Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley talk Ab Fab's effect on gay culture

With the Ab Fab movie now truly on the horizon, Joanna Lumley, who plays Patsy, and Jennifer Saunders, who plays Edina, have been interviewed by V Magazine for their Fall Preview issue.

In the interview, the duo talk about the influence the show had on LGBT culture and what they think was the best thing about the show.

“We tried very hard,” Saunders said. “But [gay people] refused to be offended – and I admire them for that. Thank God you’re hanging on in there.”

Lumley explains how the show had a multitude of gay references.

“You go back and pick through it, the amount of gay references and ease with which it’s been put into the story, without it being dragged along like a great log of plot.

“It’s really normal that one of [Edina’s] ex-husbands now lives with his young boyfriend. It’s completely normal that [Edina] wants Saffy to be a lesbian or that Serge is gay and living in New York. It’s completely normal that Patsy is transgender.”

AbFab

The pair go on to explain how they received an award for their contribution to LGBT culture during Pride in New York, and the mishap that followed during the ceremony.

“We went in with the idea that it was going to be this great camp affair,” Saunders explains, revealing that the pair arrived in full “Edina and Patsy drag.” Saunders wore a Phillip Treacy Stetson hat wrapped with the stars and stripes while Lumley had her hair done in the signature Pat beehive.

“I was afraid they wouldn’t know who we were,” Lumley says. She explains how the ceremony continued and realised it wasn’t the camp celebration they were expecting.

The ceremony was filled with piano solos, speeches and memorials for people who had to died to AIDS complications.

Lumley explains that “You didn’t just go up and say, ‘Cheers, thanks a lot,'” even though that’s what they had planned to do.

Saunders, who V Magazine describes as “hysterical” at this point, says:

“Whoopi Goldberg came on to give our award, and we went ‘Oh no, we’ve totally misjudged this whole thing’. At which point, as more people were crying and our moment was arriving, Joanna leaned over to me and said, ‘I think we should’ve made a speech.'”

It was too late, however, and in true Ab Fab fashion, the pair climbed onto the stage, just as their characters would have done and said, “Cheers, thanks a lot.”

You can read the full interview in V Magazine’s Fall Preview Issue, available July 14.

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is set for a release on July 1.

You can watch the trailer below:

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley talk Ab Fab’s effect on gay culture

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