In a recent interview, Jake Picking
talked about playing closeted actor Rock Hudson in Ryan Murphy's
Hollywood.
The limited series follows writers,
agents, and actors during the movie industry's golden age trying to
make it in Hollywood. Murphy, who is gay, has populated his version
of Hollywood with real-life characters who were in some way rejected
by the industry because of their race, gender, or sexuality.
Picking, who has appeared in about a
dozen films and television series, including the upcoming Top Gun
sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, plays handsome Rock Hudson, who
married a woman in response to rumors he was gay and shocked the
world with his diagnosis of AIDS. Hudson's death in 1985 at the age
of 59 shined a bright light on an epidemic that the world was eager
to ignore as the majority of its victims were gay or bisexual men.
Picking, 29, told LGBT glossy The
Advocate that he researched the role by watching Hudson's films
to study his body language and listened to interviews to study how he
spoke.
“We really wanted to remain true to
the essence of who Rock was first, and what most people don’t
realize is that in his growth to fame, he did go through a lot,”
Picking said. “His relationship with [agent] Henry Willson, just
little things, signs of femininity had to be eradicated. His wrist
was slapped, hips straightened this way, never cross your legs, fix
your teeth, lower voice, all this stuff. To finally break away from
that, that arc was appealing for me. But I think it shows how
everything and nothing has changed in the industry, and that the
abuse of power, unfortunately, is pertinent.”
Picking added that Hudson was aware of
his sex appeal.
“I think there was so much sex appeal
during that [era] and I think Rock was cognizant of that,” he
said. “For example, he was on an aircraft carrier in the
Philippines, and when he came to L.A., he would drive a budget
packing truck [with a cargo] which consisted of frozen peas and
carrots and he would dress up in a uniform to kind of hang around the
studio gate looking dapper, bumping heads with someone influential,
so I think he was aware [of his own sex appeal].”
Hollywood is currently streaming
on Netflix.