Transparent creator Jill Soloway has announced that she’s adding a bit of new blood to her critically acclaimed Amazon show, with Anjelica Huston signing on for several episodes in the upcoming second season. Huston will play a “new friend” of Jeffrey Tambor’s character Maura, with Soloway hinting at some sort of strong connection between the two.
“They have a lot of chemistry… palpable chemistry,” the showrunner told Variety, suggesting that the character might be back for the show’s third season as well. That could be great news for Huston, given that Transparent’s first year has already netted a guest star Emmy for Bradley Whitford, who won at last week’s Creative Arts awards.
Looking past her decades-long film career, which includes a star-making role in The Addams Family and a spot in Wes Anderson’s company of players, Huston’s last regular TV gig was on NBC’s musical muddle Smash, where she played high-powered producer Eileen Rand. Meanwhile, her only previous foray into streaming TV was a brief but important role in the first season of Netflix’s BoJack Horseman, where she played the network TV devil who lured Bojack into turning his back on his oldest friend.
Transparent is currently flying high off the buzz surrounding its lauded first season; Amazon has renewed it for a third, far in advance of the second’s December debut. Meanwhile, the show is up for numerous awards—including writing and directing nods for Soloway—at this Sunday’s 67th Primetime Emmys.