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class="ContentHearHedAccredatnWrapper-GFiQf cDNVlV"><div data-ttid="ContentHearTleBlockWrapper" class="ContentHearTleBlockWrapper-cjmSKp jbzVNV"><div data-ttid="ContentHearRubric" class="ContentHearRubricBlock-LmpbT kkDiIx"><div data-ttid="ContentHearRubricDateBlock" class="ContentHearRubricDateBlock-kAQcZP fTFWxD"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX dZhWBL bric ContentHearRubricContaer-eTudtt iRsSlw"><a class="RubricLk-gRWSOU fgWnkQ bric__lk" href="/magaze/profil"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Profil</span></a></div></div></div><h1 data-ttid="ContentHearHed" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearHed-NCyCC iUEiRd NbxED hpJvIc">How Ryan Murphy Beme the Most Powerful Man TV</h1></div><div class="ContentHearAccredatn-lfctVB etVsnJ ntent-hear__accredatn" data-ttid="ContentHearAccredatn"><div class="ContentHearDek-bIqFFZ Mtme">More than any other shownner, he has upend the pieti of morn televisn.</div><div class="ContentHearByle-kmPyCa gvUmxJ"><div class="ContentHearByleContent-dpPmNn DRFq"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl ContentHearByl-cZqgyJ bHLeKI"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH bwbwth byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn lOLCm byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG uhfVi byle__preamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL brYZgj byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/ey-nsbm">Ey Nsbm</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2018-05-07T05:00:00-04:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA iINaCX">May 7, 2018</time></div></div></div></div><div class="ContentHearLeadAsset-hGbumP kByCgj lead-asset ContentHearLeadAssetWrapper-hfXHEc Grck lead-asset--width-fullbleed" data-ttid="ContentHearLeadAsset"><figure class="ContentHearLeadAssetContent-kOfYSG dRGWbI"><div class="ContentHearLeadAssetContentMedia-bLEIpi jjhWdS lead-asset__ntent__photo"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb hONbnm"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jgsWEn"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb hONbnm rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Murphy whose shows clu 8220Glee8221 and 8220Amerin Horror Story8221 lov extrem. He8217s proud never to have..." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></div></div></span></div></figure></div><div class="ContentHearLeadContentFullWidth-cvJzX hHaBOT"><figure class="ContentHearLeadContentCaptnCred-hSIIqJ kQVfzg"><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn ContentHearLeadAssetCaptn-hPWmSN kuCzGS"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">Murphy, whose shows clu “Glee” and “Amerin Horror Story,” lov extrem. He’s proud never to have ma, he says, “the long Somex hour that ends gray and a faout.”</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Photograph by Mart Schoeller for The New Yorker</span></div></figure></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kNjTbQ viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" aria-label="Save this story" class="ActnBarButton-dyFOZU hQrwCF bookmark large-screen"><span class="ActnBarSendaryButtonPrimaryIn-isbvyN cAwccV bookmark-button-in"><svg class="in in-bookmark" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Save this story</tle><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M20 23.9508L12.5 19.7312L5 23.9508V2.95081H14V3.93211H6V22.1845L12.5 18.5536L19 22.1845V8.83866H20V23.9508Z"></path><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M23 3H20V0H19V3H16V4H19V7H20V4H23V3Z"></path></svg></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ActnBarButtonText-bYXYuh iUEiRd bkefvo gkccfO">Save this story</span></button></div><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kAEsuD viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" aria-label="Save this story" class="ActnBarButton-dyFOZU cjjxgx bookmark mobile"><span class="ActnBarSendaryButtonPrimaryIn-isbvyN cAwccV bookmark-button-in"><svg class="in in-bookmark" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Save this story</tle><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M20 23.9508L12.5 19.7312L5 23.9508V2.95081H14V3.93211H6V22.1845L12.5 18.5536L19 22.1845V8.83866H20V23.9508Z"></path><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M23 3H20V0H19V3H16V4H19V7H20V4H23V3Z"></path></svg></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ActnBarButtonText-bYXYuh iUEiRd bkefvo gkccfO">Save this story</span></button></div></div></div><div class="LightboxWrapper-dxsWBV hhylRt"><div class="ArticlePageChunksContent-etcMtP bwyLBj"><div data-ttid="ArticlePageChunks" class="ArticlePageChunks-fLyCVG Uozmo"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><figure data-ttid="IameEmbed" class="IameEmbedWrapper-sc-dRedg cjyRVU iame-embed"><div data-ttid="IameEmbedContaer" class="IameEmbedContaer-hptgUZ fXVBaX"><div class="IameEmbedAspectRatWrapper-hFVJps BKpgQ"><iame class="IameEmbedContent-cMdiev csnuAY IameEmbedContent lazyload" height="90" width="100%" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-orig allow-popups" tle="Embedd Frame" data-src=" allowfullscreen="" allow="toplay *; encrypted-media *; clipboard-wre; toplay; fullscreen; picture--picture"></iame></div></div></figure><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Ryan Murphy hat the word “mp.” He se as a lazy tchall that gets thrown at gay artists orr to margalize their ambns, to ame their work as niche. “I don’t thk that when John Waters ma ‘<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Female Trouble</a>’ that he was, like, ‘I want to make a mp piece,’ ” Murphy told me last May, as we sat a productn tent South Beach, Florida, where he was directg the pilot of “Amerin Crime Story: The Assassatn of Gianni Versace,” a ne-episo seri for FX. “I thk that he was, like, ‘It’s my tone—and my tone is unique.’ ”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy prefers a different label: “baroque.” Between shots, the shownner—who has overseen a dozen televisn seri the past two s—elaborated, wh regal thory, on this ia. To Murphy, “mp” scrib not irony but somethg closer to clumss, the accint you n’t look away om. People rarely e the term to scribe a melodrama ma by a straight man; even when “mp” is meant as a pliment, ntas an sult, suggtg a mty smallns. “Baroque” is <em>big</em>. Murphy, referrg to TV crics (cludg me) who have applied “mp” to his work, said, “I will adm that really ed to bug the sh out of me. But don’t anymore.”</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">We were outsi the Casa Casuara, the Mederranean-style mansn that the Italian fashn signer Gianni Versace renovated and nsired his masterwork—a buildg wh airy urtyards and a pool laid wh dizzy ribbons of red, orange, and yellow ceramic til. A small bronze statue of a kneelg Aphrode stood at the top of the mansn’s ont steps. In 1997, a young gay serial killer named Andrew Cunanan shot Versace to ath there as the signer, who was fifty, was returng om his morng stroll.</p><p class="paywall">The prev day, Murphy had filmed the murr scene. Cunanan was played by Darren Criss, a star of Murphy’s biggt h, “<a href=">Glee</a>.” I’d vised the set that day, too, arrivg to fd ambulanc, ps, and paparazzi swarmg outsi. There was a splash of red on the marble steps. Insi the hoe, Edgar Ramirez, the Venezuelan actor playg Versace, sat a shad urtyard, his hair ked wh gun-wound makp, his face lowered his hands.</p><p class="paywall">Now Murphy was filmg the aftermath of the crime, cludg a scene which two lookie-loos dip a py of <em>Vany Fair</em> to the puddle of Versace’s blood. (They sell the relic on eBay.) The vibe was an odd blend of sombre and ftive; a half-naked rollerblar spun slow circl on the siwalk next to the beach. Murphy, who is fifty-three, is a stylish man, but on set he wore the middle-aged male shownner’s uniform: baggy rgo shorts and a polo shirt. He has a rosebud mouth and close-cropped vanilla hair. He is five feet ten but has a brawny air of mand, creatg the illn that he is much taller. His brother is six feet four, he told me, as was his late father; Murphy thks that his own growth was stunted by cha-smokg when he was a rebell teen-ager, Indiana.</p><p class="paywall">Murphy’s mood tends to shift unexpectedly, like a wonky thermostat—now warm, now icy—but on the “Versace” set he ma one nfint cisn after another about the many shows he was overseeg, as if skippg ston. He also answered stray qutns—about the stg for a Broadway revival of “The Boys the Band” that he was producg, about a grand hoe Los Angel that he’d been renovatg for two years. “Ooh, y!” he said, spectg penis-nosed clown masks that had been signed for his seri “Amerin Horror Story.” He approved a bpoke nail-polish sign for an actrs. A producer hand Murphy an updated script, jokg, “If there’s a mistake, you n drown me Versace’s pool!,” then schled a not meetg for “Amerin Crime Story: Katra,” whose wrers were workg elsewhere the buildg. Now and then, Murphy FaceTimed wh his then four-year-old son, Logan, who, along wh his two-year-old brother, Ford, was L.A. wh Murphy’s hband, David Miller.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">“I never get overwhelmed or feel unrwater, bee I feel like all good thgs e om tail,” Murphy told me. It’s what got him to this pot: the pulsn, and the cravg, to do more. “Baroque is a sensibily I n get behd,” he said. “Baroque is a maximalist approach to storytellg that I’ve always liked. Baroque is a <em>choice</em>. And everythg I do is an absolute choice.”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy’s choic, perhaps more than those of any other shownner, have upend the pieti of morn televisn. Like a wild gut at a dner party, he’d lifted the table and slammed back down, leavg the dish broken or arranged a new orr. Several of Murphy’s shows have been crilly divisive (and, on ocsn, panned ways that have raised his hackl). But he has produced an unually long strg of mercial and cril hs: dac, funny-peculiar, joyfully stabilizg seri, nearly every genre. His n started wh the satiril melodrama “<a href=">Nip/Tuck</a>” (2003), then ntued wh the global phenomenon “Glee” (2009) and wh “Amerin Horror Story,” now enterg s eighth year, which lnched the fluential season-long anthology format. His legacy is not one standout show but, rather, the sheer force and variety and chutzpah of his creatns, which are lked by a sgular storytellg athetic: stylized extremy and humor, shock njoed wh scery, and ser them wrapped circ-bright packagg. He is the only televisn creator who uld possibly have prented Lily Rabe as a Satan-posssed nun, gyratg a red negligee ont of a ccifix while sgg “You Don’t Own Me,” and have e across as an lible crique of the Catholic Church’s misogyny.</p><p class="paywall">When Murphy entered the dtry, he sometim stck his peers as an aloof, prickly figure; he has ep wounds om those years, although he adms that he ntributed to this reputatn. Nohels, Murphy has moved steadily om the margs to televisn’s center. He changed; the dtry changed; he changed the dtry. In Febary, Murphy rose even higher, signg the largt al televisn history: a three-hundred-ln-dollar, five-year ntract wh Netflix. For Murphy, was a moment of both triumph and tensn. You n’t be the unrdog when you’re the most powerful man TV.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="vg39yr"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="mtshxg"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">On that sunny afternoon South Beach, however, Murphy was still fortably ensnced a twelve-year al wh Fox Studs. On FX, which is owned by Fox, he had three anthology seri: “Amerin Horror Story”; “Amerin Crime Story,” for which he was filmg “Versace,” wrg “Katra,” and planng a season based on the Moni Lewsky sndal; and “<a href=">Fd</a>,” whose first season starred San Sarandon as Bette Davis and Jsi Lange as Joan Crawford.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Sorry—my dog is at the vet. This one is a loaner.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“Sorry—my dog is at the vet. This one is a loaner.