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Queer Eye's Tan France on the moment that made him stop filming the show.

 

A few months ago the world fell in love.

We were introduced to the new Fab Five on Netflix’s reboot of Queer Eye.

They taught us how to do some nifty things with avocados and how to open our hearts and minds to people who are different to us.

But it seems the series wasn’t as feel good behind-the-scenes as we were led to believe.

You see, there were a few moments while filming the series that really affected Tan France, the show’s fashion and style expert.

“I was asked if I was a terrorist because they didn’t realise I was middle eastern. Two of our heroes asked, ‘Are you a terrorist?’ and it was a very honest question for them. They weren’t trying to be funny,” he recently told Elsa Kreisinger at Refinery 29.

“Our show is about bridging these divides and we are meeting with a lot of Republicans and this isn’t meant to be a liberals vs. conservative show at all. But it gives us an opportunity to have a very open conversation.”

These moments didn’t make the show. As France told Kreisinger more timely topics like the Black Lives Matter movement took priority.

France also recalled one moment that actually made him want to stop filming the show.

It was the scene when the Fab Five were pulled over by the white policeman, while on their way to film the episode making over other white policeman.

Karamo Brown, the only African American member of the Fab Five, was driving the car at the time.

There were some tense moments before the cast realised it wasn’t exactly what it seemed.

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What it boiled down to was a set up by the producers that went a little bit pear-shape, but it was a moment that felt all too real for the cast.

David Collins, one of the show’s producers, told TV Guide it was just a fluke that Brown had decided to drive that day.

“Every morning that we started a new episode, the guys would do Rock, Paper, Scissors and try to buck up to see who got to drive,” he explained.

“The guys and I in the morning, we actually all physically fight for who gets the keys,” Brown told TV Guide.

“Sometimes we’re driving for two hours, and so if you’re in the driver’s seat you are definitely gonna be awake and control of the radio. That morning I was adamant that I wanted it, not knowing that [getting pulled over] was going to the part of the show.”

But that didn’t make the situation any less confronting for the Fab Five.

“Afterwards, we were fuming, saying ‘This can never happen again. This wasn’t OK. You don’t know what it feels like to be a person of colour and get pulled over’. We didn’t want to film the next day. We were like ‘We’re done. That’s it’,” France told Refinery 29

In the end the Fab Five were able to reconcile with the producers and continue filming the show.

France believes it ended up being one of the most poignant episodes of the season.

You can watch the entire first season of Queer Eye on Netflix now.

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