< Consider Billy Porter: The Cultural Icon of the Year - Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Clarence Moye
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • Forum
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • Forum
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
No Result
View All Result

Consider Billy Porter: The Cultural Icon of the Year

by Jalal Haddad
August 12, 2019
in ADTV, ADTV Feature, ADTV Main, EMMYS, FYC
1
Consider Billy Porter: The Cultural Icon of the Year

(Photo: FX)

On Friday evening Emmy nominee Billy Porter sat down with Pose co-creator Ryan Murphy for an intimate panel discussing his work on Pose, his emergence as a fashion icon, and his inspiring story of perseverance in Hollywood. 

No other actor has dominated the conversation this year quite like Billy Porter. From his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated leading role on Pose to not one but two jaw-dropping red carpet moments the beloved actor is clearly having a moment. Even Ryan Murphy has called him one of the most important cultural icons of our time.

After a career that has spanned over three decades Porter has finally been given a role worthy of his talents in Pray Tell, the emcee and father figure of the local ball scene. Throughout the first season we watched as Pray Tell mentored Blanca and the rest of her house while simultaneously dealing with his own HIV diagnosis and the eventual death of the love of his life. In the heartbreaking Emmy submitted episode “Love Is The Message” Porter is even able to show off his Tony winning talent in a shocking duet alongside MJ Rodriguez.

In the show’s second season (currently airing on FX) Pray Tell is even breaking more television taboos as an aging gay man shown as a sexual being. The scene came as a huge surprise to Porter himself who spent 30 years of his career never becoming “someone’s object of affection or desire.”

It’s hard to imagine Pose without Billy Porter at the center of the groundbreaking drama so it was shocking to find out he had to fight to tell the story he was born to tell. At an intimate one-on-one panel with creator Ryan Murphy he talked in depth about the audition process and how Pray Tell was developed especially for him.

As an artist I always knew that my art would be as a deeper way of healing.

Porter retold the story of how he was originally asked in to audition for the role of a dance teacher, a minor role. After the audition he asked if there was anything else. “I mean I lived through this era so it would benefit everybody if I was actually in the story they’re talking about.” Later on he was asked to come back for a second audition where he basically sat in a room with Murphy and the creative team and told his story.  “This is my era. I moved to New York on December 27th, 1990. Paris Is Burning was the first film as a black gay man that I saw any image of myself in a pseudo mainstream way. So we sat there and talked about what it was like to live in that era, to love through the AIDS crisis, to survive, come out on the other side of it, and be in a space of trying to figure out why you lived.”

From that conversation came the inspiration for Murphy and the rest of the writers and producers to fully develop the character of Pray Tell. One of the best performances of the year (and dare I say the decade) exists because Billy Porter had the courage to stand in that audition room and muster up the strength to tell his story.

The road to becoming a Tony winning and Emmy nominated actor was obviously not easy for someone like Porter. Especially in the 80s and 90s he had to fight against both homophobia and racism in an industry that was only interested in casting him limited archetypes that were violently homophobic. He even recounted the time he was asked to perform as a musical guest on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, a show that should have been a safer space for a queer performer. “I tried to make a way for myself in the music industry and they called me a faggot and told me to shut up. I remember preparing for The Rosie O’Donnell Show and one of the executives pulled me aside and told me not to talk too much. That’s the kind of homophobic oppression that I endured on a daily basis.”

One of the most emotional and heartwarming moments of the evening came when Porter talked about what it was like to finally team up with someone like Ryan Murphy after decades of fighting to be recognized as the essential talent and performer that he is. “All of my dreams were springboarded off of things that I had already seen before. I was not dreaming up Pray Tell or Pose. I was trying to live up to a hetero-normative masculine standard so that I could get a guest spot on Grey’s Anatomy. Never could I imagine that I could or would be a first. You have put me in this position where the impossible can happen. You have taught me how to dream the impossible.”

He’s spent decades not even being invited for any role that didn’t call for some sort of flamboyant sidekick caricature. He had to learn to make space for himself in these roles that he simply became used to nailing roles as “the flamboyant friend who could sing and scream the roof off the place.” He was so used to these roles that he initially didn’t believe Murphy when he called him and told him he was the male lead of Pose.

It’s taken him a while to get used to being referred as such but being a star suits him well as he breaks barriers in front of the camera and on the red carpet. He even joked about his showstopping Met Gala look. “Don’t unleash me if you’re going to get nervous when I’m inside it!”

