Jonathan Van Ness: Honey, She's An Onion With All Sorts Of Layers (Extended Interview)

[Music] ladies and gentlemen my first guest tonight stars in queer eye and is now a New York Times best selling author with his new memoir over-the-top please welcome to the Late Show Jonathan Van Ness [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] nice to see you again - I really love the outfit it's really nice yeah I'm sorry I'm sorry we keep it so cold in here oh it's okay you know it no worries well people know you from queer I a show that's really about other people's lives and improving somebody else's life but now you have written a memoir of your own life over the top what's it like to tell your own story um it was enthralling yet sometimes very terrifying it was like I think it's something the hardest project I've ever done the most I've ever worked on something what's terrifying about it because certainly you don't seem like a shrinking violet you're willing to share me yeah you can't hide your light under a bushel Jonathan Van Ness well you know I think that you know because we're is not a show about you know the five of us it's about the amazing people who we get to help there is like not so much of an opportunity for me to tell like all of my backstory so this was really an opportunity for me to say yes I am this happy person who wants to like talk about our hair and where it should live and what colors we should think about and like where our eyebrow should do and but I was like there's more inand I think that you know for me specifically you know talking about like you know my HIV status or surviving sexual abuse or you know having disordered eating issues it's I wanted to be able to talk about these things because I think that a lot of times people think that like if you have been through some hard times like you can't be seen as positive or gregarious or happy anymore and I just wanted to show that honey she's an onion with all sorts of [Applause] so you do you you are you are very frank about addiction depression sexual abuse and you say that that you want people to learn from the book that how to bloom where you're planted what do you mean by that well I think you know my mom always said that to me and it's basically like it feels like the first cousin of like no matter where you go there you are and it's like we are ourselves wherever we go and I think I realize that growing up which I talk so much about growing up in my hometown there were really difficult aspects of it but always your hometown Quincy Illinois it's a gorgeous little place in Illinois yes Illinois that one / yes so I I just I spent so much time growing up kind of being really very miserable except unless I was playing in my imagination like gorgeous Olympic games or like eating powdered Donuts or doing like actually eating powdered Donuts or thinking about eating eating powdered Donuts awhile doing like carpet figure skating routines between commercials of like America's Next Top Model or like you know or the Miss Universe like you know whatever was on whatever I could you know get the content that I needed as a child it was a few and far in between so but really was about taking myself in creating moments of joy creating pockets of joy for me to be able to thrive and have fun in and moments were that really just weren't very fun you you talk in here about you reveal in the book your HIV status have a positive status what has been what have been the more meaningful responses to that revelation well there's been so much support just in general from so many people that has that you know really made me feel very seen and and it's been you know I felt very embraced by a lot of this the response that I got I think also though the most meaningful thing that it's made me realize is the real lack of understanding that we still have around what it is to live with HIV now and also the lack of a social safety net for hiv-positive people and when I had HIV initially I was 25 I did not have a platform that I had now there was like four different government programs that I had to like navigate by myself and you know figure out how to like and I'm I don't think I'm someone who doesn't take on and for me super well and me doing it at 25 dealing with what I was dealing with at the time it made it really difficult for me to find a doctor it made it very difficult for me to access medicine and it's just that when people would say like you know queer I star comes out with devastating HIV diagnosis it really should have been like queer I star her comes out about the devastating ways that hiv-positive people are still treated and stigmatized in this country when there's no need we know that with antiretroviral therapy people that achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load effectively have no chance of transmitting the virus sexually it's it's just something that I think people don't realize now I think that a lot of people felt that hiv/aids was no longer a threat to them and just something that we don't think about but actually there is a rising threat of HIV in America and across the world because of increased stigma and like lack of access to testing sites like say a Planned Parenthood when we're constantly defunding Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood last year gave over seven hundred forty thousand HIV tests under the title 10 program that the Trump in Penson men administration just forced them out of so I just really I realize like just a huge lack of access that people have to information and the huge lack of support for people living with HIV in America it is just so much harder than it needs to be you say you were 25 when you found out how did that change your life uh other than obviously having to find the the proper treatment to care for your positive status how did it change like the way you looked at life to be facing that at 25 what was going on he said there was a lot going on your life that he was already difficult to deal with what were those things so I talked about in the book you know I was struggling with a drug addiction at the time and you know when you're trying to find your way out of substance abuse and then you realize that you're hiv-positive it can you really have a choice there it's like am I gonna go what am I gonna do and so you know what was going on in my life at that time was you know I was born in 1987 right so growing up in the late 80s early 90s as a very you know clearly queer person from the time I was this big you know my family was very terrified of what hiv/aids would mean for my future I learned very young to be terrified of hiv/aids and I talked about that in the book and you know when I was 25 the worst thing I ever thought could happen to me dead and what I realized was is that like with access to medication and a doctor which when I found my first doctor and winter I said can I live to be seventy five and she chuckled his stories in the book and it's hilarious she said oh honey she was like I'll keep you alive long enough to die of heart attack or cancer like everybody else and then my mom like shut it off the chair behind me like to the floor just I mean like I was like I just heard this like thud my mom was like like mom you promised you wouldn't freak out so again that's stories in the book it's also super funny so there's some sad stuff there's funny stuff well you do you do you have you do you have dealt with a lot in your life but you're incredibly positive incredibly upbeat is that in any way ever a burden that people always expect you to be chipper Jonathan van Ness because you're a vet your array of sunshine do you ever not feel like it when people expect it from you yeah you're damn right I feel like that you know I know I do but I still seem positive I do I think but you know it's like I don't know Einstein I'm not like a scientist but um you know it's like that equal and opposite