Weeks after Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor was fired from Amazon’s Emmy Award-winning series in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, The Hollywood Reporter indicates it likely won’t return until 2019. The news stems from THR‘s having learned that creator Jill Soloway’s show won’t return to production on the Tambor-less season five until sometime in December, meaning that no new episodes will be airing in 2018.
Precisely what Tambor’s exit will do to the show’s central story remains unclear, as Soloway and her team have kept mum about their plans. Though as THR notes, the new schedule means she and season five showrunner Jill Gordon “have months to finalize a plan” before they put it into action during the production phase. But will they write out or recast Tambor’s character, Maura Pfefferman? Will they emphasize the other Pfeffermans (Judith Light, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass, and Gaby Hoffmann) more? At this rate, it’s too early to tell.
Meanwhile, Van Barnes, Tambor’s former personal assistant who made the first allegation of sexual harassment against the 73-year-old actor, appeared on Megyn Kelly TODAY to discuss her claims. Much has been made about the details of the claims made by Tambor’s second accuser, trans actress Trace Lysette, but Barnes’s interview on Wednesday shed further light on her story. At one point, Tambor apparently watched her sleep during one “creepy” episode:
“When we first started working together, we had lived together for two weeks in this slight immersion. It was under this guise that he needed a place to stay, which looking back, is very suspicious. He said that in the middle of the night he actually watched me sleep. I said, ‘You did? What did I look like?’ He said, ‘You were naked.’ I was still thinking he was joshing or joking me about this, so I said ‘what did I look like again.’ He said, ‘You sleep with one arm over your head.'”
You can watch Kelly’s interview with Barnes below.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter and Megyn Kelly TODAY)