I apologize for giving Jeffrey Tambor the benefit of the doubt. Last week, we learned that Amazon Studios was in the midst of an internal investigation regarding Jeffrey Tambor and his alleged sexual harassment of his transgender assistant. Tambor has won every award for playing a transgender woman who transitioned late in life on Amazon’s Transparent. Since his former assistant had not come forward publicly to tell her story, there were few details about what actually happened between the assistance and Tambor. Which is why I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I should have known better, because now a second woman has come forward, saying that Tambor sexually harassed her as well.

Just more than a week after Amazon opened an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Jeffrey Tambor, the Transparent star today has been accused by a transgender actress on the acclaimed series of similar behavior. Tambor, who says he can at times be “volatile and ill-tempered,” denies the claims.

Comparable to the accusations made by Tambor’s former assistant Van Barnes, Trace Lysette alleges that the actor made lewd, sexually suggestive and unwelcomed remarks to her on a number of occasions, says a statement obtained by Deadline. Tambor is also said to have physically pressed up against Lysette in a sexually aggressive manner during a break in filming, according to the actress. In her allegations, Lysette advocates for the Jill Soloway created Transparent and Amazon to “remove the problem and let the show go on.”

“This information will be added to the ongoing investigation,” an Amazon spokesperson said today of Lysette’s accusations. No official complaint about Tambor has been made by Lysette to Amazon, Deadline also has learned.

“For the past four years, I’ve had the huge privilege — and huge responsibility – of playing Maura Pfefferman, a transgender woman, in a show that I know has had an enormous, positive impact on a community that has been too long dismissed and misunderstood,” Tambor said Thursday. “Now I find myself accused of behavior that any civilized person would condemn unreservedly.”

He added: “I know I haven’t always been the easiest person to work with. I can be volatile and ill-tempered, and too often I express my opinions harshly and without tact. But I have never been a predator – ever. I am deeply sorry if any action of mine was ever misinterpreted by anyone as being sexually aggressive or if I ever offended or hurt anyone. But the fact is, for all my flaws, I am not a predator and the idea that someone might see me in that way is more distressing than I can express.”

[From Deadline]

Deadline goes on to say that Transparent is not currently in production, and that Jill Soloway (who created the show) and Amazon are likely talking behind-the-scenes about the possibility of writing Maura (Tambor’s character) out of the show for the upcoming season (season 5). Amazon is also dealing with one mess after another with their studio executives, and I’m not sure if we should put a lot of faith in Amazon’s internal review, you know? If Jeffrey Tambor is going to be outed as a sexual predator and serial harasser, then so be it. Let’s hear all the stories. I hope all of his victims come out and speak publicly, and I will believe them. His statement is pretty garbage-y, right? Right. Ugh.

This is Trace Lysette.

Photos courtesy of WENN.