David Corenswet was a certified member of the Ryan Murphy limited series theatrical troupe before he got the Superman call. After his role as Ben Platt’s beyond-the-grave rival and lover in The Politician, the new Man of Steel led the surprisingly sweet dramedy Hollywood. Set in the late 1940s, the show followed a group of young people trying to break into the film business as racism, homophobia, and changes to the studio system tightened its grip. Corenswet’s character, an aspiring movie star named Jack Costello, was the show’s straight white Trojan Horse that ushered in more diverse stories. In 2020, the show was dismissed as corny and unsubtle — but if the reactions to Superman tell us anything in 2025, Hollywood’s good cheer might be exactly what we need right now.
Ryan Murphy’s Alternate History Was Rooted in Truth on ‘Hollywood’
Murphy’s miniseries imagines a world where, in the late ’40s after World War II, a major Hollywood studio decides to stand up to bigotry and make a feature film with a Black woman in the lead, a romance between two men, and a war picture about a woman over 40. The former, a film based on Peg Entwhistle’s tragic death, whose production takes up the bulk of the season, is a true story that serves as a parable for outsiders in Hollywood. Aspiring actors Jack Costello, Rock Hudson (Jake Picking), Camille Washington (Laura Harrier), and Claire Wood (Samara Weaving) are all hoping for parts. The script is screenwriter (and Rock’s boyfriend) Archie Coleman (Jeremy Pope)’s attempt to break into the mainstream.
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The fictional film’s director, Raymond Ainsley (Darren Criss), sums up the show’s thesis in an early episode:
“Sometimes I think folks in this town don’t really understand the power they have. Movies don’t just show us how the world is, they show us how the world can be. If we change the way that movies are made — you take a chance and you make a different kind of story, I think you can change the world.”
Women, people of color, the LGBT community, and the intersections therein have always been a part of making movies. That’s just a fact. A lot of history and film have been lost, but people like Alice Guy-Blaché, the first woman to direct a film in 1906, and Oscar Micheaux, “the Czar of Black Hollywood,” prove that Hollywood history belongs to everyone. If the show had continued past one season, maybe it would have included more female characters in creative roles behind the camera as well. The first half of the century had a lot of women writing, directing, and editing films! Look up women like Dorothy Arzner, Esther Eng, Tressie Saunders, Frances Marion, and Ida Lupino.
So what happened? Why is Hollywood an alternate history and not just telling it like it is? One big culprit is the Hays Code, a set of guidelines that major Hollywood studios used to self-censor content deemed morally questionable and set progress back from the 1930s to the 1960s. Several films found creative ways to get around the Hays Code, but the damage was done. The Hays Code considered homosexuality to be a sexual perversion. It also contained many contradictions when it came to race. For example, films were not supposed to offend any race, but were also not allowed to show interracial relationships, and the use of blackface was still permissible.
In Hollywood, the Hays Code’s gatekeepers are initially represented by studio head Ace Amberg (Rob Reiner), his wife Avis (Patti LuPone), and his two studio executives, Ellen Kincaid (Holland Taylor) and the apologetic but firm and closeted Dick Samuels (Joe Mantello). (There’s also a bigoted lawyer who shows up later for reasons that would be a spoiler.) They’re unwilling to ruffle feathers and do things that might upset distribution and ticket sales. As the show goes on, all of them (except the lawyer) are changed by the next generation of Hollywood dreamers.
‘Hollywood’ Boasts a Star-Studded Ensemble Cast in More Ways Than One
Hollywood also adjusted the trajectory of some real-life Hollywood figures, including nefarious agent Henry Wilson (Jim Parsons), Hudson, and actress Anna May Wong (Michelle Krusiec). Queen Latifah played Hattie McDaniel, the first African American woman to win an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actress in Gone With The Wind. Other historical figures who showed up include Tallulah Bankhead (Paget Brewster), First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Harriet Samson Harris), Nöel Coward (Billy Boyd), and Gone With The Wind’s leading lady herself Vivian Leigh (Katie McGuinness).
There’s also, of course, Ernie West (Dylan McDermott), a gas station owner who pimps out his employees to Hollywood bigwigs looking to be discreet. His character is based on a real-life Hollywood figure named Scotty Bowers. While Ernie is open-minded about sexual preference and doesn’t judge his clients, by helping people hide who they are, he’s still upholding a conservative tradition. It’s complicated!
David Corenswet’s Charm on ‘Hollywood’ Was Basically a Precursor To Clark Kent
Don’t get it wrong; Hollywood is decidedly raunchier than the PG-13-rated Superman. There’s also plenty of corruption, conflict, and Murphy’s signature cynical dark humor present in the miniseries. But in the end, all the cynicism has melted away and hope is on the horizon. Power gets handed to those who deserve it, and those who abuse power apologize and make amends. It’s a true Hollywood ending that extends the optimism of the post-war era to marginalized communities that may not have experienced it as much in history.
This is, in no small part, thanks to Corenswet’s undeniable all-American charm and traditional good looks. If he wins, and the motley crew he meets on his way to the top wins, we all win! These are the same qualities that got him cast as Superman. It’s not too surprising: even though Hollywood takes place about a decade after Superman first appeared in print, The Adventures of Superman started in 1952, and the 1978 Superman had a retro feel. Jack Costello is ambitious, but still every bit as humble and “gosh golly” as we picture Clark Kent, thanks to those classic incarnations. The dimples are dimpling. He just also happens to be doing some things that, let’s say, the Hays Code would not have permitted in Hollywood.