vulture festival la 2017

Jill Soloway Wants to Make Sets Safer Following Jeffrey Tambor Accusations

Jill Soloway speaks onstage during Vulture Festival L.A. Photo: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Vulture Festival

During Saturday’s panel discussion at Vulture Festival L.A., Jill Soloway chose not to comment on the accusations currently leveled at Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor. However, she explained her silence is intended to “protect the process, and make sure that we have a process with the most integrity to make sure that everybody … that it turns out fair.”

Trace Lysette, who plays Shea on the award-winning show, has accused Tambor of sexually harassing her, saying he made inappropriate comments and physical gestures, and now GLAAD is calling for Tambor’s removal from the show.

Soloway does have plenty to say on ensuring things like this don’t happen in general. Speaking on a panel with Master of None’s Lena Waithe, Soloway told Vulture’s Stacey Wilson Hunt, “We’ve come up with this notion of 50-50 [gender equity] by 2020. But we heard that men don’t like mandates. They don’t want to be told, they don’t want a request.”

While Soloway said she’s always worked to make her sets safe, she now wants to make a new rule. “What if we don’t have sex with people at work?” she said. “We don’t talk about sex at work, and we don’t touch people at work. Just to try it. I don’t know if it’s going to work. But you just check before you give somebody a hug.”

Soloway Wants to Make Sets Safer After Tambor Accusations