Pose – James van der Beek character was originally Donald Trump

Back when Pose was originally conceived as a series, let’s just say that things were a little bit different. How much so? Well, Donald Trump was originally a part of the story! It’s not the version of the man where he is President; rather, it was the version of the man back in the late 1980’s. The character James van der Beek is playing now in Matt was originally written as Trump, but that changed over the course of time.

So why make the move away from having such a famous figure on the show? As it turns out, much of it was driven by the desire to have the best creative possible as opposed to just getting ratings and attention. Here is what executive producer Ryan Murphy had to say on the subject via Entertainment Weekly:

“The election happened, and we’re like, ‘Nobody wants to see him.’ And then it was going to be an actor impersonating somebody who’s already a caricature, and I thought, ‘Well, that’s just going to take you right out of the show.’”

Regardless of politics, it feels like the right move to create a little bit of distance between Trump the man and a show like Pose — even if Trump Tower is still a fixture. There are already so many venues to get portrayals of Trump right now and since so many iterations are parodies, this inevitably would have felt like one, as well. It’s smart to try and create a little bit of creative distance so that a positive light is reflected here on many of the other characters who deserve it.

So far, Pose is off to a decent start, posting just under 700,000 live+same-day viewers for the premiere to go along with just a 0.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

Are you glad that Pose doesn’t have a version of Trump prevalent in most of the scenes? Be sure to share some of your thoughts on the subject now in the comments!

Meanwhile, be sure to also like CarterMatt on Facebook for some more news and insight when it comes to the FX series. (Photo: FX.)