Jeffrey Tambor Accused of Sexual Harassment by ‘Transparent’ Actress Trace Lysette

“Sadly, I must add my voice to the chorus. Jeffrey has acted inappropriate to me too,” Lysette says in a statement

Jeffrey Tambor
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Another woman has come forward with accusations of sexual harassment against “Transparent” star Jeffrey Tambor.

Trace Lysette, a trans actress who has had a recurring role on the Amazon series, issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday accusing Tambor of having made “many sexual advances and comments at me, but one time it got physical.”

In the statement, Lysette detailed an encounter she had with Tambor while filming a Season 2 episode of the show, saying that Tambor thrusted himself against her on set after sexualizing her with an “over the top comment.”

“My back was against the wall in a corner as Jeffrey approached me,” she said. “He came in close, put his bare feet on top of mine so I could not move, leaned his body against me, and began quick, discreet thrusts back and forth against my body. I felt his penis on my hip through his thin pajamas and I pushed him off of me.”

Tambor denied the allegations in a statement provided to TheWrap:

For the past four years, I’ve had the huge privilege — and huge responsibility — of playing Maura Pfefferman, a transgender woman, in a show that I know has had an enormous, positive impact on a community that has been too long dismissed and misunderstood. Now I find myself accused of behavior that any civilized person would condemn unreservedly. I know I haven’t always been the easiest person to work with. I can be volatile and ill-tempered, and too often I express my opinions harshly and without tact. But I have never been a predator – ever. I am deeply sorry if any action of mine was ever misinterpreted by anyone as being sexually aggressive or if I ever offended or hurt anyone. But the fact is, for all my flaws, I am not a predator and the idea that someone might see me in that way is more distressing than I can express.

An Amazon spokesperson said the new allegations would be folded into the existing investigation into Tambor’s behavior.

Earlier this month, Amazon opened an investigation into the actor after Van Barnes, a trans actress and Tambor’s former assistant, accused him of sexual harassment in a private Facebook post, allegations which Tambor “adamantly and vehemently” denied.

At the time, Jill Soloway, the creator of “Transparent,” said that the show was fully cooperating with the investigation, adding that “anything that would diminish the level of respect, safety and inclusion so fundamental to our workplace is completely antithetical to our principles.”

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