[Music]
i am the one that tells it it is
tan france how did you end up on queer
eye this is a fab five confidence
emergency and i was offered the job and
i tried to quit three weeks later
would drove him out of england if i'm
really honest with you on race and
racism
being black in the us is a much
different vista being black
in the uk and his leading man tell me a
little bit
um about how you met your husband i was
dating my way around america
unbothered unapologetic
outspoken this is gonna sound really
offensive but i'm gonna say it
tan france i'm gonna give you the real
real is this
you can't live in this world today and
not be curious
in fact if ever there was a time to hear
from more than the usual suspects
it's now this is the carlos watson show
maybe we'll surprise you maybe you'll be
mad at us sometimes
or inspired not only do i hope people
will see more with the show
but i hope they'll do more and be more
people the good stuff starts now tan
france is
best known as one of the fab five
members on the hit
emmy award-winning netflix series queer
eye someone called 9-1-1 because this is
a 5-5
confidence matches one of the first
openly gay muslim men on television
tan has been fighting for people of all
genders and sexual orientations to feel
confident in their own skin beauty is
confident
and i get why they call them the stylish
one tan has been in the fashion scene
for years working for brands like zara
chanel and even creating his own fashion
company
kingdom and state now tan's
entrepreneurial success has landed him a
facebook watch series
called boost my business tan welcome to
the show
thank you so much thanks for having me
dad i'm a lover of great names
uh i grew up in miami which has a rich
mix of names from all over the globe
how did you get your name uh well my
show business name
is uh kind of my real name
so my actual name is tambien safta
that's my
name from my parents but they used to
call me tan as a kid i've always gone by
time and then i got married
uh 10 years ago and took my husband's
name so now i'm tan france which
is like a perfect show business name but
it definitely wasn't the perfect
non-show business i love the accent and
i hear it so clearly and even though i
think i know the story
how did you come to get that accent my
parents
are pakistani and uh like a mix of
kashmiri indian uh but they were
immigrants to england
they spoke in a very strong like
pakistani accent even when they spoke
english
and so to teach us english they sat in
front of the tv for a long time
and so i've got an amalgamation of many
different accents
whoever was my favorite actor at the
time i guess
but you've been dreaming about this car
since you were eight policy from
american family insurance
[Music]
dan tell me a little bit about what you
were like in your 20s uh pre queer eye
uh uh who was tan was it was it was he
quiet was was it was he loud
he was wild you know
i was not a great employee i was
actually a terrible employee i worked
really hard but i always thought people
were stupid
i always thought my my managers were
morons and i knew i could do a better
job than ever
so i was very difficult employee i was
always destined to be
a business owner an entrepreneur because
i don't take orders very well from
anybody i do not like being told what to
do
[Music]
i started my businesses in my 20s
it was my dream it happened much earlier
than i expected
my visa um expired had to leave america
i didn't know how i was gonna get back
and i knew that there was this
i'm gonna call it a loophole because it
is actually lame in my opinion
that if you earn enough money you pay
enough taxes
in america you then then can apply for a
green card
um so basically if you plow enough money
into the economy i'll give you a green
card and so
i decided to start my business early i
started at 26
instead of my goal of 35 and um
and things went things were horrible at
first they were
hellacious hellaciously hard um but then
within a couple of years things turned
around and
it changed my life it turned into a
career
[Music]
hello i'm tan france i started in the
fashion industry when i was a little boy
working
in my grandad's denim factory i loved it
so much
i started my own small business and
that's why i'm so passionate about
sharing my experiences with other small
businesses to try and help them
grow and become successful you talk to
young entrepreneurs because you know
entrepreneurship is
has become wildly popular and who knows
maybe during this recession
maybe it'll even go to yet another level
what are two or three of the smartest
things
tan that you did as an entrepreneur that
led to some of the early success that
you had
okay this is a really hard one for most
people i'm muslim i was raised in a
muslim household
uh with quite strict muslim rules and
islamic rules and one of them is that we
don't do
interest so you build your business on
money that you have so
that puts you in a really strong
position where your business has no debt
so if you want to start a business
wonderful but save up like sacrifice
save up and then try and start your
business with your own money that is the
best piece of advice i can give you
and then the second one is something i
learned from my dad and he used to say
learn everything do everything how big
did the company become
and and tell me about this this this
rumor i heard that you wanted to retire
at 33
not a rumor i did um and it was 32.
