Billy Porter broke out into the mainstream in 2018 with his role as Pray Tell in Pose,
and he's truly seized the moment to show the world that he's here to stay on his own terms.
Keep watching to discover everything you need to know about the most fabulous man in show business.
Billy Porter is clearly at the top of his game now,
reveling in the life of an entertainer. But did he always want to be an actor? As it turns out,
very much so. In 2019, he confirmed this ambition to W Magazine as he revealed,
"From the time I was eleven years old. I went to Reizenstein Middle School in
Pittsburgh and I was introduced to musical theater and I fell in love.
I found my tribe. The thing about it was that I couldn't do any of the sort of
traditional masculine things that are required. I wasn't good at gym. I wasn't good at sports."
Porter took to acting and singing right away,
which helped him discover who he truly was inside. As he explained,
"I don't know if there was something in that that gave me a clue that maybe this might be
something that I could do, and be popular doing it, and not be bullied anymore."
Destiny really clicked into place when he saw Jennifer Holliday perform at the Tony Awards,
and he decided that he was going to act professionally in musical theater himself.
Most people remember their first kiss, whether it was incredibly spectacular
or bitterly disappointing. But Billy Porter's first time was memorable for a different reason.
"My first kiss was probably in the ninth grade with a crush I had. A girl crush."
As he recalled to W Magazine,
"She came to my room before she went to college, in a sundress,
and we kissed and that's when I knew I was gay."
That's definitely not something you forget!
If you're thinking this was a bad experience, think again, because it was actually a bit
more complicated than it might sound like at first. As Porter explained,
"The kiss was great. But it was just like, 'Oh I really think what I'm feeling
on the inside is actually true. This just isn't the gender that I'm attracted to.'"
Sometimes when you know, you just know.
Although Porter knew from a very early age that he was gay, he grew up in a very religious household,
which prevented him from truly being himself. In 2019, he told Metrosource,
"My childhood was the typical 'you're going to Hell' story. It's the same one that we've all
heard over and over again, so to regurgitate that again is really to give it way too much energy."
To that end, after unsuccessfully trying to bury his orientation,
Porter left home as a teenager. While that was the right move for him, he nevertheless still
encountered anti-gay beliefs throughout the entirety of his career. As he told W Magazine,
"The homophobia, the systematic homophobia, in the business at large,
the attack on my masculinity really led me to a crossroads because it was like,
'Well you have to fix yourself or you won't ever have success.'"
Fortunately, Porter has managed to find real success without compromising himself,
although it took many years. That's just one more way that he's a true trailblazer.
"I have worked my whole life to be in a position where I can speak from authority."
"That's right." "Where I have a platform to speak."
One very personal thing that Porter has shared with the public is that he's a
survivor of childhood abuse. In an op-ed that he penned for Out Magazine in 2018,
he described in graphic detail the treatment he suffered at the hands of his stepfather, who
abused him starting when he was 7 years old. He knew that if he wanted it to stop, he had to get
out of his home. He also talked about this subject in a 2019 interview with Esquire, as he explained,
"At seven, at twelve,
I could look around and see all of these adults with no capacity to do anything to help
me. I knew there's not an adult around me that knows what the f--- to do. I will do it myself."
And so Porter found a way to escape. Looking back now,
he was able to turn that experience into something formative, as it motivated him
to leave a terrible situation and get out into the world where he belonged. As he told Esquire,
"I was able to extract myself from that toxic energy without fear,
without guilt [...] I wish more young people could get to the space of 'I don't need your tolerance,
I don't need your acceptance. What I demand is your respect for my humanity.'"
Before Billy Porter was known to the world as Pray Tell, he was killing it on Broadway,
in particular as the drag queen Lola in Kinky Boots. The role was perfect for him,
as he's known for bucking gender norms, especially when it comes to fashion.
"I'm a man in a dress, and if I feel like wearing a dress, I'm gonna wear one."
While Porter is a man who often wears dresses, he's not a drag queen,
though he earned plenty of praise playing one on the stage. But because of the way that drag
had been portrayed in popular movies like Mrs. Doubtfire and Tootsie, he was concerned about
how his character would be received by the world at large. As he explained to Esquire,
"For me having gone through all of the things that I went through in my life — choosing myself,
choosing my sanity over my fame, choosing my authenticity and taking all the hits
that come with that to finally get my shot — to be starring in a Broadway show as a
drag queen and say that that character is straight would be irresponsible of me."
So he made the decision to make Lola "super gay," and it paid off, as he wound up winning the Tony
for Leading Actor in a Musical. His commitment to being genuine was finally starting to pay off!
