LAVERNE COX WORKS IT

She Does It All + Upcoming True Crime Role

image above and cover image: laverne cox

BY: Georgia Davis

Can you imagine if Laverne Cox wasn’t on Orange Is The New Black? Well, it almost happened. The 48-year-old actress almost quit the profession months before landing her breakout role on one of Netflix’s first series.

“I was just devastated by turning 40 and my life was kind of in shambles, like, financially, and I had worked and trained a lot and my dream of being a working actress had not come to fruition,” she told the Paley Center. “I was just like, ‘I’ve got to do something else. Who do I think I am? I’m a Black trans woman — no one’s ever done this before, let me go and do something, have a real job or something.’ So I was going to go to grad school. I was studying for the GRE and then the audition for Orange happened and I didn’t go to grad school — Orange turned out to be my grad school.”

Cox is arguably the most visible trans actress in the industry. Her filmography defies titles, genre, and roles. She is rarely cast as “the trans person,” which shows tremendous ownership over her career and slight growth in an industry that is quick to typecast.

With her fame and prestige, Cox has ventured into producing. Last year, she served as the thread that wove together the captivating, groundbreaking documentary Disclosure. She not only serves as the leading expert in the documentary, but she also produced it. Disclosure chronicles the history of trans people on TV and in film. It demonstrated the harsh stereotypes and shows when the industry started changing (but introducing some more problems), Cox’s role on OITNB.

Now, Cox is popping up in movies and other TV shows. Last year, we heard people say, “Oh, is that Laverne Cox?” in the Hulu horror film Bad Hair as the weave-binding goddess and as Carey Mulligan’s witty boss and BFF in Promising Young Woman. Both reached critical acclaim, and Promising Young Woman was nominated for five Oscars.

So, what’s next for Cox? She will appear in a small role in Jolt, a comedy starring Kate Beckinsale and Stanley Tucci. But Cox’s big get is with Inventing Anna, a true-crime TV series that tells the story of Anna Delvey. She is the Instagram-legendary German heiress who stole the hearts and money from New York’s social scene members. The series creator is none other than Shonda Rhimes, so it’s bound to draw a lot of attention.