there were still small businesses
relatively um but i
so i started one i it became very
profitable
um and i noticed that i was getting
ripped off by other
businesses who were basically taking
what i was doing and doing
a cheaper knock-off and so
i thought well why not knock off myself
and change
the nail i'd do a different basically a
diffusion line so i i did
i created two more businesses i decided
i wanted to retire i wanted to travel i
wanted to have children
and so i sold all my businesses and then
just planned to
chill with my husband for the rest of my
[Music]
life
when did you realize your sexuality it
was never a case of realizing it i
always knew i just i was never attracted
to women i didn't know how it was going
to play out
because there were there was nobody like
me in my community nobody liked me on tv
and so i didn't know what that meant for
me personally
but i never doubted that i was gay was
there any family drama
in and around this was it a conversation
was it not a conversation did
everyone just know love and accept or or
where were you
it wasn't that they that they accepted
it straight away there were a lot of
questions like what does this mean
for you what does this mean for our
community what does it mean uh
for our family within our community
there were a lot of there was a lot of
confusion
i afforded them questions i allowed them
questions nobody was allowed to
disrespect me by
saying anything disgusting to me or
inappropriate but laying the foundation
say you can ask me whatever you want but
you don't get
get to disrespect me so if you have
questions i will help you understand
because
i know that you don't know what this is
did anyone help you
along the way as you were kind of
thinking about who you wanted to be what
you wanted to do were there
fashion designers were there other
muslims other pakistanis whether they
were
similar or just a little bit there were
other versions of gay men however
i've said this before i'm going to make
it super super clear
a white gay story is so different
from an intersectional gay story it
really is
yeah there are a lot of white gay people
on tv their story is not
nothing like their struggle is nothing
like the struggle of somebody who has
zero representation on tv and that's why
it's so scary for people
who are within the muslim community
within the south asian community
they they have no one to refer to they
don't know what might happen
when they come out do a lot of young
muslim men
and young muslim men of color uh uh
reach you reach out to you on social
media and in other ways
it's constant with uh queer eye we are a
global show
the amount of messages we get from
countries i don't even know where they
are
and they are saying it doesn't matter
that you're
i'm not pakistani you come from a
community that has never seen you before
and i come from that community i don't
have anyone to refer to
i want to one of the things that i think
a lot about
and that i've been talking to a lot of
people about on the show is what's the
right way to dream
fearlessly and then even bring those
dreams alive because
i feel like one of the beautiful things
about the world we live in is that
through social media we can see more and
think about more
but not everyone knows how to go about
dreaming fearlessly and then actually
bringing that alive
what have you learned not just over the
over the course of your life but
particularly during your time on queer
eye
what have you learned about how to dream
fearlessly and bring those dreams to
reality
glad you mentioned reality because a
dream is wonderful but if it is
completely unrealistic
it's never going to come to fruition so
already realize which of you those
dreams that you're wanting to achieve
are actually realistic and it's not just
do i want to be rich
do i want to be famous like something
that actually is
attainable through hard work and know
that it is going to be a lot of work and
so
to dream fearlessly is to know first of
all what is realistic for me
personally what can i actually achieve
and then do
all you can to associate yourself with
