emmy 2015

Jeffrey Tambor’s Emmys Acceptance Speech Will Make You Reach for the Tissues

It’s a Pavlovian response that whenever the Transparent song comes on, tears start welling up behind your eyes. So we were already reaching for the tissues when Jeffrey Tambor won the Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy for Transparent. He gave the appropriate shout-outs to Jill Soloway, the show’s creator, who had just won the Best Directing in a Comedy trophy right before him; his wife; and, most important, the trans community.

Here’s a transcript of the speech:

Thank you so much. I’m so, so honored. You know, I had a—well, this entirely ruins the nomination room let me be very clear about that. I had a teacher who used to say, you know, ‘When you act, you have to act as if your life depends on it.’ And now I’ve been given the opportunity to act because people’s lives depend on it.

I’d like to thank Jill Soloway for giving me the privilege and the responsibility of Maura Pfefferman from the Pacific Palisades. I would like to thank this gorgeous cast. Every time and everywhere you rest your eye, there is genius. I would like to thank my teachers: Rhys Ernst, Zackary Drucker, Jenny Boylan, Van Barnes. Thank you Leslie Siebert and Joannie Burstein for putting this in my hands. You said that Jill Soloway was going to change my life and, in fact, that happened. Thank you to my lovely wife, Kasia. The reason—I wouldn’t even be standing here. Hi, Liv. And thank you to Roy Price, Joe Lewis, and the brilliant publicity team at Amazon, my new BFFs. Did I thank Leslie Siebert? Because she really wanted it. Good.

And I’m going to wrap up by saying, not to repeat myself, but to specifically repeat myself: I’d like to dedicate my performance and this award to the transgender community. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for your stories. Thank you for our inspiration. Thank you for letting us be part of the change. God bless. 

Watch Jeffrey Tambor’s Emmy Acceptance Speech