This is why Billy Porter is THE actor of the year. Not only because he gives one of the best performances of the year in a category filled with many names worth celebrating but also because he spent over three decades fighting to be heard, to be seen, to survive. He’s become a symbol of every Black queer performer that this industry has tried to silence and now it’s his time to lead, both behind the winner’s podium and on the red carpet!

Tags: 2019 EmmysBilly PorterEMMYSFYCPoseRyan Murphy
Jalal Haddad

Jalal Haddad

Next Post
Emmy-nominee Ryan O’Connell on Bringing ‘Special’ to TV, Gay Disabled Sex and All

Emmy-nominee Ryan O'Connell on Bringing 'Special' to TV, Gay Disabled Sex and All

Sign up for Awards Daily's Breaking News

* indicates required

Predictions Friday – All Eyes on the Golden Globes

Predictions Friday – All Eyes on the Golden Globes
by Sasha Stone
January 15, 2021
47

Marsha Stephanie Blake On Playing a Character We’ve Never Seen Before in ‘I’m Your Woman’

Marsha Stephanie Blake On Playing a Character We’ve Never Seen Before in ‘I’m Your Woman’

(Photo: Wilson Webb/Amazon Studios)

by Joey Moser
January 15, 2021
0

The State of the Race: Heading into the Thick of It in a Season of Trauma

The State of the Race: Heading into the Thick of It in a Season of Trauma
by Sasha Stone
January 14, 2021
59

Owen Teague Braves a Deadly Pandemic – No, Not That One – in ‘The Stand’

Owen Teague Braves a Deadly Pandemic – No, Not That One – in ‘The Stand’

(Photo: CBS)

by Clarence Moye
January 14, 2021
0

Director Max Barbakow Reveals Why ‘Palm Springs’ Wasn’t Originally a Time Loop Movie

Director Max Barbakow Reveals Why ‘Palm Springs’ Wasn’t Originally a Time Loop Movie

(Photo by: Christopher Willard/Hulu)

by Megan McLachlan
January 14, 2021
0

David E. Talbert On Fulfilling a Lifelong Dream with ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’

David E. Talbert On Fulfilling a Lifelong Dream with ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’

(Talber on set with Madalen Mills; photo by Gareth Gatrell/Netflix)

by Joey Moser
January 13, 2021
2

Nate Parker’s American Skin is One of the Year’s Best

Nate Parker’s American Skin is One of the Year’s Best
by Sasha Stone
January 13, 2021
13

Aya Cash Is Not Your Dad’s Superhero in Amazon Prime’s ‘The Boys’

Aya Cash Is Not Your Dad’s Superhero in Amazon Prime’s ‘The Boys’

(Photo: Jasper Savage)

by Clarence Moye
January 13, 2021
0

Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham On Why Rebecca Is the Character She’s Been Waiting to Play All Her Life

Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham On Why Rebecca Is the Character She’s Been Waiting to Play All Her Life

Courtesy of AppleTV+

by Megan McLachlan
January 13, 2021
0

Richa Moorjani on Her Breakout Role in Netflix’s ‘Never Have I Ever’

Richa Moorjani on Her Breakout Role in Netflix’s ‘Never Have I Ever’
by Jalal Haddad
January 13, 2021
0

Noma Dumezweni On Haley’s Ego and Fierce Skill for HBO’s ‘The Undoing’

Noma Dumezweni On Haley’s Ego and Fierce Skill for HBO’s ‘The Undoing’

(Photo: Niko Tavernise/HBO)

by Joey Moser
January 12, 2021
0

Nicole Beharie On Her Character’s Impactful Journey in ‘Miss Juneteenth’

Nicole Beharie On Her Character’s Impactful Journey in ‘Miss Juneteenth’

(Photo: Vertical Entertainment)

by Kevin Dillon
January 12, 2021
1

Mary Holland On Your ‘Happiest Season’ Discourse About Abby and Riley

Mary Holland On Your ‘Happiest Season’ Discourse About Abby and Riley

Courtesy of Hulu

by Megan McLachlan
January 12, 2021
0

Join us Facebook

AwardsDaily Crew

  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Clarence Moye
  • Contact Us

ADTV Crew

  • ADTV Home
  • Megan McLachlan, Co-Editor
  • Clarence Moye, Co-Editor
  • Jalal Haddad, Senior Contributor
  • Joey Moser, Senior Contributor
  • Kevin Dillon
  • Shadan Larki
  • Ben Morris
  • David Phillips

Follow on Twitter

ADTV Twitter

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertising on Awards Daily

© 1999-2021 AwardsDaily.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • Forum
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News

© 1999-2021 AwardsDaily.com