Season Four of Transparent, the groundbreaking Emmy and Golden Globe winning dramedy, debuted streaming last week on Amazon. The new season follows similar themes in the past - love, letting go (trying to anyway) of the past, acceptance, sex, and a search for self (totally not in that order) - but expands on it via a trip to Israel. The trip is enlightening on so many levels both personal and spiritual, but to explain how it effects each Pfefferman would be doing readers a great disservice. Earlier this month, I was fortunate to interview four stars of the show - Jay Duplass (Josh), Gaby Hoffman (Ali), Amy Landecker (Sarah), and Rob Huebel (Len) and chat up the new season, their respective characters, and the importance of the show especially given it now plays to a Trump’d World backdrop. Before getting to this interview, I’ll say this. The actors were paired Hoffman and Duplass and Huebel and Landecker. In both interview sessions, each actor finished each other’s sentences and played off one another to the point it really felt like they were family - that or an old couple segment taken out of When Harry Met Sally…
It seems the fourth season is all about, not just your characters but everyone, trying to find each themselves. Is that about right? Also is it hard to shake your characters after you film the show? The writing is so deep, and feels so real.
GH: We’re all trying to find out who we are right now but forces are dictating our behavior from some unconscious level. Ali’s haunted by the trauma of the past, and trying to contend with it - trying to achieve truthfulness of the world. She’s caught up with her own struggles and miseries but is trying to be alive in the moment. There’s just these unknown forces from the past.
JD: I say Amen! Gaby nailed it. I think the only thing I’d say is whereas Gaby’s character has been doing this for four seasons, season four is a pivot point for Josh. He’s taking a look in the mirror for the first time fully. It’s new for Josh. He’s chubby, a bit frumpy. He’s not dressing great. He’s just kind of not focused on outward presentations and totally focused on himself. It’s refreshing.
AL: It’s the whole journey of Transparent - finding yourself. Last year as a show, we were trying to find ourselves as God and Sarah’s conflicts. This is a very different year for Sarah. I’m basically with Len and pretty happy, and we’ve found a new way of being pretty close and connected with Alia Shawkat’s character. She brought us together that satisfies our characters and connects our parenting - just through this other person.
RH: Literally, we’re connecting through her.
AL: Literally. The question for Sarah is, is it possible for me to be honest in life - with who I am in my parent, love life and marriage.
RH: I agree. Len feels like we’re in a pretty good place. Ultimately, Len is there to support Sarah, and explore different aspects of herself. Len has been through a lot of different things as she’s tried to figure her shit out. This is a pretty sweet gig for Len.
GH: I was talking to Jay. I’ve been acting for 30 years. I always thought ‘what’s the big deal?’ You go home and not play the character when you go. You leave it on set. Well, OK that’s idiotic. Jay and I are not applying technique. We’re truly experiencing this. My body doesn't know the difference of what’s real and what’s not. When I’m leaving this character, I’m not just leaving it at the door. You just have to decompress. You have to deprogram - reset and cleanse but in a respectful way.
JD: I fully agree with that. The trauma that we process, I don't think it’s foreign. We’re extremely sensitive to that. We’re given this platform to process them: to fucking scream, cry, laugh and joke about it. Gaby and I were taking about leaving the characters at the end of last season, and we feel like we’re making people feel less alone. We live in this world without rituals. We get through every fucking day, and we have to just figure out how to inject more humanity in our lives. My wife even was talking to me about getting a bracelet so when I walk home every day I’m reminded that I’m a daddy and I’m a husband.
GH: It’s all true. The season is like this gestalt therapy. Jill has created a set that is so loving. It’s a whole other family. We have a lot of feelings for everyone on set. You can’t leave that at the door.
Let’s talk more about the family vibe, which I’m getting right off the bat. Did you all instantly connect?
GH: Jay, Amy and I always call upon each other on such a way that we need each other. We cannot go too long without talking. It’s a real gift.
AL: We’re constantly touching each other - holding hands, whatever. It is bizarre ow much everybody loves each other. This show has given me so much hope. When I first started, I thought, ‘oh give us a year, and like every other relationship, it’d stop.’ But, it just gets deeper. Not one person here is not committed to be kind. There’s some asshole, douchebag actor in every cast. Not here.
RH: It kind of comes from the top down. Jill sets the tone. We don’t yell at each other, and it just has brought out people’s better natures.
AL: I always feel like I’m in a cult but we get paid for it. It’s opposite of what the business tells you There’s no hierarchy. Anger and ego don’t last here.
JD: We’re a family that needed to come together for reasons beyond the show. It’s the best job. This process of even talking to you right now is part of our evolution.
This is the first season you guys filmed with Trump as president. The series is political but subtly. Its mere presence is a statement. Was there a different dynamic as actors and citizens going on set as the Tweets started rolling in and all the fit continually hits the shan? In other words, does the world around you change the way the show is and how you act even on a subconscious level?
JD: It fully lives in us. We’re extremely sensitive people. The cast and crew share things that are happening to us, and, as actors, we take all the feelings and put it into our work. We don’t debate it at all, we’re all on same page and just try to tear down walls and move toward unity. The show is speaking in the abstract. I think our show is very political but not operating at an intellectual or argumentative state. It’s the most internal state. We live in a culture of labeling and of walls. Our goal is to work hard at coming from a soul place.
AL:I really felt a new urgency of the show. I used to feel like this was a creative party that was changing the world. Now, I feel slightly persecuted. This is not my personal story but I feel like part of my family is being persecuted. I mean Alexander Billings is naked this year. That’s got to be historic. That’s a revolutionary act. It’s opening up peoples’ minds and eyes. We all want a partner, to make love and want to love. We all want a roof over our heads, a home, and a family. I feel hurt, angry and am ready to fight. I just feel like I want to do as much press as I can do, and talk to anyone who wants to talk to me.
RH: The show will be here long after Donald Trump. He will be in jail by season 8.
JC: Hopefully sooner.
RH: Season 5. Hopefully sooner.
AL: I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I was like even Caitlin Jenner voted for this fucker. I was an idiot.
RH: It’s different for us. We work with people each day who are being directly impacted every day. It’s super real.
Do you have any advice you can give to my five-and-half and two-and-half-year-old sons?
JD: When you have a feeling and you think it’s crazy, listen to the feeling.
GH: Mine is just the trust yourself thing. It’s really a hard thing to do for so many. Just trust yourself and do not just what you’ve been told you’re good at.
AL: Hold off on doing drugs and having sex - there’s less of a chance it has going bad.
RH: As a new parent, I want advice. My kid is barely one. What is the trick to her sleeping through the night and why does she continue to poop in her diaper like some kind of animal?
About A-Sides with Jon Chattman - thisisasides.com
Jon Chattman’s music, culture, and entertainment series typically features celebrities and artists (established or not) from all genres performing a track, and discussing what it means to them. This informal series focuses on the artist making art in a low-threatening, extremely informal (sometime humorous) way. No bells, no whistles — just the music performed in a random, low-key setting followed by an unrehearsed chat. In an industry where everything often gets overblown and over manufactured, Jon strives for a refreshing change. Artists featured on the series include Imagine Dragons, Melissa Etheridge, Yoko Ono, Elle King, Joe Perry, Alice Cooper, fun, Bleachers, Charli XCX, Marina and the Diamonds, and Bastille.
*Jon Chattman’s currently working on a new book entitled Moving Foreword, a pop culture anthology with talent lending forewords to books they make up.