How did Queer Eye’s Tan France go from Doncaster to Atlanta, Georgia?
Queer Eye’s fashion guru Tan France, a Pakistani Muslim from Doncaster – close to Sheffield, South Yorkshire – has found himself at the centre of (probably) the most popular reality TV show on Netflix right now, but how did he get there?
“I don’t even know if I can articulate how amazing the response has been”, said France in an interview with The Telegraph over the weekend.
“We were hoping the show would be successful, of course, but we expected it to be a slow burn. Within two days, though, it had become insanely popular.
France had owned a couple of women’s apparel brands and when a partner of his, a popular US blogger, featured him on her Instagram, he was quickly spotted.
“[I] was seen by somebody in the offices of ITV, who [was] casting the show, and they asked to Skype. This was the last day before auditions closed, and it was meant to be a 20 minute chat.
“Two hours later, the casting director said: ‘I’ve been casting for this for six months, I’ve seen over 2,000 people and you’re my favourite.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatevs.’
“Then they asked me to go to the live auditions, and every couple of hours they would let people go home. They started with 40 of us, and at the end of the three days I was the last one left in the fashion category.
“I had never been on TV before, I had never applied to go on a show before, I just went to make friends, thinking there was no way I’d get on the show, but at least I’d get some new gay friends out of it.
“I never expected to walk away from that audition with a major show.”
You can watch Queer Eye on Netflix UK now, read the full interview here.
