'Arrested Development' Season 5 Gets Premiere Date as Jeffrey Tambor Speaks Out on Harassment Allegations

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Netflix

The series will return to Netflix later this month.

Season five of  Arrested Development  will be here sooner than you think. 

The new season is set to premiere on May 29 on Netflix, the streaming service announced on Monday alongside the official trailer. The entire cast (including Jeffrey Tambor) is back together as the Bluth family earns the award they think they deserve -- family of the year. 

Fans last saw the Bluths in a 15-episode fourth season when Netflix revived the series in 2013, seven years after Fox canceled the show. The final episode saw a father-son standoff between Michael and George-Michael, Gob named the replacement president of Bluth Company and Buster's arrest for Lucille Austero's murder. 

ET previously confirmed that Tambor would return to the series despite the allegations of sexual harassment that prompted him to leave Amazon's Transparent. The actor officially exited Transparent  in February, after he was accused of sexual harassment by former assistant Van Barnes and his co-star, Trace Lysette, whose accusations he has publicly denied. Following the accusations against Tambor in November, an investigation was initiated by Amazon.

Tambor, who has publicly denied the claims of inappropriate behavior as "baseless," opened up more about the allegations in a story published by The Hollywood Reporter on Monday. 

“I don’t want to characterize them,” he said of Barnes' claims. “What I said was that she was a disgruntled assistant. I think that was generous of me. I dispute her account. I did raise my voice at times, I was moody at times, there were times when I was tactless. But as for the other stuff, absolutely not.”

Tambor also acknowledged having the occasional outburst on previous shows, including one "blowup" with Jessica Walter on Arrested Development for which he said he later "profusely apologized." He said playing Maura Pfefferman on Transparent brought out the worst in him. 

“I drove myself and my castmates crazy,” he confessed. “Lines got blurred. I was difficult. I was mean. I yelled at [series creator] Jill [Soloway] — she told me recently she was afraid of me. I yelled at the wonderful [executive producer] Bridget Bedard in front of everybody. I made her cry. And I apologized and everything, but still, I yelled at her. The assistant directors. I was rude to my assistant. I was moody. Sometimes I didn’t talk at all.”

“And this is where the reader says, ‘So what?’ ” he continued. “You know? ‘You’re coming in from the Palisades, you drive in, you get a good paycheck, you get to play one of the best roles in the world. So. What.’ … But I was scared, because I was a cisgender male playing Maura Pfefferman. And my whole thing was, ‘Am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? Am I doing it right?’ To the point that I worried myself to death.”

Now, Tambor is focused on Arrested Development, with Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos telling THR that the actor "has always been totally professional" during his time on the series. Sarandos also confirmed that Tambor will be present at upcoming media appearances for Arrested Development, including the show's May 17 premiere in Hollywood. 

Sarandos isn't the only one to speak out in support of Tambor. David Cross defended his co-star in an interview with amNew York in February. "I can’t speak for everybody, but I know there are a number of us who stand behind him -- from the limited amount we know, we stand behind Jeffrey -- and I am one of them," he said of the Arrested Development cast, which includes Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat.

“I think it’s very curious that Amazon didn’t make public the results of their internal investigation,” Cross continued. “I’m not sure why they would do that. I just know the whole thing is rather curious to me.”

See more in the video below. 

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