In the past few years Jeffrey Tambor has gotten a lot of praise for playing transgender character Maura Pfefferman in Amazon Prime’s hit show, Transparent, which has included him winning a Golden Globe and two Emmys. However, in the past few days he has been hit by allegations of sexual harassment/misconduct by co-star, Trace Lysette, and his former assistant, Van Barnes.
He immediately issued denials, saying ‘I know I haven’t always been the easiest person to work with. I can be volatile and ill-tempered, and too often I express my opinions harshly and without tact. But I have never been a predator – ever.’
However, he has now decided to leave the series entirely. Tambor released a statement, via Deadline, reading, ‘Playing Maura Pfefferman on Transparent has been one of the greatest privileges and creative experiences of my life. What has become clear over the past weeks, however, is that this is no longer the job I signed up for four years ago.
‘I’ve already made clear my deep regret if any action of mine was ever misinterpreted by anyone as being aggressive, but the idea that I would deliberately harass anyone is simply and utterly untrue. Given the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set, I don’t see how I can return to Transparent.’
There have been suggestions that since the accusations were made the makers of Transparent had already started discussing removing Tambor and his character from the show ahead of Season 5, and so it’s a case of the actor jumping before he could be pushed.
There are also suggestions that the ‘politicised atmosphere’ Tambor mentioned isn’t just that he’s alleged to have sexually harassed people, but growing discomfort amongst some of the crew about having such a prominent trans character played by a cis actor. Indeed one of the show’s trans writers, Our Lady J, suggested there was tension around this issue when she backed Tambor’s accuser while saying, ‘we cannot let trans content be taken down by a single cis man.’
There have already been calls to either bring in a trans actor to play Maura, or to ensure any new major trans character added to Season 5 isn’t played by a cis actor. As cis people playing trans character has become a much higher profile issues since Transparent started, and Tambor has been somewhat dismissive of people’s concerns about it, the current situation allows a reset of the show that will satisfy many.
With its first teaser trailer, A Wrinkle In Time suggested it might be comething really special. That feeling is only going to grow with this new, full trailer for the movie, which hints that this could be a ‘kid’s film’ that’s intense, beautiful and very entertaining.
Just ahead of its US release on Wednesday, Disney-Pixar’s Coco has become the highest-grossing film of all time in Mexico after only 19 days at the box office. The filmmakers will certainly be pleased, as the whole thing is a bit of a love letter to Mexican culture.
It’s difficult to believe that it was way back in 2004 when Pixar’s The Incredibles was released. It’s taken them a while, but 2018 will bring us a sequel, where we’ll get to return to the world of the superhero family in Incredibles 2.
Quite often when filmmakers don’t know what to do with a sequel, they send the characters of vacation. Unfortunately that’s accompanied by a lack of ideas in the finished movie and a sense of desperation. Hopefully though, that won’t be the case with Hotel Transylvania 3.
John Krasinski seems keen to show there’s more to him than just Jim from The Office, and that’s certainly true for his second feature as a director. He’s taken the reins of a horror/thriller for A Quiet Place, and brought Emily Blunt along for the ride.
For several years Fox has been planning to expand its X-Men universe, and while it’s sometimes proven more difficult that they’d hoped – we still haven’t had Gambit with Channing Tatum – but they’ve had great success with Deadpool and a change of direction for Wolverine in Logan. They’re also hoping a more horror tone with New Mutants next year will strike a chord with audiences. The likes of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are also reuniting for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, due out November 2018.
I don’t know whether Dwayne Johnson really wannted a role in Kong: Skull Island and didn’t get one – and so initiated his own everyle large gorilla movie. It seems a definite possibility, even if the gorillas here seem to have been dyeing their hair white, like the apes in Michael Crichton’s Congo!
Press release: ‘Warner Bros. Pictures announces “FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD” as the title of the second of five all new adventures in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World™. Opening November 16, 2018, the film features an ensemble cast led by Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, with Jude Law and Johnny Depp.
If you’re not American, you may not know who Bob Ross is. If you don’t, you’re missing out. So head to Youtube to find out all about the legendary American TV patiner. After that, watch the new teaser for Deadpool 2, as you’ll appreciate it a lot more.