- They don't teach kids that today.
You know, when you give a handshake
you have to look in the eye, you gotta give it,
oh, what are you doing?
[laughing]
[dramatic music]
[beeps]
- [Crew] RuPaul Answers Increasingly Personal Questions
as the Camera Moves Closer to His Face.
[clapboard snaps]
- And I'm gonna turn my phone off
although no one calls me.
Well, no one has my number.
[beeps] - [Crew] Identity.
[clapper snaps]
- [Narrator] 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.
- [Narrator] Where do you go to find peace?
- I usually go to Aretha Franklin Canyon,
it's right here in Beverly Hills
and most people in LA don't even know it exists.
I don't think Aretha Franklins knows, knew it exists.
In fact, it's actually not called Aretha Franklin,
but I call it Aretha Franklin Canyon,
it's called Franklin Canyon,
but because I called it Aretha Franklin Canyon
you'll never forget.
- [Narrator] 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
$150,000.
- [Narrator] 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 Cher, 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 smathering of Bugs Bunny,
and that's how my persona,
my public persona, came to be.
- [Narrator] What advice would you give
to someone who feels alone?
- Advice I'd 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 the truth is we are not separate from one another.
We are actually one thing, we are one thing.
We are one thing.
But from, your perception is, makes you think,
and your ego makes you think,
that 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.
- [Narrator] When do you feel most like an outsider?
- I feel most like an outsider every day of my life.
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.
[beeping]
And you want me to take my clothes off for this one?
[beeps] - [Crew] Family.
- [Narrator] How's your husband?
- I haven't had any complaints.
- [Narrator] How did you two meet?
- I met George on the dance floor
at Limelight discotheque in 1994.
They 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, can I hug you?
Can I put my arms around you?
'Cause I'd never, I'm tall, I've never been able to
put my arms around someone's shoulders
who was taller than me.
So, yeah, that was 1994.
- [Narrator] Why did you two decide on an open marriage?
- We didn't decide, that's what, [laughs].
You know, the hope is that
monogamy is actually something that
can actually happen.
You know, 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's gonna make you happy, go for it.
Go for it.
Because the truth is
I know in my heart of hearts,
like, I've never known anything before,
that man loves me more than anything else in this world.
- [Narrator] You once when on
a noteworthy picnic with your sister, is that right?
- My sister Renetta, who is my soul sister,
she's a twin, 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, Ru, is a picnic.
And that was my introduction to magic
and how to create magic in your life, little magic.
- [Narrator] When in your life did you feel most abandoned?
- When 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 was out here 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 that you could ever imagine.
That went on for a couple of months
before I came to my senses and moved back to New York.
- [Narrator] What is the most significant way
you 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 bitches no mind.
So she gave me the chutzpah, the moxie
to do my life my way.
[beeps] - [Narrator] Action, dolly.
- Is Dolly here?
I'm sorry, you know,
ya gotta entertain yourself
otherwise what's the fucking point?
I've turned into my father with the one-liners,
but I get it now.
I really get it now.
[beeps] - [Crew] Culture.
[clapboard snaps]
- [Narrator] 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.
And I just bought a few when we were in France again.
I mean, you can buy 'em anywhere,
but I love 'em.
They're perfect.
No, I actually, I wanna 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 actually start crying
thinking about how beautiful their songs are.
And how just otherworldly the harmonies.
I just, I love them so much.
- [Narrator] 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.
- [Narrator] What's one thing people would be surprised
to know about you?
- Uh, 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.
- [Narrator] What never fails to make you emotional?
- Toy Story 3 really gets me.
I saw Toy Story 4 on the plane coming back from Europe
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 human life on this planet.
- [Narrator] 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 Florent been closed?
- [Narrator] Since 2008.
- Oh, wow, yeah.
- [Narrator] What about Stingy Lulu's?
- Stingy Lulu's was a restaurant I'd go to
in the East Village all the time
and just about a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago,
Zach Gana-[babbling].
How do you say his name?
- [Narrator] Galifianakis.
- Say it again.
- [Narrator] Galifianakis.
- Galifianakis. [beeps]
Zach Galifianakis was my waiter at Stingy Lulu's.
- [Narrator] 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'alls neighborhoods
before I became the poster child for drag around the world.
I used to be very
un-, un-PC around New York
and we had a lot of fun.
And used to party a lot.
And [laughing] I was able to, um,
you know, be what drag queens did in the '80s
which was terrorize and have fun and be wild.
And people weren't taking selfies or saying,
ooh, Miss RuPaul.
In fact, after 2 AM I became my alter ego,
which is Bianca Dinkins.
She was the illegitimate daughter of Mayor David Dinkins
and then by 4 AM I became known as Cupcake.
[beeps]
[laughing]
And y'all don't wanna, you don't want Cupcake up in here.
[laughing]
Or Bianca Dinkins.
'Cause she, watch your pocketbooks 'round Bianca Dinkins.
[beeps] - [Crew] Work.
[clapboard snaps]
- [Narrator] How's work?
- I love work.
I work a lot, I like to work.
It keeps the voices at bay.
- [Narrator] What time did you get up today?
- I got up today at three o'clock.
Usually I get up at four o'clock,
but I'm a little thrown off from having
traveled in Europe for the past three weeks.
- [Narrator] Who would you cast to play you in a biopic?
- I would cast Raven-Symone to play me.
She's fabulous, she could do anything.
- [Narrator] If you were not a performer
what would you do for a living and why?
- Well, for a living, gee whiz.
You know, the closest thing I can think of
is be a teacher because 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.
- [Narrator] How long does it take you to get in drag?
- It takes me just under 300 years.
- [Narrator] How did you discover that you were a performer?
- Well, I feel like I was a born performer.
You know, I was told from childhood that I would be famous.
My mother saw a psychic when she was pregnant with me
and the psychic said, well, you're gonna have a boy.
This was before ultrasound.
And he's going to be famous.
So I grew up knowing I would be famous
and I had to figure out, okay, well how am I gonna do that?
I love creativity.
I love irreverence and colors and music and dancing
and movement and shapes and sizes
so I thought, well, I will become an actor,
or a performer, or a singer.
I love David Bowie.
So that's where I hitched my wagon to that star.
- [Narrator] 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. [laughing]
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 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 it, 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.
- [Narrator] 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?
- [Narrator] We're gonna cut.
- I'mma take this microphone off.
All right.
- [Crew] Thank you so much.
- Thank you, guys, thank you.