Pose's Mj Rodriguez Has More Stories To Tell

For Pose star Mj Rodriguez, Blanca isn't just a character — she's an extension of herself. Or, because the New Jersey native puts it, "Blanca is literally me."


Rodriguez is aware the ins and outs of the ballroom scene because she's lived it, having joined a residence and noticed her chosen family member as a teenager. Nevertheless it's Blanca's resilience and integrity, and crucially, her wish to design a legacy that Rodriguez connects with most. And she's already on her way with her breakthrough role in the FX series. With a groundbreaking cast of five transgender actors of color in key roles, Pose has solidified its legacy in the television landscape. At its center, nevertheless, the ballroom drama is a story about the human experience — with Rodriguez as its beating heart, raw and unwavering.


MTV News chatted with Rodriguez about Pose, the significance of trans people telling trans stories, and the permeation of ballroom culture during pop culture. And, yes, it's at times hard to tell where Blanca ends and Rodriguez starts.


MTV News: I remember seeing you in Rent off-Broadway in 2011, and what I love so much about that show is that it's a story about human connection. I think the same can be mentioned for Pose. What is it about that theme that resonates so strongly with you?


MJ Rodriguez: I'm glad that I get to do a show like Pose that expresses how we need to be connected and why we need to uplift each other in sort for us to live on to the next day. You know what I mean? While in my life, my mom, my dad, my grandmother — these were people who made sure that I had the correct people around me uplifting me. So any time While I joined Rent, and right now that I'm doing Pose, it only feels right that I'm spreading the message that my parents and my ancestors instilled in me.


MTV News: And they're both stories about people finding their chosen family member and the significance of these relationships.


Rodriguez: Absolutely! Once I was 14, I noticed some of my chosen family member as well. It's a blessing that I have my family member in my life and so they were cooperative, although there were times Once I required to find an outlet for me to understand my people and my own journey, and I noticed that through my chosen family member, which was the ballroom community.


Rodriguez as Blanca, the mother of the Home of Evangelista, on Pose.


MTV News: What was it about Blanca that made you wish to fight for her? Did you visualize yourself in her?


Rodriguez: I seen a lot of myself in Blanca, and, yes, that's one of the reasons I wanted to play her. Any time As soon as I go onstage, or in front of a camera, I routinely desire to pour my soul out because I know I have a lot to provide. While I got this chance to play this character who was very similar to me, it just felt right and I had to take it and run with it. This is the only chance I have to integrate love and positivity to the world so that they can possibly change their minds and change their hearts and get to know us as people and not as figures or objects.


MTV News: The thing I love about Blanca is her resilience and her confidence, like whenever she kept going back to that gay bar although they denied her service and threw her out onto the street. While I watch it — a cis white woman from the Midwest — I find myself wanting to be more like her.


Rodriguez: While I was kid, I used to get bullied. I used to get taunted and thrown out of places. I got jumped once or twice. Even through all of these crazy trials, I still persevered. I made it my duty to persevere because I knew I had a legacy to leave beyond.


Yeah, I've had moments where I've gone to gay bars and did not feel welcomed, although I stayed there because I was like, "No. Y'all my family member and y'all going to accept your sister in this space no matter how indifferent you feel." I'm routinely fighting to prepare ensure that there's a space for each person, and playing Blanca has only made me aspire to trim more light on the world.


MTV News: Lena Waithe recently used her acceptance speech at the Movie & TV Awards to lose light on Paris Is Burning's legacy and the cultural impact of ballroom culture. With words like "shade" and "werk" right now segment of our day-to-day vernacular, how come do you know it's permeated pop culture?


Rodriguez: folks are finally getting a understanding of where ballroom culture came from, which was ladies of color who are segment of the trans experience. These were the girls who cultivated these houses, beginning in 1962. It began with them — before the ballroom scene even came about. That's where all of this lingo came from; that's how we connected and spoke to each other, and that language was distributed between LGBT communities of color. And it's only right. Lena mentioned something most crucial. Folks are using words like "slay" and "yas" not knowing where they derive from, although right now the world is getting an education.


