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[0:05] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the Roundtable with me, Robert. Well, everybody, welcome. The one and only, the incre— we've all watched you. We've all— don't judge my outfits, Tan France. I'm not here to be judged today. Congratulations on everything. Happy Pride. Happy wonderful day to you. I'm so excited that you're here.

[0:22] Tan France: Thank you. Happy Pride to you. You know, this show is the show where Peppermint the Drag Queen says where all the queer kids come to play, and we are here, and we want to thank you before we start for the representation that you show to our community and the incredible work that you do. You are just a man that does a little bit of everything.

[0:39] Tan France: That's right. I would like to believe soon I'll do a lot of everything, but we'll start with a little.

[0:46] Robert Bannon: That works. Congratulations on the television work and this exciting, incredible new series of a season of Deli Boys. How did this happen to you?

[0:57] Tan France: I asked myself that question every day. You know, so I've been obviously I've been in unscripted for like nine years now, on a few different projects that I love so much. However, this came to me a couple of years ago. Season— this is season one— sorry, season two of Deli Boys is about to come out, but season one was a couple of years ago that we shot it, and they sent me the information of this role about this role, and it was just this straight gangster who is violent and aggressive, and I just thought, yeah, I can do that. And so I sent in a bunch of self-tapes, did a live audition, and I was like, yeah, we should do this. And it was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had on camera.

I loved it so much. And I can't believe I get to do it again. And the character Zoubert has taken such a massive turn since the last time I played him. Before he was out of prison and just violent, and now he's in prison and he's a lot more zen and a peacemaker. And I love both versions of this man.

[2:00] Robert Bannon: So are you saying when they thought we need an inmate who gets out of prison who is violent, they thought let's hire Tan France?

[2:07] Tan France: That's right. Why wouldn't you think of me?

[2:09] Robert Bannon: Yeah, I would think you're the last person.

[2:11] Tan France: But that is why you're an actor, and that's why I have acting.

[2:15] Robert Bannon: Yeah, we know you from fashion, we know you from unscripted. Is it hard for you to stay scripted? Do you ever want to break the mold and just look at the camera and break the fourth wall and start?

[2:23] Tan France: Actually, yeah. No joke. Do you know what? No one's ever asked that, but that is so true, that is so real. Yes, absolutely. However, I've done— after doing unscripted for like nine years, it is nice to do something different. And I'm hoping that I'll do more scripted work. I love it. I love it so much. I think that after doing unscripted for so long, it just kind of becomes— this is not meant to sound how it's gonna sound— it's so simple. It doesn't feel challenging in any way. I'm just turning up on set and being myself, and it was so nice to just get to turn off at work and just not have to try very hard. It really is nice though to do something that is so out of my wheelhouse.

[3:06] Robert Bannon: Well, you are your own— you know, I have your own media company.

[3:10] Tan France: Yeah.

[3:11] Robert Bannon: And you talk about voices, you talk about South Asian voices and LGBTQI plus voices. It must be important. The representation of that matters so much to the community and people around the world. So when this script came to you, what about it exactly spoke to you that you thought like this is a story I could spend some years in time away from home and on set doing?

[3:31] Tan France: Yeah. The nice thing about this show is that I said when the show first came out, I did a lot of press for the show to say this isn't a brown show for brown people. This is a brown show for everyone. South Asians or marginalized groups have been watching white television movies our entire lives, and we were able to find commonality and common ground with the people that we see on screen. There's no reason why you can't— just because it's brown people on camera, there's no reason why the audience can't connect with them. On this show, we all speak English. We just so happen to be brown. And so that was a massive draw for me. When I was first sent the script, I desperately wanted to get the job to show not only can we show versions of South Asians, Pakistanis, that are so complete.

They're not just— we're not just playing a doctor or a terrorist or whatever you might think of a Pakistani. We can be drug dealers too. We can be fun, we can be wild, we can be educated, we can be all those things. We are complete people, and I love that that's what this show represents for me. But also when I was auditioning, I was thinking, why can't I, as a queer man, play this violent straight killer? There's no reason why I can't. An acting job's an acting job. And so for me, that never hindered me. I just thought, no, I want to show everyone that I can do this just as well as anybody else can. There wasn't a version of me in the media before me. I'd never seen a version of me ever, and I didn't step onto the scenes until my mid-30s. I do love— I get so excited by the fact that there might be brown kids all over the world thinking, well, if that bitch can do it, why can't I?

