Laverne Cox takes us on an awe-inspiring journey from her childhood to the pivotal moments that marked her first foray into film roles. In this captivating video, the trailblazing actress and advocate shares personal anecdotes, triumphs, and challenges that have shaped her remarkable career
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00:00 Wait, so you have a gift for me?
00:02 Yes!
00:03 Well, you may have thought, I was like, you were at my birthday party, so you probably
00:05 already have it.
00:06 It's okay.
00:07 This is going to be the easiest unwrapping.
00:08 Wait, maybe not.
00:09 There is a Laverne Cox Barbie, she's sitting here.
00:15 Listen, I was, round of applause.
00:18 Now I can tell you as a, am I a hetero gay guy?
00:23 I like, what is my term?
00:24 What is it?
00:25 I don't even know.
00:26 Hetero gay, what?
00:27 What is it?
00:28 A straight gay, because I'm like really gay.
00:29 I don't know my pronoun.
00:30 I don't know my pronoun.
00:31 As a gay, I ain't never had no doll, but I'm not only going to say thank you for the doll,
00:37 we're actually going to, go ahead and bring that in.
00:39 We're actually going to, no, just come right over here.
00:43 We're going to put her right here.
00:46 So we have, yes, her hair should be styled.
00:52 Yes.
00:53 This is a first that I'm really proud of, that I'm the first trans person, openly trans
01:00 person to have a-
01:01 See, here we go, the first trans, see again.
01:02 To have a doll made in their image by Mattel.
01:05 I love that.
01:06 I love that.
01:07 And there's not an agenda.
01:09 This isn't an agenda.
01:10 There are trans folks, LGBTQ folks of all ages who are inspired by this and who need
01:18 to see this, you know?
01:20 And people who aren't, and what has also been so beautiful about my life and career is that
01:24 there are people who aren't LGBTQ plus or black or whatever, who were inspired because
01:29 I, nothing that has happened in my career is supposed, was supposed to happen.
01:34 Like there are all these black trans women being nominated for Emmys or on magazine covers.
01:41 No, like not before me.
01:42 So none of this was meant to be or was supposed to happen.
01:47 And so-
01:48 But the evolution of it and you being groundbreaking doesn't make it your fault, as they will say,
01:53 like you're on the cover of Time or you have the doll.
01:55 It's your agenda.
01:56 It's an agenda you're the face of.
01:58 People I think are connecting with your advocacy and your visibility and you're being blessed
02:03 because of the work that you put in.
02:04 I have a right and I have a right to live my dreams.
02:07 You know, we all have a, this is America and I, you know, as many problems as this country
02:12 has, I believe that everybody should be able to live their dreams here and be able to do
02:17 with our bodies and with our lives what we should be able to do and what we want to do.
02:23 And so the fact that I'm a black trans woman living my best life, genuinely happy, you
02:30 know, making a lovely living, being visible, people are inspired by it because it's like
02:36 this is not something that most of us grew up with.
02:39 You know, now there are kids growing up with it, which is wonderful.
02:42 And it's just, I think my story is a testament to like, you know, a lot of hard work, perseverance
02:47 and passion.
02:48 There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into everything I do.
02:51 And even if people think I suck at, people think I suck at acting or whatever, I do have
02:55 four Emmy nominations for acting.
03:01 Somebody doesn't think I suck.
03:02 And honestly, but to be real, I've seen performances of mine that suck.
03:06 I think some of my favorite actors have done terrible performances and that like inspires
03:11 me.
03:12 I'm like, and I'm not going to name any of them.
03:13 I'm like, some of my favorite actors, like, I'm like, that was not good.
03:16 And so, you know, hopefully I'll have a chance to do better next time.
03:21 And I think that like, as an artist, you have to take the risk to suck.
03:25 You have to take the risk to, you know, maybe not do well at something.
03:30 Because I think we often learn more from quote unquote failure or when things don't happen
03:35 the way that we'd like them to, then we learn from our successes.
03:37 But you watch your work back and criticize your own work?
03:39 Absolutely.
03:40 Because some people don't even watch themselves.
03:41 I mean, sometimes it's hard.
03:43 I mean, it depends on if it's really close to me, it's harder to watch.
03:46 And I may need to take a couple of years to watch.
03:48 I remember one of the second to last Emmy nomination I got, I couldn't even, like, I
03:54 remember watching, I watched the season right when it came out, this is for Orange is the
03:57 New Black.
03:58 And I thought it was too much and I hated it.
04:01 And I was like, oh, this sucks.
04:02 And I just was like, ugh.
04:03 And I talked to my acting teacher about it and she didn't agree.
04:07 And then like a year later, I get nominated for an Emmy for that work that I thought sucked.
04:11 And I was like, why?
04:14 I watched it back and I was like, okay, this is actually good.
04:16 But I needed a year to be able to kind of like be objective about it.
04:21 And I think I was like, oh, actually, this is pretty good.
04:24 But sometimes I think I suck, you know, and that's okay.