Jeremy Pope On How His “Most Demanding” Role In ‘The Inspection’ Helped Him Connect More With His Blackness And Queerness
deadline.comTwo-time Tony nominee Jeremy Pope was immediately drawn to the semi-autobiographical story of Ellis French, who joins the Marines thinking that if he dies in combat, at least he’s worth more as a Black gay man in uniform than one who dies on the streets.
Though Jeremy had stints on Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood and Steven Canals’ Pose, those performances did not prepare him for the emotional and grueling shoot of The Inspection, from writer/director Elegance Bratton.
But his responsibility to his director and to Ellis allowed Pope to give a performance he hopes will inspire other Black queer youths as much as the role inspired him. DEADLINE: How did you first get introduced to writer/director Elegance Bratton? JEREMY POPE: My team and I are always investigating cool creatives, directors, producers that speak the same love language, in regards to the arts, that I do.
Elegance was one of those people that my agent at the time was just very passionate about and she was like, he has a project which feels almost too right.
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