Pose cast share their hopes, dreams and powerful words of advice for young queer and trans kids of colour
Dyllón Burnside as Ricky, Hailie Sahar as Lulu, Mj Rodriguez as Blanca, Indya Moore as Angel, Angel Bismark Curiel as Lil Papi. (Eric Liebowitz/FX)
After three seasons of defiant, mesmerising, groundbreaking television, Pose is coming to an end.
Ahead of the final season premiere, the cast and writers shared their hopes for young queer, trans, Black and brown viewers.
Billy Porter (Pray Tell)
Billy Porter as Pray Tell. (Pari Dukovic/FX)
To be empowered and to dream the impossible. To be empowered inside of yourself. Even when everything and everybody around you says the opposite, do it anyway, and dream the impossible.
Indya Moore (Angel Evangelista)
Indya Moore as Angel. (Pari Dukovic/FX)
To love yourself unapologetically. Be inspired to grow and don’t let anyone take family away from you. My hope, what I want them to walk away with, is basically: you are magical and powerful and beautiful, and you are capable of creating everything for yourself that this world refuses to give you or allow you to have. We are capable of creating the love we don’t often get for ourselves and each other.
Dominique Jackson (Elektra Abundance)
Dominique Jackson as Elektra. (Pari Dukovic/FX)
I would tell them that you are more than enough. You are more than enough from the beginning. And those struggles, those hardships, the stuff that you think are the things that are supposed to stop you, the stuff that you think are barriers is what is telling you that you have the power and the strength to overcome. So never, ever give up. Never, ever look at a barrier as something that’s debilitating or stopping you. Look at it as a challenge that you can overcome, because when you overcome those challenges, when you strive and you push forward, the greatness that you can achieve is in the example of [these] five trans women and one amazing trans woman who is a director, producer, writer [Janet Mock]. You have actors. Never, ever, ever feel like you cannot make it because we fought for this and we fought for our place at this table, and we will be stronger than you will ever be.
Janet Mock (writer, producer, director)
Janet Mock at the Pose season three premiere (Jamie McCarthy/Getty)
I have a quick one. It’s just something that I’ve viewed in Blanca and Elektra. They say it often: “You are everything, and you deserve everything this world has to offer.” It’s a line that I’ve written over and over again into the scenes, when Blanca forgets it and Elektra has to remind her or when Angel doesn’t know and Blanca has to remind her. It’s that matriarchal power and lineage that I think the ballroom is, and that trans women are to one another that, I think, then feeds everyone else and enables them to shine and have all the things that they want in the world. And so, on this show, I think that is essential that we uplift the women on this show, that we know and make it very clear that Mj Rodriguez, without that blueprint that she helped us pave in that first season, all of the other story lines would fall through. And for me, it is that celebration that’s centring and loving and appreciating of Black trans women, that they’ve created this space, that they brought everyone else in with them, and that, at the end of the day, they are often the ones most often forgotten. And I think that, with this season, I want everyone across the industry, the audience, realise that. I think it’s essential, and it’s important. It’s that you are everything, and you deserve everything this world has to offer.
Hailie Sahar (Lulu Abundance)
Hailie Sahar as Lulu, Indya Moore as Angel. (Michael Parmelee/FX)
Amen to that. I can’t top what Janet said. She spoke the words out of my heart. I would simply say one of the most powerful things that we always say, and is so simple… love. I would hope that our audience feels seen and validated in our stories, which Janet has said oftentimes go unnoticed or pushed to the background. And I hope that this body of work, people can go back and replay and view a scene and to be encouraged to go after everything they’ve ever wanted.
MJ Rodriguez (Blanca Evangelista)
Mj Rodriguez as Blanca. (Eric Liebowitz/FX)
If I may add as well, now, with us having a multitude of seasons leading into the finale – and this is specifically to the youth – now you know that it is extremely possible. Now you know that it is reachable and it is obtainable to not only be a part of an amazing show that encompasses not just the G, but the L, the B, and the T, but also knowing your worth, not just through the work that you see on television, but in actual real life, knowing how much you are worth to keep going and that each and every last one of our stories through these characters is a testament to how possible – which I’m piggybacking off of everybody – how possible it is to really obtain and achieve your dream.
I was a girl who was working hard, working hard in the industry and really trying to make my stamp, and my first little stamp was actually getting noticed in Playbill, auditioning for Peggy Schuyler in Hamilton. And now I can sit here and say I’ve solidified my roots and actually been a leading lady next to the leading man of a great show. It’s possible, it’s obtainable, and you can achieve it simply by all of our stories right here, watching us right now. And I just hope that it carries through. So, know your worth.
