Queer Eye’s Tan France says he ‘tried to quit the show’ on first day of filming

Queer Eye star Tan France has confessed he "tried to quit" the smash hit reality show after his very first day of filming due a "racist interaction" with a participant.

The popular presenter and fashion designer, 40, shot to fame on the beloved show, which sees five expert advisors – including Tan – help transform a person's life over the course of a week.

The star appeared on the third episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, a new Spotify Exclusive podcast. Broadcast journalist Louis chatted with the Queer Eye icon, who opened up about his experience of representation, racism and homophobia, and how he feels safer living as a gay man in the US than he would in the UK.

Discussing the format of the show that catapulted him into the public eye, Louis said: "It’s built into the format that it has to be positive.” Tan revealed this was “sometimes the hardest part” for him.

Elaborating, he said: “The most difficult part is sometimes meeting somebody that you just think, ‘I know, we're meant to be helping you and I want to do all I can to help you, but you're kind of an A-hole, and you don't seem very appreciative, or you're racist, or you're homophobic, what am I doing here?’”

He went on to say he does still “100% support the idea of the show” and what it’s trying to achieve, but conceded he and his colleagues are “still human” and “can't help but be frustrated” at times. Of his first episode, he said: “It was my first day on camera. I had a really weird racist interaction with our hero – and I won't speak ill of him because he passed away recently, you know, you don't speak ill of the dead. However, he made a really odd comment that threw me and really made me think this isn't the job for me. So I tried to quit the show.”

Explaining the interaction, he said: “He called me a terrorist in the car. It was me and him alone. We were going to do my scene and I was picking him up from somebody else's scene and we were in convoy again – the producers were ahead and behind listening to our conversations.

“And he assumed I was Mexican – a lot of Americans assume if there's somebody brown, they must be Mexican. And so he asked me something in Spanish, I tried to use some Spanish words. And I said, ‘I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying. I don't speak Spanish’. And he was really confused by that and said, ‘Aren't you from Mexico?' I was like, ‘No, I'm not, just my accent leads you to believe I might be’.”

Tan said the man replied he didn’t know where his “funny accent” was from, with the reality star going on to explain he was a Pakistani from England. He continued: “He was like, ‘Pakistan, like where the terrorists are from?’” Tan said he explained a lot of Muslims may come from Pakistan but they are not terrorists, but the man remained unconvinced.

“He was like, ‘Wait, are you a terrorist? Like you're Muslim? You're Pakistani',” Tan continued, before going on to say he needed the man to “understand how ridiculous” his comment was. Louis asked if he was “trying to be funny”, but Tan assured the podcast host this was most definitely not the case. The Queer Eye star said the man was “really concerned” to be in a car alone with him and “couldn't believe that he signed up for a show that would have him sit in a car with a Muslim”.

Tan explained he learned “to handle himself” while growing up on a council estate and said: “Many years ago, if that wasn't Tan France on TV, that situation would have gone very differently. And so it is very hard to not act in a way that is instinctive or instinctual for me, and to really just try and be kind all times and say, ‘Oh no sir, let me tell you why you shouldn't call me a terrorist to my face'.”

The Louis Theroux Podcast is available for free exclusively on Spotifyhere, with new episodes airing every Tuesday.

Source: Read Full Article