Please welcome Janet Mock!
-♪ ♪ -(cheering and applause)
-Welcome back to the show. -Thanks for having me back.
Um, this is a really exciting reason to have you back as well.
Um, the new show, Pose, which is going to be on FX,
is a show that is f... a first in-in many ways.
Um, I mean, I know why I'm excited.
But why... what would you say is the biggest reason
-you're excited about Pose? -I got a job.
-(laughs) It's that simple. I like that. Yeah. -Yes, yeah.
B-Basically. Um, well, you know, Ryan Murphy created it.
-Right, right, right. -He's a prolific showrunner.
Shows like Glee, Nip/Tuck,
of course, um, The People v. O.J. Simpson,
-where he won a lot of Emmys and all the trophies. -Uh-huh.
And so when he invited me to Hollywood to have a meeting
with him to talk about this show,
I was excited by the fact that it would be
the first of its kind to talk
about the New York City ballroom scene,
which a lot of people have known since Paris Is Burning,
but to also center, um, characters
and people who have never been centered before,
-trans women of color. -Right. And-and that's what's
really fascinating about this story is that you have a show
that is set in the '80s, but it's showing you a story
in the '80s that many people maybe didn't know existed
or many people did know existed but just didn't think about.
And-and what I found fascinating about watching pieces
of the episodes was-was that a lot of people will say
about transgender people now that, "Where did this come from?
-"This is a new thing. This new thing," -Mm.
-as if it's, like, a trend. But you go, -Yeah.
"No, trans people are as old as time."
Was it really important for you to be able to tell these stories
as authentically as possible in the '80s?
Yeah, I think that there is something about the fact
that, when you look to the past,
you can learn a lot about your present.
Um, for me, I saw that, you know, HIV/AIDS,
poverty, um, harassment and violence are things that,
you know, they were dealing with in '87 as well as today.
And so knowing that 26 trans people were murdered
in the United States last year,
almost all of them women of color,
I thought it was important that we memorialize the people
who-who we've learned so much from,
the people who contributed so much to our movement,
the people who have given me access to be able to be,
you know, the first trans woman of color to be hired
in a Hollywood writers' room,
the first to write and direct a television series,
-and to be on a television series and to share it -Wow.
with five black and brown trans women of color
-who are the stars and the center of our show. -It's...
(applause and cheering)
It's a... it's a... it's a pioneering show
for so many reasons.
You know, you have five trans women of color
-who are centered in the story. -Mm-hmm.
The word "centered" is so important in this
because, you know, I read a story on the Hollywood Reporter
about how they did a study on, um, Latino characters on TV.
-Mm-hmm. -And they found that half of them
-were always represented as criminals. -Mm.
And when you look at stories of the transgender community,
-it's always a fringe element. -Yeah.
You know, in so many stories, you know,
it's always going to be sex work,
or it's going to be something that seems like
-it's not in the mainstream. -Mm.
Was it important for you to center these people
and show the spectrum of life that you can be living?
Yeah, I think so often, too, were often always,
in cisgender stories, non-trans people stories, as a sidekick.
As someone who's a martyr, who dies
in order to teach a cis person about what it means
-to be real and authentic. -Right.
And in our show, we center that experience,
and we don't show the origin stories of our characters.
We show them as they're fully-embodied,
just trans people living in New York City,
and with that, you have diversity.
You show that trans folk are not a monolith,
that we don't have the same dreams and desires,
that we read and shade one another,
that we can be villains as well as,
-you know, um, protagonists. -Right.
Um, and I think that that, for me,
as someone who loved television, who grew up
as TV being a part of, like, my baby-sitter
in a single parent household, um, it showed me
that I can be centered
and that I deserve to be seen and heard,
and that at the end of the day,
the show really is an unconventional family drama.
Right, and we see so many stories
of people watching TV shows or movies,
and for the first time, seeing themselves on screen.
You know, you saw that with Ava DuVernay's Wrinkle in Time.
-Uh, you saw that with Black Panther. -Mm-hmm.
You see it with people going, "I've never, ever thought
of how I've never seen myself."
You know, I remember going to watch Wonder Woman with friends,
and my female friends were, like...
They were crying during the fight scene,
'cause they were like,
"I've never seen women just kicking men's asses,
which is really amazing."
And you take that for granted. You genuinely do.
When you were growing up watching TV,
were there any characters or any shows
that in some way maybe did make you feel like,
you know, there was something that you could aspire to?
And, you know, was there something that, like,
-that really touched you? -Felicity.
She was. She really was the reason
-why I moved to New York City and went to NYU was... -Right.
...literally because I saw this white girl with curly hair...
-That is hilarious. -...who is smart
and lovelorn and wanted to be with, you know, Ben.
-That's all I wanted. Yeah. -Right, and... -(laughter)
-And so now... -Right? Team Ben. Yeah, right.
Right, and now you're in a place where you're now writing,
and I think...
Do you feel that gravity of putting people on screen
that identify people out there who maybe have never
seen themselves on screen in any way, shape or form?
Yeah, the fact that we have love stories on our show.
The fact that they're...
We are not just merely points of trauma, right?
'Cause so often, trans bodies are usually
dead and inactive bodies.
And so, here we have five women who have different dreams,
who have love, who want desire,
-who want to be desired. -Right.
Who are funny, who are villains,
who are all of these different things.
And so, in that way, when you center these people
on the show, you show people that number one: it's not scary,
that they're not... that they're not horrible people,
that they're not freak shows.
That instead, they're humans that you care about.
And TV being such an intimate, um, platform... You know this.
-People invite you into their home every night. -Right.
Um, you know, they get to know you,
and they love you, and they've invested.
And I hope that it doesn't only educate and inspire our...
and entertain, but it also moves people to care,
-and, hopefully, do something. -I think it's going to do all of
those things. Thank you so much for being on the show again.
Pose airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. on FX.
Janet Mock, everybody.