Laverne Cox is nominated for an Emmy for a third year for her role on Orange Is the New Black. While making history as the first transgender actress to win an Emmy would be an amazing honor, in a recent interview, Cox focused on the thrill of the nomination and how it’s something she’s proud of for an inspiring reason.
Why her Emmy nomination means so much
This is the third time Cox has been nominated for the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Emmy for her role as Sophia Burset on Orange Is the New Black. While the win would have been amazing (Cherry Jones took home the trophy for The Handmaid’s Tale), the actress doesn’t discount the importance of the nomination.
In a new interview with E! News, Cox shared: “It feels so incredibly special and the ultimate blessing to be nominated for an Emmy as the last season of Orange Is the New Black has just dropped.”
She added, “I’m just celebrating the show, celebrating the impact its had on the world, on the culture, on the entertainment industry…”
She added that when the show started, “the timing wasright for us to begin having different conversations about trans folks. Most ofthe ways that trans people were talked about on television or when we would goon talk shows, the questions would be very invasive and objectifying anddehumanizing, in my opinion, and sensationalized.”
“I wanted to take this platform and this opportunity to build a brand that was bigger for myself,” she shared, adding, “But also to begin to tell stories and change the conversation about transgender people.”
“I want to lift up the performances of the other trans folks”
Cox had already made history by being the first-ever transgender actor to be nominated for an Emmy in an acting category in 2014. She feels there is still room for improvement, however, noting, “Five years later, three nominations later,” and she is still the only trans person to be nominated.
As such, the actress believes her nomination can “lift up” other trans actors, as she shared: “I hope in this moment where I’m celebrating my own nomination, I want to lift up the performances of the other trans folks working on television right now. We have this incredible responsibility as artists to speak up, to speak out, to have more diverse sets, to have more diverse writers rooms, to tell stories that reflect the rich humanity of people and to speak to issues of the world around us.”
Cox further shared that this community has lived “in the shadows” and deserves to “exist in the light.”
Practicing self-love
In a 2018 interview with Self magazine, Cox shared some of her self-love tips, including repeating affirmations to herself in the mirror, which she called “cheesy.” She noted: “There’s a bit of cynicism that I, too, have had about doing affirmations, but it’s really a wonderful thing. Sometimes you say it until you believe it.”
Cox continued: “I think it’s important to be able to be like, ‘Yes, your shoulders are broad, yes your hands are big and your voice is deep and you’re really tall and people notice you, and that makes you noticeably trans, but that doesn’t make you any less beautiful.’ You’re not beautiful despite those things, you’re beautiful because of those things, and [believing] that has to be an active conscious process.”
“Loving myself is a practice,” she added, explaining, “It is something that I must cultivate and it is something that I must consciously do or it will go away.”
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