Every time I start thinking that I don't care all that much about award shows, they find a way to pull me back in, like when Jeffrey Tambor got an Emmy nomination for his work in Transparent on Thursday. Agghhhh! My dried up, jaded old heart is singing! Not only is Tambor a talented actor and a beautiful, deserving soul (genuinely, what is happening to me, I never talk like this), but the respect he has for the role he plays on the show is, frankly, overwhelming. In case you've been living under a rock for the past year or so, Tambor's character on the Amazon series is transgender woman Maura Pfefferman (who formerly went by Mort Pfefferman) who opens up to her family about who she truly is, and then has to negotiate that transition with them.
The show is created by Jill Soloway, based on the experience of her own father, whom she now calls "Moppa," after she came out as transgender in 2011 at the age of 75. Because of Soloway's own experience in the matter, and the palpable dedication of the cast and crew to telling Pfefferman's story, the whole story is beautifully filled out.
And Tambor is as responsible for that as anyone, which is why I'm so thrilled that he's being rewarded with an Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series nomination. Honestly, I just want to go hug everyone involved, from Tambor to Soloway to Maura to the Emmy voters to Moppa herself! Everybody is just so brave and great and it's 2015 and I'm not crying, you're crying!
Here's hoping the Emmy voters take a page out of the Golden Globes playbook and give Tambor the trophy come September.
Image: Amazon Studios
