Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Brian Michael Smith of 9-1-1: Lone Star

Brian Michael Smith is delivering a red-hot performance as Paul Strickland in Ryan Murphy’s latest hit procedural drama 9-1-1: Lone Star. It’s a role and character that means a great deal to Brian whose mission as an artist is to bring authentic representation of the trans community. Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of chatting with Brian about his career, 9-1-1: Lone Star, and his groundbreaking role.

Career

PC: You’re an actor, director, producer, and writer. How did you discover your passion for the arts? Is there one that you naturally gravitate towards?
Brian: I was a very outgoing kid. I had a lot of energy. My mom and her three sisters all had kids around the same time. For the first couple of years, we were all raised together. My family liked entertaining. We’d love to sit around, read stories, and reenact things. No one in my family can just tell a story. [laughs] They have to take on whoever they’re talking about. We love having a good laugh, so I feel like that’s where it all started.

When I was in elementary school, we did this play. Everybody had a hand in creating the story, making up a character, and then we acted it out. It was this really powerful feeling to be able to go on stage and say that I’m somebody and everybody just goes along with it. If I say I’m this person, this is who I am, we do it, and I got to live it out to the fullness of my imagination. I never forgot how awesome that felt. I just wanted to find ways to keep doing it.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Brian: I think a lot of my work ethic certainly came from my time as an athlete. I was on the boys’ football team in the fall, and then I would run on the girls’ track team in the spring. I had this coach on the track team: Mr. Westfield. He really instilled in us that what separates a champion from second or third place is how hard you’re willing to work to learn a new technique and to master it.

I had a lot of natural strength when it came down to throwing and pole-vaulting. When I got to certain levels, like state championships and city championships, I found that to be true. I was surrounded by a bunch of people who were just as naturally talented as me. It really showed me that if I really wanted something, then I have to really work for it—no matter if it’s athletics or in the heart. I always show the best when I do everything that’s in my power to make something the way I want it to be.

I think I carried that into my acting career because there are a lot of noes in it. I’ve been acting for a long time. I really went after it professionally in 2008. There were a lot of things that either I didn’t go for or I did go for it and I didn’t get. I learned to keep improving, to keep working, and finding different ways to show up in the best way possible.

PC: You’ve had tons of success already in your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Brian: I feel like things really started to line up for me in 2017. I saw a screening of Selma at the SAG Awards in 2014. I was rocked by the visual storytelling, and the performances were so strong. I’ve known of Martin Luther King and all the famous protests and movements he was a part of, but I didn’t really know about Selma. I felt like it was a very humanized performance by David Oyelowo.

When I went to that screening, Ava DuVernay [Selma director] was there. Her and David Oyelowo were both in attendance. They were talking about how they came to make it. I was like, “Oh my God! That’s the kind of work that I want to do. That’s the kind of storytelling that I want to be a part of.” I knew I had to work with this woman. She was exactly the person that I wanted to collaborate with.

I kept her in my mind. I had a different manager at the time, but I told her, “I really want to work with this woman.” She blew it off. I told my next manager and she was attached to a project called Queen Sugar that I wanted to be a part of it in some way. He brushed it off too.

I just kept grinding away. One day, a friend of mine, Silas Howard, posted on Facebook, “Hey! I’m trying to help a friend cast a project. Looking for a black trans male to play a police officer.” I was like, “I’m a black trans man. I’ve played cops in my career. This sounds great.” I told him to please connect with me, and I later found out that it was for Queen Sugar.

I was like, “This is perfect! It’s exactly what I’m looking for.” The scene was great. It was one of the most beautiful representations of a trans person that I had come across, especially for a larger-level production. It was really grounded in reality. My character wasn’t coming from a place of pain or discouragement. My character was actually the person who was encouraging another character. It was a really good, positive representation. I was excited for that and excited to be working with Ava DuVernay.

When it came out, it really opened doors for me, in terms of raising the level of visibility for me as an actor, then raising visibility for transmasculine characters and for other trans actors. I have people reach out to me on social media—young people—who are like, “I’ve never seen anyone like me. I didn’t think that I had a future.” People who either wanted to act, but they didn’t think they could act because they were trans. Or people who just felt like they were the only transmasculine people that existed.

They were like, “There are other people like me! Seeing you pursuing what you wanted to do and seeing you on TV means so much to me.” Or having parents reach out and say that they have a trans child and how much hope that my own personal journey, and then this character’s journey, have meant for them in helping them accept their child. It showed me that this is why I do what I do.

9-1-1: Lone Star

PC: Great answer. You’re currently starring in 9-1-1: Lone Star. Tell us about the series, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Brian: I’m a huge fan of first responder shows. I grew up watching Third Watch, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, and shows like that. There’s something about how a character that we follow interacts with people from all walks of life and how that ties itself together and to the city. I’ve always loved those shows and how they take on social issues in a way that’s entertaining but also makes you think or challenges the beliefs that you hold about people from different walks of life.

I was a fan of the original 9-1-1, and I was trying to get a guest star role on that. I was working on The L Word and talking to a friend about what I wanted to do next. I was like, “I really like working as a recurring guest. It’s great to show up and be able to work more than one day out of the week. My character’s on an arc and that’s great, but I really want to sink my teeth into something I want to do that’s a little more action-oriented.” Almost as soon as I stopped talking, I got the email for 9-1-1: Lone Star as a series regular. I was like, “This is incredible. What is it? It’s very different from the original.”

