RORSCHACH TEST
“Bless His Heart, Girl”: Laverne Cox on TikTok, Trade, and Barron Trump
Like most kids born in the 1970s, Laverne Cox grew up worshipping at the altar of TV luminary Norman Lear. “His shows shaped me, specifically the theme songs,” Cox told us last week, name-checking sitcoms like The Jeffersons and Good Times. “You can’t have a Norman Lear show without iconic theme songs.” Call it a full-circle moment, then, that Cox, the Emmy-winning Hollywood workhorse who’s spent the last three years at the helm of the E! Network’s red carpet coverage, is now front and center in a Lear production herself. Clean Slate, the last sitcom Lear produced before his death at the age of 101 in 2023, stars Cox as Desiree, a trans woman who returns home to Mobile, Alabama to make amends with her father, a car-wash owner played by George Wallace. Cox, who also executive produced the hit Netflix documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, had almost given up on Clean Slate after numerous studio executives and streaming services passed. Then, a miracle happened. “On Norman Lear’s 100th, birthday, we found out we were picked up by Amazon,” she recalls. “And here we are.” To mark the moment, we enlisted Cox to take part in this week’s Rorschach Test, in which she sounds off on Archie Bunker, Alex Consani, and the scourge of DL men.
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NORMAN LEAR
“Icon, legend! I didn’t know who Norman Lear was when I was a kid, but I grew up watching his shows and they really influenced me. To be a part of his legacy is really special.”
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DL MEN
“I’ve been dealing with DL men my whole life, since I’ve been having sexual relations. DL men, according to Kat Black and my empirical research as a 52-year-old woman, know what they like, know their sexuality, and are often predatory, particularly with trans women. Most of the men I’ve dated are straight-identified. And straight-identified men are tricky. There were some unexamined things that were not consistent with the evolution that I’m trying to have in my life.”
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AWARDS SEASON
“I’m really happy I’m not on the red carpet. I had fun being the host of E!’s red carpet for three years, but it was so much work. I would try to watch every movie, at least one episode of every TV show, and read previous interviews so I wouldn’t repeat questions. I think we elevated the conversation. And the ratings were through the roof, which is a wonderful thing for business.”
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SECOND CHANCES
“I’m all for second chances, but I think that people have to prove that they’re worthy of a second chance. It has to show up in actions, right? Words are not enough. You have to be accountable for the mistakes you’ve made.”
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POLYAMORY
“Not for me. In theory, I think it’s a wonderful thing. I’ve done one open relationship in my life and it was exhausting. I have 6 million jobs, a boyfriend, and I’m trying to date? No.”
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BARRON TRUMP
“He’s tall. That’s all I know about Barron. Bless his heart, girl.”
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ALEX CONSANI
“A big hug to her. I just saw her walk in the Schiaparelli show. I’d never seen her walk like this. She really embodied the mood and the character of the clothes. I love that she’s versatile enough to understand the mood of the piece and the collection and that she adapts her walk and her energy for that. I was actually at the King’s Trust dinner last year and we were talking and she was like, ‘I met you in 2015 when I was 12 years old in San Francisco.’ I literally had no idea she was trans. [Laughs] I had just been a fan of her as a model for many years.”
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BEAUTY PAGEANTS
“Antiquated, misogynist, and still kind of fun. There’s something so retrograde about beauty pageants, but I love the trans ones. I live for Miss Continental, I live for International Goddess.”
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EMILIA PEREZ
“I still haven’t had a chance to see Emilia Perez, so I can’t comment on the film specifically. But I’m aware that when I congratulated Karla Sofia [Gascón] on the day the Oscar nominations came out, people were incensed in my comments section, so I understand that there’s a lot of controversy around the film. Based on some of the things I’ve read about it, I would encourage people to watch my documentary, Disclosure, which looks at the history of trans representation on screen.”
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TIKTOK
“I was actually watching the news this morning and trying to figure out what I want to do with my TikTok page. I haven’t gotten much traction there, there’s so much information now that people need about this current administration that they’re not getting in mainstream media.”
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TRADE
“I was actually talking about trade with my friend the other day. Colloquialisms can have a lot of different meanings. Trade is obviously that straight-passing guy who could be had. But we also use trade to refer to the penis. Like, how is the trade?“
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ARCHIE BUNKER
“Iconic character, iconic show. Girls, they made the hit parade.”
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THE POPE
“Girl, all I know about the Pope is that he seems to be very compassionate. He’s been kind of pro-LGBTQ in some ways. I was raised Christian, so my understanding about Christianity is that god judges, and it’s our job to love everybody. All those people who want to discriminate in the name of Christianity need to reread their Bibles.”
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CULTS
“They’re so American. The media seems to encourage a cult mentality. As citizens, as a populace, we have to have a critical relationship to everything we consume and always ask questions.”
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