RuPAUL on InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse

singer-songwriter model actor TV host but probably nothing describes him better than the word sensation he burst onto the scene in the 1990s and told us all you better work dressed in high-fashion glam he broke down barriers for drag performers and became a household name with a message of love one another he's recorded with music legends Martha wash Diana Ross and Elton John and has even appeared in both Brady Bunch movies hello i'm ernie manouse coming up on interviews our conversation with supermodel of the world RuPaul [Music] what is music life communication consciousness it's the blood it's the physical blood of communication when I've connected with someone on music I know them it's like a shortcut to their intellectual DNA could there have been the popular RuPaul without music I don't think so because I think my whole expression came about I knew that I could express myself that way through music stars like David Bowie and Cher and Diana Ross Sylvester you know that's where I gravitated you know young kids have a hard time articulating what they're feeling so they gravitate toward pop stars and they can go that that right there that's what I'm feeling right there and that's why it's young kids who buy music and then when people can learn to articulate they stop buying music so you know you have this you have eleven year olds who buy music and I think it trickles off to nothing at twenty nine is when people stop except for grab you or not yeah what does that say about us we've not learned to communicate know I think it means that we really love music for what it is and and beyond what it how it expresses our feet our feelings or you know I think it means that we're really true music lovers to make our conversation easier is there some name that you give to the glamour drag RuPaul as opposed to you RuPaul well you know when I'm talking about myself with say I'm a manager or other business associates in mixed company like in a restaurant rather than say my name we'll say oh the monster you know you know I'm so-and-so saw the monster on the Howard Stern Show or whatever you know but I'm ruh and that's it that's what it is confusing my real name is RuPaul my people ever since I was a kid have called me ruh and of course people in public call me RuPaul which is my first name so for our purposes why don't we refer to me and drag as the monster is the monster truly a monster to you that is out of control at times you know I think they're all boats there are two sides to every monster because it is out of control to a certain degree I'm very chill person I'm very chill it takes a lot of energy to conduct the energy when the monster is in is up and running there's a lot people give me a lot of energy and I have to give off a lot of energy it takes it's so it's almost out of control it takes a lot of restraint takes a lot of poise how much energy does it take to put the monster on it doesn't take much you know in fact I enjoy I enjoy the process of getting ready especially now that especially being at a my fighting weight it's not as fun what I have to do a lot of shading to sort of sit cut out certain when I got no weight like I was telling you when I was editing the movie in post-production I ate whatever I wanted to but then when I had to go back to work you know it was like oh oh take me back what was RuPaul like as a child who were you the I I was a sweet sweet little boy very kind very well mannered and misunderstood because I always saw many colors in the rainbow and a lot of people feel threatened by that a lot of people have a vested interest in not seeing the colors because they don't want to remember who they really are it's too much for them so I went out searching for people who could speak my language you know and luckily for me my sister Renata who's 7 years older than me she she speaks it she speaks it not as broad but she was the closest I could come to having someone to take care of me when I was a little boy I don't thinking may have been five years old he took me she said um she got a bag of cookies in a brown paper bag and a blanket and she and she says we're going on a picnic and we went out to the canyon I'm from San Diego went out to the canyon we later blink out and they had these cookies and said this is a picnic and looking back I realized that with my first one of my first introductions to making something magic that you can change every situation by your perception of it and how you choose to see it yeah how did your parents divorce affect you do you think as a child my parents divorce was really traumatic and I didn't know how traumatic it was until much later when I started to peel away the layers of myself and understand that I had to I had to sort of leave my body to be able to deal with what was going on there my parents this story I've told this story before my mother once poured gasoline all over my father's car it was in the garage of our family house she stood over it with a pack of matches threatening him saying you know what MF I will light this thing up she was a fiery lady from southern Louisiana Creole mulatto lady out crazy firecracker anyway what and and there's the fire trucks are there my father's there he's saying please Tony please don't don't you know she was match obviously mad at him at fire trucks were there and us four kids were across the street watching this scene and when I think back on the scene I am look I'm out of my body looking at me and my sisters and looking at the scene like if I'm the camera looking at myself so years later I realized I as a little boy I had to get leave my body to be able to deal with such a traumatic experience obviously she did not set the car on fire good sister Harris from the church talked her out of you know lighting it up but that's just one example of what my parents divorce was like but because those kind of incidents happened in your mind is it better that there was a divorce oh yeah these are people who should have been together these are people I think probably should never have had children you know maybe had children for all the wrong reasons whatever but I mean we're here it's fine but it was um it was not something that you'd want a little babies to go through yeah but it made us all very strong we me and my three sisters develop a strong sense of humor and a strong sense of independence from it where did you go after the divorce did you stay after my thing with my mother and my father moved out and we stayed in the family house my sister Renata still lives in that same family house of course she's added on to it but yeah I stayed there in San Diego until I moved in with Renata who then moved with her husband to Atlanta Georgia when did you first start deciding and to create on yourself I guess is the best way to put it early on even when I was a kid you know I had to do some type of I had to find an outlet from my imagination in my dream time you know dream time in reality and I would put on shows I would write songs I would entertain my mother because