The American Horror Story and Feud director opened up while promoting his new series, Pose.
As he promoted his new series Pose, openly gay director Ryan Murphy revealed to reporters that his father beat him “bloody with a belt” when he came out to him.
Commenting on a scene where a gay character is also beaten with a belt when he comes out, Deadline reports that Murphy said: “That happened to me.” He then added: “That was my coming-out experience with my father.”
Murphy told reporters that the experience made him feel like someone who had “survived”, and that he felt a responsibility to support “people who still don’t feel included.”
Related: Ryan Murphy was left pained after TV executive mocked his ‘gay voice’
Murphy then reflected on the progress made in LGBTQ equality since the 1980s, the time period that Pose is set in.
“I can’t believe my life and can’t believe that things have changed so radically in my lifetime.”
He then added: “If you asked me then if I would be allowed to be married and have children like you, I never would have believed it.”
Speaking about casting the show, which is set to have the largest trans cast in TV history, Murphy said: “My job was to ask questions. I was constantly corrected by these wonderful people.
“I don’t have a lot of people who tell me no. I was told no 50,000 times a day.”
He then spoke of his happiness of telling someone that they had received a role, saying: “One of the greatest weeks was when I got to call the actors and say: ‘Hey, are you sitting down? You got the part.’
“It was a very fulfilling, emotional experience. I’m tearing up talking about it. It’s very powerful.”
FX
He also called the casting process important as he got to offer roles to people who “never thought they would fit in the room or be allowed in the room.”
Pose is set in 1986 and, according to Deadline, the show will “examine the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York City: the emergence of the luxury Trump-era universe, the downtown social and literary scene and the ball culture world.”
The scene was brought to the world’s attention in the iconic 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning.
Pose is set to air in Summer this year, on FX.
Earlier this week, Murphy also teased the theme for the next season of American Horror Story.
“All I’ll say about it is I want to go to the future – still topical, but the future, which I’ve never done.” When asked if this meant that the show would be heading to outer space, Murphy clarified that it did not. Mysterious…
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