Yahoo News ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Producers on Queer Representation, Activism: “It’s Become a Mission For Us”
Long before RuPaul’s Drag Race made Emmy history by getting men in glitzy dresses, colorful wigs and fierce heels to compete to become America’s Next Drag Superstar, World of Wonder founders and maverick filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato made bold, personal movies that broke through media representation barriers to queer representation and reshaped how America looks at its LGBTQ community.
“It’s become a mission for us,” Bailey tells The Hollywood Reporter about how, with swagger and success, he and long-time collaborator Barbato followed up films like Party Monster and The Eyes of Tammy Faye and championed self-expression and visibility for drag show performers crashing through to pop stardom.
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For their art and activism, Barbato and Bailey will receive THR‘s Impact Award at the upcoming Banff World Media Festival, where they will also take part in a keynote conversation led by editorial director Nekesa Mumbi Moody.
If anything, Bailey is amazed Hollywood didn’t embrace drag queens as reality TV contestants long before they emerged from gritty bars and nightclubs to strut around an expanding Drag Race universe led by legendary drag artist RuPaul.
After bowing on Logo in 2009, the Drag Race franchise expanded to the U.K., Australia, Canada and elsewhere, featuring local “queens,” song and dance numbers, runway challenges and backstage drama aplenty.
“Drag queens are the Marines of television. They speak television fluently. They dance, they sing, they lip-synch, they do makeup, they do hair,” Bailey insists. But despite the international ratings success of RuPaul’s Drag Race, getting broadcast execs to order local versions has always been an uphill climb.
“Our whole business is built on no. We’ve only had one pitch that was ever greenlit in the room, and the next day that person called us back and said they changed their mind,” Barbato recalls. The result is a pitch room strategy that has the resilient co-founders having to turn an early no into an eventual yes for success.
“Wherever [Drag Race] has been on television in another country, it’s done really well. It’s just the anxiety of the gatekeeper thinking their audience is too conservative or won’t appreciate drag,” Bailey explains.
He adds it helps to have Barbato as a long-time business partner – the WoW founders met at a graduate film program at New York University in the 1980s – when they have faced constant rejection and challenges during their careers pitching projects that are all things queer and drag culture.
“Just having someone who will cheer you on, lift you up and say, ‘It’s not as bad as you think it is,’ is truly priceless,” Bailey insists.
Barbato adds their secret sauce for industry longevity is surrounding themselves with talented people: “We have so many amazing people who work at World of Wonder and many of them for decades. We try and hire people who are smarter than we are.”
Of course, there’s a price for the World of Wonder duo as the drag culture they see as empowering has sparked a backlash and a flurry of anti-transgender legislation in the U.S. “It’s the last gasp of the patriarchy. It’s the politics of distraction. This is temporary. We’re moving forward. They’re trying to move backwards. Forward movements always win,” Barbato argues.
If anything, opposition to their art and activism has only fueled the creative passions at World of Wonder. “I don’t think there was ever any other choice. We’ve always been attracted to people who are either friends or talent. They’ve often been people like us, part of our tribe, slightly on the fringe, on the margins. It felt like we were reporting to duty, to create opportunities for visibility,” Barbato explains.
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