Michaela Jaé Rodriguez on Showing Up on the Screen and Stage as Her Full Self

Hello Sunshine, Hey besties.

Today on the bright Side, we're joined by the one, the only, Mikayla J Rodriguez. She's here to talk about her trailblazing career, from her Golden Globe winning role in Pose to her more recent performance in the Apple TV comedy series Lute, and now MICHAELA. Jay is coming out with a debut album next month. It's Tuesday, August thirteenth. I'm Simone Boyce.

I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to share women's stories, to laugh, learn and brighten your day. Okay, Simone, I'm gonna take us back for a second. Let me set the scene for you, New York City, nineteen eighty seven.

Okay, the ball scene. Yes, it's giving glitter vogue hands.

I'm talking about the show Pose and our guest today, Mikayla Jay was a star of that show.

I even say the breakout star. It was so fun to watch.

It gave us fishnets and drama and Donna summer music, and it also gave us heartfelt and real and an inside look into the experiences of the LGBTQ community at that time.

You couldn't help but fall in love with each and every one of those characters. Yes, they were so lovable.

So the show also really highlighted the experiences of queer and trans people of color. There's a writer from The Guardian that wrote something about the show Pose that I think covers it better than I could.

They wrote, the story is achingly.

Now and as old as the Hollywood Hills, and I think that's part of what people loved about it. It gave us a look into a time period that we hadn't seen depict it on TV before in a narrative way. It was the height of the AIDS epidemic. This show was also completely universal. It was a guide for living life, for encouraging people to stand up for themselves, uplifting each other,

Well. We see so much trans struggle, pain, heartbreak, and Pose did not shy away from that. It was so honest about that. But it was really heartening to see the joy on full display on the ballroom floor and to see the bridges that this community has built.

Yeah, You're right because with any minority group, we don't often see the joy, we see the struggle.

That's such a good point.

And I think that word community is the word I think of when I think of that show, because the show was centered around chosen family, chosen community, which is such a buzzword in the LGBTQ community because there's still so many people whose birth families don't embrace them. So the show debuted in twenty eighteen and it ran until twenty twenty one. But here's the thing, we're still talking about it.

It had such a.

Lasting impact on people, and Mikayla Jay's role as Blanca Evangelista launched her into the spotlight. That performance actually earned Mikayla Jay her first Emmy nomination and Golden Globe. It made her the first transactress to win the award.

Truly iconic, and since then, Mikayla Jay has taken Hollywood by storms. She's starred in an American horror story and Loot alongside Maya Rudolph, and now she's making some music, y'all. Her debut album, titled thirty three, is out next month on September twenty sixth, and it explores themes of resilience and self discovery through the eyes of a very sexy

And even though this may be a new venture, Mikayla Jay knows music. She attended the Berkeley College of Music in Boston and soon after got her start in an off Broadway production of Rent, which we love.

Yeah, she actually fell in love with music first and then acting came second.

She really did us at all.

Mikayla Jay. Welcome to the bright Side.

Yes, welcome. What's that? What's that? What's up?

You know what?

We actually have to rewind.

I have to do that again because our guest today requires a different introduction. Oh okay, and the category is oare somebody had to do it.

Somebody had to do it. I'll take that. I'll take it. Respect.

Thank you for not shaving me for the corny intro.

I had to No, that's home right there, Yes, no puns intended, No puns intended. I just realized I said home, and that s pose home this is needed. We're never mad at that.

Well. I wanted to talk to you about your home because I found out last night that you were from.

Newark, New Jersey.

Bricksy Loot American horror story pose one of my favorites. You're so Hollywood. Now are you still a Jersey girl or you? Have you gone full blown Hollywood?

Oh no, She's going to be Jersey all day every day.

You just you want people to take it out of me at all.

Okay, Mikayla, So you recently turned thirty three. You're also out with your debut album, also titled thirty three. It seems like you are commemorating this big milestone with this year. What does this year mean to you?

It means a lot to me.

