Transparent Creator: I Hope We Helped Caitlyn Jenner

Jill Soloway says she talked to Caitlyn Jenner after the Olympian watched her Amazon series

By Chris Harnick Jun 02, 2015 5:00 PMTags
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Did Transparent help Caitlyn Jenner come out? "I hope we had some small influence that helped her," Transparent creator Jill Soloway told Vulture, but also noted the show can't take credit for everything.

"Trans people have been struggling for hundreds or thousands of years. We wouldn't really want to take credit for being the show that changes the world. The lived lives of trans people are what's changing the world, and changing the world for Caitlyn," Soloway said.

The Amazon comedy has been making waves. Jeffrey Tambor has taken home a Golden Globe and the Critics' Choice Award for his portrayal of Maura Pfefferman, a transgender woman who comes out to her adult children and ex-wife. Transparent also took home the Best Comedy Golden Globe and is garnering Emmy buzz. The cast also includes Judith Light, Gaby Hoffmann, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass, Alexandra Billings, Melora Hardin, Rob Huebel and Kathryn Hahn.

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Soloway, said she spoke to Caitlyn, "and she told me that she saw the show," and that Kim Kardashian said the entire family watched it together.

"Knowing that Transparent helped [Caitlyn] to see a family where somebody came out and everybody survived, my first phone call was to my parent to say, 'Look what your bravery did. Your bravery allowed me to tell this story. And this story allowed this person to come out. This person who is an American hero, and who is now an American hero for the second time. And who happens to be the patriarch of the most famous family on the planet,'" Soloway told People before Jenner's Vanity Fair cover came out.

After winning the Golden Globe, Soloway thanked her transgender parent. "This award is dedicated to the memory of Leelah Alcorn and too many trans people who die too young," she said. "And it's dedicated to you, my trans parent, my moppa. You're watching at home right now. I just want to thank you for coming out because in doing so you made a break for freedom, you told your truth, you taught me how to tell my truth and make this show. And maybe we're going to be able to teach the world something about authenticity and truth and love. To love."

Transparent will return for a second season on Amazon. Caitlyn Jenner's journey will be chronicled in a new E! reality series starting Sunday, July 26 at 9 p.m.

(With the release of her Vanity Fair cover on June 1, Caitlyn has chosen to publicly identify as a woman and E! News will refer to her using female pronouns. In stories published prior to this date, Caitlyn was referred to as Bruce and male pronouns were used.)

Learn more about what it means to be transgender from GLAAD. If someone you love is transgender, contact PFLAG.