[5:16] Tan France: Oh, oh, that— you know, what was funny is that when I went to acting school many million years ago, I had a student that I went to school with was Rami Yousuf, who made Rami for Hulu, which speaking of Hulu. And people would say to me, like, oh, I don't watch it because I don't have experience being a Muslim American. Well, people who are Muslim Americans have been watching white people like me tell stories forever. Universe stories are universal, people are people. So enjoy it no matter where you are or where you're from. And if it was a really dramatic show where you really had to understand our culture, I get it. That might be difficult for you to process. It's a comedy, it's just— yeah, a violent comedy.

I mean, it's incredible. And it's one of my favorite shows. Even if I wasn't on the show, this would be one of my favorite shows. I absolutely loved season one. I'm only in one episode, but I loved season one. So even without myself, I know it's a wildly entertaining show for everybody. It's out right now on Hulu. It's streaming, it's May 28th, it's out and about. You gotta check it out.

[6:16] Robert Bannon: So you right now, you have your own French Tuck Media Company, and then you have Honorable Gays Digital Series that you do, and then you have Deli Boys, and then you have The P Word, which is coming up, which you are producing. Then you have Clashing Through the Snow, which you appeared at, then you have the other projects and events. Do you sleep? You have a husband and kids and a life. Do you have— are you just a vampire? What do you do?

[6:41] Tan France: Do you know? Actually, I will say I mostly get eight hours sleep now, which is so nice. But I do a lot of my work from home. Over the last few years, look, this is gonna just sound arrogant, but I'm just gonna say I hit a point in my career where I feel like I'm part of the establishment. After almost 10 years, there's no reason why I can't say, okay, I'm gonna work on set two to three days a week. The rest of my time I get to be at home. I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have a very quiet private life, and I— first and foremost, I'm a dad. This is my job, but when I'm at home, I will do my few hours a day working from my bedroom. But I'm with my kids, I make their breakfast, I make their lunch, I make their dinner.

I just work around my family life. And then the two or three days a week that I'm away, I focus exclusively on work. And so I think that it's possible to have a balance. Also, I have an incredible husband. I've been with my husband for almost 19 years. Shout out Rob France, best guy in the world, who is able to hold things down at home so I can then do what I need to do for our family.

[7:48] Tan France: I love that so much. No, no, Darius, my husband, I'm sorry for after he just said that. I'm sorry for everything. I tell people he runs 98.5% of my entire house. He is the boss, he runs this whole place. Absolutely. My husband is the greatest. What he does is incredible, and I couldn't do what he does, but it means that I get to do what I do for a living, which is a dream. He did definitely critique me wearing this shirt while doing this interview with you because look, Tan, it's got— look, it's got Big Bird, and it's got— uh, it's two seconds. I don't have glasses on a hundred open. Show me again. Look, it's got Big Bird, it's got Elmo.

[8:25] Robert Bannon: Don't— he said you're not wearing this tacky shirt for two years.

[8:28] Tan France: No, it's cute. Do you know what? I love a playful thing. I mean, look, if you've ever seen Queer Eye, I've worn playful shit many times. If it makes you happy, I would absolutely wear that shirt. I would wear it with my high-waisted jeans, I'd wear it with a great boot, and we're good to go.

[8:42] Robert Bannon: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. When you look back, when you look back to your career, and when you think about you being a kid and your grandparents' denim factory, and you were starting working and starting to construct jackets and starting to get into fashion, could you have ever imagined— the road must have changed, the goals must have changed, the view of it changed. What do you feel like when you look back and see the journey now?

[9:02] Tan France: I can't believe that that kid turned into me. If you had told me when I was, let's say, 12, 13, living in my tiny town in England, that one day I would move to America and then be on television, I would have told you absolutely out of your mind, that's not possible. I can't believe it. This is gonna sound like absolute BS. I swear to God, it's true. Almost every week— actually, every few days, I turn to my husband and say, how is this our life? How am I here? If you knew what my life was as a kid, this would have been absolutely impossible. I cannot believe that the American dream is real for me.