I mean, there's so much that has happened within this year as far as growth when it comes to me as a person, realizing, rectifying, changing, this year has been very prolific for me, and I thought it was only right to come out with a body of work, a project of work that will really showcase what I've gone through, the stories that I can create, how creative I am, and how people can really get an understanding of me. And I thought the best way to do it was

Which song do you think best represents the growth that you've experienced why?

It is basically a song about asking why am I treated the way as I'm treated as a trans person of color in the world of America and even when I and I'm sure any woman in the world could understand this because women go through this all the time. But like that song, I asked all the questions of why, like why am I placed here when I could be placed here? And my sisters as well? Why are they placed here when I could be or we could be placed here? Why are we treated the ways that we're treated?

Why?

Why?

Why? Why?

Why is no one doing the work to lay down the foundation for us to feel comfortable in the being spaces that we need to be in.

Why?

And I think that was the growth that I had is you should always ask questions, never be afraid to ask questions, and also never be said that you don't get an answer, that might be your true answer right there when they're silent. So that was the main song that really spoke to me, and all of them are close to my heart.

I mean I'm biased naturally.

As you were talking about that, I was like, oh, I know why, because she was clearly called to do something great and to have a voice and to encourage other people to have a voice. Did you, in this process of like self discovery producing this album, did you come up with an answer to those big whys?

Yeah?

I think the answer for me was I wasn't being loud enough, So I guess I just got to be a little bit louder. I mean I and I say enough because I was being loud but just not enough. So I guess it's time to be a little bit louder. And I guess music can be turned up. The volume can be turned up, So I guess that's the loudest we can get is through music.

This album is a celebration of your artistic expression. Yeah, and it's a concept album, it is what does that mean?

So the concept album meaning like there is a story to the whole premise of why the album's coming out and who this person is. And Mikayla Jay is me present day. Mikayla Jay is the girl you're talking to right now. But like the Model thirty three of seven, she's just another hybrid form in a total different world than me who's trying to relate to the present day. She's the future, you know, So like that was the

When I sit here with you present, Mikayla, you have such a bright spirit. That's the first thing I realized when you walk through the door. How does past, Michayla play into present? Who were you as a kid in Newark, New Jersey?

I was a rambunctious stand out, took no mess, always had a mouth.

My mouth got me in trouble a lot.

I got to learn from my mama, Yeah, no mess, Like my mom had to always be like girl, you can't always just like react. And I'm glad I've grown not to react. But I think that was the strength that I had when I was younger, for people just to not play with me like I just never ever had the time for that, you know what I mean. And I think that's what made me grow into a mature, smarter, intelligent human being now as an adult, as a trans grown ass woman, you know what I mean. But when

Okay, I think everyone's sitting at the table, we all know that names have power.

And over the course of your career.

We'd known you by many names, Yes, m J, Rodriguez, Angel and Rent Blanca and post yes, and now you are going by your full name, Mikayla J. And it seems like you're in this period of expansion in your life personally. So what does this expansion of your name represent.

It gives people more of a personal aspect of me versus just the minimal aspect of me.

MJ was my nickname for so long.

And even though everybody knew me as MICHAELA Antonio J Rodriguez, MJ was what stuck. But I felt like that was just the nickname that everyone knew and it wouldn't separate me or set me apart. And then there was a resurgence when I wanted to re enter the music rum and reestablish myself and not tell myself to a name that people would probably associate with my acting or with anything else. I wanted to completely wash the slate clean and show people who I was as an artist and

This is a big reinvention for you. It's huge.

It's huge, and like I said, I mean it's a big reinvention for President Day. Mikayla Jay, future model thirty three or seven, total different story.

She's gonna thank you though hopefully.

You know, if I do it right, If I don't do it right, then that means I'm not doing her mission right.

I gotta do her mission right.

We have to take a quick break when we come back. Artist, actress and Golden Globe winner Mikayla Ja talks pose and showing up on the screen and stage as her full self.

Stay with us.

We're back with Mikayla j.

So, Mikayla, I have to tell you as an interviewer, as a host. As a journalist, I really.

Try not to fan out. Ooh okay, and I have to fan out.

To break my role.

I am a pose super fan.

