Pose gears up to film season three after coronavirus shut down production and perhaps 2020 isn’t beyond saving
Pose’s Electra Abundance, played by Dominique Jackson. (FX)
Pose is set to recommence filming its third season after production was shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Crew members on the award-winning LGBT+ FX series are reportedly being tested for coronavirus, with producers hoping that filming can kick off again in October, according to Variety.
Pose, along with a raft of other television shows, was forced to halt production as COVID-19 began its rapid spread across the United States in March.
The groundbreaking series, which focuses on the New York City ballroom scene in the late 1980s, has won praise for its representation of Black trans women – and queer fans were left heartbroken when its third season failed to materialise due to the pandemic.
Pose will start filming its third season in October.
Speaking to Variety in March, the show’s star Indya Moore said: “When production paused, I wasn’t shocked – I knew it would happen – but it was a bittersweet moment for me.
“On the one hand, if anyone had gotten sick, it surely would have spread fast.
“On the other hand, most folks working on a production are living paycheck to paycheck. So I was worried about how they are going to survive.”
Pose has garnered critical acclaim for its powerful representation of queer lives throughout its first two seasons.
Billy Porter, who plays Pray Tell on the show, won an Emmy for best lead actor for his performance in 2019, making him the first openly gay Black man to achieve such a feat.
The FX series has won critical acclaim, but its Black trans stars have largely been shut out of acting awards.
Despite this, the show’s trans stars have been shut out of almost all major acting, directing and writing categories.
When Porter was nominated for a second Emmy in July, both Indya Moore and Angelica Ross, who plays Candy on Pose, hit out at the awards for continuously failing to recognise trans actors.
“Something about trans people not being honoured on a show about trans people who created a culture to honour ourselves because the world doesn’t,” Moore tweeted.
They also criticised the show’s “weak ass promotion”, claiming: “Most of us have never been on any talk shows except MJ [Rodriguez], here and there. And they still ignored her work. “They don’t trust us on live TV. Especially me lol.”
Ross, speaking through tears on Instagram Live, said she was “so tired” of seeing transgender stars overlooked by society.