In January 2017, Billy Porter married his longtime partner Adam Smith in an intimate
ceremony in Manhattan. The couple met in 2009 when they were introduced by friends. They actually
split up after dating for a year, but they got back together in 2015, and it's been nothing but
love ever since. Porter and Smith were of course incredibly happy to take this new step together,
and it was something that felt exceedingly right for them. As Porter told People Magazine,
"We're looking forward to understanding and learning how to share your life with somebody.
I'm really thrilled to figure out what that means — together, with my soul mate!"
The marriage was partly politically motivated, as they made the decision to
wed before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. Porter told People,
"This is an extension of our activist side. It's still important to show the world what
our love looks like; it's important for us to take that stand. I think about when I grew up and
when I came out in the ’80s: As a black gay man, there were no examples to validate my existence.
So I vowed at that age to try to be that for the generations behind me if I had the chance."
When Porter's manager booked him an audition for Pose, his character of Pray Tell didn't
actually exist yet. So Porter auditioned for a role that he wasn't really interested in,
though he sensed an opportunity. As he recalled to Metrosource,
"I went in and read the part I was called in for, and then I said, 'Okay, listen: I lived through
this era. I think it would serve everybody if I was in that world because I'm from that world."
Once he had creator Ryan Murphy's ear, he proposed playing one of the house mothers,
but Murphy planned to cast transgender women in those roles. So, as Porter tells it,
"I said, 'That's an amazing idea, but they're going to need a father figure.'
They're going to need a male energy over there, right? Like a godfather, and there wasn't one.
There wasn’t a male leading man in the show. There was a lead boy, but not a grown man."
After that meeting, Murphy told Porter that he would create a role specifically for him,
and thus Pray Tell was born. Talk about going after what you want!
"The category is… Runway!"
History was made at the 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards when Billy Porter became the first
openly gay black man to win for Best Actor in a Drama Series.
He won for his performance as Pray Tell on Pose, and he was visibly delighted
and deeply emotional as he took the stage. During his acceptance speech, he proclaimed,
"I am so overwhelmed and I am so overjoyed to have lived long enough to see this day.
James Baldwin said, 'It took many years of vomiting up all
the filth that I had been taught about myself, and half-believed,
before I was able to walk on the Earth as though I had a right to be here.' I have the right!"
This wasn't Porter's first big award in his career, as he had already won his
Tony in 2013 for Kinky Boots and a Grammy for his work on that show's cast album.
He's only an Oscar away from EGOT status now!
It's fairly obvious that Billy Porter is particularly skilled at acting,
as well as slaying it on the red carpet. He's also a great singer and just
all-around fabulous. While his status as a Renaissance Man is well-established, he
actually has one lesser-known talent you might not know about. As he confessed to W Magazine in 2019,
"My secret skill would be cooking. I could always cook, but then about a decade ago or so,
a little bit more, I stumbled on the Food Network. I just really took a shine to it."
Porter got so interested in the culinary arts that now there's basically
nothing he can't do in the kitchen. He also noted,
"I started learning different techniques and learning how to do anything. Give me a recipe
and I'll cook anything. I would like to go on Rachel Ray and cook with her at some point.'
Hey, Food Network, take notice, your next star is calling!
Billy Porter has always been artistically inclined, as far back as his childhood.
That shines through in his acting, singing, and fashion choices,
all of which are informed by his artistic philosophy. As he mused to W Magazine,
"It's very important to pay it forward and I really am an artist who believes in art
as activism, art as inspiration. We as artists have the capacity to reach into the real heart
of people and change the molecular structure of their insides and change hearts and minds."
Furthermore, Porter is serious about art for a rather crucial reason,
and he hopes that others look to him as an inspiration. He told W,
"My life was saved by the arts. So I hope to continue to do that for others."
Considering all that he's already accomplished, there's no doubt that he's doing just that.
His activist art is particularly clear on Pose, as his character Pray Tell becomes
HIV-positive in Season 2. Porter lived through the real-life AIDS crisis himself, so this storyline
has hit close to home, although playing Pray Tell has also been healing for him. As he told Vulture,
"It made me very thankful that I've lived long enough to see this day. I've lived
long enough to see this transition in our culture to be able to tell this story."
Pose has also brought these feelings to the surface for Porter's survivor friends,
who have reached out to talk about them. As he shared with Vulture,
"I have a lot of friends who have been texting and calling, and crying and laughing. It's nice
to go back and remember, and I'm re-bonding with a lot of people who I haven't seen or
spoken to in a really long time. They’re coming out of the woodwork. One friend actually said
Pose helped him to move past the survivor’s guilt he’s been holding on to for decades."
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