He also began to understand another point of difference. I knew if they were willing to talk to me, I could say, ‘What is your problem with Pakis? Who do you think we are?’” Me calling them something or swearing back would achieve nothing. “I knew that having an adverse reaction was not going to achieve anything. He says he encountered racism early on in life, and resolved to deal with it without drama. France went to the mosque every day and did not socialise outside his community in his bedroom, he played with Barbie dolls and listened to Kylie Minogue’s I Should Be So Lucky. His parents ran taxi offices, post offices and convenience stores, at different points his grandfather had a factory in Bury that produced denim for Disney. His parents came to England as children, and France grew up in Doncaster with two older brothers and a sister the family lived next door to his uncle on his father’s side. “I’ve done as much as possible to make sure I’m in a position that I’m successful.” France, to borrow Queer Eye parlance, has become his very best self through the world of work.
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How did France answer? “Over the last 15 years, I’ve worked hard to build a career that makes me feel really confident,” he says. How is it you still put a smile on your face?’” You’re brown, you’re gay, you just don’t blend into a crowd. “He said, ‘How are you so confident and comfortable in your own skin, when I’m almost positive you’ve had a lifetime of people judging you. Photograph: Christopher Smith/Netflixīut in an episode in the new series, one guy asked France something different.
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In an episode from the new series of Queer Eye. “How it all works, something vulgar like that,” France says with an eye roll. Ask me anything.’” Straight men usually want to know about gay sex.
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“I don’t say, ‘Tell me your deepest, darkest secret.’ I say, ‘You can ask me my deepest, darkest secret. When France first meets Queer Eye participants, he tells me, he asks for a hug, then makes a promise. He is polite and poised, his accent remaining distinctly South Yorkshire even though he has lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for six years. Lip balm is reapplied several times his legs remain crossed throughout our conversation. Neat and muscular, his style is understated, with a cartoonish salt-and-pepper quiff and Bambi eyes. W e meet in a corporate hotel suite that could do with a little Queer Eyeing, though France himself needs no intervention. And, I’m not just talking about the gay community, I’m talking about the Asian community.” (France’s parents grew up in Pakistan he is from Doncaster.) He is now the most famous – and in fact the only – out gay Muslim man on western television. “It put me in a position to represent my community in a way that I had never seen. “The show has given me more than I’ll ever know, and not just financially or in terms of fame,” France says. Now he has 2.1 million followers and is writing a memoir. Before Queer Eye, he had no gay friends, and a private Instagram account. It made no sense to give this complete novice this high-profile show,” he says.
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He’s gone from anonymous wholesale clothing businessman to a global star in under 12 months, thanks to a show he never imagined being a part of. Since rebooting as a Netflix show (it first screened in 2003, under the name Queer Eye For The Straight Guy), it has become a global phenomenon, winning three Emmys and transforming the lives of its hosts as well as its subjects, or “heroes” as the show calls them.įrance’s life has perhaps changed the most. As the self-styled Fab Five spend a week doing their subject up, they also get to what Queer Eye considers the heart of the matter: rooting out issues of poor self-esteem hidden beneath bad hair, cargo pants and Crocs, and trying to mend them.
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The show he’s referring to is Queer Eye, Netflix’s reality TV smash hit of last year, in which five gay men give someone, usually a man, a whole-life makeover, from style (where France comes in) to interiors, grooming and cooking. Then I realised, oh, I really don’t like that side,” he says. I didn’t actually think about it before the show. So we switch, and he sits and crosses his legs. He wants me, he explains, to see his good side. T an France comes into the room, sits to my right and immediately bounces back up and asks to swap chairs.