ForMj Rodriguez, landing the role of Blanca Evangelista in theFX dramaPosewasn’t just a benchmark in her journey toward success — though it has absolutely highlighted the star’s talent and charisma. It also created a platform for her to replace stereotypes and caricatures of transgender women with a complex portrayal of a hard-working mother-figure who happens to be transgender.
The series, which is about the ballroom culture in New York City in the ’80s during its three seasons, saw star Billy Porter win a best actor Emmy in 2019, and this year Rodriguez received ahistoric Emmy nomination for best lead actress in a drama series— the first for a transgender actress.
Rodriguez, 30, is grateful for everything, in particular the LGBTQIA fans who have reached out to her. When she talked to PEOPLE for this week’s issue, her thoughts floated to a young boy from Nigeria who had reached out to her in pain.
Mj Rodriguez.Brad Ogbonna
Rodriguez messaged back, “You’re going to be fine. If you need anyone to contact, just talk to me. I know I’m out of nowhere and it sounds random, but you can talk to me and you can keep contacting me.”
For months the two stayed in contact, with Rodriguez offering support and a shoulder to cry on when times looked bleak.
Then one day, “I heard from him and he told me that he’s okay,” she says. “He has a house that he’s in now with a lot of LGBTQIA members who are now his family. He moved into a space that felt more comfortable with himself.”
Pose.Eric Liebowitz/FX
The young man is just one of several fans who have reached out Rodriguez. “I feel like the responses, the reception from the show itself, has been nothing but beautiful,” she says.
The meticulous care Rodriguez and show creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals took in creating the characters has certainly paid off.
“The first thing for me in creating Blanca was making her as human as possible so that people around the world could see [trans people] living their normal day-to-day life, having regular ups and downs,” she says.
“We’re not the stigmatized caricatures that people have created us to be before. We’re more than just that. And I wanted Blanca to be all of those things and more than anything, she’s a mother too. So I wanted people to see how trans women raise younger individuals, especially individuals who didn’t have their biological family around,” adds Rodriguez.
With the series complete, Rodriguez has already begun pivoting to new projects. This summer shereleased her first single, “Something to Say,” under her real name, Michaela Jaé.
source: people.com
