Jeffrey Tambor officially out at 'Transparent' after harassment claims
EXCLUSIVE: Over three months after first being accused of sexual harassment on the set of Transparent, Jeffrey Tambor is officially off the Amazon series. While it is still unclear if the upcoming fifth season of the Emmy winning Jill Soloway created show will be its last, it is very clear that Tambor will not be part of the new season at all, I’ve learned.
With the investigation by Amazon into multiple allegations of misconduct by the Golden Globe and Emmy winner recently completed, the decision to cut theMaura Pfefferman portraying Tambor fromTransparentwas made in the past week. This of course comes Tambor said on November 19 that “I don’t see how I can return to Transparent”citing the growing claims against him and “the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set.” The actor and his reps then tried to walk back that declaration after it was widely viewed as an exit from the series.
Today Amazon confirmed to Deadline that Tambor is not coming back and that the harassment investigation was recently concluded.
With the Amazon probed paused for a few weeks late last year after they lost their investigator as more and more allegations coming out all across Hollywood, Tambor’s fate seemed clear as his contract was not picked up. Fellow core cast members Gaby Hoffman, Jay Duplass, Judith Light and Amy Landecker were all renewed with the show as Soloway and her writing team pondered ways in which Tambor’s character could or could not play a part in a fifth season. That effort took another step last month as the scribes looked at what they had compiled so far and what form and with whom it would take.
Reps for Tambor and Soloway did not respond to request for comment by Deadline on Thursday about this matter.
Back in November last year, transgender actresses Van Barnes and Trace Lysette came forward with allegations against Tambor. The actor issued a statement of apology, saying that he was “deeply sorry if any action of mine was ever misinterpreted by anyone as being sexually aggressive.” With his on-set behavior under scrutiny, Tambor added at the time: “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.”
Less than a day after those claims by Lysette, Transparent writer and producer Our Lady J became the first and only member of the series to back both accusers publicly. Thanking Lysette for her “leadership,” the transgender scribe added, “We cannot let trans content be taken down by a single cis man.”
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