Fashion designer Tan France, who stars on the reality-show reboot “Queer Eye,” initially thought he was too boring to be on TV, but he’s anything but dull.
The gay, Muslim immigrant from England, who is married to a Mormon cowboy, makes for compelling, uplifting television as he counsels his makeover subjects to find their personal styles rather than to be a slave to fashion.
“I was offered the job and I said, ‘You’re out of your minds — I will ruin your show!” says France, 34. “They said, ‘No you won’t, we know how to cast. From what we know, there’s never been a gay, Muslim, British immigrant on a global platform before’ … that sold me on doing [it] — that people would meet a version of a person they’d never met before.”
“Queer Eye,” formerly called “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” first ran on Bravo from 2003 to 2006. Each episode featured five gay men (called “the Fab Five”) transforming a straight man’s lifestyle in the areas of fashion, culture, food and wine, interior design, and grooming. The show’s first run helped bring gay culture to mainstream America. Its Netflix reboot, with a new Fab Five — France, Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, and Bobby Berk — deals with broader issues of tolerance and acceptance, with subjects talking about race, religion and what it means to be a man. The refreshingly earnest, uplifting approach is attracting fans.
“I got 55,000 new [Instagram] followers within a week,” says France. “I’ve received at least 8,000 [direct messages] from people all over the world — the Middle East, Africa, Asia — saying, ‘You just don’t know what you’ve done for us.’ I do represent a certain community that is usually going through a real fight to be themselves.”
Born in England to Pakistani parents, France now lives in Salt Lake City with his husband of eight years, Rob France, a Wyoming-born Mormon. The two met on a dating site, and while they might initially sound quite different from one another, France said being religious is actually something that’s brought them together.
“It made it easier to date somebody who had similarities to me. I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t smoke,” says France, citing qualities both their faiths share. “We practice some of our religions’ practices. We don’t practice them all. We practice what works for us.”
France’s religion is a talking point on the new show, both on- and offscreen. He and the first episode’s makeover subject, Tom, a grizzly older man from the South, had an interesting exchange that didn’t make the final cut but was significant to France.
“We were talking, and he said something derogatory about Muslims,” says France. “And I said, ‘Let me tell you, you’ve been sitting with a Muslim for the last two hours on this car ride.’ And he was like, ‘Are you a terrorist?’ He didn’t mean it in a derogatory way, he just didn’t have any exposure to people that came from my background. So I took my time to explain.”
On their last day of filming, Tom gave France a yellow rose to symbolize friendship. “He said, ‘What I said to you wasn’t meant to be mean — I just didn’t know the kind of things I can ask you. I want you to know that you are my friend and you are always welcome in my home.’” says France. “Those experiences really made the show important for me.”
He had another meaningful moment shooting the second episode, which features an Indian-American makeover subject named Neal.
“I’d never seen an Indian and a Pakistani [together] on TV before,” says France. “There was a major war in the ’50s, [and] our countries separated. Movies [featuring Indian and Pakistani characters in love] are banned in the Middle East. So to have [Neal and me talking] openly on a global show is incredible.”
And although France was initially hesitant about the spotlight, he’s acclimated. During the “Queer Eye” press tour, he ran into Jon Bon Jovi and was star-struck.
He says: “I didn’t try for this life, but having Jon Bon Jovi stop me and say, ‘Tan, can I have a photo with you?’ blew my freaking mind.”