Laverne Cox could make history as 1st transgender actress to win an Emmy
Acclaimed actress Laverne Cox wants to inspire the transgender community heading into the 2019 Emmy Awards, where she might make history this weekend.
The "Orange is the New Black" star now has three nominations for her role as Sophia Burset and is looking to become the first trans actress to finally take home an award.
Burset isn't defined by the fact she's a trans woman, not in the slightest, and that's what Cox said makes the character special.
"Most of the ways that trans people were talked about on television or when we would go on talk shows, the questions would be very invasive and objectifying and dehumanizing, in my opinion, and sensationalized," she told E! News in a new interview.
Now, she said there's room on TV to have "different conversations about trans folks."
Despite her potential game-changing win on Sunday, Cox is still the only trans actress to be nominated, and with acclaimed shows like "Pose," she's a bit disappointed.
"Five years later, three nominations later," she still stands alone, she said. "We have this incredible responsibility as artists to speak up, to speak out, to have more diverse sets, to have more diverse writers rooms, to tell stories that reflect the rich humanity of people and to speak to issues of the world around us."
She hopes her success and the changing landscape can result in stories on-screen that "change the conversation about transgender people."
