• ELIXHER
• On August 12, 2013

We’re super geeked to see actress and trans advocate grace the cover story of DC-based LGBT publication, Metro Weekly (her first magazine cover…yet). The Orange is the New Black star talks about growing up in the church, being bullied as a kid, and the importance of transgender actors playing trans roles in film. Check out an excerpt here:

They say a lady never reveals her age. It’s a rule Laverne Cox lives by. ”I don’t discuss my age,” she says playfully, ”except to say I’m officially over 21.”

Though guarded on this particular point, Cox is largely eager to share her story, to be out and proud as one of the limelight’s most prominent transgender performers. But don’t mistake her embrace of the spotlight as some sort of entertainer’s arrogance. Cox, now appearing on the blazing hot Orange Is the New Black, has worked hard to get where she is. It’s the latest from writer/producer Jenji Kohan who brought us Showtime’s award-winning Weeds. Based on Piper Kerman’s prison memoir of the same name, Orange Is the New Black continues Weeds’ exploration of a plucking a relatively privileged woman from her upstanding existence and dropping her on the wrong side of the law.

This time, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) leaves Manhattan and her fiancé (Jason Biggs) to serve 15 months in prison for her part in trafficking a girlfriend’s (Laura Prepon) drug money a decade prior. There’s a broad range of characters on the inside. This is a cast of dozens.

One standout, however, is Cox, as transgender inmate Sophia Burset, who broke the law trying to fund her gender-transition. While she’s appeared on TV and in the 2011 film Musical Chairs, this new role is a big step for Cox.

”This is another ‘moment’ I’m having,” says Cox, preferring to avoid characterizing any point of her career as a ”big break.” ”But it’s probably the biggest moment I’ve had in my career so far. I had another moment in 2008 when I was on [VH1 reality show] I Wanna Work for Diddy. That was the moment the public go to know who I was. But I’ve never been a reality-show person. I’ve always been an actress. I’ve always been an artist. So, this is a lovely moment I’m trying to enjoy.”

Continue reading on Metro Weekly.