(upbeat music)
- Billy, before Pose, you were being sort of passed over
for part after part after part in Hollywood.
Obviously you had a thriving theater career before this.
How close were you to actually throwing in the towel
and what made you keep going?
- You know, it's a double layer.
The layer of actually being a person of color
in this industry
and then the other layer of
being a queen.
Nobody can see you as anything else.
If flamboyantly dot dot dot
wasn't in the description of the character,
no one would see me, ever, for anything.
Which wouldn't be so enraging
if it went the other direction, but it doesn't.
Because straight men playing gay,
everybody wants to give them an award,
thank you for gracing us with your straight presence.
So, that gets tiresome.
So, here I sit,
I can't get the gay parts, I can't get the straight parts,
I can't get nothing. (group laughs)
The last pilot season I went through,
it was that over and over and over and over again,
it was a couple of years ago.
And my sister calls me on the phone
and she catches me right after one of those dismissive
"you're too flamboyant" calls,
and I just went in.
I was just crying,
I had to pull the car over to the side of the road.
I was like, I can't, I can't.
Your body doesn't know that it's not real.
The emotions, your body still goes through them.
It's like, I can't keep putting myself into this position
where I'm always begging.
The next day.
Ring. (actor laughs)
"Ryan Murphy wants to see you for a show called Pose.
"It's set in the LGBTQ Paris Is Burning culture."
And I literally was like,
okay Lord.
Or the universe or whatever.
It just was like, you've got to be kidding me.
(upbeat music)
- When initially you were called for Pose,
it's not the role that you ultimately play?
- No.
- [Lacey] That role was not a part of it.
What did you see when you walked in the door?
What did you sort of know
and where did the confidence come to say,
hey, wait a second, I think there's another role here?
- I did the audition and then I said to Alexa Fogel,
"Okay, so, can we talk?
"'Cause this is what's happening.
"I've lived it.
"You know, yes, whatever y'all want me to do,
"I'll be there for it.
"But like,
"what about one of the mothers of the houses of?
"'Cause they were male and female mothers."
And she said, "Ryan wants to go transgender."
And it's like, the most brilliant idea ever.
I had just directed a play,
it was four transgender actresses of color in it,
and I said, "I've worked in that world.
"The talent is there.
"There's been no opportunity though
"to sort of cut their teeth.
"So many of the actors and actresses are really green
"and you're gonna need somebody over there to be daddy,
"right?
"You know, daddy's right here."
So I got a call a couple of weeks later.
"Ryan thinks you're right.
"If you can come in and do an impersonation
"of the MC from Paris Is Burning,
"he will develop something for you."
And I thought, if
I can do? (Hugh laughs)
It's like the whole world
has been doing an impersonation of these people
from this movie
not even knowing
that they were doing impersonations of these people.
(upbeat music)
- In terms of your preparation processes,
what are your sort of go-to tricks,
the things you sort of need to do to get into a role?
- For me, it's usually one garment.
(actor laughs)
Or even the way you wear one garment.
For this Jeremy Thorpe thing,
he was famous for wearing these hats.
And I was standing there
at a man's costume place in London for days and days
thinking, what the fuck is wrong here?
I'm dressed just like Jeremy Thorpe,
I'm wearing the same hat,
I can't get it right, I can't see him,
I can't see him.
And then one of the guys there said,
"Just tilt it back two inches."
Bingo, there he was.
- That was it? - Yeah.
And then everything started to fall into place.
I took the hat home
and when I was sort of studying the part I would wear it
and I could see him, feel him.
It's weird.
- I'm very much like that too.
- [Lacey] The costume?
- It's very much about the silhouette,
it's very much about what would this person...
You know, that's a lot of it.
- Which is not what we're supposed to do.
We're supposed to work from the inside out.
I work from the outside in.
- I work from the inside out too
but that's the moment,
that final moment when you actually get those clothes.
All that inside interior work is the foundation.
(upbeat music)