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“God help these kids in their relationships,” Jeffrey Tambor, who plays Maura Pfefferman in Transparent said to Grazia of his characters’ three adult children.
“I don’t think these things have a good mother. I don’t think they have any model.”
If you’ve seen Transparent, the dramedy centred on Tambor as a retired college professor coming out as transgender you’ll know that Sarah (Amy Landecker), Josh (Jay Duplass) and Ali (Gaby Hoffman), the adult children of recently transitioned Maura and her ex-wife Shelly (Judith Light) are on very different paths but still have one thing in common: they’re all completely lost.
Without spoiling the first two seasons if you’re binge-watching them ahead of season three’s premiere on September 24 (we recommend it), Sarah’s perfect-from-the-outside housewife life went up in flames, Ali can’t stick with one thing for long and Josh tries to make love work but just keeps getting it wrong.
At the end of season two we saw all three adults Pfefferman children closer than ever after bonding over the shared experience of their father’s transition, but maybe even more so over the fact they were all single.
When Grazia caught up with Landecker, Duplass and Hoffman in New York ahead of Transparent’s sweep of five awards at the Emmys, the co-stars had the playful intimacy in real life that’s made them so realistic as siblings on the show.
“These two jerks kind of leave me [this season],” says Landecker who portrays oldest sibling Sarah.
“She’s always had a kind of third wheel thing going on. Both as an actor and as a character,” Duplass quips back, resulting in a slap on the leg from Amy.
But jokes aside, season three does see Sarah on the outer as Josh and Ali explore what Duplass describes as the younger brother and sister’s “Grey Gardens potential”, referencing the cult 1975 documentary that depicted the lives of two eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis who lived alone together on an estate.
“The idea [is] that their personalities are so unique and so different from the rest of the world that they’re the only ones who can truly support each other,” Duplass explains.
Duplass also shed some light on how Josh’s father’s transition has effected the character.
“I think there’s something specific about the idea of him growing up with three strong women and then the one person who he thought was his model turned out to be a woman. He’s surrounded by these powerful women and doesn’t know how to be.”
Watch Grazia’s interview with Amy, Jay and Gaby. Transparent season three streams on Stan from September 24.