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 8.34782C8.432 10.22 9.08751 12.6141 11.0007 13.6949C11.1888 13.8012 11.382 13.8908 11.5785 13.9642C11.7819 14.0403 12.0058 13.9485 12.1147 13.764C12.2794 13.4849 12.1103 13.1276 11.8083 12.9992C11.7041 12.9549 11.6014 12.9044 11.5007 12.8475C10.0658 12.0368 9.57417 10.2413 10.4026 8.83712L12.4026 5.44715C13.2311 4.04298 15.0658 3.56187 16.5007 4.37257C17.9356 5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 6.92464 12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">For Fox, he was velopg “9-1-1,” a procral about first rponrs. He had announced two shows for Netflix: “Ratched,” a nurse’s-eye view of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nt,” starrg Sarah Plson; and “The Polician,” a satiril drama starrg Ben Platt. Glenn Close was tryg to talk him to directg her a movie versn of the Andrew Lloyd Webber mil “<a href=">Sunset Boulevard</a>.” Murphy was wrg a book lled “Ladi,” about female ins. He had lnched Half, a foundatn dited to diversy directg, and had mted to hirg half of his directors om unrreprented groups. And, he told me, there was somethg new: a seri for FX lled “Pose,” a dance-filled show set the neteen-eighti.</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">It was no mystery which character his current seri Murphy most intified wh: Gianni Versace himself. Versace was a mercially md artist whose brash ventns were dismissed by know-nothgs as tacky, and whose openns about his sexualy threatened his ascent a homophobic era. Versace, too, was a baroque maximalist, Murphy told me, who built his reputatn through fervid workaholism—an sistence that his visn be seen and unrstood. “He was punished and he stggled,” Murphy said, then spoke Versace’s voice: “Why aren’t I loved for my excs? Why don’t they see somethg valid that?”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Shortly before I left Miami, Murphy and I drank rosé at a South Beach rtrant. “A double pour,” he told the waer. “It’s Friday.” We talked about “Pose,” which is set the drag ballroom scene New York, durg the Reagan era and the <em class="small">AIDS</em> crisis. Many people knew of this world through Jennie Livgston’s 1991 documentary, “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Paris Is Burng,</a>” or Madonna’s “<a href=">Vogue</a>” vio. In 2015, Murphy approached Miramax, the distributor of “Paris,” and bought an eighteen-month optn; he met wh Livgston, who troduced him to the survivg subjects of her movie and, later, remend a variety of queer nsultants. Murphy ially tend to base characters on the people the documentary: queer performers of lor who peted for trophi such tegori as Executive Realns. The drag queens, trans dancers, and female impersonators lived sorory-like groups that had nam like the Hoe of Xtravaganza and were overseen by olr “mothers”—a fay for people who often had been rejected by the on they were born to.</p><p class="paywall">In 2016, an pennt producer tipped Murphy off to a siar project. Steven Canals, a thirty-six-year-old Ao-Lato queer screenwrer om the Bronx, had wrten “Pose”—a fictnal pilot set the eighti ballroom world, featurg a gay and trans ensemble. Nobody Hollywood was bg. Murphy attached his name and FX signed on. Murphy, Canals, and Murphy’s ma creative partner, Brad Falch, reworked the pilot and add a new character: Donald Tmp, his Master of the Universe days. Murphy was mted to gettg “Pose” on the air this summer. (It premièr on June 3rd.) He planned to create a wrers’ room filled wh trans people, many of them newers to TV.</p><p class="paywall">I told Murphy that the seri sound like a ol risk. “It’s not a risk at all,” he said, owng. “I know stantly that ’s a h.” He explaed, “There’s somethg for everybody—and there’s somethg to offend everybody. That’s what a h <em>is</em>.” He foraw a broad mographic: “You, me, the young people who love nostalgia, the fourteen-year-old girl who is watchg Tom Holland drs drag and dance to Rihanna.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Murphy gave me a py of the reworked pilot, and on my way to the airport he texted, “On a sle of 1 to 10—10 beg masterpiece, 1 beg awful—what do u give pose?” When I tried to change the subject, to mata journalistic distance, he texted back, “Ha!” And then: “I know one day you will tell me.” And then: “I am gusg a 9.” And then: “Wh the potential for a 10!”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy has long been a nnoissr of extrem and hyperbole, gam and theatrily. He rat everythg he se and revels stutns that do the same—the Osrs are a kd of relign for him. In Miami, at dner wh the “Katra” and “Versace” wrers, he played a high-stak game which he was forced to immediately choose one person his circle over another; he murred only when the choice was between Jsi Lange and Sarah Plson. His go-to qutn is “Is a h or a flop?,” and he asked about every show that me up nversatn, as I observed him givg shape to “Pose,” om sutg lotns to edg dance footage. (He has other stock phras. “What’s the sop?” is how he begs wrers’ meetgs. “Energy begets energy” explas his impulse to add new projects. “<em>That’s</em> tertg” sometim dit “That’s worth noticg” but jt as often means “That’s furiatg.”)</p><p class="paywall">Murphy’s first show, “Popular,” which débuted 1999, was, fact, somethg of a flop, lastg only two seasons on the teen channel the WB. It is such a paful memory for Murphy that, last year, when the Producers Guild of Ameri honored him wh s Norman Lear Achievement Award, he didn’t clu the show on the plard listg his productns. Like “Glee,” “Popular” was a high-school edy. It featured rat-a-tat dialogue (“Shut your dirty whore mouth, player player!”) and a Gwyh Paltrow-obssed cheerlear wh webbed to. It baffled the work, which wanted somethg closer to “Dawson’s Creek.”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy rells a filla of homophobic not: a fur at ma by anally electrocutg chchillas was emed “too gay,” and the producers were O.K. wh the show’s few homosexual characters only if they suffered. “I don’t thk they unrstood who they had on their hands,” the actrs Llie Grossman, who played the web-toed Mary Cherry, rells. She fondly remembers “Popular” as “a show by gay men their thirti for gay men their thirti.” In one meetg, a WB executive imated Murphy, floppg his wrists and adoptg a fey voice. (Both hurtful and accurate, Murphy poted out: he hered a low, mblg voice om his father.) The fal season of “Popular” clud an subordate homage to “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?</a>”</p><p class="paywall">In 2003, on the more welg work FX, Murphy had his first h: “Nip/Tuck,” a twisted plastic-surgery medil procral spiked wh satire about a looks-obssed culture. He pched the show, about a petive iendship between two Miami doctors, as a tribute, part, to one of his childhood obssns: the Mike Nichols film “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Carnal Knowledge</a>,” which he saw as a love story about two straight men. “Nobody ever got the nnectn,” he told me. “I loved that movie ten tim more than ‘<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Graduate.</a>’ ” The tchphrase of “Nip/Tuck” was “Tell me what you don’t like about yourself.” Even at FX, whose print, John Landgraf, was eager to nurture trs, Murphy fought wh his boss nstantly. He spent hours batg Landgraf about the lims of good taste (unrstandably: one “Nip/Tuck” plot was about a yogi mandg a penis rctn bee he uldn’t stop fellatg himself). “Nip/Tuck” got terrific ratgs, but Murphy bridled when some viewers saw him as glamorizg plastic surgery. He believed that he was sendg a femist msage by “hidg the vegetabl the tton ndy,” he told me.</p><p class="paywall">In 2008, toward the end of “Nip/Tuck” ’s n, Murphy filmed a labor of love—“Pretty/Handsome,” a pilot about a closeted trans gynelogist, played by Joseph Fienn, who liv Darien, Connecticut, wh his wife and kids. This was six years before “<a href=">Transparent</a>,” long before trans activism beme a mastream cultural force. In the pilot, Fienn treats a married uple: a trans man, played by Dot-Marie Jon, and a trans woman, played by Alexandra Billgs, who later appeared on “Transparent.” The pilot was kky and origal, laced wh the dark humor of “Nip/Tuck” but humanistic beneath s arch surfac. FX passed. Murphy didn’t speak to Landgraf for ten months.</p><p class="paywall">Yet this failure was soon followed by the Fox seri “Glee,” which, 2009, transformed Murphy to not merely a shownner but a full-on celebry. The show was a high-school mil that put queer kids, weird girls, and unrdogs the lead rol. Its mil sequenc—football players, tights, dancg to Beyoncé—beme inic. “Glee” had the surreal verve of “Popular,” renred more heartfelt, a bean to oddballs everywhere. Both “Nip/Tuck” and “Glee” ran for multiple seasons, and had tense fan bas, but they also flew off the rails: “Nip/Tuck” beme a Grand Guignol s twists; “Glee” got preachy and self-dulgent. As Brad Falch told me, “We do such amazg Seasons 1 and 2. It’s Season 3 that terrifi me.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="u6z347"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">In 2011, Murphy, feelg nstraed by the teen-beat rhythms of “Glee,” h on a radil scheme for a new show. Called “Amerin Horror Story,” would be set a hnted hoe L.A.; the plot would rolve after one season, wh all the characters ad, then reboot, restg many of the actors new rol. Intuively, he’d solved the stctural problem that had plagued even his strongt creatns. Now each story uld end—even unhappily. The first season, known as “Murr Hoe,” was fiantly strange, wh a miserable married uple, a black-leather-sued gimp, Jsi Lange as a glamoro mother of monsters, and a ghostly maid who swched between lookg like a young tramp and an old crone. It evoked “Rosemary’s Baby” and other social-mentary horror movi of the sixti. It also revived Lange’s reer—and, over time, Murphy built a repertory pany of stars, many of them olr women, such as Kathy Bat and Angela Bassett, or openly gay performers like Zachary Quto and Sarah Plson.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-3 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">But crics, particularly onle, treated “Murr Hoe” as outré junk. (The <em>Guardian</em> lled “<a href=">the Marme of TV shows</a>”—the kd of thg you eher loved or loathed.) When the seri was beg pched, s slogan was “the Hoe always ws,” but, rather than stick wh the hnted-hoe ncept, Murphy and his partners, Brad Falch and the wrer Tim Mear, rebooted the settg as well. Season 2, “Asylum,” was set a mid-century mental hospal n by nuns. It was a tic masterpiece, a pulp manifto nouncg the stutnal torture of sexual mori by the ernment, the Church, and the medil tablishment. The show featured a whip-wieldg nun, rnival pheads, a closeted-lbian vtigative journalist, and a serial killer wh Holot lampshas. It got a better receptn than “Murr Hoe,” but was still treated as a cursy, particularly by viewers who expected a purer mp experience. In the <em>Tim</em>, Mike Hale <a href=">plaed</a>, “ ‘Asylum’ would be better off if Briarcliff Manor had more furnure for [the actors] to chew.”</p><p class="paywall">In 2014, FX aired an anthology show by Noah Hawley, “<a href=">Fargo,</a>” a reterpretatn of the Coen brothers’ <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">movie</a>. It was betiful but empty, as vlent as “Amerin Horror Story” but more misogynist. Yet “Fargo” was anoted the bt show of the year—and, on ocsn, celebrated ton suggtg that had revived the anthology mol. A 2015 <em>Wall Street Journal</em> <a href=">article</a> on the trend mentns Murphy’s work only passg, argug that the “format’s broar promise paid off” wh “Fargo” and HBO’s “<a href=">Te Detective.</a>” Murphy repeatedly suffered such slights his reer, as his work was eclipsed by that of people he dismiss as “dowdy, middle-aged, whe-male shownners wrg about dowdy, middle-aged, whe-male antihero.” He loved “<a href=">The Sopranos,</a>” but s progeny drove him nuts. Those shows were seen as weighty, worldly, universal. His were regard as ivolo diversns.