you know she was a very she was she's pretty dark she was pretty world weary so I knew that I could get her attention and I could lighten her up by doing impersonations and jokes and all that so I could I could get through to her that way many years ago we actually did an interview and you referred to becoming the monster as not dressing as a woman but just making yourself as beautiful as you could be was that more because in that period of time it was easier to sell it to the American public as just glamourizing or was that really how you approached it was there a sense of impersonating a woman or not where did it go well there was really never a sense of impersonating a woman if if anything it had more to do with a critique of our culture you know being the only boy in an all-girl family I've always been intrigued with looking under the hood psychologically of our culture and deconstructing femininity or beauty or all that stuff so dressing and drag the first time really had more to do with being told not to do it so in sort of my punk-rock statement to say you know what eff you you know and then from there the power I became addicted the power it gave me people would look at me and go whoa what whoa you know and I realized I had something going on with it is it okay y'all do it for a couple of bucks sure I'll do it and then and then it just took on its own its own life and that's why the monster was like okay you know I honestly I really couldn't stop doing it as I couldn't stop doing it even if I wanted to because somehow clearly the universe needed me to do this thing and in fact I resisted for a long time because you know I always want to be famous always wanted to do show business and when I decided to come above ground not underground but above ground I said well I'll come out and do my sort of an George anything but people the audiences would be you know it's cute what you're doing they're in Jaws anything but when are you gonna do starrbooty again and they'd be like oh explain what starrbooty is well the years twenty years ago I did this character starrbooty it was sort of blaxploitation superwoman thing and it became a cult classic and people around the United States everybody knew about it so when I would travel in my nightclub act in the androgyny the thing people would remember the starrbooty carrot and go when are you gonna do that again so I learned from that experience that what am i why do I need to reinvent the will I've got this thing that people want why not do that and it was a major revelation for me people say who discovered you how was your big break my break was unlocking my own mind limitations in thinking that it had I had to do it one way and it was major I mean that's we were talking about the Spice Girl it was my job when did you realize how beautiful you were as a woman there had to be a moment when all of a sudden it's not just costume drag that people are gonna find this image beautiful you know I found out from other people because the first drag I did was more of a what they called gender F which is the F word gender F means where you're doing it in this sort of punk rock you know smeared lipstick combat boot type thing you know and you know it's more of a statement and even in that form people would react to me differently and I could feel that the my frequency and what people were picking up was different from what it was otherwise and I understood the power and I became attracted to it that way and and people would say you know you're beautiful and I'd be like Oh weird you know and then and then it then I I accepted that and and played with that a question I've asked before of other people and now it's your turn to answer it were you ready for the fame at the point that you got it when super model hit was that the right time I've been in show business for 11 years already you know sleeping on couches scraping money together to get food and all that stuff I'd been doing all that stuff for 11 long years and then when I decided okay I've reached the pinnacle downtown in New York time for me to go above ground it took me about almost a year of working on my demo tape eating popcorn and seltzer water from the movie theater that my friend worked at because I didn't have any money and and I was ready you know this is the funny thing is that I was all I wasn't like the most popular kid in school but I was always a standout people always knew my name my real name is RuPaul and you know I was six feet tall at probably 14 years old so I was always a standout so it was always a star so to speak so I understood what it meant and then even in that context from junior high school in high school my popularity would wane even in that context so I understood how it worked I understood that it was a commodity that was useful and could be used supermodel huge you know you better work all of that at that point how did you know or did you that America would buy it how did you know that they would be comfortable with this six almost seven foot tall drag queen it wasn't the time and now things are different but back then how did you know it would work you know it's interesting I've observed pop culture all my life um we sort of stood on the outside looking in at our culture and there was a window of opportunity that opened and was very clear we had been leading up to that also you know politically Clinton was in office and the Democrats had you know sort of this this social way of thinking had come into our consciousness collectively and it it felt right and the people I got into business with that Warner Brothers felt it was right and you know it was it was it was you can you could taste it in the air that it was right that's how we knew I don't think that could happen today I think honestly that drag today isn't isn't as accepted right at this moment as it was then I think that gay even with gay people gay people are really obsessed with everything that's straight acting you know I'm born in 1960 so a lot of my formative years were in the 70s where we as a culture not just gay people but everybody was into pushing the envelope and women's liberation and rights and civil rights and gay rights and the sexual revolution people were into expanding after the and then even the during the Reagan era it sort of started to shut down more because of the AIDS crisis and all that stuff it opened up a little bit again during the Clinton time and that's when I snuck in there and then it caught our fear-based culture closed it down all over again where people want to do safe things and doing using femininity as a palette in a patriarchal society is akin to an act of treason that's why let you'll find Ellen DeGeneres or other popular lesbians and they'll report on their love life like I look here they are holding hands are they gonna adopt oh they're buying a house together you know in a you know a lovely way but they won't do that about two men two starmon I don't know how many stars out there who are men who are openly gay I think Lance Bass and that guy Reich and they did a little bit but it was it always had