Courtney Act isn’t just an international superstar, she’s an LGBTQ icon. The Australian drag artist has been a trailblazer for her entire career, paving the way for others around the world.
The singer rose to prominence in 2003 by auditioning for the first season of “Australian Idol” both in and out of drag, the latter as alter ego Shane Janek. Act advanced to the semi-finals in the competition, becoming the first openly LGBTQ contestant on an Australian reality TV series in the process.
After cultivating a career overseas, she set her sights on the U.S. Act competed on the sixth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in 2014, tying for runner-up and securing an American fanbase. High-profile solo shows and partnerships followed.
In 2018, Act competed and won “Celebrity Big Brother U.K.” She used the platform to educate her peers and viewers around the world about LGBTQ issues before making even more TV history the following year.
Act became the first drag performer to compete on any iteration of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2019. She secured second place in in the Australian version’s 16th season and subsequently returned for its “All Stars” version to do the same earlier this year.
The performer details her artistry and activism in “Caught in the Act: A Memoir,” which released in the U.S. Sept. 13. It’s billed as “a hilarious, often scandalous, and at times heartbreaking, peek into the entertainment icon’s journey towards understanding gender, sexuality and identity.”
It’s exactly that. Watermark spoke with Act ahead of the memoir’s domestic release.
WATERMARK: Congratulations on your memoir. Why is now the perfect time to publish it?
COURTNEY ACT: I don’t know if it’s the perfect time, but it’s a time. I wrote it during lockdown. I was arriving in Los Angeles – I had coincidentally arrived on the first day of lockdown – and then obviously, all of the other work that I had come to the U.S. for had been canceled. It gave me all of this time to write the book.
I guess my career in Australia and the U.K. is probably more of a perfect time for this memoir. In the U.S., “Drag Race” was nearly 10 years ago now, so as far as my impact in the queer world, I don’t have a very good understanding of what I mean there anymore, if that makes any sense. But this book is something that I worked so hard to write and I’m very passionate about, and I really love it.
Did anything surprise you about your writing process?
I underestimated how much time and how much excavation was involved in writing a book. I actually wrote about 220,000 words and about 80,000 got published. It was quite amazing. Normally in life, we write a tweet or a text and it’s instantly out there in the world, so we’re very used to the things we write being fairly quickly read, judged, criticized, complimented.
With writing a book – I started on the 17th of March, 2020 – and it didn’t come out in Australia until November 2021. Now it’s coming out in the U.S., so it’s just a different thing to write something and not have become public for over a year or two. You have a lot of time to consider what you’ve written and to grow.
What’s the reception been like?
It’s been great. In Australia, it’s a best seller, which was lovely. It’s been on the top of different book lists and nominated for different awards. I was just in the U.K. and it sold out and has gone into reprint. Actually that first day, it sold out on Amazon, which is both good and bad. You want everybody to be able to buy the book on the first day.
The book contains “Courtney Facts,” narrative breakouts detailing the LGBTQ experience. Why were those important to include?
I think sometimes in the queer community, or sometimes in minority communities, we expect other people to understand us. I get that the burden of explanation shouldn’t rely on the minority, but I just liked the idea of having everyone on the same page, literally, as they’re reading the book.
In Australia, I have a TV show on the [Australian Broadcasting Company] where I interview people, and the audience of that is very mainstream; straight, white, cis[gender], het[erosexual] kind of people. I pictured them picking up this book. Also, I was just trying to bring a little bit more context and information to people as they read it – so that when I say “gender fluid,” they know what I’m intending, because a lot of these terms get bandied around and people have different interpretations of what they mean.
I find when people are given the information that they’re often quite open to receiving it. And if they’re reading my book, they’re already willing. I’m sure it’s not being going to be bought by the Republicans and used as a text for education.
You’re pansexual and gender fluid. What do you wish more members of our community understood about that?
I think that in the queer community, for the longest time, it was “gay and lesbian; man and woman.” And we fought for those identities and those boundaries, and now they’re sort of expanding and getting more nuanced. I know that to come out as gay, you had to get outside the status quo of the heterosexual world, but I think that for gay people it just became the default. Sometimes there’s more to explore beyond the edges of that.
I just sort of think like, “If I’m attracted to somebody, then I would like to follow that up and just explore.” To quote “Auntie Mame,” “life’s a smorgasbord and most poor suckers are starving.”
Your memoir details your time on TV including “Drag Race.” What were some of the challenges and rewarding aspects of delving back into your high-profile eras?
Delving back into any part of your life that was heightened is so cool to do once life has gone on. So to look back at something like “Drag Race” while writing this book, and to go back and watch my season with a little more understanding that my life didn’t end there was really interesting. At the time you’re there, you’re like “this is it. This is so important because it’s like the most recent thing I’ve done. It’s the biggest thing I’ve done.” And you wonder, “is this where the story ends?” So to see as the years go on that it didn’t end, it continued to evolve, helped to give me some perspective.
How so?
At the time it was a lot more personal, obviously. You kind of store those memories and feelings in an unprocessed sort of way. So to go back and process them now and look at it all and tell these stories kind of healed some of that stuff. There was a lot more written, actually, because in the first pass I was writing from a more emotional place or a more hurt place from that experience. And I know the fans will probably be mad, because the thirsty juicy parts were sort of taken out, but I realized I wasn’t writing those because they were real. I was writing them because I was hurt. So just describing my experience of going through that was something that was really helpful .. it was actually really healing.
“Drag Race” now has a “Down Under” spinoff. Do you see yourself ever exploring the show or “All Stars?”
It’s funny because I’ve been watching “Drag Race Down Under,” and I’ve seen some clips of other ones. I did email World of Wonder when I originally heard whispers of “Drag Race Down Under.” I was like, “you know, I’m here. I’m in Australia, the pandemic’s on so getting people is a challenge.” But actually, I think watching it I’m glad that I’m not involved because I think it’s something that is so associated with Ru.
It’s something that we all know and love, and sometimes I feel when I watch other iterations with other queens in her position … sometimes it feels a bit like a cookie cutter or an imitation of Ru. I don’t know, I wouldn’t want to be that. I think Ru does it so well, or has done it so well and so much that it’s just that’s what it is. So initially I was like, “I would have loved to have been involved in that,” but I think that I just enjoy watching it more.
Is that the same for “All Stars” or would you be open to returning?
I think it’s the case for “All Stars,” too. I love watching it. I think the winner’s season that was just done was brilliant. I feel like no fan of “Drag Race” could deny how wonderful it was to watch all of those queens in an “All Stars” format. But as far as going back to it goes, I guess that maybe in a U.S. sort of context, it makes sense – like I think it would be so much fun to go on the show and be with queens from other seasons, and I loved the actual challenges and stuff like that. But where my career is in the U.K. and in Australia, it’s not something that makes sense for me. But I do love watching it and it would be fun.
Do you have any plans to tour in the U.S.?
I don’t have any plans at the moment, but hopefully. I would definitely love to come there and do some gigs and some signings, things like that.
In the interim, “Caught in the Act: A Memoir” is available now wherever books are sold. Stay up to date with Courtney Act at CourtneyAct.com and @CourtneyAct on social media.