I fell in love with you in that show, and I know I wasn't alone. It launched your career into a different stratosphere. I remember interviewing you on the red carpet at the Emmys, and everybody, all the journalists in line in that carpet were so excited for you for Billy Porter, like it meant so much to so many people.

So I want to rewind for a second.

Because the show's executive produced by Reese Witherspoon. She was our first interview and she talked about how one of the reasons she created Hello Sunshine was she saw all these roles for women that felt so diminishing, and I think any minority group growing up in the time that we did. I'm also thirty three, yes, felt that. And so I want to understand what was the audition landscape like for you, Like, were there any roles that you could actually audition for and feel like your full self? No?

Oh, there weren't any roles that I could audition for. But I feel like there were people in the industry who saw me crazy enough, and I was blessed enough to get the roles that were representative of who I was. And I think some of them clocked it when I did Angel and Rent and mind You, like Angel is a drag queen. But I think when people saw me,

I'm a huge Rent heead, let me just say, And I always saw Angel as a trans woman too.

You feel me, yes, like in my head too.

And I mean it's debatable, trust me, Like people will say no, oh, and it's fine, that's what artist is.

It's supposed to be subjective.

But when I went into the role That means I had space to create a character that represented myself. And I didn't know I was subconsciously doing this. But when people would come to the show and I got opportunities my first debut on Airs Shacky, they saw me and they were like, we want you to play this character. How do you feel? And I was just like, oh, yeah, she represents me completely and they were like, okay, we

It's unbelievable when I think back, like pre Liver and Cox and Orange is the New Black, and it just representation was so different.

I mean, I feel like it could be better.

It could be way better.

I think it could be much better. I feel like, you know, there's a limitation on trans human beings. We've been under fire politically, and I think there's a narrative that's been spun around us which makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable around us, and a lot of people lump some the things that they've learned off of social media with how all trans women are supposed to act.

When that's just not the truth.

It's made it in these past couple of years a bit hard for us to strive because of what politically has been done to us. And I do believe it's because of what Pose has done. We made such a big impact, Thank you to Ryan Murphy. We made such a big impact as a group of trans women. It kind of ruffled things up and people wanted to put us in our place. And this is where we're at.

Now, what do you mean by that?

Like to tell us that we're not capable of being successful, that we're not capable of succeeding in being smart and intelligent. No, we are just supposed to be. You know how that old terminology goes, You're a child, so stay in your place or sit at the child's table. That's what it feels like. But in reality that ain't happening. Like it's just not happening. I don't see that happening on my watch, and I don't want to happen if for any of my other sisters or any other women in general.

My favorite kind of art is always art that immerses us in a subculture that was previously cloaked in mystery or previously fell off limits, and that's what POS did for so many people. It's inspired by the queer ballroom seeing in New York in the eighties and early nineties, and the characters are so round and you just couldn't help but fall in love with them instantly and fall in love with the connections and the chosen families that everyone found. What has ballroom given you?

A sense of self? Ballroom has definitely given me a sense of self. My mother instilled that in me, obviously through the trace of what a mom could give. And then after you grow up, you're like, I need to find people who are around me who understand me. And you know, I mean though my mother understands me completely and loves me, that's my mother. I don't have friends or peers to really help me grow in that space. I want to ventureround and see what the environment's going

So I found the ballroom scene, and I found.

It through my high school and it was through my house father where everything sprawled out and I was going back and forth. I didn't stay that long but four years of all of my high school years, and then went to college and kind of focused on my true passion, which was the arts. But well, while I was in high school, that was where I thrived and growing and learning about my queer community. And high school was full of queer people, so it was amazing.

Yeah, Okay, as I was watching Pose, I couldn't help but wonder, how are your millennial hips and knees doing?

Fantastic?

Okay, fantastic. The category is orthopetic surgery.

Yo, No for real, though, Like, can I just tell you though I have not felt I'm so glad we can talk about these things at our wonderful middle age.

Life.

Okay, you're right, I got like four years. We do.

But like I'm always trying to wonder. I'm like, well, I feel young, we look young as hell, like, but.

