"Pose" maker Steven Canals: "I wanted to find the right ending"

At the premiere in 2018, people already suspected that “Pose” was a series for the television history books. Never before had so many trans, queer and predominantly non-white figures been seen on the screen - and also as authors on the Involved in creation. In fact, "Pose" not only ensured good ratings, but also set milestones at the Emmy Awards: In 2019 Billy Porter became the first black gay man to be named best actor in a drama, this year MJ Rodriguez became the first trans leading actress nominated. In the end, the series was able to take home three prizes for the costumes, the make-up and the hairstyles. After the third season, which can now be seen in Germany on Netflix, it is over anyway. We talked to Steven Canals about it,the 41 year old showrunner and inventor of “Pose” at the Séries Mania Festival in Lille.

Mr. Canals, your “Pose” series was characterized right from the start by the fact that you talked about your milieu - the ballroom scene of queer black and Latino people in New York in the eighties and later nineties - with a matter of course evidently not about constantly explaining or getting everyone on board. Were you deliberately not interested in thinking about whether a white, straight man from the provinces could also do something with it?

When I came up with the series during my studies, it was very clear to me what the audience would be for “Pose”: Black and Latino, queer and trans.

My motivation was that as a teenager I never saw myself represented on the screen and finally wanted to change something about that.

It was Ryan Murphy, to whom I owed that I was able to make the series at all, who urged me to think about whether the story might also be interesting for others - which I was very reluctant to do at first.

Because you feared that you would water down your vision with bad compromises?

Something like that.

But Ryan was sure that there are ways to invite other, very different people into this world and the lives of my characters without adding the specificity that makes it so special for my intended audience.

Since the series is basically about universal themes such as love and family, resilience and survival, it was ultimately not that difficult to allow a broad audience to enter this world.

I just had to make sure I was telling an honest, truthful story.

Especially since this story and said world are exciting and fascinating, even if you have no personal connection to it.

I hope so, of course.

And I really have to emphasize that the success of “Pose” is not only due to the fact that I negotiate generally accessible topics.

Of course, we were also lucky enough to start at a time when there is obviously a hunger for new, different and culturally diverse stories.

The show was unlike anything else on TV - and that's what people are looking for right now.

Before you met Ryan Murphy, you had 150 unsuccessful meetings in Hollywood on "Pose".

Have you ever been ready to give up the series?

Or did you always know that someday it would work out?

Both are somehow true.

I might never have been ready to say, fuck it, that's it.

But I was pretty sure that “Pose” would be my “Mad Men”.

You have to explain that.

Matthew Weiner, creator of the Mad Men series, wrote it early on in his career, but no one wanted to make it happen.

It was then in his drawer, and only after he had worked on the "Sopranos" and wrote other things did he pull it out again - and suddenly everyone wanted to do this series with him, which then became a huge hit.

So I also imagined that I would have to earn my spurs in this industry for twelve or more years before I had the chance to bring “Pose” to life.

But I also realized that this story was too important to me and too attached to it for me to ever have given it up completely.