hen Mj Rodriguez walks into a room, you hear her before you see her. Perhaps you hear her makeup artist blasting ‘90s R&B from a handheld stereo as her glam squad trails behind her like worker bees following their queen. Perhaps you hear Rodriguez belting the likes of Beyoncé and Toni Braxton at the top of her musical-theatre-bred lungs as she struts toward the camera. Or perhaps you hear the collective oohs and ahhs from her entourage as she emerges from her dressing room in yet another sickening gown—hair flowing, legs showing, shoulders back and cheekbones sharp enough to cut a bitch. Regardless of what you notice, one thing is clear: Mj Rodriguez has arrived.
Of course, it’s no surprise that Rodriguez, 30, knows how to make an entrance. After three seasons as Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista on “Pose,” FX’s Emmy-nominated series about a group of Black and brown trans women and other LGBTQIA+ artists in New York City’s ballroom scene, Rodriguez has learned a thing or two about working a room. “I want to be everywhere, so people know I’m fighting to be seen,” Rodriguez says as she lounges in an armchair in a laid-back stone green athleisure set, her brushed-out waves still intact from her cover shoot. “But not for myself. I’m fighting for the generations behind me. There’s a lot more space to open up for girls like me.”
Since its premiere in 2018, “Pose,” which airs its series finale on June 6, has been lauded as historic for its representation of the trans community and hiring of dozens of trans people both in front of and behind the camera. “Ten years ago, people weren’t receiving trans women in any roles. If they were, they put us in as prostitutes or in small guest roles. They would never consider us for a lead part,” Rodriguez says. “That was where we were systematically put in—until ‘Pose.’ ‘Pose’ changed the dynamic.”
Are you going to keep fighting or are you going to stop?” she says. “But there was also the piece of me that was like, ‘Whatever. If I get it, I’m ready.’ I remember Ryan asking in the audition room, ‘Are you ready?’ I said, ‘Hell, yeah, I’m ready.’” Three days later, Rodriguez received a call from Murphy, who told her she booked the part of Blanca. “He said, ‘You got the part. You have nothing to worry about. I know you worry, but it’s yours.’ I broke down in tears,” she recalls.
Rodriguez learned that “Pose” was ending while filming episode 5 of what would be the last season. “I think it’s best we didn’t find out at the beginning, because who knows how we would’ve exhibited our work if we knew the show was closing,” she says. The final season sees Blanca, who was diagnosed with HIV in season1, become a nurse after a friend dies of the same disease. “I saw a lot of similarities when it came to the pandemic,” she says. “I also love the fact Blanca became a nurse. People can now see that women like herself can work in and hold those spaces too. When it comes to the women of this show, the hopes they had in the first season, they’re achieving them now in the third season”
The final season also sees Blanca come into her own as the mother of the House of Evangelista, a chosen family of LGBTQIA+ youth. Playing Blanca has also made Rodriguez think of her own desire to become a parent. She recalls a recent outing with her boyfriend at the mall, where they both found themselves fawning over a baby girl. “I looked and was like, ‘Aww, she’s adorable,’ and then I looked away,” she recalls. “Then I started feeling this energy, and I turned around to him and he’s looking at her too, just adoring her. I said, ‘Oh, baby. You want kids?’ He was like, ‘I really do.’ I said, ‘I do too.’ As of right now, my boyfriend and I are having discussions about it.”
Playing a mother in “Pose” has also made Rodriguez that much more compassionate toward trans youth—especially as bills like Arkansas’ HB 1570, which prohibits doctors from providing gender-reaffirming treatments to children, threaten their health. “Legislation is in a place where they need to be more informed about our lives or just leave us alone. I’m brokenhearted. There are people who do not care. They do not want us to thrive,” she says. “I don’t understand why people can’t just leave us alone and let us live. We’re not encroaching on anyone’s life nor are we trying to influence younger individuals in the world to change who they are. They simply are who they are because they say so.”
Along with legislation, Rodriguez also sees improvements needed in Hollywood. Though she’s seen some change after “Pose,” with more trans roles and better representation, the fight isn’t done. “There’s still a lot of stocking to put on. But the stocking is halfway up,” she says. In 2019, “Pose” made history as the TV show with the largest trans cast to be nominated for an Emmy. Though cisgender cast member Billy Porter has won one Emmy, none of the show’s transgender actors have ever been nominated, something Rodriguez is hoping to change with the last season. “I’m ready for that speech to change the narrative, so people can hear what can come out of our mouths,” she says. “When you have the podium to speak to people who probably don’t even know your walk and background of life and for it to be broadcasted to the world who probably doesn’t even see us, that platform is huge.”
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Dress: Aliétte. Heels: Kat Maconie. Choker: Beads Byaree.
