Washington: The journey hasn’t been a cakewalk for Billy Porter! The actor got candid about the time he tried to break into Hollywood in the 1980s, but the industry was just seeking three kinds of African Americans — “James Earl Jones, the patriarch; Denzel Washington, the sex symbol; or genius clown, Eddie Murphy.”
However, Porter didn’t find himself in any of the three categories along with his music being sidelined.
The music industry was “hugely, violently homophobic. It just was never about the music,” Deadline quoted Porter as saying at the New York Film Festival on Saturday.
“It was about trying to fix myself. So other people would feel comfortable around me,” he added.
Adding that he was just working so that he “could eat”, the ‘Pose’ actor expressed, “I became a character actor to hide behind little weight.”
Not only this, but things even became worse for him and he had to file for bankruptcy. He didn’t own an apartment or had no health insurance for 13 years, the actor revealed.
However, talking about his popular role in the FX series ‘Pose’, he added: “But the calling in my life is where I am now.”
“We must speak life into ourselves, even when everyone around us is doing the opposite. I never saw anything that looked like me.”
“This is what a real man looks like too!” he pressed.
Porter bagged the outstanding lead actor Emmy for his role in ‘Pose’ and now he is set to play the fairy godmother in Camila Cabello starrer Disney film ‘Cinderella’.