Laverne Cox believes the timing of her new Prime Video series, Clean Slate, is nothing short of “divine.”
In the heartfelt yet humorous series, the Emmy-winning actress plays Desiree, a trans woman who returns to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama, to reconnect with her estranged father, Harry, after 23 years of separation. Cox not only stars in the show but also created it alongside George Wallace and Dan Ewen.
Clean Slate faced numerous obstacles before airing. Executive produced by the late television icon Norman Lear, the series struggled to find a home in Hollywood, with networks repeatedly turning it down.
“I’m so humbled because we got no’s from every place. We pitched this everywhere. We sent the script out everywhere, and it was a ‘no’ from everywhere,” Cox shared. “It was really Brent Miller and Norman Lear and their tenacity and pushing that got us asked to Amazon Prime.”
The show’s development spanned seven years, during which Cox witnessed an ongoing resistance to trans narratives in the entertainment industry.
“Getting a show on the air is insanely difficult. There was a time when I was pitching this alongside two other projects with really established, Oscar-winning people, wonderful stories with trans characters, and none of them went through. They weren’t buying trans stories,” she revealed.
Cox believes Clean Slate arrives at a crucial time, as trans rights continue to be a hotly debated issue in the US.
“This show happening at this particular political moment feels not like an accident. It feels divine because we are in a space culturally where trans people have been dehumanised to such an extent that taking away our rights and denying our legitimacy is something that people take for granted. And it’s happening on a federal level.”
She hopes that the series will foster empathy and challenge harmful narratives about trans individuals.
“People will have empathy for the trans character that I play and hopefully be inspired to have empathy for trans people in real life. We’re not a theory. We’re not an ideology. We’re human beings walking around, living with these experiences.”
Beyond trans representation, Cox believes Clean Slate is part of a larger cultural shift toward humanising the marginalised.
“The rehumanization process is what needs to happen. If we’re interested in love and justice for trans people, as well as for immigrants and for those who think differently from us, we need to counter a culture that dehumanises. We need to engage in a process of humanising each other across the board.”
With Clean Slate, Cox hopes to spark conversations that go beyond entertainment, helping audiences connect with the real, lived experiences of trans people.
