Prolific producer and director Ryan Murphy was recognized at last week’s VH1 Trailblazer Honors for highlighting queer stories in projects like The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, The Normal Heart, and his latest hit, Pose.
Now his full acceptance speech has been released online, and watch as Murphy tells the audience about his years as an out gay man in Hollywood where he was told he was “too weird, too faggy, too unusual.”
“My mannerisms and voice were mocked by executives in notes meetings,” he adds.
When he was about to give up on his dream of making it in the entertainment industry, Murphy got a call from another television pioneer, someone he calls one of the original trailblazers: Norman Lear.
The All in the Family and One Day at a Time creator told Murphy not to give up. “I see you. Keep going,” he told him.
Watch as the Glee creator talks about being inspired by older women, creating the Half Initiative, and how the upcoming episode of Pose directed by Janet Mock is “perhaps the best hour of television in my career that I have been associated with.”
Ryan Murphy: “I Was Told I Was Too Weird, Too Faggy, Too Unusual” for Hollywood
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