Stephen Walker chats with Hailie Sahar from FX's Pose about representation, supporting the trans community, and giving back.
As season two of Pose on FX is in full swing, Hailie Sahar gives insight into how it feels to work on such a revolutionary show. The actress reflects on the importance of transrepresentation, and how much it would have meant to her to see a show like Pose when she was young. Hailie says,
"Representation and visibility is important, because any child needs to see themselves, to know that it's possible, to know they can do something in their own lives."
And she couldn't be more right! Maybe this intuition is why Ryan Murphy loved Hailie, enough to create the role of Lulu for her. One of the best forms of character development comes from struggle, and Lulu certainly did so when she lost her friend Candy (played by Angelica Ross) on the show. Hailie Sahar reflects on this character's death, explaining how she struggled with loss while Lulu did.
Stephen and Hailie also discuss how mysterious Lulu is, with each episode peeling back a layer of her development, only for fans to realize her character has many more layers to go. As the Pose character faces many changes, from being a co-mother with Candy to losing Candy, we all know there is a lot of her story left to tell!
The star from Amazon's Transparent and Freeform's Good Trouble continues the conversation by looking back at her start in the entertainment industry. Hailie's dream was not originally to be an actress, it was to be a dancer. After attending a performing arts school, she went into musical theater, playwriting, and even won awards for Queen USA and Miss LA Pride!
Hailie Sahar deserves these awards and more, especially with her selfless views on how to handle fame. The Pose star demonstrates her kindness and empathy when talking about uplifting others, especially in terms of trans representation. She asserts,
"I think that anything we do in life is only worth doing if we are able to spin it and give back to people. I think as humans, whether you are in entertainment or whatever field you're in, I think it is our duty to make it to a certain point, and then bring others along to inspire them so that they also, y'know, can follow their dreams and know that they matter."
Hailie reflects on how, even though Pose is a show set in the 1980s about the underground ball scene in New York, the problems each character faced then is the same that trans individuals experience now, as she portrays in Good Trouble. Discrimination and murder are part of a trans person's reality and fears, which hasn't changed since the 1980s. Despite these conflicts, Hailie defends the community by showing we are all humans with the same wants and needs.
Hailie tells us that we can all help the trans community by emphasizing our mutual humanity, letting them "speak their truths," and continuing to support the fight against discrimination and hatred.
