Drag queen Courtney Act on why the Spice Girls were revolutionary

Australia’s most famous drag queen looks back on her decades in the spotlight and the important lesson she learnt from her 2003 stint on Australian Idol.

Before I went on Australian Idol in 2003, I had been doing drag for a couple of years. I knew how much I loved it and I hoped other people [watching the show] would love it as well. And they did, which was lovely.

At the time, I wasn’t doing anything deliberate, I was just trying to be myself – which I guess is one of the most deliberate things you can do, really. And one of the things people often don’t do.

“I had found that sense of belonging in the Sydney drag and queer community.” (Picture: Supplied)

In the world we live in, we often spend more time trying to fit in rather than just belonging. There’s a distinction there. Fitting in is giving up parts of your own identity in order to gain acceptance, and belonging is the idea of being authentically you and finding an outside world that accepts that.

I had found that sense of belonging in the Sydney drag and queer community, and I took that to Idol. Rather than try to fit in, I just had such a great time and people accepted it. Sometimes there’s nothing more powerful than a person just being themselves.

The advice I’d give to people who don’t feel like they belong is that, interestingly, when you’re a teenager or in your 20s, one of the purposes is to struggle with your identity and not quite know where you belong in the world. You don’t have to know all the answers.

As trite as it sounds, it’s about the journey, not the destination. Part of the messiness and part of the not knowing is actually the most exciting part.

“Fitting in is giving up parts of your own identity in order to gain acceptance.” (Picture: Australian Idol)

I love to look back on the stuff I’ve done because it gives me more perspective on who I am [since Idol, Act has appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Celebrity Big Brother UK, Dancing With The Stars and The Bi Life, has released her own music, and will co-host Mardi Gras again this year].

That was especially [true of] 2020, when there was an element of, “Oh no, my career has ground to a halt. I’m a failure.” But actually it was, “No, it’s not you. The world is on pause right now.”

My best friend, Vanity [Faire aka Benjamin Moir], and I are doing a podcast together. It’s a “friends chatting about stuff” podcast, which was one of those things where we were like, “Are you sure people want to hear us talking?”

We were having dinner the other day and I thought, “Oh gosh, people are really staring – I must be famous in [the Sydney suburb of] Randwick.”

And then I looked at Vanity and realised that she was dressed… I mean, gender gets so confused but I guess dressed as a “man” in inverted commas, and had a beard, with long dangly earrings, her hair pulled into a high ponytail and was wearing a little cut-off midriff.

And I was like, “Oh, people aren’t staring at me.”

Courtney Act features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

My role models are people who aren’t afraid to be themselves in a world where people say they shouldn’t be. The Spice Girls were these five women in the mid-’90s who defied what society said women should be. People might not think of them as revolutionaries but for 16-year-old me, they were.

At that time, people were almost disgusted by their behaviour because of their “tarty” clothing and their loudness and brashness. Now we look back on the Spice Girls and don’t even blink. You’d be like, “Really? That outfit? She’s practically fully dressed.”

Brenda, Call Me! is a Nova Podcasts production. New episodes are released every Thursday, available wherever you get to your podcasts.

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Originally published as Drag queen Courtney Act on why the Spice Girls were revolutionary