Steven Canals (creator)
Steven Canals at the Pose season three premiere (Jamie McCarthy/Getty)
There’s a lot on my heart, and I’ll simply say this, that Pose was created out of a selfish act. It really was. It came from a place of my wanting not only to be seen and heard and to affirmed, but also to centre and honour Black, Latinx, Afro-Latinx, queer and trans people because those are my family, those are my friends, those are the identities that they hold and that I hold. So to be a part of the storytelling process has been incredible. And while I know that Pose has been both entertaining and educational and that it has moved so many folks who don’t happen to hold those identities, it will not be and never will be lost on me that alongside my friend, my sister, my love, my collaborator, Janet Mock, as well as Ryan Murphy, that this show was created by and for our community. And so I hope, if nothing else, that all of the folks out there who happen to be part of the LGBTQ+ community and all of those folks who also happen to be Black and brown, that they always know that I and all of my collaborators and this wildly talented and beautiful cast will always have your back, that we will always see you, that we will always affirm you that, that the work will always be to honour you.
Sandra Bernhard (Nurse Judy)
Sandra Bernhard as Nurse Judy. (Eric Liebowitz/FX)
I just want to jump in real quickly to say, having been in the business for a very, very long time and seeing so much evolve, from being involved with Paul Mooney in The Richard Pryor Show and being really aligned with not only people of colour but, obviously, the whole gay movement and having been in the trenches during the AIDS experience, to see everybody on this show just explode and blossom not only as actors, but as people, has been such an inspiration to me. And no matter how long you are in this business, to still be affected and to grow as an artist, being inspired by new, fresh, dedicated, hard-working people has been such an incredible journey for me, and I’ve seen a lot over the years. So, I just want to say I really love all of you, it’s been so great to get to know you and to have you open your hearts to me and be able to bring a little bit of my magic to you, I hope, as well. You are all so talented, and I look forward to seeing everything you are going to be doing.
Angel Bismark Curiel (Lil Papi Evangelista)
Angel Bismark Curiel as Lil Papi. (Pari Dukovic/FX)
For me, before I even stepped foot on set, I didn’t know what trans meant. I didn’t even know the vocabulary definition of it and let alone the complexities and the traumas that follow very soon after that word. So, what I hope to see and to indulge in is, you know, a young man sitting on a couch, flipping through his TV, looking for something to watch, and he stumbles upon this show. He starts watching the show, sees himself reflected in Papi and says, “Oh. Oh. I think… that looks like Rico over there across the street. Oh, and… she trans? What is he doing over there? But I don’t understand, man. But he loves her. He loves her, and he appreciates her. I get that. S**t. I’ve got my shorty too. I love my mom. That’s the way I see him loving on her.” Turn the TV off. Goes with the boys. And because he has that already in him, he’s with the boys and the boys want to be toxic, he can say, “No, no, no. Hold back. Hold back, bro. Hey, I’m going to put you on this show, man. It’s called Pose. Let me tell you something. That boy, he could teach you a thing or two about how to love a woman.”
Dyllón Burnside (Ricky Evangelista)
Dyllon Burnside as Ricky. (Pari Dukovic/FX)
You know, there was a time when folks thought that no one could break the four-minute-mile barrier. I think Roger Bannister was the first man to do it, and I think that was in 1950-something. Since then, tens of thousands of people have run a mile in under four minutes. My hope is that folks who see this show, young people, older people, will recognise what is possible, and will recognise their own superpowers, and recognise that they can do the things that the world believes are impossible, like breaking a four-minute barrier. I believe that when people get to see folks achieve the impossible, they see the power that they have within themselves. So, my hope is for young, Black, queer men, queer folks all over the world, that they will recognise that they have the ability to stand in their truth and to take up space and to celebrate who they are and achieve anything and everything that they can imagine and find love in the process – love for self and love for community, love for one another.
Jason Rodriguez (Lemar Wintour)
Jason A. Rodriguez as Lemar. (Eric Liebowitz/FX)
For me, I feel my message definitely goes to the queer youth, the trans youth, because they are our future, especially us on this show, writers, directors, the actors. If it is safe to do so, speak out loud. Speak it. After you’ve spoken loud, cultivate it, articulate it, strengthen it, grind it into a diamond that everyone can see and then let everybody love on that, see you. But then let that reflect. Let that light reflect onto others, because I feel like power and strength means nothing if you can’t pass it on. It becomes limited. I feel we all want to push to be limitless, and to do so is to let that shine. We’ve all accomplished and have platforms that we’ve reached and so many other platforms to jump on top of and change narratives and create, but then for the youth to see us and see that strength, to just know that if we can do it, so can they.
At the same press conference, the cast of Pose also shared how working on the show has changed them and allowed them to “dream the impossible”.
Pose season three begins with a double bill on FX, Sunday (2 May). A UK air date has not been set.