Top: T&N Collection. Pants: Lola Tara. Earrings and Bracelets: Beads Byaree.
Dress: Christian Cowan. Earrings: Retrofête.
Talent: Mj Rodriguez. Photographer: George Chinsee. Fashion Editor: Bella Gerard. Stylist: Katie Bofshever. Makeup Artist: Keita Moore. Hairstylist: Krysten Oriol. Manicurist: Julie Kandalec for Lights Lacquer. Contributing Stylist, STYLECASTER: Laura Zapata. Photographer’s Assistant: Harriet Cole.
Rodriguez, whose full name is Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, was at a crossroad in her career when the audition for “Pose” came in 2017. “I was struggling with booking jobs because of my transness. There were a lot of people who were saying I was ‘specific.’ That I wouldn’t get hired if people knew I was trans,” she says. “There was a moment where I was like, ‘I’m going to stop.’ This is something I love, but if I’m not hitting the way I need to hit, maybe I need to take a break and go back to a 9-to-5 and live ‘normal life.’”
Rodriguez was in the midst of auditions for the role of Papa Ge in Broadway’s “Once on This Island” when she read the breakdown for “Pose,” which listed five trans characters in lead roles. “I saw a character named Lulu. I saw a character named Candy. I saw characters named Elektra and Angel. And then I saw this character named Blanca,” Rodriguez recalls. “She wasn’t as polished as the other girls, but that didn’t stop her. I thought of myself and all the other girls behind me that feel the same exact way. At the time, I was struggling—not with who I was as a woman—but with figuring out how I fit in this space of other women.”
Two weeks after her first audition, Rodriguez, who spent several years in the ballroom scene as a teenager, was asked to read for Blanca for the show’s creators, including Ryan Murphy. “Doubt was still looming over my head. Is this really something that’s going to set you off or are you just going to have another no?
With “Pose” ending, Rodriguez has already booked her next role as Sofia, a “no B.S. boss” of a nonprofit, in Maya Rudolph's upcoming, not-yet-titled AppleTV+ comedy series. “I wanted to challenge the status quo and prove that a girl like myself could book another show,” she says. “I wanted to separate myself from Blanca and become another character so people can see Mj has so many opportunities. The world is her oyster.” Along with her next show, Rodriguez is also preparing to release her debut single and EP, which she describes as “R&B pop.”
Still, while she has other jobs lined up, Rodriguez will never forget the platform “Pose” has given her. “If I’m at the forefront, an Afro-Latina trans woman, who people told no, who people said was not going to make it because of her transness, if I can do it, then that’ll give others hope they can do it too,” she says. Rodriguez’s influence on the “Pose” set isn’t lost on her cast members either. "I'm very intentional about the ways I show up in a space, and Mj to me is someone who not only does that, but always brought a level of joy and laughter to the set that I'm going to miss being around,” says her “Pose” co-star Angelica Ross, who played Candy.
Each ballroom scene in “Pose” features a word category. Sometimes that word is “legends.” Sometimes it’s “labels.” If Rodriguez could use a word to describe the impact of “Pose,” it would be “hope.” “The word of the year is hope when it comes to ‘Pose.’ The first word of the year was legacy. Now it’s the hope and what it looks like in the future for us. And the future looks bright, honey,” she says.
The series finale of “Pose” airs Sunday, June 6, on FX.
Dress: Christian Siriano. Bralette: Fleur du Mal. Earrings: Beads Byaree.
Rodriguez, whose full name is Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, was at a crossroad in her career when the audition for “Pose” came in 2017. “I was struggling with booking jobs because of my transness. There were a lot of people who were saying I was ‘specific.’ That I wouldn’t get hired if people knew I was trans,” she says. “There was a moment where I was like, ‘I’m going to stop.’ This is something I love, but if I’m not hitting the way I need to hit, maybe I need to take a break and go back to a 9-to-5 and live ‘normal life.’”
With “Pose” ending, Rodriguez has already booked her next role as Sofia, a “no B.S. boss” of a nonprofit, in Maya Rudolph's upcoming, not-yet-titled AppleTV+ comedy series. “I wanted to challenge the status quo and prove that a girl like myself could book another show,” she says. “I wanted to separate myself from Blanca and become another character so people can see Mj has so many opportunities. The world is her oyster.” Along with her next show, Rodriguez is also preparing to release her debut single and EP, which she describes as “R&B pop.”
Talent: Mj Rodriguez. Photographer: George Chinsee. Fashion Editor: Bella Gerard. Stylist: Katie Bofshever. Makeup Artist: Keita Moore. Hairstylist: Krysten Oriol. Manicurist: Julie Kandalec for Lights Lacquer. Contributing Stylist, STYLECASTER: Laura Zapata.
Photographer’s Assistant: Harriet Cole.
Top: Hanifa. Bra: Thistle and Spire.
