Jeremy Pope Is Finding Beauty in the Weirdness

Jump scares are ubiquitous these days. While technically a horror trope used to jolt an audience (a loud knock, a sudden figure in the mirror), the term has been snatched by the chronically online and now refers to any incident that might set your heart aflutter, from opening your email on a Monday morning to an impromptu check-in from your ex. A random text stating "Do you want to read something weird?" should, in theory, classify as a jump scare. For Jeremy Pope, it's just another day in the Ryan Murphy universe.

"I was looking at the iPhone, watching the bubbles like, 'Surely, he's going to say something else,'" the Emmy-, Golden Globe-, Grammy-, and two-time Tony-nominated performer tells me on an icy January morning. Following a quick clapback ("Ryan, everything you do is weird"), he received—again, with zero context—a script for The Beauty, a body-horror sci-fi series based on the comic book of the same name. The premise: A biotech drug turned sexually transmitted virus called The Beauty transforms people into their hottest selves, only for them to spontaneously combust roughly two years in. Beauty is pain, as they say.

"There was a character named Jeremy, so initially, I was like, 'I guess that's me,'" he says. Pope didn't know much about his arc (at the time, he and Evan Peters were the only actors on board, though stars such as Rebecca Hall, Isabella Rossellini, and Bella Hadid would eventually join the project), but he immediately got the sense it'd be his most sinister role to date. It's certainly a departure from the confident, openly gay screenwriter he portrayed in Murphy's Hollywood and the charming love interest, Christopher, in the director's final season of Pose.

This go-around, Pope would assume the dangerous outsider, an incel (involuntary celibate) desperate for the physical transformation he believes will finally kick-start his love life. "It's a color that I haven't really messed with in my color box as an artist," he says. "When you do something really well, people like to see it continue because it's comforting. 'We want to see you in the rom-com' or 'We want to see you play the queer characters.' Sometimes, in the unsafe spaces you learn a lot."

For Pope, it was important to highlight what made his character, the "bad guy," agonizingly, utterly human: his desire to be seen. "Jeremy has been denied that for so many years of his life. It's like the wires never got to touch," he says. "The feeling of longing for that or needing that, that's something I felt very connected to." Pope made sure to imbue that nuance into every scene so it didn't just feel like his story was a trope for murder. (Spoiler, there's quite a lot of that.)

You can clearly see this longing in episode 3 when Jeremy kills the woman who infected him on behalf of The Assassin (portrayed by Anthony Ramos). He drops the cast-iron pan, a shy half-smile ghosting his lips. Did I make you proud? his eyes seem to say, as if he were a child begging for a parent's approval. It's no coincidence that The Assassin compares Jeremy to his own son before officially bringing him on as his protégé.

A commentary on Ozempic culture and the obsession with cosmetic tweakments, The Beauty holds up a magnifying mirror to the audience and asks them the following: How far would you go in the pursuit of perfection? "One shot that makes you hot" is the extreme scenario, but one could argue we've already started down the slippery slope. Nonsurgical nose jobs, electromagnetic stimulation from high-tech devices meant to simulate 20,000 crunches, injections of your own platelet-rich plasma to encourage collagen production—all these treatments, innovative as they are, might also belong in a campy sci-fi project if they weren't so widely accepted in the skincare sphere. As Pope shared on his recent press tour, even braces are technically a cosmetic enhancement—a pricey one at that—to improve your public image.

So I have to ask, where are Pope's own limits for looking and feeling good?

Ultimately, he has a "do what you need to do" mentality, but he recognizes that internalized aesthetic trauma often muddies the decision and reminds himself that perfection is a moving target. "Beauty trends will always change, so what are you actually chasing? What is the 'one shot?'" he poses. After all, it's not like you can yo-yo your cosmetic procedures like you might overhaul your wardrobe each season—at least not without some hefty complications. "That's when it can get a bit dangerous. You can lose yourself in evolving for others," he adds.

Growing up as a self-described "string bean" who made his way into arguably the most forward-facing career on the planet, Pope is not immune to the pressure of looking perfect. "Man, these cameras now are all up in your nose hairs," he laughs, adding that he's surely felt inclined to follow a rigorous workout schedule and subscribe to a certain diet before an important shoot or red carpet. "My dad's a bodybuilder, so I know a diet plan very well."

Of course, portraying a character meant to represent the perfect version of someone comes with its own level of pressure to live up to the part. Pope tells me he zeroed in on skincare while on set ("We in there eye-patching it. … We're doing the things"), making sure his complexion felt awake and healthy despite the camera's pore-emphasizing lens. "I can definitely tell the difference when I have done my skincare regimen and when I haven't," he adds.