9-1-1-: Lone Star is a first responder show that follows a dispatcher. It centers around a fire station, 126, down in Austin. Rob Lowe plays a character, Owen Strand, who’s a firefighter who survived 9/11 up in New York. He was tasked with rebuilding his firehouse after the towers fell. He lost pretty much everybody in his house. Down in Austin, they were having trouble with diversity. After an accident happens in this fire station, 126, the chief comes up to Owen in New York and says, “We want you to do the same thing down here in Austin that you did in New York.”

At first, he’s reluctant to do it, but for personal reasons, he decides he’s going to take up the task. While he’s down there, he wants to cast a wide net. He wants to provide opportunities for firefighters who are exceptional, really good at their jobs, and have been overlooked for reasons just based on perspectives that we might have about them. One character, she’s a hijabi Muslim woman who’s been overlooked. There’s Mateo Chavez, who’s a Latinx guy who’s been overlooked because he has a learning disability.

My character is Paul Strickland, who’s a transmasculine firefighter out of Chicago who’s hit a ceiling because of discrimination that he was facing down there. He brings everybody down, interviews them, and we decide to join the squad. He’s helping people out down in Austin. There’s a lot of adventure, action, and explosions. I think it’s a really smart way of helping people discuss and take a look at some issues that they’d rather not in a way that I feel is more authentic and entertaining at the same time.

PC: We’re only a few episodes into Season 1. What can you tease about Paul’s arc this season?
Brian: When we first meet Paul, he’s closed off. He’s wary because he wants to be able to do what he feels like he’s capable of, but he’s been meeting a lot of resistance. He feels down and takes up the opportunity to interview for this new thing because he wants to see if there’s more possibility for him to live up to his potential. Once he realizes that Owen isn’t just giving lip service and sees Paul for his assets as a firefighter, he goes all in and comes out of his shell a bit.

As he spends more time getting to know the rest of the team, he starts to open up. We see him start getting closer with Marjan. He starts to get closer with T.K. in later episodes. I don’t know if I can spoil anything, but you see that growth as he feels more secure and safe with his family unit. He’s felt denied this in the past.

PC: You’re making history as TV’s first black trans man in a series regular role. Can you tell us about the magnitude of what this character means to not only you but to a community that often doesn’t see themselves represented on screen?
Brian: GLAAD has a statistic that says 84% of people learn about the trans community through the media. Many don’t know that they know trans people, so all the information they’re getting is coming through TV and film. That’s a huge responsibility. This may be the only trans person that many people in this country get to know.

I want to make sure that whoever I’m bringing, no matter what their character’s experiences are, I want that to be authentic. I want it to be something that can help humanize what feels like an abstract idea to many people who aren’t aware that they know someone who’s trans or maybe they haven’t come in contact with somebody who’s trans.

A lot of the representation that I’ve seen of trans people has focused on people who are early in transition and the physical aspects of it. It’s rarely about their life, who the person is that’s going through that, or what the impact is when you resist your identity or you’re discriminated against.

I really wanted to take on something that would allow me to explore those things and to show people an authentic representation of who trans people are. Also, transmasculine people are not as visible as some of our transfeminine counterparts. Candis Cayne, Laverne Cox, and Angelica Ross have made significant strides and multifaceted representation for transfeminine, but we haven’t seen that much with transmasculine characters.

Me, as a trans man who is an actor, it’s something that I had always wished I could do but didn’t think would be possible until the last few years. This is exactly what I want to do. There are a lot of different kinds of roles that I want to play. But I feel like at this point right now, I really wanted to be able to step into the role of a transmasculine character.

It’s like the Universe is opening up for me to do it in a way that I’ve always wished: being on a first responders’ show and playing such a strong, empathetic character who isn’t exploring his transition. I love that we are seeing somebody who is post-transition, so I could show someone in the audience who might be questioning things that there is a future. There is life beyond the transition.

As for audiences who are not trans, I want them to know there is life beyond our transition. We are all people and we are dealing with many of the same things that anybody else is dealing with. I’m proud of our gender identity. I really think that being able to be a series regular—that means you get to see my character more than once, you get to spend more time with him, and you can really get to know this multifaceted human in a way that you don’t when it’s somebody that’s coming on for one episode as a guest.

It means a lot to me. It’s incredibly significant. I feel like it’s part of my life mission as an artist and someone who is a trans to be taking on this role. I can already feel the impact of it. Again, people Tweet at me things about what it means for them to see a black trans man in this role. For them individually, for them as parents, or as significant others, or siblings who have trans relatives who are full of fear.

Hopefully, it’ll help people understand that we’re human just like anybody else and to think twice about voting or passing legislation that is harmful to trans people. There’s a lot of that going on. So I’m hopeful that having this kind of representation reach such a broad, large audience will curtail some of the discrimination that we’re starting to see on a legal level and even on a cultural level.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Brian: You

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Brian: The Last Dragon

PC: Favorite book?
Brian: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Brian: The MFer With The Hat

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Brian: The 1975

PC: Who would play you in the story of your life?
Brian: Devin-Norelle

To keep up with Brian, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Catch 9-1-1: Lone Star every Monday on Fox.

Photo Credit: Fox