Laverne Cox, the actress best known for playing transgender inmate Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black, has signed up to the second season of comedy Faking It.
Faking It is based on two best friends in high school,
Faking It, is about two teen girls – Amy (Rita Volk) and Karma (Katie Stevens), who pretend to be a lesbian couple in order to become more popular, only for one of the girls to realise that she has genuine romantic feelings.
The show attracted some controversy when it first aired earlier this year, over its portrayal of gay characters. However, the shows creator Carter Covington says that it might sound like a wild premise, but it’s actually based on many calls he fielded when he worked as a crisis counselor for the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention hotline for LGTBQ youth.
“For the young people today, this show is not going to be controversial. I genuinely think it’s going to feel like, an exaggerated version, of course, but very much based in the world they live in now. Kids these days don’t see the world through the eyes that I did when I was kid, but the core things stay the same: Who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I want the world to see me? Those things are only accentuated with social media.”
Says Covington.
According to Entertainment Weekly, in an episode set to air later this year, Cox will play drama teacher Margot, described as “demanding, intense, and full of herself” and “a big fish in a small pond”.