NPR Fresh Air
October 30, 2014
When Jill Soloway's father came out as a trans woman — fairly late in life — Soloway says for her it was a huge relief.
"It's interesting, I think, to grow up in a family with this really huge missing piece and not know what that piece is — sort of like you're feeling around in a dark room," Soloway tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "It's like the elephant in the room, but all the lights are off. So you're feeling around and you're feeling this quite huge thing. It was an amazing relief for the lights to go on."
Shortly thereafter, Soloway had a strong feeling that writing about an older trans parent was going to be her "creative destiny," she says.
And it was.
Soloway's new Amazon original series Transparent stars Jeffrey Tambor as a 70-year-old father who comes out to his three adult children as a transgender woman, and begins a new life transitioning from male to female — from Mort to Maura.
The series also follows Maura's three self-absorbed adult children who are each dealing with their own issues relating to identity and sexuality, while trying to process that their parent has had a secret life.
Entertainment Weekly TV critic Melissa Maerz described the series as "groundbreaking television."
"Older transitioners are a whole different group of people because of the way that society has only recently begun to evolve," Soloway says. "A lot of older transitioners had to live a life of secrecy. Many of them were secret cross-dressers. It just felt like the most perfect opportunity to tell a story about secrets — about boundaries, legacy, gender, family — all the things I'm obsessed with."
Listen:
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/30/360116374/funny-dirty-sad-the-holy-trinity-for-transparent-creator-jill-soloway
