MJ Rodriguez in a historic Emmy nod for the song ‘Pose

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Upon learning of her historic Emmy nomination, MJ Rodriguez for “Pose” had an overwhelming feeling: “It felt like seeing me.”

“I felt like an actress and I felt seen,” said Rodriguez, who scored the first major Emmy acting nod for a trans actor. “And…more accepting than I’ve felt in a long time. I felt like my classmates now see me, my acting colleagues see me, people surrounded by arts see me, and how much I want to give the world love for my profession and my art.”

The nomination for Rodriguez, who plays home mom and nurse Blanca on an FX show about ’80s and ’90s dance floor culture who recently finished its third and final season, was one of several nods to the show, including Best Actor for Billy Porter and Best Drama. The series started from Steven Canals and Ryan Murphy casting transgender actors as trans characters.

Rodriguez, 30, spoke in an interview on Zoom Tuesday from Cannes, France, where she attends the film festival. It had been a long night: she was unable to sleep in anticipation. “I had a lot looming on my mind,” she said. “I was up until 8 in the morning.”

When the news came, “My mom and godmother (she) were sitting at the dining table. And the moment my name was announced, she just screamed and broke. And he grabbed me. She kind of tossed me. I hugged her. She swung me a bit. And I just remember falling into my friend’s arms. And only crying. Tears of joy, tears of happiness.”

Rodriguez and her family weren’t alone in their joy or acknowledgment of the enormity of the moment. Sarah Kate Ellis of GLAAD, the LGBTQ+ organization, called her nomination “a breakthrough for transgender women in Hollywood, and a much-anticipated acknowledgment for her groundbreaking performance over the past three seasons of ‘Pose’—a show that, Ellis said, has “undoubtedly raised the bar for transgender representation.” on television and changed the way viewers around the world understood the transgender community.”

The group joined dozens of other organizations in an open letter urging Amy voters to show their support for the series, especially for its transgender and non-binary cast.

Rodriguez said she was grateful to know that “we are finally seeing the way we need to see, and that our stories can now be considered human stories. It just opens up the diaspora and it opens everything more. There are an unlimited number of stories that can be told now, simply because this has happened.”

She said she was thinking specifically of young people, “who can look at us and see that we are human and that we have a lot to offer and that we can look forward to and that there are dreams that can be achieved, because we can make them happen.”

She said of her fellow cast members and crew members, “We performed as a team. I always say that teamwork makes a dream work, and that’s exactly what we did. The family on this show is what we built.”

Rodriguez is working on her next project, a comedy for Apple TV + with Maya Rudolph, titled “Loot”.

“I just feel like the sky is limitless,” she said of her future career. “I feel like there’s a lot of opportunity out there. The world – it’s open, and I can’t even express how happy I am to know I’m going to be part of more amazing business…and just produce good products. I know that’s what the future looks like.”

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