There’s a component of future for Laverne Cox with “Clear Slate,” her Prime Video sitcom collection streaming Thursday.
An usually hilarious autobiographical riff on her life as a trans lady, “Clear Slate” has Cox, 52, as Desiree Slate who returns to her Alabama birthplace after a decades-long absence to confront her carwash operator father Harry Slate (George Wallace) together with her gender change.
The late Norman Lear – sure, that Norman Lear of “All within the Household,” “The Jeffersons” and “Good Occasions,” – produced.
“It’s unbelievable. Nonetheless looks like a miracle,” Cox, in a Zoom interview, mentioned.
It started seven years in the past at LA’s Soho Home with author Dan Ewen, Cox and Cox’s supervisor. A forty five-minute assembly lasted 4 hours.
“Dan had this concept, a reboot of ‘Sanford and Son’ with a daughter, with somewhat twist. He wrote a pilot in 4 days. The pilot was stunning, humorous. Hilarious! A variety of the weather in that first draft are within the collection now.”
In a gathering with Lear, she recalled, “After an hour of speaking in regards to the present and about my life, Norman mentioned, ‘I’ve realized extra previously hour that I didn’t find out about life, that ought to have recognized about life.’
“And that was simply listening to me discuss my experiences as a trans lady. Once I was there, I felt protected.
“Once I was younger I must chuckle issues off, to only get via issues. However there’s numerous trauma from road harassment. A variety of trauma from simply bodily abuse as a baby, from different youngsters. Blah, blah,” she mentioned, making a face.
“How do we discover the laughter via that? After which, if I’m engaged in a therapeutic course of, there’s understanding laughter can occur with individuals with whom I’m therapeutic. With my therapist, the place the therapeutic could be laughed at. It’s not all tears and trauma.
“Norman cherished that! That I’ve been capable of finding humor via a few of the difficulties of my life. We began growing this present additional after which went out to pitch it.”
Cox shook her head. “We acquired ‘No’ in all places. I’d given up. I believed, ‘Okay, they’re not shopping for trans. I have to put a pivot.’
“And on Norman’s one hundredth birthday in 2022, we discovered we had been picked up for collection by Prime Video. It nonetheless looks like a miracle.”
Household hijinks, ace comedian timing, a small city setting make “Clear Slate” very a lot now, solely with a tricky of nostalgia.
“It was actually private. Discovering my comedy chops reverse a comedy legend was intimidating. After which there have been simply so many layers as Desiree, the character.”
“Clear Slate” streams on Prime Video Feb. 6