</p><p class="paywall">Murphy’s productivy only grew rponse, a kd of fiant ventivens. He often says that his drive stems om the <em class="small">AIDS</em> era. “I always thought I would die om sex,” he told me. “So I had to get more done.” But that don’t really acunt for his workaholism; there are plenty of fifty-three-year-old gay men of my acquatance who didn’t bee charismatic shownners workg seven days a week. Murphy is unapologetilly mass-market: he has no tert dog pennt films that attract small dienc. He’s proud never to have ma, as he puts , “the long Somex hour that ends gray and a faout.” For Murphy, what marks his work is the sire to pull outsir characters , to make a gay kid or a middle-aged woman a protagonist, not a sikick. But his biggt strength is his strangens, his allergy to the dully spirg and his native attractn to the angrit characters—a qualy he trac to “the Velvet Rage,” referrg to the tle of a 2005 <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">book</a> about the fury gay men feel a straight world. Although Murphy’s work shar some parallels, s humor and sexual ndor, wh that of morn female shownners like Shonda Rhim and <a href=">Jill Soloway</a>, he’s not pecially close to them. (Murphy feels that they’ve snubbed him on the ocsns when they’ve met.) His favore directors are <a href=">Steven Spielberg</a>, David Fcher, Hal Ashby, and <a href=">Mike Nichols</a>. Fcher is his role mol, he says, for his darkns and ntrol, and for the fact that he “don’t give a fuck” what people thk of him—somethg that Murphy yearns for but has not been pable of.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Ryan Murphy was born Indianapolis 1964. Many gay men of his era have awful g-out stori, volvg years of closeted self-loathg. Murphy was never “.” He was the sort of altar boy who fantasized not about the prithood but about beg the Pope. (“If I nnot rise to the top of my profsn,” he said, mimickg himself as a child, “I absolutely will not go!”) When he was four, his beloved maternal grandmother, Myrtle, and his mother, Andy, took him to see Barbra Streisand “Funny Girl.” Murphy left the cema a state of bliss. “I was, like”—he snapped his fgers and grned at the memory, imatg a prchooler havg an epiphany—“ ‘That’s ! I’m gay. And I’m gog to show bs.’ ” When he was twelve, his parents vetoed a plan to turn his bedroom to a red-pated “portal to Hell.” As a promise, he renovated as a tribute to Stud 54: cholate-brown shag rpetg, matte olive-lored walls, a mirrored ceilg, a shre to Grace Kelly.</p><p class="paywall">Murphy’s mother and father were by wh work—his mother dog rporate P.R., his father nng circulatn for a lol newspaper. Grandma Myrtle lived down the street, and the two beme a team. She’d make black-tar ffee, and Ryan would s on a stool the bathroom while she put on her face, tellg him about her favore thgs: Rudolph Valento, John Wayne, vampir. They shopped for antiqu; they had a regular date at a lol tearoom. “She had my back,” Murphy said—and he adopted her enthiasms, like the horror show “Dark Shadows.” Murphy’s parents and his brother had darker hair. He had the blond, Danish look of his maternal grandfather, who, acrdg to fay lore, was related to Hans Christian Anrsen—a claim to stardom, his view. “You’re special,” his grandmother told him. “Don’t let them tell you you’re not.”</p><p class="paywall">Myrtle’s fluence furiated his father. A tacurn Irish Catholic jock, Jim Murphy was disturbed by what he perceived as Ryan’s alien qualy. He would wake him up late at night, take him to the kchen, and ask him unanswerable qutns: “Why don’t I see myself you?” He beat him, too—somethg that was mon his neighborhood. “It was Irish workg-class Indiana,” Murphy said. “The kid down the street was also beaten, wh leather belts, for beg over curfew.” His father, though, was tryg to beat his sexualy, his difference—his taste—out of him. When Ryan was small, he stole a red high-heeled shoe om Woolworth’s; his father smacked him the face. (More reasonably, he ma him apologize to the manager.) When Ryan was ten, he watched “Gone wh the Wd” on televisn. Durg a mercial break, his father heard him recg the Wilk’s barbecue scene the bathroom and asked Ryan why he was performg the girl parts. Ryan replied, “Bee they’re the <em>better</em> parts”—and his father backhand him across the bathroom. By that pot, Ryan had veloped armor. Bshg himself off, he icily asked his father if he uld ntue watchg the movie.</p><p class="paywall">His relatnship wh his mother was different, but not much better. (Murphy par his mother to the boundary-vlatg one picted Carrie Fisher’s “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Postrds om the Edge</a>.”) He trac his obssn wh ntrol to a bad memory of a Christmas pageant which he’d been given the role of a Christmas tree. Murphy was termed to make a splash: a girl was planng an electrified outf, and he wanted to pete. Every day, he nervoly remd his mother to get a Butterick sewg pattern and the material for a stume. She reassured him that she’d done —until the day of the pageant, when she hand him a garbage bag wh armhol. Although he was only first gra, he rells havg the revelatn that he uldn’t tst anyone; he’d have to do everythg himself, or risk huiatn. His iend Bart Brown thought Murphy was exaggeratg, until later, when Brown beme close to Murphy’s parents, and got Andy to acknowledge that the cint had happened—an enormo relief to Murphy, who often felt gaslighted by his fay’s nial of past events. (Murphy’s mother told me that she remembers the story, but differently: she didn’t own a sewg mache, and was embarrassed that she wasn’t good at crafts.)</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="zfep2f"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="rj2vu7"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">At fifteen, Murphy had his first love affair, wh a man his twenti. He was a celebry to Murphy, havg starred a high-school productn of “Oklahoma!” “He had a burgundy Corvette, and he was a lifeguard, and he would pick me up, and, for our dat, we’d have Che food, and we’d go wash the r at the you-wash--yourself thg,” Murphy said. “And we’d drive around, listeng to Christopher Cross sgg ‘Sailg.’ It was the height of glamour.” That summer, when Murphy was at choir mp, his mother found a che of love letters. She asked Murphy’s boyiend over for a Coke, and, as Murphy put , “was, like, ‘<em>No, no, no.</em>’ ” Terrified, the boyiend cut off ntact. Murphy was ground, and the fay began group therapy. (Last year, Murphy looked up his old boyiend: “I said, ‘I thk about you all the time. Do you remember me?’ And he was, like, ‘Are you kiddg? I see you on TV all the time. You were so sweet.’ ”)</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“There he go—my great whe whale.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn 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type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Although Murphy raged for years about his parents’ rponse, he now has sympathy for their reactn: “I would do the same thg, no matter what the sexual orientatn of my child. A fifteen-year-old boy datg somebody who was olr? I didn’t really unrstand until I had kids.” His heartbreak also led to somethg posive. To Murphy’s surprise, the therapist listened to him and took his si: “He told my parents that I was prec and that I was smarter than they were, and that if they didn’t leave me alone I’d end up leavg town and never talkg to them aga.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-4 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Murphy turned his upbrgg to an orig myth, as we all do—and, as only some do, to art. On “Glee,” he gave his story a happy endg: one plotle, a workg-class dad learns to love his Broadway-obssed gay son. On “Pose,” there’s a ls happy versn of the nflict: a teen-age boy, a talented dancer, gets beaten by his father wh a belt, and their break seems irreparable. In real life, when Murphy’s father died, 2011, at the age of seventy-three, the two were still largely tranged, but Murphy ma sure that he got excellent medil re. On his athbed, his father sent Murphy a letter of apology. Murphy uld read only half of before stuffg a kchen drawer.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">In New York, November, “Pose” was full gear. On a wdy Brooklyn pier, as “A’t Noth’ Go’ On But the Rent” boomed, Murphy filmed dancers vogug acid-washed jackets and Kangol hats. “Yasss!” he yelled. “Use your space!” Murphy lov the ld. He was wearg a fx-fur parka and rgo pants wh thigh panels ma of purple plastic.</p><p class="paywall">Near some footage monors, Steven Canals, the show’s -creator, showed me an <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">article</a> that he’d been readg on Paste: “Paris Is Still Burng: What if We Loved Black Queers as Much as We Love/Steal om Black Queer Culture?” Canals grew up the Bronx and spent a as a llege admistrator before gog to film school. His partner, the artist Hans Kuzmich, is trans. “Sometim I n be a ltle ant, as a queer person of lor,” Canals told me, about the wrers’ room. “I don’t have the luxury to take those inti off.” He was exhsted after plottg out scripts wh a team of four: the Ain-Amerin trans thor and activist Ja Mock; the “Transparent” wrer Our Lady J, who is whe and trans; Murphy; and Falch, who is whe and straight. When Canals first met Murphy, he raised ncerns: would Murphy treat the characters “Pose” as full people, not jok or eaks? Murphy got , Canals said: “I knew that I was not gog to be jt a brown body the room.”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy approached.</p><p class="paywall">“Hello, Mutha,” Canals said.</p><p class="paywall">“Hello, child,” Murphy said.</p><p class="paywall">Murphy is “the mother of the Hoe of Murphy,” Canals joked. “He’s super-regal, but he don’t have a bougie attu. It’s <em>ground</em> fabulosy.”</p><p class="paywall">In the pilot script, Blan, an ialistic member of the fictnal Hoe of Abundance, is sick of havg her ias stolen by her hoe mother, the imper Elektra, and starts a rival hoe. Sce I’d read , chang had been ma: Tmp was out, replaced by a kehead Tmp Organizatn executive, played by Jam Van Der Beek. “Nobody wants to see that fuckhead,” Murphy said of Tmp, swattg his hand as if bshg off a fly.</p><p class="paywall">Even whout a role the show, Tmp was pable. He had tweeted out a ban on trans people servg the ary; reports soon emerged that the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn had barred employe om g the word “transgenr” official documents. Murphy knew that “Pose” would receive polil scty—a prendn for any seri about such a vulnerable muny. “Paris Is Burng” was cricized for explog s subjects; Jill Soloway, the creator of “Transparent,” was unr fire for stg Jefey Tambor a trans role; even the beloved RuPl soon sparked phback for suggtg he might not allow trans women on “RuPl’s Drag Race.” “You n’t unrtimate the power of social media to <em>shame</em> a bs,” Murphy said.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-5 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">He generally nsirs this a good thg: phenomena like Black Twter have goad TV to beg smarter about race and power. Some of his other shows had been cricized as sensive, cludg “Coven,” a voodoo-drenched season of “Amerin Horror Story” set New Orleans. Murphy was termed that “Pose” be above reproach: thentic, clive, nonexploative. The show, he bragged, had a hundred and eight trans st or crew members, and thirty-one L.G.B.T.Q. characters. It employed trans directors, too, cludg Silas Howard, om “Transparent.” Murphy was givg his profs to pro-trans . On a promotnal panel, Murphy put Canals, Mock, and the actrs the ont row, not Van Der Beek. “It’s televisn as advocy,” Murphy said. “I want to put my money where my mouth is.”</p><p class="paywall">Meanwhile, nflict was emanatg om an unexpected angle. Jennie Livgston, the director of “Paris Is Burng,” felt exclud om the procs. It was a msy suatn, likely flected by Murphy’s ncerns about the optics of beg associated wh another whe creator. After much wranglg, Murphy gave her a paid nsultg-producer cred and the opportuny to direct if the show was renewed. But maybe a flarp of this sort was to be expected. Debat about who owned what had always been central to the ballroom scene. The performers strove for “realns,” dog flawls imatns of <em>Vogue</em> vers and “Dynasty” divas, stum often procured by shopliftg. (The pilot of “Pose” featur a hilar dramatizatn of a legendary heist of Danish royal fery om a New York mm.) The dancers’ mov were, turn, stolen—or celebrated, pendg on one’s perspective—by the mastream world, wh Madonna, the emprs of appropriatn, transformg the subculture to a trend. In the “Pose” pilot, Elektra livers a speech that serv as a sly fense of this kd of magpie creativy: “Jt bee you have an ia do not mean you know how to properly execute ! Ias are <em>gredients</em>. Only a real mother knows how to prepare them.