At the mention of Rowling’s name, Rodriguez takes a break from sipping her steaming hot matcha latte. She’s heard the podcast and says she’s no longer fazed by Rowling. Rodriguez long ago separated the art from the artist. “It’s a childhood memory that all of us have grasped onto and don’t want to let go. Because of the story,” she says. “We’re not thinking about J.K. Rowling, I can promise you. I’m thinking about Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley and their silliness and also their growth.”
“Pose” ended to great fanfare while Rodriguez entered her 30s. Previously credited as “MJ,” her childhood nickname, she began to go by her full name, Michaela Jaé, in 2021, and with the public name change came a new sense of confidence. “MJ was the baby,” she says. “Michaela surfaced as a full-fledged woman. She’s not the little girl who had to put on her training wheels.”
As she steps into this next chapter of her career with new music, plans to begin producing movies and a second season of “Loot” on the way, she explains that she was buoyed by her upbringing. Rodriguez credits her mother, Audrey — who she describes as the “most influential woman in her life” — with making her the strong Afro-Latina woman she is today.
After the Oscars, Audrey was Michaela’s date to the Vanity Fair party. While daughter waited in the “long-ass line” on the red carpet to pose in her Versace gown, mother took center stage in a now-viral photo featuring more than 50 prominent Black stars, including Tracee Ellis Ross, Michael B. Jordan, Laverne Cox and fellow Newark, New Jersey native Queen Latifah.
“She’s somebody who lifted me up when I never thought anyone would,” Rodriguez says with pride. “She’s instilled a lot of hope, not just in me as a trans woman, but in a lot of women in our family. It is such an honor to see her in that photo.”
What has it meant to have so many high-profile parents of trans children — everyone from Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union-Wade to Jamie Lee Curtis — use their platforms to speak out in support of the LGBTQ community?
It feels so good to see these high-profile individuals speaking on political injustices that are happening around the world. I saw Dwyane and Gabrielle recently and had to let them know personally, “Thank you.” Because there’s a stigma within the African American community. And it’s so beautiful to see a Black family like theirs speak about their child, Zaya, with love, and for them to say, “I’m here for my child, and anything that tries to come against her, it shall not prosper. She will prosper.” Zaya is the hope and beacon for a lot of trans youth that will be looking up to her when she gets to my age. Which is very young, just to let you know.
What has been your reaction to J.K. Rowling’s controversial suggestion that trans women should not be considered women?
Some of the stuff that she says really doesn’t faze me so much. I’m not here for it. I will always remain a trans woman. I will always call myself a trans woman. I will always refer to other biological women as cis women, in a non-derogatory way. But I’m a strong girl. I’m a strong woman. I was raised by a strong Black woman, which J.K. Rowling was not. I would love to have a conversation with her.
What would you say to her if you met her?
I would start off with something that’s very lighthearted, just to let her know I’m not someone who is abrasive or who is intimidating, because I’m sure there are trans people who are intimidating her a little bit and making her feel this way. I would first start off by saying, “Girl, OK, tell me what is the tea? Is there a trans person in your life that’s really making you feel a certain type of way about your womanhood? Because I can promise you that there are other trans women who will show you what it’s actually like to walk in our shoes. Because I can promise you, as a cis biological woman, you just will never understand, just as we will never understand you. But we’re women, so we have to be there for each other.”
How did “Pose” impact your life?
It was the start of my career as a leading actress. When I was younger, I was doing guest roles, and that was fine with me, honey. But Ryan Murphy took the initiative to put a trans woman in a leading role, and I’m so glad he took that chance on me. The first season was a little rough for me because I was nervous. I was young — I was 25 years old, going into 26. That’s young. And being young, carrying a show, you don’t realize how much weight that is until it’s done. I’m about to cry right now, because I’m realizing that, and I’m so happy that I learned that. So moving to the second and third season, all I did was grow and learn more about myself.
What attracted you to “Loot”?
I remember auditioning for “Loot.” My agent said, “This might be really good for you. Are you excited for this? Is comedy something that you want to do?” And I said, “Yeah, I want to show versatility and show people that I’m capable of a multitude of things and not just one.”