people or businesses or whatever your
dream is to make sure that you can
achieve that
going even if you know for a fact that
you don't know what you're doing doesn't
matter
go in knowing that you have a dream to
achieve you have a goal to achieve
and you're willing to learn do you think
differently about how to dream
fearlessly today than you did say
five years ago ten years ago i think
since the age of 17
18 i think that it's remained relatively
consistent and i think it does start
young i think you need to train yourself
really young to accept the fact that
they're going to be a lot of trials
there's going to be a lot of
complications but as long as you know
it's realistic to be to dream but dream
of that one thing that you want to get
it is possible i i think trying to
achieve that as you're in your 30s 40s
gets a lot more complicated i think
people are willing
to take a lot more chances on a young
person who's a little bit wayward and
doesn't know their way
how did queer eye happen because in in
many ways that feels like the ultimate
dream it almost feels like a fairy tale
honestly i like like how did you end up
on queer eye it was a dream and it is a
dream and it happened
in the most unusual way and they asked a
friend of a friend who
is now my manager who was a manager at
the time called and said
would you be interested in auditioning
for this show i'm helping them cast this
show
called queer i was like absolutely not i
am a businessman first and foremost and
i am done with my career and chilling
and then i got a couple more calls over
the next few weeks and i agreed to at
least take a meeting
um and so i did and then i went to an
audition i was offered the job and i
tried to turn it down
and then i started working on queer eye
and i tried to quit three weeks later
because i didn't think it was the life
for me i'm i wasn't an entertainer
quite honestly i was really scared of
the pressure really
if i'm really honest with you the main
reason i didn't want the job the main
reason i tried to quit
is because the pressure was super super
intense when you say
pressure what kind of pressure the
pressure of being one of the first
to do something is not a position i
think
anyone should want to be in um and if
you do be careful what you wish for
if you're the one who is representing
a lot of people when you are one of the
first openly gay south asian people
you are no longer just tan france you
are the couple of billion people
who are south asian or asian and when
you speak you no longer speak for
yourself
you have to be perfect you have to be
infallible and if you're not
people will have a lot of nasty things
to say tell me a little bit about the
dynamic
with the uh other four members of the
cast on queer eye
what is your family role do you think
among the five of you oh wow oh uh
believe me i
i even before you finish that question i
can give you my answer i am the one
that tells it as it is you know how
you'll have that
either well in my culture it's usually
the mom who will
you'll go to and say this is what's
happening and they'll say right this has
got to change
you're a nightmare you did this wrong
you did that right that's me
you know those metal bins that you can
like put clothes in and burn them do you
have one of those
all of them know that i'm the if you've
got something to say
tell it to me and i'll tell everyone how
it is
dad tell me a little bit about being
pakistani
in the uk because it's so interesting
when i talk
to friends across the water i grew up
here in the states but
such interesting racial dynamics uh and
some variation between the uk
canada and uh and the us what was it
like growing up
uh pakistani in uh in the uk i love
england i love england so much and there
are wonderful wonderful people there
however uh racism was
ever present from is the one thing i
knew was the constant
from when i first stepped out of the
house as a very young child until the
time i left england
there are reasons why i don't i don't
keep england as my home anymore
uh and the main reason is racism uh i
chose to move to america a long long
long time ago i decided at 17.
