolsthat is why we have to keep talking about it.
WCT: Your career, in itself, it's incredible. How do you reflect on that?
LC: I just think it feels like a miracle. It feels like a miracle, and I think because I have always dreamed of having this kind of career, but I never saw someone openly trans have this kind of career before me. That I am wondering if I was crazy, wondering if it was actually even possible right before I moved [toward] this Black, I was going to stop acting and go to graduate school and get a job. It feels just remarkable, but what I am very clear about is that I believe this happened to me when it happened to me because I was ready to be of service and I could be of service.
But I think it's really about being of service and that is why I partnered with Band Aid and RED on this incredible campaign that is really about continuing the work RED has been doing since 2006 of making sure that folks in sub-Saharan Africa have access to medication to prevent the spread of HIV, medication to keep their viral load undetectable if they are HIV-positive, to keep mothers from transmitting the virus to their babies if they are HIV-positiveall the incredible work that RED has been doing. We can actually end AIDS and HIV in our lifetime. It is possible. There is no reason why people should be dying of HIV and AIDS still in 2019. So that piece of getting to be service, I believe, I really believe in my spirit, that its partly why I have been given the opportunities by the world, by the universe, by those I partner with, so I can be of service. And I think that is why, I know that is why I get to enjoy this wonderful life.
WCT: In addition to your remarkable achievements as an actress, you are often seen as the pinnacle of success in the trans/non-binary/gender not conforming ( TGNC ) community. How does that part feel? Is it too much pressure to live up to that?
LC: As things shift for me, and I rethink the advocacy work that I am doing and where I want to focus my energy, there is so much work that needs to be done, and I get guilty. I feel like I can't be everywhere and I can't do everything.
It's just not possible and continue to try to build a career as an artist, it's not possible. And so, where I am at now, I just saw my dear friend Angelica Ross on women on the conversation on her network. And she just was so brilliant in the way in which she had the conversation, with the Black women in the Black community about trans lives. I was so inspired and moved by everything that she said. And she said it so much better, and I was like, "Oh, this is wonderful." Angelica got that, she's got it and I don't have to do that.
And then I saw India Moore's insanely moving speech at the Fashion Media Awards a few weeks ago and she wore these beautiful earrings that had pictures of different trans women who had been murdered this year. And she made this incredibly moving speech that was just dead-on, smart and nuanced. So, India, who identifies as non-binary, was just so brilliant, and I was, like, "Oh, yes. India's got this; I don't have to do that." I see my trans siblings out there with platforms as big as mine doing the work.
And then I see fans on the ground doing grassroots activism and handling that so beautifully, and so I want to lift up that work when I can, but then I [think], "OK, I don't have to bear the weight of all this." And so I don't know if the weight is lighter; the load is lighter, but I just feel so lifted up by other trans folks who have these wonderful platforms as well and are even more articulate than I am on some of these issues. I mean, Janet Mockoh, God! How can I forget Janet Mock?
WCT: Thank you for that. Let's switch topics and talk about your film, Jolt, that you just shot. Tell me about that.
LC: Oh my gosh! Jolt is an action-comedy starring Kate Beckinsale, who I just adore, and I have been a fan of hers for years, and they [asked], "You want to do a movie with Kate Beckinsale and Bobby Cannavale?," and I was, like, "YEAH!" You sort of say yes even before you read the script, because it's a dream for me to work with an actress of that caliber; I mean, that is the company I would like to be keeping.
So, in Jolt, [there is] a woman who sort of has impulse control and the therapist has given her this suit; when she feels a murderous urge, she presses the button and it kind of gives her an electric jolt. And she has trouble meeting men, and she meets a guy and then he ends up dead. So, it becomes her trying to figure out who killed him. I play this police detective who thinks she killed him. And so, it's just a wonderful road. We had a blast shooting, I had a blast shooting in London and then BulgariaI'd never been to Bulgaria before. We were in Sofia, Bulgaria, running around and I got to chase Kate Beckinsale around.
WCT: How is it when a fan recognizes you in public?
LC: It depends on a lot of things; it depends on if I am in the space to receive it. I think I have gone very careful about where I go now, because I have been in situations often with fans where I was not in the place to receive the love that they wanted to give me. I just wanted to go about my daily life as a normal person, whatever that means, and so I think it depends if I am in the space where I can receive it, honestly.
I try to go out like incognito if I am not able to receive that energy. But if I am and I meetlet me think of the last interaction it was somewhere recently. I was out for lunch with a friend with some sort of business, and someone came up and she was quite lovely, and I would say, "Thank you so much." I was able to receive it.
WCT: I have looked up at some of the charities and organizations that you have worked with. Just give me a few of the highlights, the ones that are close to your heart right nowlike, obviously, the Band-Aid RED campaign.
LC: I don't know if I mentioned it, but we are doing #BandTogether. That's when [people] go to CVS and buy their RED band aids; we are encouraging them to post photos of themselves on social media with their Band Aids with #BandTogether. I hope they are okay with encouraging people to have conversations with their followers; there is still so much stigma and misconceptions about HIV and AIDS, and I think [talking] needs to part of the process.
WCT: My last question is always this: Tell me a secretand make it a good one.
LC: I have so few secrets now, I am just spilling all my tongue. Gee! Oh, my goodnessif I haven't talked about it publicly, I probably can't or won't.
Actually, this isn't a secret but they wanted me to wear for the Savage and Fenty Fashion show. I brought my own shoes, because I wear a size 13; I have big ass feetthat's not a secret. And so, they dyed a pair of my white custom Kenneth Cole shoes pink and, like, put stones on them for the show. That's not a secret but I haven't told anyone yet. You are the first person I am telling.
For more information about Laverne Cox, please visit LaverneCox.com .