RuPaul Answers Increasingly Personal Questions | Slow Zoom | Vanity Fair

they don't teach kids that today you know when you give a handshake you have to look in the eye and you gotta give it what are you doing [Music] rupaul enters increasingly personal questions and the camera moves closer to the space and let me turn my phone off although no one calls me well no one has my number identity what are you afraid of ignorant people it's the only thing I'm afraid of ignorant people especially ignorant people who think they're smart that's the scariest thing on earth where do you go to find peace I usually go to a ritha Franklin Canyon it's right here in Beverly Hills and most people in LA don't even know it exists I don't think a reatha Franklin knows knew it exists in fact it's actually not called Aretha Franklin but I call it a retha Franklin Canyon it's called Franklin Canyon but because I called it a wreath of Franklin Canyon you'll never forget it what's the biggest difference between your drag style when you first started out compared to now well the biggest difference between my drag style back then from what it is today is about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars how did you develop your present drag persona my present drag persona was developed out of my study of pop culture and how to create a caricature that someone could draw on a page and be recognizable I took two parts share three parts Diana Ross a dash of Dolly Parton and a little bit of David Bowie and James Brown put them all together oh and a smattering of Bugs Bunny and that's how my persona my public persona came to be what advice would you give to someone who feels alone advice I give to someone who feels alone is that first of all feelings are not facts you know what you feel is an indicator but a lot of times it's not really the truth because truth is we are not separate from one another we are actually one thing we are one thing but from your perception is makes you think and your ego makes you think that we're we're two different things that you're over there and I'm over here but the truth is we are actually one thing together when do you feel most like an outsider I feel most like an outsider every day of my life I've I've come to peace with feeling like an outsider I know it's a condition of my brain it's not necessarily the truth because actually everybody feels like an outsider everybody feels that way and do what you want me to take my clothes off for this one family how's your husband I haven't had any complaints how did you two meet I met George on the dance floor at limelight discotheque in 1994 it actually stunted his growth when he was 12 years old he was 6-8 at 12 years old when I saw him out on the dance floor at limelight disco in New York City he was wearing platform shoes about that tall and dancing like a maniac so I had to go over to him and say who are you what are you what are you doing and I said um can I hug you can I put my arms around you because I've never I'm tall I've never been able to put my arms around someone's shoulders who was taller than than me so yeah and that was 1994 why did you two decide on an open marriage we didn't decide that's what you know this is the hoax is that monogamy is actually something that can actually happen you know I I wouldn't want to put restraints on the person I love the most on this planet I wouldn't do that to someone I love my very best friend listen if you get something happening that you cannot resist and that eats gonna make you happy go for it go for it because the truth is I know in my heart of hearts like I've don't like I've never known anything before that man loves me more than any thing else in this world you once went on a noteworthy picnic with your sister is that right my sister Renata who is my soul sister she's a twin my both of them are soul sisters but Renetta put some cookies in a brown paper bag and took a blanket out to the backyard and she laid it out we ate the cookies and she said this rue is a picnic and that was my introduction to magic and how to create magic in your life a little magic when in your life did you feel most abandoned what in my life did I feel most abandoned well you know funny enough this morning George and I went on a walk here in Beverly Hills at about 4:30 in the morning and when I was 28 turning 28 years old when Saturn returns in your life I I was out here living with my younger sister sleeping on her couch with not a nickel to my name and I would walk around in the middle of the night in Los Angeles with no car and it was the most hideous existence you could ever imagine and that went on for a couple of months before I came to my senses and moved back to New York what is the most significant way your mother has influenced you as an artist my mother told me something very important she influenced the way I conduct my life to this day which is unless they are paying your bills pay them no mind so she gave me the hutzpah and the moxie to do my life my way action dolly it was dolly here I'm sorry I you know yeah yeah gotta entertain yourself otherwise what's the point I've turned into my father the one liners but I get it now I really get it now culture what are you obsessed with right now I'm obsessed with striped French sailor shirts I you know honestly I must have 50 of them 75 80 yeah I I just bought a few when we were in the in France again I'm you can buy him anywhere but I love them they're perfect no I actually want to change my mind this moment I'm obsessed with the Bee Gees I love the Bee Gees the brothers Gibb I was just listening to them on my hike yesterday morning and in the bathtub this morning and I could I could actually start crying thinking about how beautiful their songs are and how just otherworldly the harmonies in there I just I love them so much aside from you who's the most fabulous person on the planet Wow you know the first person that comes to mind is Dolly Parton what's one thing people would be surprised to know about you ah I think they'd be surprised to know that I'm actually more of an introvert than I let on I'm actually not really a people person I can do it I've studied humans I know how to engage with humans it's not my favorite thing to do I like being alone a lot what never fails to make you emotional Toy Story 3 really gets me I saw it Toy Story 4 on the plane coming back from Europe of the the other day and I loved it and I cried throughout it but it reminded me that Toy Story 3 had me bawling from beginning to end similar to The Wizard of Oz which is also the story of human life on this planet did you ever spend time in a restaurant named Florent I went to Florent restaurant in New York starting in 1985 it opened in 85 and I started going there then and I went there till the end in fact the other day this is a true story I lit a candle with some matches from Florent and it's been closed for I don't know it's been 10 years maybe how long has flora been closed since 2008 oh wow yeah what about stingy Lulu's stingy Lulu's was a restaurant I will too in the East Village all the time and just about a year and a half ago maybe two years ago Zac Gothic I like I like I like oh this how do you say his name Galifianakis say it again Galifianakis Galifianakis Zach Galifianakis was my waiter at stingy Lulu's what do you miss most about the 80s drag scene in New York the thing I miss most about the 80s drag scene in New York is I had the freedom to terrorize y'all's neighborhoods before I became the poster child for drag around the world I used to be very on NBC around New York and we had a lot of fun and used to party a lot and I was able to you know be what drag queens did in the 80s which is um terrorized and have fun and be wild and it wasn't and people weren't taking selfies or saying Oh miss RuPaul in fact after 2:00 a.m. I became my alter ego which is Bianca Dinkins she was the illegitimate daughter of Mayor David Dinkins and then by 4:00 a.m. I became known as cupcake and y'all don't wanna you don't want cupcake up in here or Bianca Dinkins cuz she watch your pocketbooks around Bianca Dinkas where house work I love work I I work a lot I like to work it keeps the voices at bay what time did you get up today I got up today three o'clock usually get up at 4 o'clock but I'm a little thrown off from having traveled in Europe for the past three weeks who would you cast to play you in a biopic I would cast Raven simonia to play me she's fabulous she could do anything if you're not a performer what would you do for a living and why well for a living she was uh you know the closest thing I can think of is is be a teacher because I've I'm naturally curious and I'd want to bring young people along for the ride of experiencing life all over again I love to experience life and discover new things so that's I would be a teacher how long does it take you to get in drag it takes me just under three hundred years how did you discover that you were a performer well I feel like I was a born performer my you know he's told from childhood that I would be famous but my mother saw a psychic when she was pregnant with me and the psychic said well you're gonna have a boy this is before ultrasound and he's going to be famous so I grew up knowing I would be famous I had to figure out okay well how am I going to do that I love creativity I loved irreverence and colors and music and dancing and movement and shapes and sizes so I thought well I will be that I will become a an actor or a performer or a singer I love David Bowie so that was that's where I had hitched my wagon to that star how did public access TV affect your development as an artist well I grew up watching television everything I know I learned from television didn't learn a single thing in school it would probably help if I went to classes but never learned anything in school I learned everything I know from television so in the early 80s when cable television became the King part of their deal was they had to give the public access to certain channels on the the cable box so public access was a way for everyday people to produce television and a lot of it was rotten which made it so so good but when I saw and I saw these irreverent Monty Python liberal gorgeous freaks on their television show I said that's my tribe so I joined in and I started making television in 1982 with them you've said we're all born naked and the rest is drag what does that mean I've famously said you're born naked and the rest is drag what that means is that we are all more than just what it says we are on our driver's license or what it says we are in our job description we are actually in reality an extension of the power that created the whole universe can you handle it I'm going to take this microphone off all right thank you guys thank you