Since filming, however, Pope's overall definition of beauty has aligned with the show's central message: What makes you unique is actually the most interesting. "I walked away with this profound appreciation for the nuance of beauty and how unconventional—weird, as Ryan would say—it is," he says. "[What] makes you think, makes you ponder, makes you uncomfortable… All of those things, to me, would be classified in my definition of beauty."

It's a lesson he doesn't just ascribe to the physical self; a beautiful, full career is also not without its discomforts. "Being a Black, queer artist is unconventional," he shares. "When I walked into this industry, so many people wanted me to not share my truth. They thought that you need to perform a version of yourself tethered to success and security. 'You want to work, don't you? Present yourself in this way.'" The same could be said for beauty standards. You want to earn social capital? Alter your appearance like this. Then… Oh, wait! Quickly pivot because the tides have shifted.

It's hard to believe there was ever a time when Pope didn't have the Midas touch. His Broadway debut in the coming-of-age drama Choir Boy earned him a Tony nomination, and that same season, he starred in the musical Ain't Too Proud, which landed him a Grammy nod for Best Musical Theater Album. His first leading role in a feature-length film, The Inspection, made him a Golden Globe contender, and he was up for an Emmy in 2020 as Hollywood's aforementioned Archie Coleman, his first TV role.

But Pope tells me that it was only when he decided to shed other people's projections of him that he started to really thrive. "The moment that I showed up in spaces as myself, that's when all of the things that were meant for me presented themselves," he recounts. "It's a testament to when you lean into all that you are and that you've been equipped with, that's what makes you singular. That's what makes you beautiful."

What makes his character in The Beauty so singular is his radical vulnerability, which he still clings to post-transformation—an intentional through line for Pope and Jaquel Spivey, who plays a pre-infected Jeremy. "Because he came in so open, it allowed me to just meet him with that," Pope says of Spivey's performance. "Hopefully, that energy of being honest and vulnerable will be tethered throughout the whole first season with this character, even if you don't agree with what he's doing."

It's even easier to remain open in the presence of a friend who feels like family, which is likely why Pope's favorite scenes (mine too) are his interactions with Ramos, who he's known since college. "A lot of the stuff we're doing on-screen we improv-ed in the moment," he reveals, eyes sparkling with the memory of those initial shoots. "Having someone that you know and are comfortable improv-ing and being funny with just felt safe."

Their chemistry, of course, is palpable. "I wouldn't have been comfortable enough to say ButterflyBootyMeat92 to a stranger. That wouldn't have been the first thing that came out of my mouth," he deadpans regarding his monologue in episode 3. (At a dim Applebee's bar, Jeremy recounts the time he drove to meet up with an online hookup—Ms. ButterflyBootyMeat—who ultimately turned him away. You can't help but giggle, even though that same restaurant scene ends with one of the most chilling smiles I've witnessed on television.) "He would throw it right back to me, and we just got to play. Who can do the craziest thing in this scene? Who can say the craziest thing?''

On the flip side, it's quite easy to open up to Pope. With a voice like butter and a smile that melts your insides, he is pretty much warmth personified. The day of our video call, just 18 hours after his Who What Wear shoot, is so mind-numbingly arctic that I find myself huddling into my computer, as if his energy can somehow thaw my limbs through Zoom. "I was loading the weather, and it said four. Just four," he tells me. Total jump scare.

During my own moment of transparency, I admit that while I often say beauty isn't superficial (it's a powerful tool with ties to mental health, social connection, and gender identity, something The Beauty explores by showcasing what such a drug could mean for the trans community), the show did make me ponder my stance on appreciation versus obsession. It's a fine line for someone whose literal job description involves making the Wild West of beauty treatments easier to navigate. "To me, beauty isn't superficial," he reassures me. "It can be, depending on how you define it. But I think it can be about the imperfections. It can be about the nuances."

My time with Pope, both on set and on our call, served as a scale model for his many shades. He greets me with a soft "How are you feeling?" then proceeds to fill the studio with quick-witted banter and uninhibited, full-bodied laughs. I catch him interrupting his smoldering camera gaze with a quick cha-cha to Disco Lines and Tinashe's "No Broke Boys." He oozes cool, rolling up in head-to-toe Louis Vuitton, and he's remarkably humble. Over breakfast, he mentions how his brother, Jordan Chatman, created a film diary for The Beauty press tour, saying "It's always the younger siblings who are so talented, right?" The woman was too stunned to speak.

As he wraps up the first look (a piercing slash of black eyeliner) and does a celebratory skip to the makeup chair wielding a bag of Doritos, it occurs to me that Jeremy Pope must be a little bit weird. I also happen to think that's the most beautiful thing about him.

Photographer: Jason Kim
Stylist: Michael Darlington
Hairstylist: Cristian Suarez
Makeup Artist: Ernest Robinson
Manicurist: Pika
Creative Director: Natalia Sztyk
Entertainment Director: Jessica Baker

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