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="06gjtq"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">The stg ssns for “Pose” had unsettled Murphy: many of the trans actors lacked health surance and bank acunts; nearly all had stori about sexual vlence. But he didn’t want to make the show too grty or downbeat. Charmed by the “butterfly” lovels of his st, he was terted “leang to romance stead of gradatn”—and makg somethg hopeful and “aspiratnal.” “Pose,” he theorized, might even be fay-iendly, somethg that was a ltle hard to image about a seri that clud scen at the Tim Square sex emporium Show World.</p><p class="paywall">Often, talkg about “Pose” led Murphy to reveri about “Glee,” another show that had been signed to give queer kids characters they uld root for. “Agast all odds, the quote-unquote ‘fag mil’ beme a billn-dollar brand,” Murphy relled. More than once, he asked me if he should revive “Glee.” “The power of , the power of beg able to show youth and joy,” he med. “I would much prefer to live worlds like that.”</p><p class="paywall">In midtown, I’d seen an dn of a morn ballroom “In,” Domique Jackson, who read for Elektra. In the scene, Elektra has her nails done by her rebel “child,” Blan, whose polil activism she fds absurd. “You’re a regular transvte Norma Rae,” Jackson sneered, her cheekbon sharp as kniv.</p><p class="paywall">Jackson, a trans mol who appeared on the realy show “Stt,” was born Tobago and left home 1990, at the age of fifteen. When she went through her genr transn, her mother, who is relig, “took a step back,” she said, softly, addg, “Right now, I have to love her om a distance.” Jackson’s ballroom elrs end up raisg her, back when she was a homels immigrant dog sex work. Jackson, turn, had mothered more than thirty “children.” She spoke fondly of elrs om the scene before hip-hop’s ascendance, elegant queens who lived ckroach-fted apartments but put on full ntour makp for a trip to the grocery store: “It was really like a Caribbean fay—they never let you know the real thg of what was happeng.”</p><p class="paywall">“You’re so amazg, and a star,” Murphy said. Elektra, he told her, was his favore role—the one he acted out the wrers’ room.</p><p class="paywall">Before Jackson left, she thanked Murphy for “Amerin Horror Story: Coven,” particularly for a scene which a wch named Myrtle cri out “Balenciaga!” durg her ath thro. Falch and Mear had wrten a lot of the show, Murphy told her, but that moment was all him. “I knew that people would love ,” he told her. “Bee that’s what I would say if I was burned at the stake.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Murphy’s first celebri were nuns. Every year, his fay ved one to tag along, their green Pto, on their vatn to St. Petersburg, Florida. When night fell, Murphy would terview the “nun du jour”: “Have you ever kissed a boy?”; “Do you thk you’ll go to Hell?” He was ptivated by their fashn. In the wake of Vatin II, some experimented wh a half-p or a shorter skirt, but others still wore a full hab.</p><p class="paywall">The wannabe Pope steeped himself Catholic ruals, gazg at the staed-glass wdows of St. Simon the Apostle Church Indianapolis, marvellg at stori of sats eatg lice or sbs. “Then I read that the Pope had the cleant, purt heart the world, so I would practice,” he said. “And I would wake up and say, ‘How long n I go whout mtg any s whatsoever?’ And I would last, like, three hours. I uldn’t wa to say somethg bchy or eat somethg I wasn’t supposed to, or have impure thoughts about boys. So I quickly abandoned that.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-6 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Instead, he pursued journalism, a field that wel all the impuls. He had been accepted by a film school California, but his parents’ e was too high for him to receive fancial aid, and although his mother and father gave his brother, Darren, tun money, they told Ryan that he was strong enough to make on his own. He obtaed a journalism gree at Indiana Universy while workg three jobs, cludg sellg sho at a mall, and aggrsively pursug newspaper ternships. On his first day as a crime reporter, Tennsee, he ma the disastro cisn to wear a whe su, Tom Wolfe-style, to a murr scene. At the Miami <em>Herald</em>, he suated himself to the Styl partment and wrote a profile of Meryl Streep, sistg that the newspaper pay for the rights to an Annie Leibovz photograph. (The other terns hated him.) At the Washgton <em>Post</em>, his lleagu’ reactn was equally poor when he rejected what he nsired dull assignments, sayg, “No. I want Bob Woodward to be my mentor!” Neverthels, he relished the opportuny to be near Stephanie Mansfield, a poison-pen profiler who’d “sweep , all ambn, smellg feme and amazg.”</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Why Mr. Conly I do believe youre tryg to get me hydrated.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“Why, Mr. Conly, I do believe you’re tryg to get me hydrated.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 8.34782C8.432 10.22 9.08751 12.6141 11.0007 13.6949C11.1888 13.8012 11.382 13.8908 11.5785 13.9642C11.7819 14.0403 12.0058 13.9485 12.1147 13.764C12.2794 13.4849 12.1103 13.1276 11.8083 12.9992C11.7041 12.9549 11.6014 12.9044 11.5007 12.8475C10.0658 12.0368 9.57417 10.2413 10.4026 8.83712L12.4026 5.44715C13.2311 4.04298 15.0658 3.56187 16.5007 4.37257C17.9356 5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 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class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">There were missed opportuni, here and there, for the glamoro life. Durg llege, he flew to New York to terview for a <em>Rollg Stone</em> ternship. Cha-smokg Kools, he wore a lavenr WilliWear tank top, and was so emaciated that, as he puts , he “looked Biaan.” He got the job, but was unpaid, so Murphy uldn’t take . He spent the night wh a wealthy acquatance, whose boyiend ught Murphy their bed: there was drama, and a claratn of love. Murphy still wonrs if he should have taken the opportuny to be a kept man—the exprs lane to the “whe penthoe apartment” he longed for.</p><p class="paywall">Instead, he land L.A., beg a prolific, wty eelancer for newspapers and magaz, cludg <em>Entertament Weekly</em>. In 1990, he wrote for the Miami <em>Herald</em> a plex profile of a tetchy Jsi Lange, llg her “tungsten beneath silk.” He terviewed Cher so many tim that she grew ncerned. At the time, he was livg wh Bill Condon, a filmmaker who, two years after they broke up, won a bt-screenplay Osr for the movie “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Gods and Monsters</a>.” Murphy felt like a stifled hoehband, submergg his ambn garn sign and dner parti. As an pe plan, 1995, he wrote a romantic edy, “Why Can’t I Be Audrey Hepburn?” He sold the screenplay to Steven Spielberg. Many major actrs read for the lead.</p><p class="paywall">In their garn, Murphy relled, “I signed this outdoor ge where we had the lovebirds.” He went on, “And I me home, and Bill was the back yard, and I looked the ge. And the lovebirds were lled Augte and Harlow, and Harlow was gone, and I was, like, ‘What happened?’ And he said, ‘I went to clean the ge, and she flew away.’ And I was, like, <em>That’s my sign.</em> And I turned around, and I got my r, and I drove to the Chate Marmont, and I checked and I lived there for six months—until my bs person said, ‘You’ve spent every dime and you have to leave.’ So that was the begng of my Hollywood reer.” Condon remembers the end pot differently: while visg Laguna Beach wh Murphy, Condon got ught a ripti—and when he thought he saw a flash of hatn on Murphy’s face, as if he might let him drown, he knew that the relatnship was over.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="4wmmxt"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="da1t8a"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Spielberg never ma the movie, but Murphy was undnted. “He exud this air of certaty that I had never really wnsed Hollywood before,” his iend Bart Brown said. “Not arrogance—nfince. But he had no poker face. He uldn’t disguise himself. Right away, I was, like, ‘Who is this guy?’ ”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">In early December, at the Connelly Theatre, on East Fourth Street, Murphy filmed the ballroom petns, some of which had ma-up them, such as “Weather Girl.” A panel of judg sat on the rickety stage, among them Legends om “Paris Is Burng” and a dancer om the “Vogue” vio. They held up signs: “10,” “10,” “10.” It was a joyful, anarchic atmosphere: even the wrers kept breakg out dance petns. Domique Jackson was all glammed up, sg, a poofy yellow hat: she’d won the role of Elektra. While she was dog a big monologue, Murphy threw her a new le that got lghs: “My first le as queen will be to brg back the guillote!”</p><p class="paywall">One afternoon, Murphy, who was wearg a “Sa” baseball hat, sisted on playg nothg but Sa, even when Canals and Mock begged for Dty’s Child. While he was the ballroom givg the actors not, the <em>Tim</em> posted s latt exposé of Harvey Weste’s serial abe of women; focsed on the <a href=">“plicy mache”</a> enablg him, cludg agents at C.A.A. When Canals, stg near a bank of monors, read the name of Bryan Lourd, one of Murphy’s agents, he gasped and held up his phone to show Murphy’s assistant. Lourd had cled to ment to the <em>Tim</em> on whether he had known of Weste’s alleged abe of women, cg client nfintialy.</p><p class="paywall">Murphy sat down and read the article. When I asked him for his reactn, he said, simply, “I’m loyal to my iends,” then add that he didn’t believe that any of his agents would facilate abe. Lourd was the father of one of Murphy’s stars, Billie Lourd; Gwyh Paltrow, one of Weste’s accers, was a close iend of Murphy’s, and was engaged to Brad Falch. Murphy had fally ma to Hollywood’s re; now lava was pourg out.</p><p class="paywall">None of the #MeToo revelatns were tly shockg, Murphy told me, if you knew your history. It was the dank unrsi of the “razzle-dazzle”—systemic abe that had been romanticized as “the stg uch.” Murphy had his own #MeToo stori. When he was young, an olr boy had molted him; as an adult, he’d been h by an ex-boyiend. We spoke about the sndal-sheet stori that had shadowed the young st of “Glee”: suici, a hero overdose, charg for domtic battery and for posssg child pornography. He exprsed regret for the tensy of the environment, but no surprise. “It’s sad, but ’s also Hollywood,” he said. “Nobody here bee they’re healthy. Nobody, nobody I know, was parented well who is a succsful Hollywood person. Or who’s willg to endure that. You’re jt tryg to fill up some huge hole.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-7 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Personal loyalti asi, he was grimly satisfied by the chang the air—even, at tim, exhilarated. He was certaly not sorry to see the straight-male lears of his dtry fallg down: the bad-boy director Jam Toback; the slob-ic Louis C.K., Murphy’s fellow-tr at FX, whom he found uniendly. “The whole pot is to brg the next group of people,” he said. “Kick all the old whe fucks out and brg the new people.”</p><p class="paywall">All the people on the “Pose” set had projects their pockets. Silas Howard, the director, told me about a great ia for a punk-rock road-trip movie set the neti. Ja Mock had a pch for “a trans ‘Felicy.’ ” Everyone wanted to get heard and get fund.</p><p class="paywall">Durg a pse filmg, Murphy and Mock talked about Murphy’s sire for “Pose” to be aspiratnal. What uld that word mean for characters who had often led paful liv?</p><p class="paywall">Murphy said, “We’ve shot a lot of scen that are emotnally very dark—”</p><p class="paywall">Mock broke , “But you do want to see Blan have a moment of happs and glamour and have her posg and be victor.”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy turned to me. “Ja and I were talkg earlier,” he said. “And I was, like, ‘I don’t thk we should kill people on the show—I love them too much.’ And she was, like, ‘You almost have a rponsibily to csh your dience. To say, “You love them? Well, look what’s happened when you don’t get volved.” ’ ”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy had told me that he lik his wrers’ rooms to be pragmatic. But the “Pose” room was host to raw nfsns about surgil transns and “survival sex”—“ep, third-level” nversatns, as Canals put , that helped them create story l. Murphy’s rellectn of his father smackg him for shopliftg a red shoe end up the third episo. The challenge was to make those experienc f the ntext of the eighti, among characters who likely had a different social-jtice amework than that of their creators, and who might intify as drag queens or female impersonators, and not as trans. And, as wh any story signed to send a msage, there was a risk of crossg the le between upliftg and didactic.