Ryan Murphy, ‘Pose’ Cast and Crew React to Final Season

Ryan Murphy has been in the TV biz for some time, boasting a repertoire of television hits over the past 20-or-so years. However, as one of his more recent ventures, Pose, begins its final season, Murphy says it was a “love letter to so many things” and one of his proudest accomplishments, in that it boasts the biggest LGBTQ cast in history.

“Pose, to me, was a very personal show, for one, because when I started off in my career in 1997, 98, I was not even allowed to have a single, gay character because the networks were so afraid of that at the time,” Murphy says. “I’m very proud of the legacy of the show, which in many ways is more important than the show itself, I think. But I love it. It’s one of the things that I’m the most proud that I’ve ever done.”

Pose focuses on underground ball culture, Season One starting in the mid-1980s, Season Two set in 1990, and the final season set in 1994 focusing on the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the community. The acclaimed series returned for its third season Sunday and has been consistently praised for it inclusivity with actors of color and representation within the LGBTQ community. It features the largest cast of trans actors as series regulars, including MJ Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Hailie Sahar and Indya Moore.

Moore is trans and nonbinary, and as a person with unsupportive parents who ended up in the foster system as a teen, taking part in the show which prominently features trans characters was impactful beyond explanation.

“I don’t have any words,” Moore says. “I think that the size of what this means to me, I just can’t get it out into words.”

While the show is often cited as pivoting the representation for trans people on TV, both on the screen and behind the scenes, Pose producer Janet Mock spoke out at an in-person red carpet event in a brutally honest reflection of her experience on the show. Mock said that she wanted to get paid more, and she took issue with how the first several episodes of Pose‘s new season was written, saying it became became necessary for Murphy to “bring the girls in to help” with the writing afterward. At the event, Murphy reportedly said “I did,” followed by, “I wanted the girls to be there.”

“Fuck Hollywood … Does this make you uncomfortable? It should. It should make you fucking shake in your motherfucking boots. This is speaking truth. This is what Pose is,” Mock reportedly said.

Mock later apologized and pointed her message toward the industry at large in relation to trans people. “It’s a show, but it means so much to everyone to ‘ensure that we enable Black and Brown trans women to make it’ because that sounds good. It makes you comfortable to talk like that because then I don’t scare you into facing the fucking truth. You all have stomped on us.”

Photo courtesy of the Pose Official Facebook Page.