“I have used her as such a form of inspiration for so long in my career as an actor because she always managed to balance camp with heart so well in Sex and the City,” Miss Benny told GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos in a recent interview. “I always was just dreaming of her being in the show and when I found out she actually was gonna be in it, I fell out of my seat and had a gay heart attack because I just could not believe that I was gonna be working with her — she’s perfect for Madolyn.”
They added, “I think anyone who’s a fan of Sex and the City is gonna watch this show and get everything that they’ve ever wanted out of her because she has so many amazing, powerful moments, some great quotes, some great one liners — and I think it’s perfect.”
“I’ve been so used to sort of getting these opportunities where I say a couple funny one-liners or like a couple of comic relief moments, but it’s very rare that you get to see me do that and also go home, have a real life and have some heart and have some personal journeys,” they said. “I think that when I read this script, I just remember thinking I would be such a fan of this.”
It would have meant a lot to Miss Benny to have grown up with a show like Glamorous. Growing up in Texas, the only queer people they had as references were on the internet. “The thing that was the most impactful in my life was seeing queer people happy and succeeding in their personal goals,” they said. “I didn’t really get to see that anywhere else at the time… and so I think about a show like Glamorous… I think about the fact that the characters in the show never face prejudice from the straight world. We don’t get homophobia, transphobia, [or] any sort of pushback.”
“Our queerness is seen as a superpower and it’s seen as a license to kill,” they continued. “That’s super important to me because when I was a kid, I would have loved to have seen [that] being queer isn’t a tragic thing.”
Miss Benny is so happy and proud of Glamorous and how it gives the opportunity for queer people at various intersection interact with each other. “Even if we have any sort of conflicts between us as characters, there’s like a baseline of family that we all have,” they point out. “That’s super special and healing for me to see and so I think that it hopefully will be that for other queer people who watch it.”
The queer component of the series is clearly important to Miss Benny and the fact that they are from Texas, representation is paramount to them.
Miss Benny left Texas at 14 saying, “I knew that was something that I needed to do.” They admit that Texas is beautiful and the culture is amazing, but also said it’s “shrouded by this sort of queer pushback.”
“I think the queer people in Texas are doing a great job of making their voices heard and speaking up for themselves,” they said. “I think what’s really important and something that I really would encourage is for the allies in Texas to be even more vocal.”
They went on to say, “The most people that have changed their opinion of queer people that I’ve been able to have an impact on are usually people that knew me before they knew I was queer and they realize that this thing they’ve been demonizing is actually something they love and isn’t scary.”
Stream “Glamorous” on Netflix starting June 22nd!