</p><p class="paywall">Mock told me, “In my ey, an ‘aspiratnal’ piece is not jt the glter; ’s the qutn of how do the characters e their creativy to fill gaps their liv—to be bridg for each other a world where there are no safety s.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Early his reer, Murphy gaed a reputatn the prs as a ntrol eak, all zgers and sha. He viewed this perceptn, not rrectly, as homophobic, but he also knew that he’d helped create . To journalists, he played the glamour monster: “Rarefied. Superficial. Interted money and fame and cloth and not—I wouldn’t really let anybody to my heart.” When he was preparg to publicize “The People v. O. J. Simpson,” John Landgraf, of FX, told him to drop the snob act, and he has tried to do so, although his attempts to be down-to-earth n be funny. (“Now I uld give a fuck—give me a black Jam Perse T-shirt and I’m good.”) He n’t expla his behavr. “I mean, why did I wear a whe three-piece su to a crime scene? <em>Why</em>? I was at that pot more terted faça. And ntrollg somethg. And then, I thk, a lot changed when I had kids, and I was, like, ‘Fuck, I n’t ntrol anythg.’ ”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy still savors aspects of his old reputatn: a show is only as good as s villa, he told the “Pose” wrers, who ll him Elektra. He rmed me that he’s a temperamental triple Srp—a warng that doubled as a brag. Murphy is a fan of the Real Hoewiv anchise, and is iendly wh many of s stars. He so ador Norma Dmond, the agg diva of “Sunset Boulevard,” that he jok about wantg to direct episos while g only her l. He has disda for the screenwrer whose body is found floatg Dmond’s pool. “It’s like ‘Good, he served .’ He lied to her. He should’ve told her the tth about that script. And he should’ve ma the script good!”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-8 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Murphy is aware that his “relentls output” is sometim viewed wh spicn. “The word ‘prolific’ is a dirty word, like ‘mp,’ ” he said. “Like, ‘Why n’t he be like David Chase and do one thg?’ ” Murphy is both sensive to cricism and sensive to the cricism that he’s sensive to cricism. He tri to avoid reviews but knows the name of every TV cric. When the wrer Miriam Bale wrote a femist crique of “Fd,” then tweeted, “I want to h Ryan Murphy over the head w/ a n of Bon Ami” (a “Mommie Deart” reference), he obtaed her e-mail addrs and asked her to give him a ll. He was astound by my suggtn that this was manipulative. He is nvced that if reviewers knew him personally, they’d be more sympathetic to his work. This is te, but ’s also crazy.</p><p class="paywall">Murphy’s method of simultaneoly overseeg multiple shows is unual, no doubt, but energy begets energy. He is tensely anized, wh a plan for each hour: if you jt do one small thg after another, he told me, you n create somethg immaculate and immense. He don’t get lds, he said; every few weeks, he has an I.V. drip of vams. And though he brims wh ias—I once wnsed him unfurlg a tly nutty subplot, for “The Polician,” volvg Mossad agents—wrg is not his existential passn, as is for some TV creators. He’s no keyboard trovert; he’s a rgmaster who lov spreadsheets. He’s a self-sabotr, too, visg the perfect marketg mpaign, then alienatg crics wh a blast of htr. “I have a hubris problem,” he told me, wh huy. “I keep thkg that I’m past , but I’m not past .”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy is also a llector, wh an eye for the timelit ia, the bt story to optn. Many of his shows origate as a spec script or as some other source material. (Murphy owned the rights to the memoir “Orange Is the New Black” before <a href=">Jenji Kohan</a> did, if you want to image an alternative history of televisn.) “Glee” grew out of a script by Ian Brennan; “Fd” began as a screenplay by Jaffe Cohen and Michael Zam. The scripts then get their DNA radilly altered and replited Murphy’s lab, retooled wh his them and his knack for idsyncratic stg. He generally directs the first episo or two. He’s ft wh tl. Durg an edg meetg for “Pose,” he issued two dozen not: cut half the dialogue, sert a wir street shot. The show’s executive producer, Alexis Mart Woodall, told him that the edor would need three days to make the chang. “No,” Murphy said. Woodall explaed that the edor’s newborn baby was the hospal. Murphy’s ey wined. He granted the extensn, then rattled off exactg, well-tentned advice about antibtics and the flu season. “Listen to Dr. Murphy! That baby needs to live through March!” he announced, leavg everyone slightly flabbergasted.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Wa—were fightg right”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“Wa—we’re fightg, right?”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" 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16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">“<a href=">Amerin Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson</a>,” which aired 2016, was the first Murphy productn to receive a perfectly sexy blend of high ratgs, cril rav, Emmys, and tellectual prtige. He had been huntg for material after HBO cled to pick up “Open,” a sexually graphic pilot about polyamory; his agent Joe Cohen alerted him to a miseri about the Simpson se, which Fox had been velopg wh the screenwrg team of Larry Karaszewski and Stt Alexanr, until an executive change left the project limbo. Murphy’s name got the show an all-star st and a big budget. “He was lendg his mache,” Karaszewski told me, although he noted that he and Alexanr had wrten the first two scripts and outled the next four. Na Jabson, one of the show’s producers, scribed a eper volvement. Murphy, she said, had agated for emotnal directns; among other thgs, he’d zeroed on a few l of dialogue about Johnnie Cochran beg racially profiled by ps, and turned to a full scene.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="9e67eq"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Murphy n be touchy about the acclaim that the seri received, scribg s succs, dismissively, ad-speak: “It’s that rare four-quadrant show. You feel like you’re eatg Doros, but the vams are htg.” He add, “The only part of ‘O.J.’ that was tly me was Marcia Clark. But was an experiment nstrat, and that was the si of me that crics love the most—when ’s the si of me that I love the <em>least</em>.”</p><p class="paywall">His multaskg benefs greatly om the eedoms of ble and streamg: he has zero nostalgia for the twenty-two-episo work grd of a show like “Glee,” which “halfway through Episo 15 you had nothg left to say, the actors were sick, the wrers were sick, and was fuckg oatmeal until the end.” He favors eight or ten episos, often wh a small wrers’ room, as wh “Pose.” He wr scripts for some shows, whereas for others he giv not; on a few projects, like his HBO adaptatn of Larry Kramer’s play “<a href=">The Normal Heart</a>,” he’s very hands-on. “We left blood on the dance floor,” Murphy said, affectnately, of his three-year llaboratn wh Kramer. “Versace” had one wrer, Tom Rob Smh. But Murphy provid close directorial, sign, and stg oversight, and he had a strong mment to the show’s them, particularly the ntrast between Versace and Cunanan, two gay men cravg succs, but only one willg to work for .</p><p class="paywall">Murphy do have a bad hab of sloughg off ownership when ’s nvenient. I asked him about a plat agast “Glee” by the mician Jonathan Coulton, whose atic reterpretatn of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” was imated, whout cred, on the seri. (Coulton is a iend of me.) Murphy said that he was barely volved “Glee” by then, and had left up to Fox’s legal partment. He did say that he would handle the matter differently now: “There’s a difference between what’s legal and what’s ethil.”</p><p class="paywall">Even as Murphy has matured, he n still be a temptuo figure. A black-and-whe thker, he cuts ti wh people when he feels betrayed: 2015, he end his profsnal relatnship wh one of his olst iends, Dante Di Loreto, who was the print of Ryan Murphy Televisn. At the same time, Murphy has tablished a profound timacy wh his clost lleagu, often by strengtheng relatnships that began as “two srpns a hatbox”—his grandmother Myrtle’s exprsn. It’s his own Hoe of Abundance.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-9 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Falch and Murphy ll themselv brothers. Murphy scrib Landgraf, his “Nip/Tuck” antagonist, as his surrogate father. And Landgraf clearly views Murphy a paternal light, to the pot that if what he said about him were prted would sound sappy. (Landgraf may be the one TV executive who swells wh pri at how effectively his protégé risted his not.) Siarly, Murphy was once quoted as sayg that his ar iend Dana Waln—the head of Fox Televisn Group, and the godmother of Murphy’s children—had “properly mothered” him. “I was very offend!” she said, lghg. “I’m twenty-eight days olr than him.”</p><p class="paywall">Unlike most TV wrers, Murphy remas unambiguoly fascated by celebry, savorg events like the Met Ball, where he was thrilled to be manhandled by a tipsy Madonna. His wrer Tim Mear joked that Murphy’s “What’s the sop?” le is an unrmg nversatnal cue: “You jt had dner wh Lady Gaga—<em>that’s</em> the sop!” But Murphy also simply lov actors, and roots for their succs. Murphy lled Jonathan Groff after the début of his new seri for Netflix, “Mdhunter,” and got weepy, thrilled that Groff, who is openly gay, had been st a role that had “electric and real” heterosexual sex scen. Sarah Plson is grateful for the “rare sunshe” that Murphy has st on her reer, givg her a wild range of rol, om njoed tws to Marcia Clark. Plson has fond memori of filmg one of the most darg scen “Asylum”: a btal nversn-therapy sequence which her character, a lbian, masturbated while receivg electric shocks. “It jt don’t occur to me to say no to him,” she said. “It’s a superpower of his.”</p><p class="paywall">On ocsn, Murphy fantasized to me about takg a break: perhaps he would take a two-month vatn, or legate more to others. But, January, on the day he received the Norman Lear Achievement Award, we had bnch at Barneys Beverly Hills—at his regular table, the center of the room—and he acknowledged that would likely never happen. After havg children, he said, “I thought I would bee much ls driven and lmer, stay at home and make a stl. No, I beme even more sane and driven by a missn.” It remd him of somethg he’d once read about a man who uldn’t wa to turn thirty, when he’d be ls terted sex, and then, as he aged, kept changg the number—to forty, then fifty. “My sexual passns are not that big,” Murphy said. “But that ia of wag for somethg to die down, or at least go om a rollg boil to a simmer, is somethg I’ve looked forward to my whole life, and ’s never happened. And I’ve jt cid I’ll jt go to my grave wh that thg.”</p><p class="paywall">His anger hadn’t fully dissolved, eher. “The thg that I get the most angry about is beg misunrstood,” he told me. “And about ntrol—the ep wounds. Everythg else—eh. But I have a very volnic, quick temper. So sometim I’ll jt be as lm as a placid lake for six weeks and, sudnly, out of nowhere, there’s this roar that out, and is like droppg a nuclear bomb. And I’m aware when I’m dog , and people are”—he wined his ey, pulled back—“plastered up agast the wall. And when ’s done I feel like I’ve released somethg, and I’m, like, ‘Let’s go back to !’ And they’re, like, ‘What?’ But I’ve had that sce I was a child. The eptns were much more equent. I’m not proud of , but ’s also—that’s who I am.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="38x2j"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="5q1jyk"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">He’d had a nflict that week wh a lleague. “I’m, like, ‘I’m not mad at you at all.’ It’s like that scene ‘Mommie Deart’ where Joan Crawford yells at the maid, ‘I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at the dirt.’ ” It disturbed him, however, that he timidated people. “I thk that they nfe my geic ldns, beg a Danish person, for sctizg them some way.” The higher he’s climbed, the more aware he’s bee of how easy is to abe power. He told me that he’s termed to raise others up, particularly those who felt as exclud as he had. He worried, sometim, that crics were right about his early work: perhaps <em>had</em> lacked “soulfulns,” and he’d gone too hard for shock value. When I praised the filmic technique of a rape scene “Asylum,” he told me that he would never make somethg like that now; beg a father had changed his tolerance for vlence. “I jt don’t want to put that the world,” he said.