Johnny Weir talks figure skating, Halloween costumes, and just being himself The Creation of Fashion

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Johnny Weir talks figure skating, Halloween costumes, and just being himself

Posted October 19th, 2010 by Brock Cumpston No Comments »

The American Olympian and pop culture darling will perform tonight on CBC’s Battle of the Blades.

Can you be too gay for figure skating? Seems impossible, like being too tall for basketball, or too white for journalism. But Johnny Weir—the American star with the spangliest costumes—managed it, at least according to some commentators (bad ones) at the Van City Olympics. Others (not bad ones) thought the remarks affected his performance. True, he placed sixth. And he won’t compete at all this year.

But Weir doesn’t give a flip of his quiff what you think: never mind “too gay,” he won’t declare himself queer at all, and instead says over and over that he just wants “to be me.” It’s because he’s so busy being, yeah, that. His eight-part show on the Sundance Channel, Be Good Johnny Weir, has been renewed for a second season (and may even come to Canada). He’s got a line of figure skating clothing, which he plans to extend to “real people” soon. He’s working on a book, a pop album, and a perfume. He’d like to act.

Tonight the talented Mr. Weir is a guest on CBC’s Battle of the Blades, the live show that pairs up former figure skaters (female) with perma-benched NHL players (male) in an Idol-style ice dance competition. It’s very popular in Alberta. Ron MacLean and Kurt Browning host. Weir will skate to “Just Dance” by his pop idol—and sorta friend—Lady Gaga.

Sitting in his trailer, with his Russian manager on one side and a rolling rack with a single Chanel garment bag on the other, Weir and I talked about not being Oprah, why he won’t “come out,” and what a boy who spends “every day in drag” could possibly be for Halloween.

Who’s your favourite Canadian figure skater?

I grew up really liking Kurt Browning because my mom liked him. And then… Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the Olympic ice dancers, are incredible. Scott’s always laughing and smiling. That’s something that I love about Canadian people—they’re always smiling, even if they’re not, like, loving you? They’ll always smile at you. That’s something that’s really nice and really different from the States.

You could be an honourary Canadian. You’re smiling, and you speak both English and French.

Yes, but my French is starting to get faulty. When I started to speak more Russian—because I train and work in Russia—I started to lose my French.
You’re a big fan of Russia.
Oh my gosh. There’s nowhere more inspiring to me than Russia. It makes my heart beat faster and it’s gorgeous, I love it.

I’ve never been but I’ve been to fashion weeks internationally and the Russian fashion editors are always the most—

Decked.

Oh, completely.

Decked.

You must appreciate that.

I do. I love getting decked and just being way over-the-top and ostentatious. I love fur and I love diamonds and I love pointy shoes and that’s something I find is very Russian. Men there all wear very tight jeans and some kind of big logo shirt with a huge, big, giant puffy coat that makes them look bigger than they are and a big pointy shoe. And I think that’s a really cool style.

I’m so going there. So I read on Twitter you were shopping on Bloor Street today. Where’d you go?

You know, I am a traditionalist, I suppose, in Toronto, because I don’t know that much about the little cool boutiques to go to. I went to Holt Renfrew and to Chanel, because I needed to get my watch cleaned, but they were closed.

You didn’t pull an Oprah and call them and say, listen, I’m on TV? You have to open?

No, I won’t do that. No, I could not belieeeve she did that at Hermes. You don’t. I don’t care who you are.

On TV you’re portrayed as a diva. Are you playing a character, or a caricature of yourself?

Television is all about editing. I don’t ask to see the edited version before they air it, so they can kind of put pieces of me together to make me look as outrageous as they want. My whole shtick is that I’m myself all day, every day.

I’d say, flamboyant is the more over-used thing to describe me. In general I’m very quiet. I wear very loud clothes and I’m a figure skater. So if that makes me flamboyant, sue me.

You don’t talk about your sexuality, but you are a role model for gay teens, or teens who don’t feel like everyone else, who are so-called freaks in their small town high schools. And as that role model, how do you feel about the recent persecution of, and the suicides of, gay teens?

I don’t feel myself as a preacher for anyone aside from people that feel a little bit different and feel unique and feel that they want to express themselves. I’m from a tiny, tiny village in the middle of Pennsylvania… that was literally 99.86 per cent Christian Caucasians. And Amish. To come from there, and be what I am today, it’s—it’s not an easy road. I’ve been bullied nearly every day of my life. Today, how many times was I called ma’am today? I think four times today. Or, you know, constantly being called “faggot” in school. It’s awful. But those things make you stronger. It’s so distressing to see what’s actually happening with these kids that feel so alone and so weak and it’s so sad and I mean, I can relate in a way that I’ve been bullied. I’ve never been hit or beat up. Friends of mine have—have been dragged behind trucks. I am aware of what’s going in the world. But suicide is never the answer. If you want to send a message, live. And live the way that you want to live. And let that be your statement to the world. You have to be strong. Suicide is an easy way out of a problem.

That’s why I’ve always taken a stance, saying, I don’t want to qualify myself as being different, because I’m the same as you. Let me live. Let me special. Let me be unique. And I’ll let you.

Even as a role model for this group, I haven’t publicly said that I’m, you know, I’m one of you. And my whole point of that is: accept me for being Johnny Weir, don’t accept me for being anything else. I want other kids, whether you’re Randy Smith or Tina from some little town somewhere, I want you to own that and be proud of that and everything else will fall into place.

You have crazy kids for fans. I wrote on Twitter that you needed Halloween costume ideas, as per your tweet the other day, and suddenly I was barraged with suggestions from people I don’t know. So I have some of those for you now…

Okay!

You can be “a lifeguard in a white Speedo.”

I’d love that. I’ve always wanted to wear a white Speedo. I’d just have to be completely bronzed.

You can be Snow White.

I am white.

Rusalka?

Rusalka? From the opera?

Yeah. Or something called Estrellita.

Oh, Estrellita was this lady yesterday who told me I was going into the wrong bathroom, the mens’ bathroom. It was a sixty year old—had to be sixty, unless she was really not aging well—a sixty-something Mexican lady yelling at me “No, no, no!” So literally I had to point down and say “hombre.”
Battle of the Blades airs tonight on CBC at 8pm EST.

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