RuPaul Answers Increasingly Personal Questions | Slow Zoom | Vanity Fair

They don't teach children that today you know that when you shake hands you have to look them in the eye and you have to give them what you're doing. Rupaul asks more and more

personal

questions

and the camera

zoom

s in on the space and lets me turn my phone on. Although no one calls me, well no one has my identity number, what are you afraid of ignorant people? That's the only thing I'm afraid of: ignorant people, especially ignorant people who think they're smart, that's the scariest thing in the world, where are you going? To find peace I usually go to Ritha Franklin Canyon, it's right here in Beverly Hills and most people in Los Angeles don't even know it exists.

I don't think a reatha Franklin knows it exists, in fact it's not actually called Aretha Franklin, but I call it Retha Franklin Canyon, it's called Franklin Canyon, but because I called it crown of Franklin Canyon, you'll never forget it. What is the biggest difference between your drag style when you started and now? Well, the biggest difference between my drag style. The style back then compared to what it is today costs around one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. How did you develop your current drag persona? My current drag character developed from 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, I shared three parts of Diana Ross, a pinch of Dolly Parton and a little bit of David Bowie and James Brown, I put them all together, oh, and a little bit of Bugs Bunny, and that's how my character, my public persona, became what The advice you would give to someone who feels alone.

The 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 many times it is not really the truth because the truth is that we are not. separated from each other in reality we are one thing we are one thing but from your perception it makes you think and your ego makes you think that we are two different things that you are there and I am here but the truth is that together we are one thing. When do you feel most like an outsider?

I feel more like a stranger every day of my life. I have come to peace with feeling like an outsider. I know it's a condition of my brain. It's not necessarily the truth because in reality everyone feels like an outsider, everyone feels that way and do whatever you want. I'll take off my clothes for this family. How is your husband? I haven't had any complaints. How did you meet? I met George on the dance floor of the Limelight nightclub in 1994. He actually stunted his growth when he was 12. He was between 6 and 8 years old when I saw him on the dance floor of the Limelight nightclub in New York City.

York was wearing platform shoes about this tall and dancing like crazy, so I had to go up to him and tell him who you are, what you're doing, and I said, can I hug you, can I? I put my arms around you because I never have. tall, I've never been able to put my arms around the shoulders of someone who was taller than me, so yeah, and that was in 1994, why did you two decide on an open marriage? We didn't decide that's what you know, this is the deception. Monogamy is actually something that can really happen, you know?

I wouldn't want to put restrictions on the person I love most on this planet. I wouldn't do that to someone I love. My best friend. Listen if something happens that you can't resist and that will make you happy. Do it, do it because the truth is that I know in my heart that I don't like it. I had never known anything before. That man loves me more than anything else. in this world you once went to a remarkable picnic with your sister, that's right, my sister Renata, who is my soul sister, she is a twin, you are both soul sisters, but Renetta put some cookies in a brown paper bag and she took out a blanket for the backyard and she spread it out we ate the cookies and she said this rue it's a picnic and that was my introduction to magic and how to create magic in your life a little bit of magic when in your life you felt most abandoned What in my life did I feel more abandoned?

Well, you know, it's pretty funny this morning, George and I went for a walk here in Beverly Hills around 4:30 in the morning and when I was 28 I turned 28 when Saturn comes back into your life. He was here. I was living with my little sister sleeping on her couch without a cent to my name and I was walking around in the middle of the night in Los Angeles without a car and it was the scariest existence you could imagine and that lasted for a couple of months before I came to my senses. sense and returned to New York, what is the most significant way in which your mother has influenced you as an artist?

My mother told me something very important, she influenced the way I lead my life to this day, which is unless they are paying your bills, don't listen to them, so she gave me the hutzpah and the courage to make my life my way. Dolly action, it was Dolly here. Sorry, you know, yeah, yeah, you have to entertain yourself, otherwise what's the point I've come to? in my father the unique phrases but now I understand it I really understand it now culture what are you obsessed with now? I'm obsessed with striped French sailor shirts. You know honestly, I must have 50 of them 75 80 yeah, I just bought a few when we were in France again.

