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Laverne Cox taking it 'a day at a time' to mentally recover from alleged transphobic attack

12:19
Laverne Cox on the evolution of trans representation in film and TV
Rachel Murray/Getty Images, FILE
ByDanielle Long and Jason Nathanson
December 09, 2020, 3:15 PM

Actress Laverne Cox shared a story on Instagram last month about how she and a friend were allegedly attacked at a park in Los Angeles – an attack Cox said was aggressive and transphobic.

She was clearly shaken in the post and told ABC Audio how she’s doing a little over a week later.

"I'm OK," she said. "It's a day at a time. It's a moment at a time. I wasn't physically harmed or touched in the incident. And my friend who was is fine."

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MORE: Laverne Cox says she and a friend were victims of transphobic attack: 'It’s not safe if you’re a trans person'

The Emmy-Award winner added that she's "grateful" that the situation did not escalate into something worse and revealed that the alleged incident brought up things that she’s been dealing with in therapy.

"What this incident did more than anything was trigger all of the other incidences of violence that I've experienced in my life over the years as a gender nonconforming kid and then later as a trans woman, as an adult," she explained.

"And so being able to stay present and use all my tools to not sort of go into, because the body doesn't know if a trauma happened 20 years ago or five years ago, it experiences the trauma as if it's happening right now once triggered," she added.

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Cox co-stars in the movie "Promising Young Woman," out Christmas, which has themes of violence against women.

The actress said that while she's received a lot of support, she's also faced skeptics.

"I've gotten so much support after what happened at Griffith Park, but there are a few people who were suggesting that it didn't happen because I didn't think to take out my phone and film it," she said. "There's something infuriating about that and sad."

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