Michaela Jaé Rodriguez Is the Makeup Icon We Deserve

glamour.com:

for her role in Pose, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez is just getting started. The actor, activist, and now campaign model is the newest and first American beauty muse for makeup brand , a major step on her way toward becoming a household name.

Rodriguez and Tilbury met at a pop-up for the beauty brand, where the makeup mogul and actor hit it off so much they didn't realize they'd spent two hours in conversation. “At that moment I was like, ‘Not only is this woman a business woman and great at what she does, but she’s sweet and personable.

I want to align myself with that,’” the actor tells Glamour. “Dreams and hopes were in my head, but I didn’t know that it would come to full fruition [of a campaign].

I was just dreaming and praying that it would happen.”But happen it did. Rodriguez is now modeling in the brand's campaign, a partnership that is all the more meaningful because it came about from that fateful meeting. “I dove into those conversations [with Tilbury] because they were personal, and I really appreciated her as a person,” Rodriguez says. “So when the campaign happened, it was icing on top of the cake to see that she saw me and actually cared.”That's saying a lot coming from a woman who continuously breaks down barriers and makes so many others feel seen themselves, but she doesn't take this moment lightly. “I cried a little bit,” she says. “Not only did I create a beautiful relationship [with Charlotte Tilbury], but we did something that a lot of makeup companies never did, which was show diversity in its best form.”Of course, Tilbury's inclusion of Rodriguez is not a stretch of the imagination.