You can buy them anywhere but I love them, they are perfect. No, I actually want to change my mind right now. I'm obsessed with the Bee Gees. I love the Bee Gees, the brothers. Gibb, I was listening to them on my walk yesterday morning and in the bathtub this morning and I could start to cry thinking about how beautiful their songs are and how otherworldly the harmonies are there. I simply love them so much apart from You, who are the most fabulous person on the planet. Wow, you know, the first person that comes to mind is Dolly Parton.

What is something people would be surprised to know about you? Oh, I think you'd be surprised to know that I'm actually more introverted than I let on. I'm not really a social person. I can do it. I have studied humans. I know how to interact with humans. It's not what I like to do the most. I like to be alone. What it never stops doing to you. Toy Story 3 emotional really gets me. I watched Toy Story 4 on the plane coming back from Europe the other day and I loved it and cried through the whole thing, but it reminded me that Toy Story 3 made me cry from start to finish. to The Wizard of Oz, which is also the story of human life on this planet, did you ever spend time in a restaurant called Florent?

I went to the Florent restaurant in New York starting in 1985, it opened in '85 and I started going there then and I went there all the way in fact the other day this is a true story I lit a candle with some matches from Florent and it has been closed I don't know it's been 10 years maybe how long Flora's been closed since 2008 oh wow yeah what about stingy Lulu's stingy Lulu's was a restaurant that I would also visit in the East Village all the time and about a year and a half ago maybe two years Zac Gothic Like Like Like oh this How do you say your name Galifianakis Say it? again Galifianakis Galifianakis Zach Galifianakis was my waiter at cheapskate Lulu's.

What do you miss most about the '80s drag scene in New York? What I miss most about the '80s drag scene in New York is that I had the freedom to terrorize all of you in the neighborhoods before I became the poster girl for drag around the world. I used to be very into NBC in New York and we used to have a lot of fun and we used to have a lot of fun and I got to know what drag queens did in the '80s, which is um. terrified and funny and wild and I wasn't and people weren't taking selfies and saying Oh, I miss RuPaul, actually after 2:00am.

I became my alter ego, which is Bianca Dinkins, she was the illegitimate daughter of Mayor David Dinkins and then at 4:00 a.m. m., they made me known as cupcake and you don't want, you don't want cupcake here or Bianca Dinkins because she takes care of her pockets around Bianca Dinkas, where she works in the house. I love the work. 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 at three. I usually get up at four. But I'm a little bewildered having traveled around Europe for the past three weeks.

Who would you choose to play you in a biopic? I would cast Raven Simonia to play me. She is fabulous. She could do anything if you're not an artist. What would you do for a living and why was she good at making a living? You already know. The closest thing I can think of is being a teacher because I am curious by nature and I would like to take young people on the journey of experiencing life again. I love experiencing life and discovering new things, so that's I would be a teacher How long does it take you to become drag?

It takes me a little less than three hundred years. How did you discover that you were an artist? Well, I feel like I was born as an artist. You know, since I was little I've been told that I. I would be famous, but my mother saw a psychic when she was pregnant with me and the psychic said, "Well, you're going to have a boy, this is before the ultrasound and he's going to be famous, so I grew up knowing he was going to be famous." Well, how am I going to do that? I love creativity. I love the irreverence, the colors, the music, the dancing, the movement, the shapes and sizes, so I thought, "Okay, I'll be, I'll become an actor, a performer or a singer.

I love it." David Bowie, so that's where I hitched my wagon to that star, how did public access television affect your development as an artist? Well, I grew up watching television, everything I know, I learned from television, I didn't learn anything in school. It would probably help if I went to class but I never learned anything in school. I learned everything I know from television, so in the early '80s, when cable became King, part of their deal was that they had to give the public access to certain channels on cable. box, so public access was a way for ordinary people to produce television and a lot of it was rotten, which made it so good, but when I saw and saw these irreverent liberal monsters Monty Python on his TV show , I said that's my tribe so I joined and started doing television in 1982 with them, you said we're all born naked and the rest is drag, what does that mean?

I said you are born naked and the rest is drag, what that means is that we are all more than what it says we are on our driver's license or what it says we are on our job description, we are actually an extension of power who created the entire universe, can you handle it? I'm going to Remove this microphone, okay, thank you guys, thank you.