Jeffrey Tambor has won tons of awards for his work on Transparent. Tambor is a cisgendered actor playing a trans woman who transitioned late in life. Tambor and the show have won Emmys, BAFTA TV Awards, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, you name it. The show is produced by Amazon Studios, and in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, many executives at Amazon Studios have been outed as harassers and predators, and many have already lost their jobs. Well, now Jeffrey Tambor is being accused of harassment or “inappropriate behavior” towards his former assistant, who obviously worked alongside Tambor on Transparent.
Three weeks after Amazon Studios boss Roy Price resigned over sexual harassment claims, the company is conducting an investigation into allegations against Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Deadline that the company has initiated an investigation. In a statement, Tambor himself calls the claims “baseless.”
In its early stages, the probe primarily stems from allegations by Tambor’s former assistant Van Barnes of implied inappropriate behavior on the part of the Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Awards winner. The investigation into the claims by the transgender Barnes, which she made online in a private Facebook post, began earlier this week, we hear.
“I am aware that a former disgruntled assistant of mine has made a private post implying that I had acted in an improper manner toward her,” Tambor told Deadline today. “I adamantly and vehemently reject and deny any and all implication and allegation that I have ever engaged in any improper behavior toward this person or any other person I have ever worked with. I am appalled and distressed by this baseless allegation.”
Amazon’s stance on such allegations is to investigate promptly and thoroughly, a source says. The investigation is in the process of speaking to members of the Transparent production and Tambor personally. The Jill Soloway-created series, Amazon’s flagship comedy, is currently not in production.
“Anything that would diminish the level of respect, safety and inclusion so fundamental to our workplace is completely antithetical to our principles,” Soloway said in a statement today. “We are cooperating with the investigation into this matter.”
As well as working for Tambor on Transparent, Barnes has also appeared on E! now-shuttered I Am Cait with Caitlyn Jenner and the Amazon documentary anthology miniseries This Is Me back in 2015.
Depending on the specifics of Van Barnes’ accusation, I feel like there could be some trickiness around this case specifically because of the transgender issue of the show. Tambor was playing a transgender character, and he was working closely with a transgender assistant, and I could see how an actor in that situation would consider certain questions and conversations “doing research” while the victim sees certain questions and conversations as harassment. That being said, if Van Barnes expressed discomfort and Tambor continued, then it’s pretty clear-cut. We also don’t know exactly what Tambor is accused of (because this is being dealt with in-house), and it could be something other than verbal harassment. Plus, it seems like “anything goes” over at Amazon Studios, so I don’t know what or who to believe. Ugh.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
*throws hollywood into a landfill*
That sounds about right. 🙁
Yeah! What is wrong with these people?
This bothers me, in the sense here, where writers and responders (on all the other threads) are: “I believe her”. And now, that it’s an actor you like it’s “I don’t know what to believe”?
I think that it is possible for there to be some gray areas in the conversation surrounding this topic. It is entirely possible for a person to inadvertently say or do something that another person finds offensive without knowledge that they are being offensive, and if the offense is never brought to the offender’s attention, for them to remain unaware of any harm committed. I believe that the assistant may feel as though they were harassed, and I believe that Tambor may be unaware of having acted in a manner that caused that feeling. More investigation into the circumstances during and after the alleged offense needs to be done to clarify the situation.
And yes, I weigh the situations differently; Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey have been whispered about for years. I had heard the pervasive rumors for a long, long time, and my only connection with Hollywood is what I read in forums like this. Jeffrey Tambor has been in this business for thirty years or more, and these allegations are the first negative reports I’ve ever heard about him. There may be more coming, as has been the case recently, that will corroborate this account. It could also be a singular situation. We can believe the account of the assistant and wait to see what happens next.
Totally agree with you, why aren’t the flames burning as harshly for Tambor? What goes for the goose…
Thank you, AMA1977, for your much needed objective and very welcome perspective.
If Jeffrey Tambor turns out to be a serial harasser/abuser, then I’ll condemn him in exactly the same way I condemn everyone else who’s turned out to be serial abusers. Until then, I will assume his accuser has a legitimate grievance but I will not for one second, on the basis of knowing nothing at all about the nature of that grievance, assume guilt on Tambor’s part.
@amabella – why would you want someone flamed and roasted when you don’t have any details about the accusations that have been made about him?
My library card is going to be getting a lot more use. I just can’t enjoy something when I know someone dispicable is involved.
What is cisgender?
Cis is when your gender and your gender identity match. I.e., a male identifying as male, or a female identifying as female. It’s a term that doesn’t necessarily involve your sexual orientation, but your gender identity. I’m a cisgender female. Born female, and identify as female.
Someone who was born a man or a woman not one that transitioned
If you are cisgender, your gender identity is in agreement with the body you were born with, i.e., not trans.
I think it means biologically male and male gendered. As opposed to transgender.
better explained above
Edit – better explained above.
