Antoni Porowski was ‘so afraid’ to audition for the Queer Eye reboot
The food and drink expert also dished on when we can expect season seven.
Queer Eye fan favourite, Antoni Porowski, has opened up his fears of auditioning for the reboot before it launched on Netflix.
Antoni heads up the makeover show along with Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness (JVN), and Tan France. The show launched on Netflix in 2018.
The food and drink expert of the Fab Five recently spoke to Olympic gold medallist Tom Daley on his podcast, Made With Love.
Antoni recounted his concerns about auditioning in the first place given how open the show wanted to be, especially with its cast and the ‘heroes’.
“Talking about my personal life and sexuality,” Antoni shared. “And it wasn’t anything that I wanted to share with the public, but I was so afraid. This is where a mentor, a good friend of mine, Klaus, was basically telling me you have to audition for it.”
“I was like, ‘Well, what do you mean? I’m having this adverse response to doing it.’ He said, ‘Well, if you don’t get it, you’re going to live in regret, but if you try it and you don’t get it, at least you’ll know you tried. You would’ve tried and you’re already thinking about it anyway, so you might as well just lean into the fear.'”
Antoni also revealed he was apprehensive the show would be a success.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I thought if we get one season, we’re lucky.”
Antoni recalled speaking to his (and Tom Daley’s) agent about how filming had gone.
“I remember telling him the season’s wrapped, we just spent five months in Atlanta filming two seasons and I said I think I’m really quiet, no one’s going to see me on the show and/or the show’s going to get cancelled. What’s our next move? What are we doing?
“He was like, ‘Hold your horses, just relax, let’s wait and see till it comes out and we’ll see what happens and then we’ll strategize, and we’ll figure out a game plan after that.'”
Antoni also remembered a chat he had with his fellow Fab Five member, Tan, about how the show would go.
“He was like, ‘Do you think our lives are going to change at all once the show comes out?’ I was like, ‘Tanny, I really don’t know. I’m really not sure. This might just be a tiny little blip but at least maybe it’s an opportunity for other jobs.
“I think we were both optimistic but very cautiously so. I love keeping my low expectations so I’m pleasantly surprised.”
Hopefully, Antoni is pleasantly surprised with how the show has gone since 2018!
The series has so far run for six seasons on the streaming service with a seventh eagerly anticipated.
On that Antoni revealed little about when season seven, set in New Orleans, would debut.
“Genuinely, I’m not just saying this, I have no idea. Netflix is incredibly secretive; we usually find out about two to three weeks before it happens.”
Queer Eye is streaming on Netflix.