'Orange is the New Black' Season 3 Release: Jenji Kohan Talks Problem With Hiring Transgender Writer Just For Sake Of It [VIDEO]
Orange Is the New Black creator and showrunner Jenji Kohan recently discussed some hot button issues concerning her show in addition to the new Amazon series Transparent.
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Kohan appeared as a panelist at the New Yorker Festival for a discussion of LGBTQ issues on television on Saturday. She appeared, among others, with Transparent creator Jill Solloway, whose main character is transgendered. The two creators disagreed on the prospect of hiring a transgender person for the sake of having that perspective and then crafting them into a writer.
"I think great writers should write great shows, and I have trouble with, like, what you are in life shouldn't automatically make you what you do in your art," Kohan said. "It doesn't necessarily translate."
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Meanwhile, Solloway suggested that she didn't feel comfortable with not having a trans woman on her writing staff.
"I can't say that I can create a show about a trans woman and not have a trans woman writing for me," she said. "It's absolutely necessary, and it's gonna change the show."
Solloway said that she will be hiring a trans woman to write for the show in Season 2, even if she has to train them.
Kohan also discussed the recent news that Lauren Morelli, one the writers on Orange Is the New Black, separated from her husband and is now dating Samira Wiley, who plays Poussey on the series.
In what seemed to be a biting response to those who believe Morelli decided to suddenly become gay, Kohan quipped:
"I turned her gay. I made her gay. I felt there wasn't enough balance in the room, so I have a magic wand and I make people gay. But, you know, I can turn her back. I can make people Hispanic. I can make them black."
Orange Is the New Black is expected to begin streaming all 13 episodes of Season 3 in mid-2015 on Netflix. Seasons 1 and 2 are currently streaming on the site.