</p><p class="paywall">At the same time, he knew that he wouldn’t be where he was whout havg fought for what he wanted. “I’m very aware that if you take out your bad mood on people who have no equy you’re kd of an asshole,” he said. “But I also don’t thk you bee succsful, particularly Hollywood, whout havg the abily to yell, loudly, ‘This is not what I want!’ ”</p><p class="paywall">Falch said that had been part of his “life journey” to learn om Murphy’s more assertive style of masculy—his abily to ph past ristance orr to achieve his visn. Falch was cur to see how the Netflix al might change Murphy. “We still have nversatns about ‘fds’ and ‘fatwas,’ as he lls them, wh people. I’m, like, ‘Is there a place for fivens? Are we at war wh Eastasia?’ But he needs an enemy to fuel him.” Falch don’t md if his name isn’t on everyone’s lips. “If I was someone who did want that, I wouldn’t be workg wh Ryan—there’s no room for two of him there,” he said. “I have a great life. I go home every day happy, happy, happy.” Falch wish only for Murphy to feel the same way: “I would love if he uld enjoy his succs more.”</p><p class="paywall">Bart Brown, Murphy’s old iend, told me charmg stori about Murphy at his least guard—riffg on Melanie songs, takg road trips up the California ast. Murphy’s self-nfince helped Brown fight his own self-loathg, Brown said. After years of workg Hollywood, Brown, a bohemian wh a beard, has bee an “tuive”—an emotnal healer. “We’re surprisgly unkd to one another,” he said of the gay men of L.A. “In this generatn, I thk we are all a ltle damaged.” He fds particularly wonrful to see Murphy take joy havg a fay, somethg that once seemed like an impossible dream for gay men. “David grounds him,” he said. “Which is a good thg, bee his reer is not slowg down.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">David Miller’s romance wh Murphy began 2010, more than fifteen years to their iendship. They were both New York at the time, and Miller asked him to dner, sayg, “I want a <em>date</em>.” Murphy ncelled his plans. “It was kd of like—I don’t want to say, ‘Game on,’ but we knew what was up, bee we’d flirted over the years,” Miller told me. “We were at an age where we were both ser about wantg a relatnship, wantg children.”</p><p class="paywall">The two had met 1996, at a Wt Hollywood Adjacent rtrant lled Me, a stylish hangout for gay men durg an era when people had to stay closeted at work. Bryan Lourd was often there, as was Madonna. Miller, who grew up L.A., was awed by Murphy’s swagger: he didn’t re who knew he was gay. By the time they got together romantilly, they’d seen each other’s lowt moments. They were married, 2012, on the beach Provcetown, wh jt an officiant prent. Miller has a tattoo on his lf pictg a lighthoe and the weddg date, July 4th.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-10 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Miller, an athletic wboy type, barely regniz celebri, and r very much about sports. He once took Murphy to a football game; Murphy wore a Tom Ford overat and read <em>Vogue</em> the whole time. Miller’s own path to self-acceptance ran through rehab; he hardly remembers the neti, which, he said, is a blsg. Dana Waln lled Miller a “cent, soulful person” who is well matched wh Murphy, part, bee he has no tert seizg the spotlight.</p><p class="paywall">The year they married, Murphy produced a Norman Lear-style s loosely based on their liv, “The New Normal,” which lasted only a season, on NBC. At first, Miller was wary of havg their liv portrayed. But as he watched the show—which featured their Burme dogs and their Range Rover but only specks of their te selv—he changed his md. In retrospect, Miller wish that the show had been more tobgraphil, makg the emotnal world of one gay uple accsible to a larger dience.</p><p class="paywall">Six months after they were married, they had Logan, through a birth surrogate. He is a funny, bossy, volno-lovg boy who trailed after Murphy and me durg a tour of their Los Angel hoe, eager to show me a view of his favore tree. In 2015, Murphy and Miller had Ford, a quiet, watchful child. As an fant, he had trouble breathg, leadg to a vis om first rponrs, an cint that helped spire “9-1-1.” When Ford was eighteen months old, Miller took him for a route checkup. The doctor found a mass the size of a tennis ball Ford’s abdomen. Miller lled Murphy, who raced over.</p><p class="paywall">After Murphy heard the news, he vomed, and uldn’t stop all day long. He had never experienced such a loss of ntrol. Eventually, Miller lled a nurse, so that Murphy uld be rehydrated. “When you hear your son has ncer, your first thought is of ath,” Miller said. The uple was lucky: Ford’s tumor, a nroblastoma, hadn’t spread, and after surgery he didn’t need radiatn or chemo. But there were two anx years of sns and follow-ups. “I’m jt glad I was sober,” Miller said. “I n’t image gog through whout havg a clear head.”</p><p class="paywall">Aware of their good fortune as wealthy parents, they have fund a floor at Children’s Hospal Los Angel, which, Miller said, don’t “turn anybody back, surance or not.” Inially, Murphy kept the story private, but then they cid that uld be helpful to other fai if they talked about . “It jt tak the stigma out of ,” Miller said. “To realize, ‘Oh, other people are gog through this.’ You see hope. Jt bee your child has this don’t mean he is gog to die.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Murphy’s Los Angel home, a Spanish Colonial formerly owned by Diane Keaton, has ep shelv for the art and sign books—about Tian, Goya, Damien Hirst—that he nsults for spiratn. In a livg room, there is a Doug Aken piece lled “Buffalo”; a Keh Harg patg is mounted over Murphy and Miller’s bed; an erotic Ruven Afanador photograph is tucked near the bathroom, away om the fay area. Each morng, Murphy mak his bed, meticuloly, a rual that he’s performed sce childhood. (He often mak Logan’s bed, too, bee his son argued that his father has more fun dog .) The fay will soon move to the place that Murphy has been renovatg—a sprawlg ranch hoe wh plenty of whe space. Their current neighborhood is too central, Murphy told me: tourist b go by. A famo gay uple wh children is a target.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="How Ryan Murphy Beme the Most Powerful Man TV" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 8.34782C8.432 10.22 9.08751 12.6141 11.0007 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13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Miller and I leafed through their weddg album while Murphy watched “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Willy Wonka & the Cholate Factory</a>” wh Logan. When Murphy reëmerged, I proposed that we look at his father’s letter, somethg he’d suggted dog a few days earlier. “This will be so good for your story,” he said, walkg to the kchen.</p><p class="paywall">At first, he uldn’t fd —the envelope was buried ep the drawer. He rifled through old photographs and DVDs as he and Miller apologized, mortified by what seemed to be the only disanized thg the hoe. Fally, Murphy pulled out: two pag that his father had typed while the fal stag of prostate ncer.</p><p class="paywall">Murphy had me read first and scribe to him. It was a distrsg experience. The letter was certaly apologetic, exprsg sorrow about the distance between them, but the tone was abstract—wh strange accuraci, like a rebe for skippg a fay weddg that Ryan said he did attend. His father thanked him for the fancial help that he had provid durg his illns. He exprsed disappotment at havg not been rmed when Ryan had vised Chigo, to appear on “Oprah.” He didn’t mentn beatg Ryan as a child, but he said that he regretted not unrstandg Ryan’s dreams, for rpondg to them wh anger, perceivg them as personal sults.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-11 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">“That’s te,” Murphy said. He told me a story about one of those vatn trips to Florida. While the nun snoozed the back seat, his father asked the boys what they wanted to be when they grew up. Darren said that he wanted to be a firefighter, stay Indiana, and always live near his mom and dad. (This me to pass, part: Darren works as a magistrate judge Indiana, and liv, wh his fay, three om their mother.) Ryan said that he wanted to go to Hollywood and be a star and have a mansn and never return to Indiana. His father pulled the r over and slapped him, horrifyg his mother and embarrassg her ont of the nun.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="rzqlr"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Murphy looked down at the letter, as if gazg off a cliff. “If I ever had to wre a letter like this to my child, I would hontly die,” he said, glancg up. He had hoped that would be a “te mea culpa,” but only ma him sad: “It’s all jt a tragedy and a mystery.” He had stggled to view his parents wh passn—as flawed people, like him, who did their bt. He’d tried to mata ti wh his mother, too, to let her be a dotg grandmother to his children, as Myrtle had been to him. But not all wounds heal. “It’s very weird when your own parent thks of you this way,” he marvelled, puttg the letter down. “As if an unapproachable celebry.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Last Augt, Murphy was workg at home on a script for “Pose” when the news broke that Shonda Rhim, <a href=">the creator of “Sndal” and “Grey’s Anatomy,</a>” had signed a hundred-ln-dollar, four-year al wh Netflix. Murphy relled, “And my agent wrote and said, ‘It is now the wild, wild Wt, and you have the biggt gun town.’ ”</p><p class="paywall">Murphy’s ntract at Fox was schled to expire this July. But, December, Disney announced plans to buy Fox and s subsidiari, cludg FX. Var rporate suors, cludg Netflix and Amazon, began offerg him creative eedom and rich unheard of TV. C.A.A.’s Bryan Lourd and Joe Cohen handled the negotiatns.</p><p class="paywall">He chose Netflix, part, bee he was imprsed by the pany’s visn for the medium: data-driven, global, immediate, fund by subscriptns, not ads. There was history there, too. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief ntent officer, told me that “Nip/Tuck” was the first show the service had streamed while was still airg.</p><p class="paywall">Netflix is y about ratgs, but Sarandos said that sizable “taste-based clters” enjoyed Murphy’s brand of “humor and sexs and danger.” “We’re not gog to ask him to round off his edg,” he said. When the news broke, Twter began to speculate. Would there be greater nsistency to a Ryan Murphy seri released all at once? A new pacg to a show unbroken by ads? Some qutned why his al was three tim as big as Rhim’s. I texted Murphy my ngratulatns. “Thank u,” he texted back. “Nerve wrackg and weepy.” He and Miller had been celebratg at a rtrant, but he got very emotnal, and worried that looked as if they were havg an argument, so they left. In an e-mail, he joked, “My Velvet Rage has sudnly been moized.”</p><p class="paywall">Later, New York, on the set of “Pose,” he told me about his tentative programmg plans. Netflix need more L.G.B.T.Q. ntent, he said, like a glossy gay soap opera, a show the tradn of “The L Word” but “aspiratnal”—“not poor people eatg pad thai.” He would make movi, too: he’d been talkg to Julianne Moore. He was terted documentari, and was nsirg llaboratg wh Paltrow “the wellns space.” He said, “I would watch an entire hour about adrenal llapse.” He’d be gettg his own row on the Netflix home page, as if he were a genre: “Sci-Fi Thrillers,” “Cerebral Indi,” “Ryan Murphy.” He’d spent enough years the wrers’ room, he told me. He loved the ia of exprsg an even granr kd of creativy, like a stud head—or the Pope.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">A few weeks after the al was ma, Murphy, on a private plane om Los Angel to New York, was cuddled up a gray boiled-shmere sweater immense enough to qualify as a trenchat, accsorized wh a Geian mourng necklace. Miller was also on the plane, stg across the aisle; he was wearg a jnty fisherman’s p and watchg “Pose” on a laptop. Murphy kept stealg glanc at him. “I’m watchg him watchg ,” he said.