a tinge of hmm thing to it that's just our culture yeah it's our culture in your life have you found more prejudice from being african-american from being gay or from being dragged which one do you think was the hardest I think I've definitely found more prejudice in our culture from being gay than from being black or from being directly really mm-hmm why do you think that is I believe that it's linked to and I have a theory I believe it is linked to the death of the goddess in our culture goddess energy I'm not talking about feminine with Hello Kitty and pink furry animals I'm talking about feminine goddess energy and how there was there theories that there's a conspirator was a conspiracy to shut it down from the church and all this guy stuff and I think that the the proliferation of the patriarchal culture is a big the biggest reason that men using femininity or in women using femininity even is is looked down upon because it's people are afraid of it people are afraid of it people are afraid of a very smart woman okay shallow question hmm there you are dressed in drag performing with Elton John Diana Ross what goes through your mind at a moment like that you know what's going through my mind the other day I did the Howard Stern Show and I was thinking to myself rooo be in this moment remember this taste it don't forget it and I've had a lot of practice at saying to myself be right here right now it's amazing and that's what's going through my head is is remembering every bit of it and it but still trying to be in the moment of it because I'm pinching myself as what's happening because I'm thinking I conjured this up I had to have conjured all of this up you know did you ever feel like I'm really pulling the big one over on everybody you know Here I am dressed as this like glamour Queen and I'm singing with all these big stars and I'm really just this guy who got here you know there's a certain part of me that that does but I think there's a bigger part of me that knows that if you plant seeds it they grow into big beautiful trees that have fruit and I know that that's true and I know that I we are co-creators with buddy or or God or whatever you want to call that thing we're co-creator so we can conjure up whatever experience we have here so yes there's a part of me that says I'm pulling one over but there's a bigger part of me that says you know I I did this I made this happen when the popularity started to wane again I think it's easy to want popularity but to have had it and then it starts to feel like it's not there what does that do to you it was it was perfect first of all I've had that happen in my life before I got famous where you know people you know so what I did with that it coincided with my have had enough of all of that for a while you know I took several years away from all of that to enjoy the fruits of my labor to have barbecues and house parties and tea parties for my nieces and nephews and I created a real social life for myself in Los Angeles which you have to do in Los Angeles anyway and I I was turning 40 around that same time so it was a real it's a real perfect time for me to go within and to say what's going on and having been to Oz Dorothy you know it's like what do you do after oz after you've said I don't want to go there and you get there and you're like great let's party let's do it let's do it and then you're like okay what what am I gonna do I needed time to sit out and go okay what are my goals now what what's gonna motivate me now so itself that's what I did I took time to go within and I know there was some personal issues that you dealt with too at that period of time and I'm wondering how does having Fame and success and seeing the world from that point help you during low points in your own personal life well you know that's well Fame that's if Fame is actually a high point you know on a career career-wise Fame and getting the money and all that stuff is a high point on a personal level there was a an emotional deficit during that time because I'd spent so much time going oh I didn't really invest in the emotional my emotional evolution stepping away from it allowed me to really invest in my emotional evolution which is which has brought so much to my my work you know as as a performer but I I wouldn't trade any of it it's been so great in fact you know we talked about frequency earlier you know if I am if I have the clarity I here what the universe or buddy wants from me or is urging me to do you know like even when I realized that I needed to do this in drag and that I was the only one who's stopping I had to I'm so proud of that moment cuz I was clear enough to go that's it that's it that's what I need to do and the same is true today never a moment where you wish you hadn't done it drag no no no it's it's so clear to me that this is this is this is my Open Sesame and when that moment happened when I realized Eureka it the universe said Open Sesame everything that's it come on you've brought starrbooty back yes why what made you decide that was the way to go it's fun it's a fun movie it's total debauchery it's totally politically incorrect and our culture so needs that our culture is is so lopsided now we're so off-key we were in the airport earlier and it's it seemed it seemed like some that all this is it all this Huxley you know brave new world that guy George Orwell where there's a loudspeaker going if you see someone doing something please tell on them or or it's this hypnotic training us to be stay in fear big brother is watching you look out for people who are not with who are not patriotic or you know it's crazy and for me who've always who's always looked at our society from the outside I'm like oh my god we've gotten there we're there and scary so I wanted to do starrbooty as this is my gift to the young people who who maybe I can influence and to say look there's another way to skin this chicken there's another way to see yourself there's way more than is being presented to you is it a good time to bring the monster back into the public strong absolutely the monster really speaks to the possibilities and it says you are not this body you are not your you are not your politics you are not your race you are not your gender this is but a short run on this planet you go on forever but while you here in this beautiful gift you've gotten this role have fun with it love it give love to somebody let somebody love you yeah it's funny though they call it the monster because it is such a creation of joy and fun unlike so many drag performers out there where it take kind of an edge to it a negative slant and it just seems almost wrong to call it a monster because of what we think of that yeah well root I cannot thank you enough for sitting down and talking with us such a pleasure to have you here and we look forward to many more years of a lot of fun entertainment for me I love talking to you every time I have a great time with you you're wonderful thank you very much RuPaul [Music] to order a DVD of this or any episode of interviews please visit Houston pbs.org you you

