Billy Porter is ecstatic he was able to become the character that he needed to exist when he was younger, and credits Cinderella for making that magic happen.

Speaking to ABC Audio, Porter gushed about playing the Fairy Godmother — since renamed to Fab G — in the Amazon Prime Video film, adding that it allowed him to become closer to his idol, Whitney Houston.

“As a black, queer man on this planet growing up in the 70s and 80s, there wasn’t anything to really identify with. The thing I identified with the most was Whitney Houston,” the Pose star explained. “By the time I was a teenager, I wanted to be the male Whitney Houston.”

Houston famously played the Fairy Godmother in the 1997 TV musical Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.

“Imagine getting this part all these years later… I’m playing the Whitney Houston part!” Porter exclaimed, “I could die and go to heaven today.”

As for becoming a character he needed to see on television when he was younger, Porter, who turns 52 this month, is thankful that he is able to let queer, Black boys see themselves represented on screen. He also admitted that he was unable to become that person when he first started in Hollywood, telling ABC Audio, “I was trying to fit in the masculinity box, so that I could eat, right? There was never a possibility for anything that looked like this [movie.]”

Continued the Emmy winner, “As far as Cinderella is concerned?  That looks like me! As far as Billy Porter in the world and the way that I resonate right now, it didn’t exist [before.]”

Cinderella, also starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel and Pierce Brosnan, premieres on Amazon Prime Video this Friday.

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