[9:46] Robert Bannon: Well, we love you. You're so entertaining, you're so much fun, your personality is incredible, and it's very important. Everything that you represent is— that book almost came out, it's like eight or seven, eight, eight, almost eight years.

[9:59] Tan France: So long ago, I know.

[10:00] Robert Bannon: Where's part two?

[10:02] Tan France: There will— no, there will be no part two. I'm gonna say this on the record right now. I will never do another book. It was so much work. Oh my gosh, it was so much work. And I'm not work shy, I work constantly, but that was such intense work. I couldn't do it again. Anyone who writes books, I'm like, well done to you. I don't know how you have the stamina because it's not just writing the book, then you've got to do a press tour, then you've got to do an in-person tour. And I did an— I did it international. I was in Japan, in Europe, all over the US. It— oh gosh, it was so much work.

[10:37] Robert Bannon: Yeah. Well, we love it, and we thank you for all of that. And when I look at your— let's talk about clothes and fashion for a minute. If you look at some of the places you've worked for— Zara, you've worked for Express, you've worked for— you've worked for a lot, you've done a lot of work for a lot of different companies, high-end companies, low-end companies. After all the years you've worked with people you've worked with on television, have been— had a lot of money, had no money, had stylists, had to go to a thrift store. What makes good fashion?

[11:01] Tan France: You know, there's this influence of— gosh, I wish I could remember his name— this boy on Instagram who makes it very clear to his audience, if you can't dress well cheaply, you can't dress well. And I couldn't agree more. When I first became the Tan France that you guys know, for the first few red carpets, I insisted on wearing regular, like mall clothes, like from regular stores. I never spent more than 150 dollars on a suit and then just had it tailored to death so that I could show it doesn't matter that I haven't got a $4,000 suit on. I've got something on that costs all in all $200, and I want you to know that with that money, I've been able to compete with every one of these people on this red carpet who spent $4,000. I don't need you to spend a fortune on clothes, I don't need to buy clothes often. I just want you to wear clothes that make you feel something and that are well proportioned for you.

[11:57] Robert Bannon: That's great. That's incredible. I'm gonna remind myself that next time I pass the Tom Ford store and say, nope, Tan said I could just go right down there to Burlington Co Factory.

[12:05] Tan France: It's not necessary. Look, if you are shockingly wealthy and buying something from Tom Ford is the same as you buying something from— or somebody else buying something from Zara, great, do it. But if you're having to go above and beyond and use all your savings and go into debt to buy that really expensive thing, that's insane. I didn't do that before I became an entertainer, and I wouldn't do it now if I couldn't afford something or I knew that that was gonna put me in debt. I ain't wearing that. We have so much great clothing available at— oh, I was about to say the DI, but that doesn't mean anything to you— at like thrift stores, vintage stores. You don't have to spend a lot of money to look great.

You just don't. So much of my clothing, even now on TV, that you see me in and on a red carpet, even now, vintage. My jeans are vintage, they're from a thrift store, they cost me $19. This is vintage. Like, I don't need to spend a bunch of money to look the way I think looks good. And I don't need everyone to think I look good. As long as I look good, that's all that matters.

[13:05] Robert Bannon: I'm with it. That's the fact. That's the truth right there. So this is June, everybody, that you can be watching Deli Boys. You better watch Deli Boys, and it's the perfect way to sell what says Pride more than straight, violent, angry men.

[13:18] Tan France: That's played by the gays.

[13:21] Robert Bannon: Played by the gays. How are you gonna celebrate? How are you celebrating Pride? What is on your mind? My last question.

[13:26] Tan France: Well, I'm gonna be on a press tour during Pride. But I am going to England to launch the premiere of The P Word in the UK, and that's during Pride month, and it makes me really proud because it's the first ever play in the UK on the West End about two queer Pakistani men.

[13:47] Robert Bannon: Amazing. You're amazing. Congrats to you, your husband, to the babies, to your family. Thank you for what you represent. Thank you for being that someone out here that we could all look up to. I wish you the most incredible Pride, and thank you for hanging out with me.

[13:57] Tan France: Thank you, love. I really appreciate it. Thank you, thank you. Happy Pride.

[13:59] Robert Bannon: Happy Pride.