Amazon show Transparent will go off air after its upcoming fifth season, creator Jill Soloway told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday. The confirmation comes after the show’s lead actor, Jeffrey Tambor, was fired from the production in February after he was accused of sexual misconduct by a cast member and his former assistant.
Transparent chronicles the story of Maura Pfefferman (Tambor), a divorced father of three who transitions to a woman in his later years. The show also stars Judith Light, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass, and Gaby Hoffman.
The show’s fifth season will take the story forward without Maura. Soloway told The Hollywood Reporter that the writing staff has begun discussions on how the series would end. “Hopefully it sets the Pfeffermans up with some sort of beautiful reclaiming,” she said. “I think we’re going to get there with some time.”
Tambor was also interviewed in depth by The Hollywood Reporter about the allegations against him. In October last year, the actor was accused of sexual harassment by his former assistant Van Barnes and Transparent co-star Trace Lysette. Barnes claimed that Tambor had propositioned her on multiple occasions, touched her inappropriately and once watched her sleeping naked. Tambor, Barnes and Lysette had shared an apartment for two weeks in New York City while the actor was waiting for some work to be done on his house.
Tambor had previously denied allegations of sexual misconduct, saying that while he had a reputation for being ill-tempered, he had “never been a predator – ever”.
Tambor told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday that he had never seen Barnes sleeping, but with regard to the other allegations, he said, “I don’t want to characterise them.”
“What I said was that she was a disgruntled assistant,” he added. “I think that was generous of me. I dispute her account. I did raise my voice at times, I was moody at times, there were times when I was tactless. But as for the other stuff, absolutely not.”
Tambor acknowledged that he had yelled at his assistants, co-stars and other colleagues on the sets of the show, once driving executive producer Bridget Bedard to tears. “I drove myself and my castmates crazy,” he said. “Lines got blurred. I was difficult...But I was scared, because I was a cisgender male playing Maura Pfefferman. And my whole thing was, ‘Am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? Am I doing it right?’ To the point that I worried myself to death.”
Tambor, meanwhile, has been retained for the fifth season of Arrested Development, which will be premiered on Netflix on May 29. The show was aired for three seasons on Fox from 2003 to 2006 and was resumed by the streaming service in 2013.