Channel: Vanity Fair

Views: 2,529,416

Rating: 4.9407058 out of 5

Keywords: rupaul, slow zoom, rupaul charles, rupaul personal, rupaul questions, rupaul slow zoom, rupaul monogamy, rupaul introvert, rupaul drag, rupaul close up, rupaul vanity fair, rupaul cover, rupaul 2019, vanity fair, rupaul interview, personal questions, rupaul life, rupaul charles interview, vanity fair slow zoom, rupaul family, rupauls drag race, rupauls drag, rupaul drag race, rupaul up close, rupaul work, rupaul in drag, rupaul drag queen, ru, ru paul

Id: 72AAlCa1Nko

Length: 15min 51sec (951 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 20 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/emeraldpavement]

— What’s something that never fails to make you emotional?

— Toy Story 3.

I lost it.

[u/lenvoy]

this thumbnail has the same energy as those gifs where the creepy emoji is staring at me then reaches out with a human hand as the screen goes red

[u/scarletmiltzz]

I want Cupcake up in here

[u/RubyRedBooty]

I'm kinda sick of this interviewer' with same questions about Ru all the time. Ru deserve better than this.

[u/ryansumera]

#justice4biancadinkins!

[u/helvetica_unicorn]

I love that coconut head shape on men. I have a similar shaped head so I could never go bald.

[u/TootieSummers]

Your brain when you hit up that trade again that already gave you the clap once.

[u/fabulousfantabulist]

Ru is judging me here, and I am unworthy