</p><p class="paywall">“He’s up to the end of the first act,” Murphy told me, as we chatted about Olivia Havilland, who was sug him for the gossipy portrayal of her on “Fd.” (She lost the se.) He admted that hadn’t been fun when “<a href=">The Good Wife</a>” had satirized him, an episo about the pyright-gement se brought by Jonathan Coulton. We were returng om a momento ocsn: a staged terview wh Barbra Streisand, an experience that he had found more nerve-wrackg than the Emmys. When Miller fished “Pose,” he told Murphy that he liked , pecially the way that the pilot alt wh the characters’ vulnerabily. Murphy sed mischievoly at Miller, who was loungg, his p tipped low. “I n’t take you serly when you look like Charlotte Ramplg ‘<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Night Porter</a>,’ ” he told him.</p><p class="paywall">Murphy’s upg roster had changed. The scripts for “Katra” had been abandoned, the wrers laid off; the season would now be based on Sheri Fk’s book “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Five Days at Memorial</a>.” After nng to Moni Lewsky at an Osrs party, he was havg send thoughts about dog her story. (Later, he had send thoughts about his send thoughts.)</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-12 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">A new ia had bubbled up, however, as he absorbed the #MeToo crisis. The show would be lled “Consent”—potentially, a new “Amerin Crime Story.” It would follow a “<a href=">Black Mirror</a>” mol: every episo would explore a different story, startg wh an siry acunt of the Weste Company. There would be an episo about Kev Spacey, one about an ambiguo he-said-she-said enunter. Each episo uld have a different creator. The project sound fascatg, but had emerged at a limal moment: Murphy was no longer fully at FX but not yet set up at Netflix. The Netflix al would officially beg July. “That’s the great thg about Pop,” he said later, when we talked about who would n his old shows. “When one di, you get a new Pope.” “Pose”—a sweet experiment releasg ntrol, openg the door to new voic, new kds of creators—would be his fal seri for FX, whether turned out to be a h or a flop.</p><p class="paywall">In the meanwhile, Murphy had sred a ratgs bonanza wh Fox’s “9-1-1,” a wackadoo procral featurg stori like one about a baby ught a plumbg pipe. It was his partg gift to Dana Waln. “Versace” had been, by certa standards, a flop: lower ratgs, mixed reviews. Artistilly, though, was one of Murphy’s bolst shows, wh a backward chronology and a movg performance by Criss as Cunanan, a panicked dandy hollowed out by self-hatred. After the fale aired, a new set of reviews emerged. Matt Brennan, on Paste, argued that “Versace” had been subjected to “the straight glance”—a cril gaze that skims queer art, nyg s pths. “Even crics sympathetic to the seri seem as unfortable wh s central subject as the Miami ps were wh those South Beach fags,” Brennan wrote.</p><p class="paywall">Murphy was readg a new oral history of Tony Khner’s “<a href=">Angels Ameri</a>,” which, one scene, Roy Cohn ni beg gay bee, he barks, homosexuals lack power: they are “men who know nobody and who nobody knows.” The le echo one “Versace.” A homels junkie dyg of <em class="small">AIDS</em> tells the ps, bterly, why gay men uldn’t stop talkg about the signer: “We all imaged what would be like to be so rich and so powerful that don’t matter that you’re gay.”</p><p class="paywall">In Miami, Murphy said that he disliked beg labelled a gay shownner: “I don’t thk that, the halls of Fox, I’m ever thought of as a gay person. I’m thought of as a whole, a person wh rponsibili who is a bsperson and a lear and a creator.” In late May, Murphy is schled to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—the ultimate gratifitn for the boy who turned his bedroom to Stud 54. At last, he knew everybody and everybody knew him.</p><p class="paywall">As the plane began a turbulent scent, a flight attendant walked down the aisle to reassure . I ma sick jok about the plane crashg, and the kds of headl that would rult. “Please, please, don’t talk about ,” Murphy said. He looked out the wdow, watchg New York’s glterg surfac tilt back to view. He reached across the aisle, searchg for Miller’s hand. ♦</p><p class="paywall">A prev versn of the article misstated the producer and release date of “Paris Is Burng.” It also erroneoly stated that Jennie Livgston remend a number of trans nsultants; fact, she remend a number of queer nsultants.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssS ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="c05f2"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__le-barrier article__body"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"><asi class="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper-iBnuqk lfXXa-D" data-ttid="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper"><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--paywall-le-barrier" role="prentatn" aria-live="pole" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--paywall-le-barrier"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></asi></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ContentWrapperGrid-fvkmBv brYtrA grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__ntaer"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><div class="ContentFooterWrapper-jVNdRG dTJkpP ArticlePageContentFooterGrid-ccsXYy eMZRHU article-body__footer"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><footer class="ContentFooterMagazeDisclaimer-gzKAqo iZIuUU" data-ttid="MagazeDisclaimerWrapper">Published the prt edn of the <a href="/magaze/2018/05/14" data-reactroot="">May 14, 2018</a>, issue, wh the headle “Mr. Big.”</footer></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="ContributorsWrapper-eNpWFu GWFsc ntributors" data-ttid="Contributors"><div class="ContributorBWrapper-bnVHbt gMon"><div class="ContributorBAvatar-bIGTqf eMWbvj"><a href="/ntributors/ey-nsbm"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span></a></div><div class="ContributorBContent-ubQdr jZTSSi"><div class="ContributorBHear-ledood XOIEx"></div><div class="ContributorBB-fBolsO giFhKz"><a href="/ntributors/ey-nsbm">Ey Nsbm</a>, a staff wrer at The New Yorker, won the Pulzer Prize for cricism 2016. She is currently at work on a book about the origs of realy televisn.</div><div class="ContributorBFooter-brqDlv ezUmSv"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="TagCloudWrapper" class="TagCloudWrapper-gGgndx ctyZyK ContentFooterTagCloud-krQmRG ZLGh"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudSectnHear-cOforY iUEiRd bPyAoD kQQRmu">More:</span><a href="/tag/ryan-murphy" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Ryan Murphy</span></a><a href="/tag/producers" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Producers</span></a><a href="/tag/televisn" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Televisn</span></a><a href="/tag/tv-shows" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">TV Shows</span></a><a href="/tag/flix" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Netflix</span></a><a href="/tag/amerin-crime-story-the-assassatn-of-gianni-versace" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">“Amerin Crime Story: The Assassatn of Gianni Versace”</span></a><a href="/tag/pose" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Pose</span></a></div></div></div></div><div data-ttid="ContentFooterBottom" class="ContentFooterBottom-jwWZfC kcbyiW"><div class="ContentFooterNewsletterContentWrapper-bmjtna kixtae"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper-fCqqkN jKSBhE newsletter-subscribe-form ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper-fpMElW eglIBL"><h3 class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDangeroHed-kRwWjt kbxOa-D newsletter-subscribe-form__hed ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf">Weekly</h3><div class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDek-kXonvc cKOhTM newsletter-subscribe-form__k">Your gui to the latt magaze and our biggt stori of the week, pl highlights om podsts, humor, and more.</div></div><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormInputsWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormInputsWrapper-keARJE hVWbzr"><form class="form-wh-validatn NewsletterSubscribeFormValidatn-iCYa-Dt dweEln" id="newsletter" name="newsletter" novalidate="" method="POST"><span class="TextFieldWrapper-Pzdqp hNhevp text-field" data-ttid="TextFieldWrapper__email"><label class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TextFieldLabel-klrYvg iUEiRd stdEm fvoOvz text-field__label text-field__label--sgle-le" for="newsletter-text-field-email" data-ttid="TextFieldLabel__email"><div class="TextFieldLabelText-cvvxBl eeDYTb">E-mail addrs</div><div class="TextFieldInputContaer-jcMPhb oFrOs"><put type="email" aria-scribedby="privacy-text" aria-valid="false" id="newsletter-text-field-email" required="" name="email" placeholr="E-mail addrs" class="BaseInput-fAzTdK TextFieldControlInput-eFUxkf eGzzTT laFPCK text-field__ntrol text-field__ntrol--put" data-ttid="TextFieldInput__email"/></div></label><button class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv dwpimO button button--utily TextFieldButton-csBrgY edxbrw" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="subm"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN hzwRuG button__label">Sign up</span></button></span><div id="privacy-text" tabx="-1" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDisclaimer-bTVtiV bsgLJZ"><span><p>By signg up, you agree to our <a href=" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">User Agreement</a> and <a href=" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement</a>. 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bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">On Televisn</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href="/magaze/2017/03/20/fd-a-btersweet-bety" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">“Fd”: A Btersweet Bety</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href="/magaze/2017/03/20/fd-a-btersweet-bety" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="“Fd”: A Btersweet Bety" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">Beneath the zgers and the cha-smokg, Ryan Murphy’s latt anchise is about how skillfully patriarchy screws wh women’s heads.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi hYsZi summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p 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href="/magaze/2016/02/08/not-guilty-pleasure" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Not-Guilty Pleasure" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl ldWYvC summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">On Televisn</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href="/magaze/2016/02/08/not-guilty-pleasure" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">Not-Guilty Pleasure</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href="/magaze/2016/02/08/not-guilty-pleasure" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Not-Guilty Pleasure" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">The lculatns of “Amerin Crime Story: The People vs. O. J. Simpson.”</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi hYsZi summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Ey Nsbm</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hlYhBH summary-em summary-em--evio summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm eamwqR" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 720w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 480w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Jam Comey on the Clton E-mails and Guilt" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl ldWYvC summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fsJGML summary-em__bric summary-em__seri-lk"><a class="RubricLk-gRWSOU fgWnkQ bric__lk" href="/vio/seri/the-new-yorker-terview"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">The New Yorker Interview wh David Remnick</span></a></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">Jam Comey on the Clton E-mails and Guilt</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" 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class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">After the Ao-Cuban wrer H. G. Carrillo died, his hband learned that almost everythg the wrer had shared about his life was ma up—cludg his Cuban inty.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi hYsZi summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>D. T. 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ryan murphy gay

