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Laverne Cox returns to a red state in Norman Lear's Clean Slate trailer
Laverne Cox in Clean Slate on Amazon Prime
Laverne Cox is heading home in this new comedy series tackling transgender issues with heart.
Laverne Cox has a new starring role.
The Emmy-nominated actress and Daytime Emmy-winning producer will be building bridges across generations in Clean Slate, a new comedy executive produced by late TV legend Norman Lear (Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons).
The new series follows "old-school, outspoken car wash owner Harry Slate" (legendary comedian George Wallace) who is excited to welcome his estranged child home to Alabama after two decades. However, when his child returns as "a determined, proud trans woman named Desiree (Cox)," he has to confront his deeply held beliefs and ways of doing things.
"After being away for 23 years and, she says in the pilot, being in really dysfunctional relationships with men, she realizes that she has to go back to the source of the first unavailable man in her life, and that's her father," Cox told Entertainment Weekly about the show, adding that “we discover throughout the series that there are other reasons why she's come back home, as well."
The show also stars D.K. Uzoukwu as Louis, Desiree's childhood best friend, now a closeted church choir director, and Jay Wilkison, who plays Mack, Harry's car wash employee, a single dad to a 10-year-old girl, and a potential love interest for Desiree.
"Hi Miss fancy lady, this really isn't a good time right now, my son's coming any minute," Harry says when he opens the door and sees Desiree there.
"Dad, I'm your daughter, Desiree," she replies. "I've always been Desiree."
The trailer indicates that while it's treating its trans character with respect, humor, and heart, it's not handling her transition with kid gloves.
In one scene, Desiree is trying to redecorate her father's house when he says, "This is my prize possession, and it ain't going nowhere, son! Daughter! Dammit!"
"Jar!" Desiree says, prompting her father to put a dollar in a jar labeled "Pronoun Jar." "I'm gonna retire off of this," Desiree says.
Clean Slate begins airing on February 6 on Prime Video and will have eight episodes.
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
