Mj Rodriguez is getting a lot of well-deserved recognition and praise following her first Emmy nomination this week--but one person in particular had an especially heart-warming reaction to the news.
On Wednesday, July 14, Rodriguez was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Blanca in Pose. Following the news, fans and fellow celebs were showering MJ with love for this historic moment, but no reaction was sweeter than that of her mother, Audrey Rodriguez.
The loving moment was captured in a video the actress shared on her Instagram page, showing the moment she found out about her first Emmy nomination. Though no one can actually be seen in the video for more than a second, Mj’s mom can be heard repeating a lovely mantra to her daughter: “You deserve it, baby. You deserve it.”
People all over social media immediately grasped onto these words and praised Rodriguez’s mom for being so supportive, glad that Mj has such a good support system around her for moments exactly like this.
“The video of mj rodriguez seeing she was nominated for an emmy and her mom there with her just made me cry. so beautiful,” wrote one fan on Twitter.
“The repeat of her mom saying ‘You deserve it, You deserve it’ has me in a full sob,” wrote another. “I’ll be replaying this moment for a while.”
This milestone makes Mj the first trans performer to receive an Emmy nomination in a major lead acting category.
In a recent interview with NJ.com, Rodriguez revealed just how important her mother has been in the development of her Emmy-nominated character. While Mj said that she channeled trans women in her life to inhabit Blanca, she also looked to her mother for inspiration.
“The main skeleton — infrastructure — of Blanca is literally Audrey Rodriguez,” she said at the time. “My mother was my source of nurturing, she was my source of comfort, and most importantly, she was my source of womanhood from birth.”
She continued to praise her mom, saying, “That is the woman who I emulate, and that is also the woman that I wanted to present on the television screen to show how good mothers are out there, and to also show that there’s a lot of work that goes into mothering resilient children.”
