Laverne Cox has opened up about her heavily scrutinized conversation with Dylan Mulvaney on the 2023 Grammy’s red carpet.
In a joint ELLE interview alongside Mulvaney published on Friday, the Orange is the New Black alum admitted that many people commented that Cox was being “shady” throughout the interaction, which she didn’t expect.
At the time, Mulvaney approached Cox on the red carpet after telling her TikTok followers that the transgender actress was “on [her] vision board this year.”
“I’m about to walk up to Laverne Cox. We’re at the Grammys. She’s on my vision board this year,” Mulvaney began before filming herself standing with Cox on the red carpet.
In the clip, Mulvaney told Cox about the vision board, to which the actress responded: “That’s lovely.”
Cox then proceeded to share some advice with the TikToker: “It’s insane that you’re documenting so much of your life. Make sure you keep things for yourself. Everything cannot be for the public. They love it, but everything cannot be for them.”
As she shared the advice, Mulvaney interrupted to note that she just underwent FFS [facial feminization surgery], at which point Cox pointed out that she “knows.”
“I know, girl, we know. It’s all over TikTok,” Cox continued.
Speaking to Elle, Cox said she wanted to start by addressing the Grammys and the “speculation” that sparked from the video.
Mulvaney agreed, adding that she didn’t leave their interaction feeling offended or upset with Cox. “I left that interaction feeling nothing but love and supported and protected,” she said.
“It felt maternal for me. It felt like the beginning of a friendship, and an honest one, because a lot of people, especially in that environment…That was one of my first carpets ever, and I now see you aren’t always getting people’s most authentic selves.”
Cox then chimed in to discuss what she remembered the comments section looking like after Mulvaney’s video was posted.
“I remember I saw people saying that I was being shady to you, that I was being mean to you. And I generally don’t engage with that stuff, but it came up, and I was like, ‘Huh.’”
However, Mulvaney learned from the public’s reaction that she needed to take Cox’s advice of “keeping things for herself” to heart. “I think that was a huge takeaway, not only from what you were saying to me, but how that was interpreted,” Dylan said.
“Sometimes, when you have something special and you feel one way about it and then you put it out into the world, it becomes something else.”
