Orange Is the New Black Season 3 Cast Speaks Out In Wake Of Teen Transgender Suicide; Laverne Cox Shared Leelah Alcorn’s Final Wish, Empathizes In An Earlier Interview

The "Orange Is the New Black" Season 3 cast returns with one of its characters broken after Season 2; there's also good news in Laura Prepon's more involved comeback. Its actors are busy with real-world affairs in the meantime, with the show in hiatus until its mid-year run.

Laverne Cox reprises her role as Sophia Burset in the "Orange is the New Black" season 3 cast; the actor is a breakthrough in mainstream TV, being the first transgender of color to have a lead role in a TV show. "Orange is  the New Black" also scored big in critical reception this year, voted as one of ten best television shows in the US.

Laverne Cox is an advocate for transgender issues, and her role in the show is Time magazine's fourth most influential fictional character in 2013.

"My third grade teacher called my mom and said 'Your son is going to end up in New Orleans wearing a dress.' Up until that point I just thought that I was a girl and that there was no difference between girls and boys. I think in my imagination I thought that I would hit puberty and I would start turning into a girl." (usmagazine.com)

Cox is scheduled to talk at Missouri State University next month.

Cox empathized in the wake of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn, who scheduled her suicide note to be published hours after her death. She didn't directly comment on the incident, rather shared Leelah's final wish instead (ibtimes.com).

"My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say 'that's f--ked up' and fix it."

Cox's shared Leelah's sentiments in an earlier interview:

"Going to a therapist and the fear of God being placed in me about ending up in New Orleans wearing a dress, that was a profoundly shaming moment for me. I associated it with being some sort of degenerate, with not being successful.

I didn't associate being trans, or wearing a dress, with that, or wanting to be a girl with being successful. So it's something I just started to push down. I wanted to be famous, I wanted to perform. Those things I really, really wanted more than anything else."

The "Orange Is the New Black" season 3 cast returns in a preview episode on Netflix, in June or July.