Laverne Cox may be well known for her role as Sofia in “Orange Is The New Black” but she wasn’t always famous. In fact, at one time, she actually did her bit in the reality show circuit. She was recruited for “Big Brother," the popular CBS reality show. Christopher Catalano is close to the casting director of “Big Brother," Robyn Kass. He’s the casting producer and he’s been known to personally recruit people. When someone is recruited for “Big Brother,” it means they get to bypass all those formalities like the casting calls and the interviews.
Laverne Cox was recruited by the casting producer
Steve Moses, winner of “Big Brother 17,” did an interview with Christopher Catalano and he revealed some interesting things about the casting process. One of his most interesting revelations was that Laverne Cox of “Orange Is The New Black” was one of his recruits. He said that Cox was recruited for Season 9 and came quite close to being part of the “Big Brother 9” cast.
Talking about Laverne Cox, Catalano told Moses, “She was one of my semi-finalists, I pitched her, but she never became a finalist.” So, Cox was just a few steps away from making it onto Season 9 of “Big Brother.” Fans might remember that Season 9 occurred in 2008 during the writers strike and was a controversial season.
Laverne Cox managed to avoid all that.
Cox went on to do other reality shows
Catalano still thought that Laverne would be great for reality TV and she was passed over to the VH1 show, “I Want To Work For Diddy.” Laverne Cox was a hostess in New York at the time and she competed with 12 other contestants to become Sean Combs’ assistant.
Laverne Cox went on to star in and produce her own reality show called, “TRANSform Me.” This made her the first trans-African- American woman to both star in and produce their own television show. Laverne and her stylist friends helped transform other trans women, internally and externally, to become the women they desired.
That led Laverne Cox to “Orange Is The New Black” and the role of Sofia, which she seems to have been made for.
She was the first openly trans person to be nominated for an award at any awards show and she won the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the Emmys for her role as Sofia Burset in 2014.
If she appeared on“Big Brother," Laverne Cox would have been the first openly transgendered person to be on the reality show. However, it wasn’t until Season 17 when Audrey Middleton was the first openly transgendered person on “Big Brother.”
Casting for Season 19 of “Big Brother” is still ongoing. Although there have been rumored leaks about past “Big Brother” contestants coming on for a “second chances” type of season, nothing has been confirmed. The official cast list for the upcoming season should be released in the second or third week of June, just before the show begins on June 28, 2017.
