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Did you watch the season finale of Pose on Sunday night? I’m not going to give anything away, but it was definitely a satisfying victory lap for the writers, cast and producer Ryan Murphy. It also left me quite eager for season two. (And the RuPaul’s Drag Race fanatic in me was so happy to see more screen time for Bianca Castro, formerly known as Jiggly Caliente, playing Veronica.)

One of the most significant things about the FX series is how it has helped increase the representation of the trans population, casting a number of trans actresses, including the radiant Indya Moore, who plays Angel. I reported on her her last week, and she continues to speak out about the struggle experienced by members of the trans community.

In an interview with Jezebel, the 23-year-old model-turned-actress talked about her role on the show and her personal style. Of the show itself, she says:

“Pose taught me that representation matters. The fact that they’ve used trans black and brown people to tell the stories of trans black and brown people reaffirmed to me that art can really be used constructively and helping to deconstruct social hierarchy and power dynamics throughout demographics of people.”

As for what she spends her money on, she says her Pose paychecks go to “oils and tea…and food.” And as for her style, she says “my style is whatever I want it to be, whatever my mood is for the day.” She also shared,

“The realest thing [to me] is being yourself unapologetically, being kind, being respectful. We like to treat being respectful like a privilege and not a responsibility. The wackest thing, for me, is and always has been people making judgments without information.”

[From Jezebel]

I’m so glad Indya is having her moment, as well as a platform to speak out about the movie industry’s apparent transphobia. She and Pose co-star Mj Rodriguez (who also killed it as Blanca this season) alluded to the recent flap surrounding Scarlett Johansson being cast as a transgender male in the upcoming Rub & Tug. Indya pointed out that “Gender is a social construct, but so is race. And that still doesn’t make it OK for white women to play Asian women. It still doesn’t make it okay for cis people to play trans people.” I really hope that was a Ghost in the Shell dig, because, if it was, brava, Indya. She went on to add, “It’s not like you’re doing us a favor, because you’re flicking your nose, essentially, at an entire demographic of people who are telling you, ‘we are not OK with this.’ And we’re more than capable of not only of telling our own stories but telling stories in general.”

She concluded by asserting that, “I think we just want to tell stories that aren’t always specifically about our experience as trans people. We want to tell stories that really investigate what it is to be a human being and have those human experiences.”

I sincerely hope that Hollywood is listening to what Mj, Indya and all of the supremely talented people associated with Pose have to say. I am already having withdrawals over this show and I hope to see these actors and actresses a lot more in the future.

#PoseFX thank you for debunking myths and stigma on and about people living with HIV and AIDS and writing characters living with hiv as desirable, loving, protecting nurturing and all around beautiful strong and powerful. @PoseOnFX @MrRPMurphy @ourladyj @StevenCanals @janetmock

— IAM (@IndyaMoore) July 23, 2018

You can really tell a lot about a person based on the people they create/stories they tell/Experiences they write people having. The characters I got to portray so far in my career were imagined by some of the most beautiful minds. So thankful to have that foundation. #posefx

— IAM (@IndyaMoore) July 23, 2018

Ya'll ready for THE #POSEFX 7.22.18 SEASON FINALE? It's been a wild ride. But we finally did it. Thank you @_alligottasayisjonovia @janetmock @ourladyj @svcanals @gwynethhorderpayton @silash @tinamabry @wond3rwoman1 @slim.ninja @dannip18 @ninajacobson Erica kay @mrrpmurphy @tanasepopa @bradfalchuk John Lengraf @jilly_bean_89 @crashbpm Cast & crew for an amazing and life changing experience with Pose I feel like the world just wants to see women/femmes as children. We had to fight for the right to vote, we can't drive in certain parts of the world or even enter out in public without a male "guardian". And we are shamed into removing our body hair because the more our bodies change with age the less desirable our bodies seem to be to men, from body hair to stretch marks. Everyone deserves to feel comfortable with their body hair, not just men. I realize how much of my self esteem is influenced by the desires of other people, more specifically men, and it hurts. I wish people would rise to loving and celebrating others in a way that inspires revolutionary self love, not compartmentalize, and sabotage it. Also the challenges trans women and femmes face being pressured to conform to gender norms to survive has been toxic and detrimental not only to our self esteem but our bodies in general, i'm interested in deconstructing how we can improve how we think and treat others based on that and how that can positively affect the life quality of others. Checkout this interview with @wmag by @brkmrn featuring lil ol' me. I talk about me learning all the ways i could love myself fully vs the world on body hair, trans stories, @poseonfx and my latest scifi/action themed motion picture project @magichourtv #wmagazine #model #artist #vogue #posefx #magichourtv #bodyhair #hairy #legs #armpits #femmes #women #representation #healthy #selfesteem Interview by @brkmrn 📸 @liaclay 💕 Makeup by @aerieldandrea 💕 Styling by Me 💕 feat. Japanese Kurume Kasuri pants & @freepeople top/lacey bra

A post shared by I A M (@indyamoore) on Jul 21, 2018 at 11:41am PDT

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Photos: Instagram, Getty