There was a great post on Tumblr about what’s happening this year that went something like this:
2016: The year all of your favorite celebrities are dead.
2017: The year all of your favorite celebrities are dead to you.
OMG yes that’s amazing … and sadly truer every day
🙁
Right? Both years were brutal.
Alan Rickman had been with the same woman for over 50 years – from when they were teenagers. And he was surrounded by women in the profession who said he was a staunch ally and wonderful friend and cheerleader, too. He was by all accounts a genuinely decent person, regardless of being incredibly talented. When he was diagnosed as terminal, apparently his first thought was to design a perfect new house for his wife, so she could live somewhere without the memories, but knowing he was part of it.
There is something so very wrong with a world that allows a man such as that to die so young, while keeping Weinstein, Sheen, and Singer alive to predate another day.
I’m not crying you’re crying!!
I really hope this is one-off, or miscommunication, or something. I like Jeffrey Tambor, and while it would be better to have a transgender actress in the role, I feel like the way I’ve heard him speak about it has been respectful and with a focus on education as well as entertainment.
I immediately was like “NOOO not Pop Pop” because I always thought of him fondly based on his role on Arrested Development. I’ve seen him in a bunch of different things since, and always liked him, and assumed he was a pretty okay guy.
ETA-even a one off is terribly shitty. I’m just saying…please let him just have made a mistake in how he said something instead of being harassing, raping, asshole like the rest of them.
I hope so too, but I believe the assistant experienced something troubling enough to come forward, so I hope it is all dealt with properly.
I’ve never gotten a bad impression of Tambor, and he did speak well regarding his character and show, but that doesn’t mean much anymore, does it?
Yes, this. I’m hoping that for the most part it was a “minor thing” (relative to all the stories we’ve been hearing – not saying that anything harassment related is minor) – and that it is dealt with. But if the assistant was upset then it definitely needs to be looked into, and handled properly.
I know it’s selfish in the scheme of things, and I’m not trying to be, but it’s so disappointing how far reaching this all is. I always have been of the mindset that no celebrity is a saint – and that we’re only seeing a controlled image that they’re putting out for the world. But there’s a difference between someone having a snotty attitude, or short patience, or tipping less than they should and someone being an actual criminal. I’m glad people are standing up and speaking out. That is one of the only good things to happen. But it’s such a shame that SO many people have stories and that it’s been so absolutely rampant for so long. I feel so bad for all of the victims – I can’t even begin to imagine how hard all of this is for them. And I’m sure there are some victims out there who have considered x celebrity to have been a better person than what they actually have turned out to be, which I can imagine stings pretty terribly too. To find out someone that you admired is capable of the terrible thing that happened to you is a whole other level of pain added to what you’re already going through.
I hope this comes out in the right place–@Erinn, I rambled on above and said sort of the same thing. I also wanted to say, as I have on numerous occasions when reading CB, that celebrities are people, and people are not perfect. I’m not; I’ve done things that were wrong, that I’m not proud of, and that I would change if I could, and I’m sure that all of us have. Of course there are actions that are unforgivable, and this may be another instance of that. Or not; we just don’t know yet. We can believe the accusation without immediately condemning the accused. Intent is not a defense in a court of law, but I believe that it matters in the current circumstance. If the intent was not to be offensive, that mitigates things IMO.
I really hope the transwoman who wrote the article about #metoo not being inclusive (cos everyone should be sexually harassed, amirite?!) will shut up now.
Say whaaaaat?
Wtf are you talking about?
JFC. Maybe we should go back to the days of Shakespeare but in reverse — instead of males playing all the roles we can have all all-female Hollywood.
Lawyer up.
How are we going to be able to filter the wave of accusations that will keep coming against everyone from now on? I understand it’s important to believe victims (especially when it comes to the most serious offenses such as sexual abuse and rape), but I also understand that some few opportunists will jump on the wagon and accuse people they once had a beef with of being inappropriate. I think that sexual harassment, inappropriate behavior and all that come up that scale is not a one time thing but a repeated action against many different victims. A sexual harasser won’t just harass one person in their whole life and act properly with everyone else. In cases like Cosby, Weinstein and Spacey the accusations started piling up immediately. So I keep waiting for the second victim to come forward before I make up my mind about “cancelling” someone. It’s such a delicate situation, and so hard to assess for us as a distant audience.
The only difference is that that sounds like a real, actual denial.
Perhaps all people with power are inclined toward this kind of abusiveness!
I would hate to think that an actor portraying a trans woman would do anything sexually inappropriate to any woman or man. In my head, that actor should be more sensitive. But we have no idea. I have been accused of doing things I didn’t do. There are people with ulterior motives and people who are controlled by other people…. like someone could have put her up to it with some kind of threat or promise. Or, he could have done it and she is a super hero for being brave enough to share such painful information.