&quot;It's a very emotnal moment, one I never thought as a ltle boy growg up gay and sred and isolated Indiana that I would ever have,&quot; the 'Glee' show creator told E! News.

Contents:

NETFLIX FANS HORRIFIED AS RYAN MURPHY DROPS FIRST TRAILER FOR HARROWG GAY NVERSN THERAPY DOCUMENTARY

NETFLIX has dropped the first trailer for the Ryan Murphy documentary about a look to the horrifyg 'ex-gay' Away follows the rise an * ryan murphy gay *

As an openly gay man himself, Murphy narrat queer-centered stori of heartbreak and celebratn wh his signature style of surreal and dark humor. For example, his 2014 film The Normal Heart, explor homosexualy durg the nightmare that was AIDS epimic of the 80s, as well as the activism to bat a system ignorg the LGBTQ muny's cri for help.

On the hand, he also lightns to enable normalcy, as seen the 2012 s The New Normal, which follows a wealthy gay uple thrivg L. Few people the dtry st as much queer talent as Murphy do, and even fewer st as much hot queer honor of Murphy and his love for sexy queer men, here are 20 of the hottt gay, bi, trans, and queer men he's st over the years! “Payton's possibly a homosexual, ” says Astrid Sloan (Lucy Boynton) durg a particularly heated moment oppose Payton Hobart (Ben Platt) the new Netflix seri The Polician.

THE PROM’S RYAN MURPHY WAS TOLD ‘HE ULDN’T HAVE A SGLE GAY CHARACTER’ WHEN HE STARTED OUT TV

* ryan murphy gay *

In Season 1, a gay man’s an was impaled wh a fireplace poker. And Season 5, a hero-addicted man named Gabriel (Max Greenfield) was “gay raped” by a mon wieldg a spiked fluctuated wh s reprentatns of queerns on screen.

“I hontly don't unrstand why llg that gay man a ‘buttmunch’ was such a sndal, ” Lange’s character, Dty Jackson, says to her granddghter as they de on ee pasta. That's what gays do: munch butts and celebrate Halloween!

RYAN MURPHY ON GAY MARRIAGE RULG: “FOR THE FIRST TIME I KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO TLY BE AN AMERIN”

HBO's new serial killer doceri "Last Call" re-exam New York Cy’s yearslong search for a murrer who targeted gay men the early 1990s. * ryan murphy gay *

”Lange, the two-time Osr-wng actor whose reer found new energy on televisn after appearg AHS, told BuzzFeed News at a prs panel that queer pop culture is “built- om the get-go” Murphy’s when asked how she felt beg touted as a gay in thanks to her work wh Murphy, she replied, “Wasn’t I before? I’ve thk I’ve always been a gay in.

He thanked award-wng gay actor Billy Porter, who prented Murphy wh his award while wearg a transcennt tuxedo gown, and trans actrs MJ Rodriguez, who broke barriers at last year’s (untelevised) Goln Glob as the first trans actrs to w a Goln Globe.

RYAN MURPHY SLAMS NETFLIX FOR MAKG ‘DAHMER’ LS GAY

Viewers were guid through the eveng by the year’s breakout gay edian, Jerrod Carmichael (“Rothaniel”), who hosted. " And gay TV wrer, producer and director Ryan Murphy — bt known for -creatg “Glee, ” “Pose” and the “Amerin Horror Story” anchise — was honored wh a lifetime achievement award. Here are some of the eveng's queert (and gay Twter meme-worthy) Carmichael apologiz to Jennifer Coolidge 'on behalf of all the gays'Jerrod Carmichael hosted the 80th annual Goln Globe Awards on Polk / NBCAs Carmichael troduced "The Whe Lot" actor and gay in, who was set to prent one of the bt supportg actg awards, he shared a msage.

RYAN MURPHY CLAPPED BACK AT COMPLATS ABOUT 'GAY PERVERT' CHARACTERS

“As a gay man, I want to apologize to her on behalf of all of the gays for what we did to her on that boat, " he jokgly said. Coolidge's character HBO's "The Whe Lot, " which won several awards Tuday, was the target of an unsuccsful h job by a group of evil "high-end" gays wh ti to the Italian mafia. ""In the early ghts, when my Black gay a-- cid to e out to Hollywood and try my luck at this film and televisn thg for the first time, I disvered on Day One that Hollywood wasn't havg all this Black boy joy, yet, " Porter, 53, said.

At the start of his speech, Murphy, who is gay, asked the dience to give a standg ovatn to “Pose” star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, who last year beme the first transgenr actor to w a Goln Globe. ”Gay in Jennifer Coolidge ws for her role ‘The Whe Lot’Jennifer Coolidge of "The Whe Lot" accepts her first Goln Globe Polk / NBCGay in Jennifer Coolidge won her first Goln Globe, for bt supportg actrs, for her role as a dzy and glamoro heirs the send season of “The Whe Lot.

'I MA GAY SIKICKS THE LEADS': HOW RYAN MURPHY CHANGED TV FOR EVER

”Evan Peters award for his portrayal of gay serial killer Jefey DahmerEvan Peters accepts a bt actor Goln Globe for "Monster: The Jefey Dahmer Story. "Rich Polk / NBCActor Evan Peters took home the Goln Globe for bt actor for his role as Jefey Dahmer — the famo gay serial killer who murred 17 people om 1978 to 1991 — the Netflix seri “Dahmer — Monster: The Jefey Dahmer Story. Both have been relatively private when to their marriage, but the same year that they said "I do, " Murphy created a seri lled The New Normal, which followed a succsful gay uple who sire to have a baby.

Although only lasted for one season, Murphy explaed that he wanted to pict the challeng that e wh tryg to have a child as a gay speakg wh Collir, he said, "The show is loosely based on my life, and the show me about bee my partner and I have been havg nversatns about surrogacy. It’s not easy to be a gay uple havg a child, and we al wh those issu. NETFLIX has dropped the first trailer for the Ryan Murphy documentary about a look to the horrifyg 'ex-gay' movement.

Pray Away follows the rise and fall of of Exod Internatnal, a group found the 1970s by five members of an evangelil church who said gay people n “pray away” their homosexualy to bee straight. 4The Netflix documentary Pray Away follows the rise of Exod - a relig group dited to 'ex-gay' therapyCred: Netflix.

RYAN MURPHY’S (KDA) TE ‘HOLLYWOOD’ STORY: 1940S MEETS GAY STARS, INTERRACIAL ROMANCE AND (GASP!) A FEMALE STUD CHIEF

Murphy - known for Amerin Horror Story, Pose and Glee - produced the powerful documentary alongsi Jason Blum and lifts the lid on the movement that sparked gay nversn therapy globally. Early reviews have heaped praise on the film wh the Hollywood Reporter scribg as a "soberg acunt of Christian terventn rooted toxic homophobia". 4The group purported to nvert gay and lbian people to sexualyCred: Netflix.

SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE

Murphy, who has a lucrative al to create new shows exclively for Netflix, reflected: “I grew up a system where if you had gay characters, let alone two of them, let alone that was sort of the thst of the story, you would be given five cents and a uple peanuts, and be told: ‘Good luck!

RYAN MURPHY TO BRG CONTROVERSIAL GAY PLAY ‘THE BOYS THE BAND’ TO NETFLIX

“It felt like a very full circle moment for me bee I started off 1998 wrg for televisn, and the first thg I did, I was told I uld not even have a sgle gay character.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* RYAN MURPHY GAY

Ryan Murphy was told not to wre any gay characters when he started out .

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