What like what is this? And it's all about how you feel? It's sued. It's the third it's.

A third thank you, thank you. I'm gonna take that and I'm stealing it. Thank you for my thirty third year. I feel like I've been in this really clear space of like Oh, I'm mature, I'm grown.

I can make decisions on my own. But I can also be a little bit fruitful.

And young and like cheeky if I wanted to, maybe, mm hmm maybe.

But for real, do you hear the knees cracking.

Like I do?

Because ever never? I'm sorry, what is the secret diet?

And try to take a walk ever so often when you can, so you can stress those legs out. I work out to work out because your body's on point that whole thing.

Thank you.

That's so sweet. But my knees be cracking, y'all. They be releasing the crack. Yes, releasing the cracking. Yes, they're releasing the cracking.

And another one.

Because when something does pop crackling, snap, I'm going to say it's releasing the cracking.

Thank you.

I'm taking took no mess, oh, no mess.

Okay, got you.

I'm gonna I'm gonna take something for both of y'all before this is over.

Just watch out. Okay, okay, we're gonna drop. Listen, we dropping diamonds. Honey.

When I see the scenes in Pose, I see love and self confidence and joy and so much courage, and behind the scenes, I'm wondering what was your courageous moment, if you could point to one.

I think the moment I realized courage was when I was able to actually pronounce the word courage. And I'm being very like metaphorical in that space, but I knew who I was, I knew what I was sent here to do when I came out, and when I was able to know that, I think that to change the world, no matter what or how way I do it, I'm going to continue to do it. I was just saying earlier today. Beyonce said it her documentary. She was like,

You don't own my body.

And as I realize you don't own my body, you don't own anyone else's body. So like, that's been my whole trajectory now, and I think the courage, when it was fully etched over my whole body, was my mother. Like, I don't need anything else from nobody else. And I'm sorry, y'all, but I don't need anything else because my mama has to littifight at all. So anyone who says anything about me about when I'm not what I can't, I don't give it down because my mama.

Already lit about it. She put me on this earth.

I know what I know. I know a woman, and henceforth.

For everybody listening and not watching, yes, she just did a full body movement.

I'm here. I'm here. I'm here because a mama orgery boom.

Okay, we need to take a quick break when we come back. Artists and actor Mikayla Jay reflects on her historic when at the Golden Globes, stay.

With us, We're back with Mikayla Ja.

I don't know if it was directly from your mom or inspired by someone or something else, but I felt you channeling that nurturing energy as Blanca.

Yes, for sure, all of that, most of that love and nurturing that I had received, I definitely brought that to Blanca because the world.

Needed to see that.

Yeah, and they needed to see it from a trans woman of colors perspective too, because they're a trans women of color. When there are mothers out there that can't take care of their children, who bore their children but won't share any capacity with there's always a gay man or trans woman taking that baby in and doing their best to raise them to be the best they can be because they know.

What it's like to be different.

You know what I try to encourage more is more trans women and bio women need to get together and raise these kids together so they can be strong.

Well, you have protected the light of so many of your fans and viewers and just so many people in the queer community, and that specifically calls to mind that moment when you want a golden Globe for your performance in posts the first time a transgender person has ever won in the Leading Actress and a Drama category, and you had such a moving acceptance speech, and we have a clip of it.

This is for the LGBTQAI, black, Latina, Asian, the many multi beautiful calls.

Of the rainbow around the freaking world. This is for y'all own little MJ.

Yeah, when you say little MJ, what do you think? Are you thinking about the growth and the maturity that's happened since then?

I am.

I am.

I still haven't put it up out of the case, but it's in the case on top of the just so I know you got to open that thing up and put it up at some point. But looking back at that, I'm just like wow, Like I can't even believe the HFPA like really saw me or took the time to notice me to award me a Golden Globe. That year was very different from me and very new

They saw you for who you are.

When Simone talked about the award, you got this big smile on your face, like almost like a childish grin, and it was so genuine.

What was that?

It was the initial like giddiness and feeling of that I made it, Like I finally made it.

All the people who said are you sure?

