Jeremy Pope — who was most recently seen starring on Broadway in Choir Boy and Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations — discusses his role on Netflix’s Hollywood, being nominated for two Tony Awards, and crying to Whitney Houston in the latest installment of Rolling Stone‘s “The First Time.”
Early in the clip, Pope recalls how he met Hollywood creator Ryan Murphy the weekend of the Tony Awards in 2019, the year he was nominated for two: for his lead role in Choir Boy and for playing Eddie Kendricks in Ain’t Too Proud. Murphy and Pope met over breakfast, eating pancakes and discussing Hollywood. “I was able to walk into the Tonys the next day — one being nominated twice, but knowing that I got a job already,” he says. “That was the dream. It’s like, if I don’t win the award or anything, I just want another job.”
Pope also remembers that he accepted the role of Archie Coleman on Hollywood before he’d even read the script. “I remember reading it and thinking, ‘What [are] my mom and my dad going to say and do?’ Because there was a lot of nudity on this paper. But we figured it out, and it ended up being something really fun and beautiful.”
Elsewhere in the clip, the actor discusses his Broadway debut, which was the opening night of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy (I role he also originated Off-Broadway). The show was stopped midway because his mother had fainted in the audience. “We can laugh about it now,” he says. “Shout out to Mom, because she made my Broadway debut a night I will actually never forget.”