Channel: HoustonPBS

Views: 335,523

Rating: 4.9351525 out of 5

Keywords: rupaul, on, innerviews, with, ernie, manouse, interview, glamour, culture, dressing, drag, cross, the, monster, star, booty, television series, ugly, betty, race, rupauls, and, supermodel, (you, better, work), back, to, my, roots, shade, shady, (now, prance)

Id: hgbcnlRN158

Length: 26min 48sec (1608 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/azucar69]

This exactly what I want from a celebrity interview, thoughtful questions and unrushed responses. Ru was lovely as always.

[u/Ginandginger]

Rupaul is the definition of class. He is so articulate and wonderful in this interview. I find myself watching and listening to Ru's music whenever I have low self-esteem.

[u/kindnessabound]

Oh man RuPaul is a total feminist. I love Ru.

[u/onehundredten]

Definitive class.

[u/vworp-vworp]

I need a BFF like Ru in my life.

[u/Xanaxdo]

I watched this a couple of weeks ago. Great interview. I want Ru to be my BFF.

[u/YorjYefferson]

Ru mentioned doing the Howard Stern show, anybody know of a link where we could either watch or listen to that?

[u/qtmcjingleshine]

I love this because Ru articulates how he glamorizes himself rather than impersonates a woman. Thats EXACTLY my feelings towards drag as well. Its affirming to know one of the best queens has that take on drag

[u/sassymoose09]

I love the fact that Ru can go from extravaganza eleganza all over the top to straight up serious interview like that... so versatile.

her answers are so sincere too.