thing so as happy and as loving and is amazing as I can be I have other times where I'm like equally as stressed equally as irritated I'm totally dealing with like finding my balance there I think I have this amazing therapist this one time that was like you know what you're like and I was like what and she was like this is you and I was like okay and she's like you know what you need to do and I was like what she's like you got to learn to find like this and I was like balance she was like its balance I was like oh my god so yeah this looks like it's about it you know yeah well you you you uh you you groom and you also help people with self-care on quia queer what in the thing okay okay yeah I think the way that we take care of our insides is like reflective of our outsides I think and also Nancy Burt whistle uh you know according to Netflix season one winner of great british baking challenge just told me on DM who I'm about to interview her when I go to London s weekend cannot wait I've been waiting to be her so long if you're not following her and Instagram you really should be it a so here she's so cute but anyway she was like you know um she was like Jonathan grooming means something different in England and I was like ooh and then also my roomie meaning it's like like it's like it's like it's not it's a it's like a grooming for hideous grooming I don't want to say it's a grooming for abused honey it's like grand she's like she's like I'm so oh you don't call yourself a groomer anymore honey she's like you're a stylist it's like Aaron I was like oh and also sidebar I don't even know if this will make but is this so true no idea true story so when I first decided about on the subtitles like my Roger need to self laugh I was like that's perfect it is because it was like it's kind of bra it's pretty like you know but it's also like guys it's like self love it's like and it's a complete and then um when I was talking to the British editors a first time they're like so about this subtitle and I was like what it's great right they're like well my Roger is self love like self love in the UK means like self love so the my raw journey to like pleasure yes yes yes and I was like well it can turn into a raw journey if you take it - yeah yeah yeah I didn't know about all these British you know you should have known translation you know you you you keep your ear to the ground about politics you know yet about politics very tuned in and we actually we have a clip here you endorsed it was with Warren mhm and she called you she did and and and both of you recorded this phone call and I'd love to show the audience that if you don't mind Jim I'm good how are you I'm good I'm having such a crazy day go save America we gotta go and also to weekend I we also really got to get that Mitch out of there because we're calling about a Mitch McConnell Hayes the worst so we got to Danny we're gonna take Congress back oh we already have Congress we got to think what and then we got to get you in the White House we're gonna sort everything out see okay America I'm gonna go keep doing these interviews I can't believe you took you're gonna talk to me and I'll talk to you soon uh okay talk to you soon be strong out there thank you I will you too bye-bye [Applause] I know we got to go here in a minute but I want to ask you but this is very important right now the Supreme Court is they just heard oral arguments for title seven yesterday it's a very important topic to you and and to other Americans what should we know about it well in 1964 we passed the Civil Rights Act and Title 7 and the Civil Rights Act said that federally you can't discriminate on the basis of sex and so the Obama administration had said that and you know you can google this fact Chocula to your own research but the Obama administration had been interpreting that and I think up until that point through the Obama administration that had been extended to people to transgender folks and to gay and lesbian folks bisexual whatever just you know the whole crew all of us and basically William bard the Attorney General and then the Trump pence administration filed this brief and said you know Congress at any time can rewrite any section of any law of any statute to cover more people to you know choose to include more people and the crazy part about that is is that the Equality Act which the House passed a few months ago actually addresses that it reopened the very act that sex and that that title seven is attached to the Civil Rights Act so the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been open to add LGBTQ Americans into it and that is the very thing that the Trump administration already said that they would not sign on to Mitch McConnell won't bring it up to a vote so the thing that's so troubling to me personally about this brief is that we have this power grab in Washington where we have a democratically elected body the House of Representatives that is doing their part to pass laws that they see fit and Mitch McConnell won't even bring them up to a vote to be debated against or do to be debated on and so now because we cannot pass the Equality Act with the present leadership in you know this in force now they brought this up to the Supreme Court and with Kavanagh Gorsuch we can only know you know what's gonna happen we don't expect a ruling until anytime between January and June of 2020 so they're hearing oral arguments this week but there's three cases and yeah it there was a transgender case there's two cases based off of sexual orientation and it's just a huge huge issue for LGBTQ America depending on how they rule it could then be legal to fire anybody based on the sexual orientation yes or their sexual identity and the way I understand it is is they could yeah absolutely but like as President Obama said like don't move Oh you know I think next year it's so important that if you consider yourself an ally I think it's really we're past the time where you can say you know I don't watch the news it stresses me out it's like don't watch the news then go on Twitter like talk to somebody about it like we have to keep our eyes and ears open because right now you know we are detaining asylum seeking families we are separating families at the southern border based off of HIV status we have 18 trans people so far that we know of that have been murdered this year for five years straight we have steadily increasing hate crimes we are currently in so much animosity and toxicity in this country that people are being attacked every day so we absolutely have to talk we have to keep our eyes open and I think it's kind of like that you know metaphor and Dante's Peak remember with Pierce Brosnan remember when she don't I don't actually it's from Dante so here at Dante's Peak he says because when they want to evacuate that poor town by the volcano honey and no one will listen to the mayor and then they bring in pierce brosnan who I believe is the G the the geologists probably and so he's like you know if you put up frog in the boiling water which we should never do but if you put a frog in boiling water it will jump right out but if you put a frog in the room temp water and boil honey she'll stay there and I fear that we are the frog and the room-temperature water of America we're boiling frog suit Oh rug suit well there's so much there's so much more to talk about please come again such an honor Oh lovely to see you much thank you very much good to say over the top the book available now Jonathan everybody [Music]

Channel: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Views: 884,852

Keywords: The Late Show, Late Show, Stephen Colbert, Steven Colbert, Colbert, celebrity, celeb, celebrities, late night, talk show, comedian, comedy, CBS, joke, jokes, funny, funny video, funny videos, humor, hollywood, famous

Id: td6hLN84VZ8

Length: 15min 36sec (936 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019