Hollywood's Jim Parsons, Jake Picking, and Jeremy Pope on Rock Hudson's enduring legacy

Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series, Hollywood, takes place in a world that’s equal parts sin and scandal, where everyone is sleeping with everyone else, and just trying to get famous. It’s a heightened look at ‘40s Hollywood, for sure, but also one that pulls in characters from real life, including Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel.

As played by Jake Picking, Rock Hudson is Hollywood’s oafish good guy. He’s a Chicago boy who just wants to get married to a nice man, and hopefully appear in a few pictures. Instead, he’s preyed on by an assaulting agent (played by Jim Parsons), and risks both his health and his happiness while looking for fame. He’s in the closet but in love with Jeremy Pope’s character, Archie, and is struggling with what he wants, and what he’s told he deserves.

The A.V. Club sat down virtually with Parsons, Picking, and Pope to talk about the legacy of queer people in Hollywood—and in Hollywood.