Considering how many times Pose was snubbed by the Golden Globes this year, Billy Porter is impressively serene.
After yet another awards show failed to honor people of color, Billy Porter was asked about losing Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Drama) to Brian Cox from Succession. Billy was nothing but positive, however. He told Shadow and Act,
“Validation from the outside is unnecessary. Focus on the work. Keep doing the work. Make sure that you reach the people that you’re trying to reach. That’s the point. Pose is on the air — Pose wasn’t ever supposed to be on the air… so let’s focus on that, that it’s there, that it’s on television.”
The actor had a similar outlook when the Golden Globe nominations were announced and his transgender co-stars were all ignored by the award show. He told Essence,
“Can we get the story out? Can we be grateful that it even exists? I find that so many people want to lean into the negative. It’s on the air! The story is being told. We got a third season. We get to build.”
Porter’s positivity is incredibly impressive considering how long and hard the transgender community had to fight to get representation on TV and, just as importantly, to get trans actors to actually get to play trans roles.
Understandably, his co-star Jennifer Coolidge isn’t so patient. She said,
“Sometimes I do feel like it should be accelerated…It is ridiculous.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Getting Pose on the air was certainly a wonderful accomplishment, but all the amazing actors and actresses on the show deserve to be recognized for their work. And considering the popularity of the show and the critical praise it’s received, it seems that audiences are ready to see things accelerated as well.
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