Doubt premiered last week, and the series marks the first time a transgender character is featured as a series regular. Laverne Cox appears as Cameron, and the real-life couple behind the series shared their inspiration for the character in a recent interview with Yahoo TV.

Joan Rater shared the following about that inspiration for the character on the CBS series:

“We have a son, Tom Phelan, who is transgender and is an actor. When he was coming out as transgender it was sort of around the time we were writing the show, and it became really important to us to have this character of Cameron, who is transgender, but this isn’t a coming out story. It isn’t a transition story. She’s already transitioned. It’s a little bit like, it’s a part of her, it’s an important part of her, but it’s not the central focus of who she is. Because we find that with our son, we don’t sit around talking about gender a lot. We sit around talking about how college is. He’s a person. We wanted to really show that, as well as feeling that an attorney who is transgender… it would make sense that they would go into defense work, because they might have a real empathy for people who are struggling, or the down trodden, so that just made sense. Then, the icing on the cake was getting Laverne, who happened to be available. We didn’t know she was. She has that strength and that passion and she just knocks it out of the park. And she’s funny.”

Tom Phelan also revealed that fans will see a love story develop for the character during the season. If the series returns for a second season, fans could see Tom Phelan appear. He was last seen on The Fosters, but he is now a freshman in college.

Are you a fan of Doubt and Laverne Cox’s performance so far? Tell us what you think.