now an american which is we are real
nice of a u.s citizen today
congratulations that america was going
to be my home not the uk
because i was so sick of the racism so
being pakistani uh being seen as what
uh how they refer to us basically as a
second-class citizen
and the uk is definitely not a position
i enjoyed being in
it's so interesting as someone who's
also experienced uh
racism and race here in the states damn
it almost seemed like in the uk
being pakistani or south asian
sometimes was almost i don't even know
what to call it i don't
quite want to use the phrase a tougher
nut than being black there but but but
it definitely i was
i was surprised at the weight of it it
certainly is not
the same here in the states or at least
it's not my experience it's the same
here in the states
i i actually do agree with you and i
hate putting uh
that putting that kind of comparison out
there because ours our
experiences of racism are so different
they really are however
um i do find that being uh black in the
u.s is a
much different beast to being black in
the uk and that's the case for me too
being south asian in the uk is so
incredibly hard being south asian
america
actually really not a problem at all in
america
i somebody referred to me very recently
as a model minority
and i literally scoffed at the thought
thinking i've never
i can't ever imagine somebody calling me
that from where i am from that
definitely wasn't the case
um i think that there are much greater
trials for a person of south asian
descent
in the uk and a lot of it isn't just the
colorado skin it's
uh it's based on our religion it's an
islamophobia that runs so deep
this is going to sound really offensive
and probably
not appropriate to say but i'm going to
say it why not
there was a time there was a time before
uh
9 11 9 11 that changed obviously so much
for so many places for so many countries
and for so many people but before 9 11
there was that
weird sweet spot between like the early
90s to the early naughties we call them
in england
um it's when the polish people started
to come to the uk
and they were seen as the second class
citizens compared to us
so for the first time we were offered a
reprieve and we were so grateful when we
found out polls were moving into our
neighborhood we're like yay
the the heat's off us for a minute and
then 9 11 happened we're like oh we're
back again
but truly we make fun of the fact that
there were like 10 years there
where we were no longer at the target it
was somebody else and it
was horrible to say i know but it felt
so nice that the heat was off
off us for a while but you're right if
you're from eastern europe
in england you're not seen as white
you're just seen as foreign and that's
good enough for somebody to be really
angry at you
dan tell me a little bit um about how
you met your husband
we met online uh 12 years ago
it was before like dating gaps and i i
i was in salt lake city which is where i
live now which where i am now
um and i was on vacation i'd been coming
here very regularly to see my friends
and i was dating my way around america
i'd come to america regularly and date
and then i didn't plan on meeting anyone
at all but my now husband messaged me
to say that um he would like to take me
on a date i should also make it clear
utah is one of the whitest places in
america
if you have any pigment they see you as
super exotic
they don't know where you're from but
they see you as super exotic so
my husband was like where are you from
you don't look like you're from around
here and clearly i'm not from around
here
and so he just wanted to go out for
lunch we went for lunch and
lunch turned into a movie and then
dinner and then drinks and then
five days later we uh we had seen each
other every day five days we decided we
were going to be together and so
we've been together for 12 years we got
married a year and a half into our
relationship
what's the magic there given that you
were dating your way around america so
you
you you you you met many many a good man
i assume
i'm going to give you the the the real
real is this
if you are in a position where you don't
need anyone like you just
are happy to be singling you truly it's
not just you're trying to convince
yourself
like you really do want to be single but
i didn't want to date anyone no matter
how good they seemed
and my partner was in exactly the same
position when you don't need anyone
that desperation goes and it really does
make you a much more desirable candidate
for a relationship
also one major component of a
relationship that makes
that that i believe is the reason we
lasted this long
is because we did long distance and when
you take intimacy like
physical intimacy out of the equation
all you have
is emotion
[Music]
tan i'm gonna end by asking you a few
rapid fire questions if you don't mind
maybe
immediately what comes to your mind
who's your favorite designer
mumu
of all the places that you've been to in
the world what's your favorite place
where of uh
where have you loved visiting salt lake
city utah what's your best trick for uh
navigating customs
if they accuse you of being a terrorist
or treat you like your terrorists be
really vulgar about your sexuality it
freaks them out
i used to get detained a lot 24 times i
got stopped and they
take you into a different room for
questioning and i started to get really
sick of it after like the 10th time
and so i taught i'd pack things that
aren't actually things that i would
carry like
a vibrator or gay porn and then they'd
open my bags up i'm like how many gay
terrorists do you know of course i'm not
i'm not a terrorist
and so be really vulgar about your sex
life where do you want life to take you
over the next five to ten years
really simply i just hope i'm a dad tim
what's your most memorable moment on
queer eyes so far
not necessarily filming the show it was
when we won our first
evie it goes to those queer eye boys
i cried so hard and it was just the most
shocking moment
to win an emmy who have you not met yet
that you would love to meet
beyonce i'm obsessed be safe and uh
and come visit me again when you get a
chance for show thank you so much stay
safe really lovely to meet you thank you
so much
bye hey tune in to the carlos watson
show
it's like no other you're gonna enjoy it
every weekday on youtube
