Earlier this month, Jeffrey Tambor’s name was added to the ever-growing list of Hollywood men accused of sexual misconduct. Late last week, Tambor’s Transparent co-star, Trace Lysette, added her claim of the actor’s inappropriate language and physical contact to the original accusations from Tambor’s personal assistant, Van Barnes. Amazon opened a formal investigation into Tambor’s behavior—but before the results of that investigation could be made public, Tambor resigned from the Transparent role that won him a Golden Globe and two Emmy awards, citing a “politicized atmosphere” on set.
Lysette claims that in Season 2, while filming a bonding scene between their characters, Tambor made lascivious remarks toward her when she emerged from wardrobe. “My God, Trace. I want to attack you sexually,” Lysette recalls him saying. Alexandra Billings, the third actress in the scene, corroborated Lysette’s account. Lysette also recounted Tambor intimidating her physically: “He came in close, put his bare feet on top of mine so I could not move, leaned his body against me, and began quick, discreet thrusts back and forth against my body. I felt his penis on my hip through his thin pajamas.”
In an earlier, private Facebook post that subsequently went viral, Barnes claimed an unnamed employer told her “I should be sleeping with him if I want a Hollywood industry appropriate pay.” In addition, she said her employer would pat her on the bottom, play pornography at loud volumes, and call her “useless.” Amazon launched its investigation into Tambor after the Barnes post was widely re-posted online.
In a statement to Deadline on Sunday, Tambor characterizes the decision to leave Transparent as his own: “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.”
Tambor has repeatedly denied any misconduct on his part, at first responding to Barnes’s claims by calling her a “former disgruntled assistant” and “adamantly and vehemently” rejecting her “baseless allegation.” Tambor garnished that sentiment with a broader apology when announcing his departure from Transparent on Sunday: “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.”
Tambor is the second actor, after Kevin Spacey, to leave an award-winning role under a cloud of suspicion in recent weeks. Unlike Tambor, Spacey was explicitly fired. There’s no way of knowing if Tambor’s departure was, indeed, his idea, or if he’s acting under pressure from Amazon Studios—which is still grappling with the explosive claims of misconduct surrounding its former chief Roy Price—or Transparent showrunner Jill Soloway.
Soloway—who recently came out as non-binary and began using gender-neutral pronouns—refused to comment on the investigation into Tambor specifically. During Vulture Festival L.A. on Saturday, they remained silent in order to “protect the process, and make sure that we have a process with the most integrity to make sure that everybody … that it turns out fair.”
But Soloway did comment more generally on creating a safer working environment: “What if we don’t have sex with people at work? We don’t talk about sex at work, and we don’t touch people at work. Just to try it. I don’t know if it’s going to work. But you just check before you give somebody a hug.” It would seem that even without Tambor in the cast, Soloway is determined to make lasting changes behind-the-scenes of Transparent—which apparently plans to carry on, somehow, without its main character.