I Michaela like when you go into this world and when you make your big reveal or when you go into your transition, are you sure people are going to accept you?

Like, do you think this is the route?

And I was like, route child, If this was a route, it's a long one and it's been ever since number one, route number one, all the way until thirty three.

But I never thought of it as a route.

But when I heard those things, I heard the nervousness, the scaredness, the worry of if I was going to succeed. And these were from peers, friends of mine. And this was in what twenty eleven, so a lot of trans women weren't being in the forefront or being centered. When I heard those things, I was just like, I got to turn that around. I can't sit here and listen to what people have in their heads of how I'm going to succeed, like you have to know it for yourself.

So we talked a lot about pose. We have to talk about loot.

Yeah, we can definitely talk about that.

Congratulations on the renewal for season three.

I love season one and two.

I was interested to read that when you were cast on that show, you were given the choice to have your character Sophia be either cisgender or transgender, and you decided that you wanted her to be gender ambiguous, I shouldn't even say her, then, right.

You can say her, because that's how she's climbing up the ladder, that's how she's moving. My main goal was to show the world that it doesn't take just a biological woman or a trans woman to make it anywhere, Like as a woman in general, you can make it anywhere. And I didn't want the title of me being trans yeah, to lose it to the minds of people that's interesting.

Yeah.

I didn't want them to see me as trans and then lose their interest because I was a trans woman in a high position a coo and them thinking she's not qualified to have that job because a lot of trans women don't have that job. No matter what, if she's trans or if she's not, she can be in this position. And we should always make it an open playing field when it comes to women being in a

I need to be dumb for a second.

And is this weird block where she can't say the word dumb so she has to spell it off as I can't. Yes, I feel like I don't know bad saying it? So do you m b second? Bear with me? Do you take no? I don't at all your characters. I'm kidding, I'm dunk imagine that was funny.

Do you take anything from set from these characters? Like do you have a fabulous dress or something?

I still have Okay, I have two things from Poe's. I tried to take some things from Lou. I'm sorry, y'all. I couldn't do it.

I had to respect y'all.

It's because the show is still going.

Yeah, They're like, here you have this, Machael, and I'm like, thank you so much. I've been trying to take this for so long, and I really appreciate that Jack gave no.

But I did it the right way. I didn't klepto it.

You know. Well, I see sex in the city and like they're wearing the most beautiful bags. I'm like, please tell me that Sarah Jessica Parker has keep the sequined purple Sundy bag that was stolen from season four.

Well, you know, I will say, Mother Carrie, she's probably made so much money on that.

Damn sure. She didn't have to take none, So you share the wealth, that's what you're saying.

You're right, I did take I did take the banner the Evangelisa Vander.

I didn't take it. They gave it to me. At the end of the show.

It was Janet and Stephen Canals and I remember Janet just flagging it out and just being like, girl, you wanted it, so it's yours and Steven.

I think it was Steven who did that.

And Janet pulled behind her back, uh Blanca's mother's cookbook. So I still have those two things. And for loot nothing yet, but I'm steal something.

It's called loot. You gotta you know, you gotta loot something, right. Thank you for that.

By the way, I didn't make that something. Thank you because I didn't make that correlation. When you said it salute, I had a dumb moment.

Okay, you're hired, You're our third bright side. It was like, this is like it's no you get you like get us. You get our language, you get the vernacular, the energy. It's sickening. We're gonna have to talk to some of the people exactly, okay, okay.

Except for you seem pretty busy.

Yeah, I am running around like a chicken with her hair cut off. But time is always fluctuant.

You're fucking good doing it. Thank you, Michayla. Thank you so much for joining us on the bright side. You sprinkled your sunshine on us.

I told you I was always going to give you that good ju ju.

Mikayla Jay is an artist actor and Golden Globe winner. Her debut album thirty three is out September twenty sixth.

We can't wait to hear it.

That's it for today's show.

Tomorrow, Doctor Ellen Langer joins US for Wellness Wednesday to talk about the power of mindfulness.

Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Simone Boye. You can find me at Simone Boice on Instagram and TikTok.

Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro Ba.

Y See you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.