MTV News: Pose not only boasts such great representation in front of the camera nevertheless also beyond the camera with Janet Mock and Our Lady J. How critical is that to you, knowing that you have two writers in the writers' room who understand the trans experience?


Rodriguez: It's very crucial because if we did not have it, it could be inauthentic also it wouldn't be real. So it's most important that we have ladies of this experience — whether they were in the ballroom scene or not — and so they have the correct to be a segment of the team to tell the story. I habitually mention, "We live to tell the story." Plus it just so happens that these girls are storytellers, so it's critical that we bring anyone who is of the trans experience on to tell our stories truthfully and authentically.


MTV News: Has it been a collaborative experience with the writers? I know Janet imbues herself and her personalized experiences into all the characters.


Rodriguez: Janet has implemented her story in certain episodes, [and] Our Lady J and Steven Canals have implemented their stories. It's a collective thing. Some days they'll be like, "Girl, what's going on?" And I'll tell them and it'll branch off into a personalized story of what happened to me in my life. They'll use that in the story lines. These are all stories that we've gone through in our lives.


(L-R) Angel Bismark Curiel, Ryan Jamaal Swain, Dyllón Burnside, Janet Mock, Angelica Ross, Hailie Sahar, Rodriguez, and Jeremy McClain


MTV News: Janet also directed Episode 6. What was it like working with her as director?


Rodriguez: It was pretty freakin' awesome. Not only is she very complex and very specific — she is aware what she wants — yet she's also very warm and welcoming as soon as it comes to directing. It makes it easy for the actor to do what they require to do. There was a specific scene between me and Billy [Porter], and I broke down. She was there for me. She took me into a room and she mentioned, "Are you OK?" She is a woman of my experience, so she knows. It just felt good to have someone who understood me nevertheless also knew how to be professional and do her job.


MTV News: Does it make you hope to venture in back of the camera at some point?


Rodriguez: I would love to. I hope one day down the line I am going have the ability to do that. Now my main focus is being an actress and doing what I need to do. Yet I feel like most of our stories — Dominique [Jackson] and Indya [Moore] and me and Angelica [Ross] and Hailie [Sahar] — are being told through these characters. I remember there was a specific scene that felt ripped from the pages of my life and right now I get to tell it. It's the most astonishing thing.


MTV News: Was there one scene in particular that really moved you?


Rodriguez: As soon as I had to go into Helena's office and let her know about my son. I knew how hard my mother fought for me. My mother was a solitary mother for a while, and I was the only kid she had. There were times any time Once I had slipped due to the environment around me and what I had gone through as a trans little girl, and my mother took rein and she fought for me. There were times in school As soon as I was being defiant, and she came in and fought for me. I channeled that in that scene, and it also got a little bit heavy for me. I had to take a moment for myself. I wanted to portray what most mothers do once you're fighting for your child, whether it be a biological mother or a chosen mother — it doesn't matter.


MTV News: What has the community been like on set between you and the cast? Do you feel maternal on set as well?


Rodriguez: It feels so organic with them. The reason it feels so easy to work with them is because we share the same experience. It's easy for us to feed off each other and relate to these stories. It's funny. A lot of us have worked with each other and have known each other for years. Me and Indya were in Saturday church with each other. Me and Dominique met at an event soon after Strut finished airing. Me and Billy have known each other for years. We all share these experiences and we put them into our work. It's epic.


MTV News: There's a general warmth to this show that is so appreciated. In the hands of other storytellers, a show set in 1980s New York City about a marginalized community living via AIDs crisis could have been a lot darker. Yet there's a proper tenderness to Pose.


Rodriguez: This is the human experience. For people who have been ostracized, who have been all of the way at the bottom, there's only one way that we can go — and that's up. The only way to do that is to uplift.