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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00:00Wait, so you have a gift for me?
00:02Yes!
00:03Well, you may...
00:04I thought...
00:05I was like, you were at my birthday party, so you probably already have it.
00:07It's okay.
00:08This is going to be the easiest.
00:09Unwrap it.
00:10Wait.
00:11Maybe not.
00:12There is a Laverne Cox Barbie.
00:14She's sitting here.
00:15That's it.
00:16Now, I was...
00:17Round of applause.
00:18Now, I can tell you, as a...
00:21Am I a hetero gay guy?
00:23What is my term?
00:24I don't even know.
00:25Hetero gay.
00:26What?
00:27What is it?
00:28A straight gay.
00:29A straight gay.
00:30I don't know my pronoun.
00:31I don't know my pronoun.
00:32As a gay...
00:33I ain't never had no doll.
00:34But I'm not only going to say thank you for the doll.
00:37We're actually going to...
00:38Go ahead and bring that in.
00:40We're actually going to...
00:41No, just come right over here.
00:43We're going to put her right here.
00:45Hi.
00:46So we have...
00:47Yes!
00:48Her hair should be styled.
00:49Yes.
00:50Let's have her...
00:51This is a first that I'm really proud of.
00:57I'm the first trans person, openly trans person to have a...
01:00See?
01:01Here we go.
01:02The first trans...
01:03See?
01:04Again.
01:05To have a doll made in their image by Mattel.
01:06I love that.
01:07I love that.
01:08And there's not an agenda.
01:09This isn't an agenda.
01:10There are trans folks, LGBTQ folks of all ages who are inspired by this and who need
01:18to see this, you know?
01:20And people who aren't.
01:21And what has also been so beautiful about my life and career is that there are people
01:24who aren't LGBTQ+, or Black, or whatever, who were inspired because I...
01:31Nothing that has happened in my career is supposed, was supposed to happen.
01:36There are all these Black trans women being nominated for Emmys or on magazine covers.
01:41No.
01:42Not before me.
01:43So none of this was meant to be or was supposed to happen.
01:47And so...
01:48And the evolution of it and you being groundbreaking doesn't make it your fault, as they will say.
01:53You're on the cover of Time or you have the doll.
01:55It's your agenda.
01:56It's an agenda you're the face of.
01:58People I think are connecting with your advocacy and your visibility and you're being blessed
02:03because of the work that you put in.
02:04I have a right.
02:05And I have a right to live my dreams.
02:08We all have a...
02:09This is America.
02:10And I...
02:11As many problems as this country has, I believe that everybody should be able to live their
02:15dreams here and be able to do with our bodies and with our lives what we should be able
02:21to do and what we want to do.
02:23And so the fact that I'm a Black trans woman living my best life, genuinely happy, you
02:30know, making a lovely living, being visible.
02:34People are inspired by it because it's like, this is not something that most of us grew
02:38up with.
02:39You know, there are other kids growing up with it, which is wonderful.
02:42And it's just, I think my story is a testament to like, you know, a lot of hard work, perseverance
02:47and passion.
02:48There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into everything I do.
02:51And even if people think I suck at acting or whatever, I do have four Emmy nominations
02:56for acting.
02:57Somebody doesn't think I suck.
03:02And honestly, but to be real, I've seen performances of mine that suck.
03:06I think some of my favorite actors have done terrible performances and that like inspires
03:11me.
03:12I'm like, and I'm not going to name any of them.
03:13I'm like, some of my favorite actors, like, I'm like, that was not good.
03:16And so I, you know, hopefully I'll have a chance to do better the next time.
03:21And I think that like, as an artist, you have to take the risk to suck.
03:25You have to take the risk to, you know, maybe not do well at something because I think we
03:31often learn more from quote unquote failure or when things don't happen the way that we'd
03:35like them to, then we learn from our successes.
03:37But you watch your work back and criticize your own work?
03:39Absolutely.
03:40Because some people don't even watch themselves.
03:41I mean, sometimes it's hard.
03:43I mean, it depends on if it's really close to me, it's harder to watch and I may need
03:46to take a couple of years to watch.
03:48I remember one of the second to last Emmy nomination I got, I couldn't even, like, I
03:53remember watching, I watched the season right when it came out, this is for Orange is the
03:57New Black, and I thought it was too much and I hated it and I was like, oh, this sucks.
04:02And I just was like, and I talked to my acting teacher about it and she didn't agree.
04:07And then like a year later, I get nominated for an Emmy for that work that I thought sucked.
04:11And I was like, why?
04:14I watched it back and I was like, okay, this is actually good, but I needed a year to be
04:18able to kind of like be objective about it.
04:21And I think I was like, oh, actually, this is pretty good.
04:24But sometimes I think I suck, you know, and that's okay.