"Being BeBe" follows the life of Drag Queen BeBe Zahara Benet, from growing up in a Cameroon, where being gay is still illegal, to becoming the first winner of "RuPaul’s Drag Race." Benet joined Cheddar News to discuss the film and the art form of drag.  “Hopefully when you watch it, you get to see different facets of my life. You get to see my family and the communities that I am with and how they react to what I do," he said. "And maybe it stirs up some conversations and creates some clarity on certain topics."

Between Bells

Drag Queen BeBe Zahara Benet on ‘Being BeBe’ Documentary, Art of Drag

and welcome back everyone to between bells and baker machado in new york intimately chronicling 15 years of being a drag performer, the documentary being BB made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last year and now it's getting, it's big tv premiere on fuse. The film gives yours an inside look at immigrant drag queen. Bebe Zahara Benet growing up in homophobic Cameroon making his way to legendary and groundbreaking reality show. Rupaul's drag race to becoming the first ever champion of the show in the film details the inspiring and personal story behind the curtain of one of the world's most famous drag queens. So the performer herself joining us, Miss Cameroon Bebe Zahara Benet B B. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm so excited. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited being on your show. It's so exciting. Thank you so much for having me. Alright, so baby, let's talk about this documentary. The film shows viewers a little bit about who you were, you were born in Cameroon. We should know. That's a country where being gay is still to this day illegal. How did your experience growing up in West africa really impact who you are right now. Well, I mean they're parts of, I always say there are parts of my culture that I really, really admire appreciate and really hang on to and they are also the other part where it's like, oh no, no, you know where we still have a very long way to go and being anything different or you know, when it comes to like queer issues or women's issues, we still have a long way to go and that's why, you know, you see us, you know, I'm doing this kind of work like being baby to really shed some light and really stir up conversation and maybe in some shape or form move the needle, you know? Um, yeah, but we still have a long way to go back at home. This documentary is so amazing baby because you see yourself sort of growing as your drag performer and your persona as well. You know, in old photographs and old video to who you are today is it sort of interesting to sort of watch yourself go along on this journey here. It is. I mean we're talking about 15 years and when you get to watch the movie, you see me actually watching myself, you know, I'm like watching and I'm like, Oh my gosh, did I do that? Did I see that? Did I experience that? It's crazy. It is just so real. But that's just the reality. When we decided to work on this project. Emily Abraham, the film director. I said, we need to be very honest with the movie. We need to be honest with the story that's being told. We don't need to do no bells and whistles. It needs, I mean we need to talk about the life of an artist, the life of an immigrant and the life of a human just going through this human experience And, and that's what you get after 15 years. Well, we also know, look, your pageant queen and pageants are really important to who you are as a drag queen. And you even mentioned in the documentary that they were important to sort of helping your career in in drag. Let's talk about that here for a moment. Well, I mean like back in the day, you know, when I said back in the day, it doesn't mean I'm that old, but you know, back in the day, you know in the community when you want to get yourself known, you run for these pageants and then, you know, you can get booked in different places. People get to know you we were the celebrities, you know, in the community when you win these pageants and but what was amazing about running for them and even up to today is that it just gives you such resilience and it really gives you, it teaches you discipline and dedication and the craft and perfection, you know, for the craft, it gives you all these tools that helps you not just running for a pageant, but just what you're taking, creating a brand for yourself. And that's why I've always, I've always loved, you know, that art most drag race, super fans like myself baby remember the very first season of Rupaul's drag race, which feels like it was 100 years ago when that show came on and you won that first season by the way and you were incredible in that season. But sort of drag and Rupaul's drag race has changed and evolved so much since then, What made you audition for that show to begin with? And how did your life either change for the good or for the bad after that first season? Well they say three times is a charm. So I'm trying to make this story really short. The first time they were you had to go that when Myspace was existing, you had to put your profile on and then people had to vote for you and I was told about that opportunity. I never did that. The second time the producers came to Minnesota looking for artists, they were doing auditions and my name came up and when I was told about it, I was like, no, I don't think so, not for me. And then the third time actually Rupaul was on, you know where I was performing, she came to watch the show and I remember doing circle of life. He listening you from the Lion King. And then after that, you know, I got approach that policy, I want to talk to you. And so then he came to my dressing room and had a conversation with me about hey this, I'm going to be producing the show, I would love you to be part of it and compete for it. And that's when I made the decision to send an audition tape to do it because back then, you know, I felt like people always laughed at the art form instead of laughing with the art form. And I was like, this is what I do for a living. I cannot just go on television and had people laughing at me. But once I knew that paul was part of the project, like that was his project. It gave me enough, you know, assurance to be able to do it because I knew it was gonna be a great project. Absolutely. And look at where your career has gone. And then you went to all stars right afterwards, you got to the finals and all stars also, which that was an amazing season. Also, who knows? Maybe we'll maybe we'll have you on the queen of queens one where you're basically where one of the seven all stars coming up, who knows? We'll see, fingers crossed if that happens once you want viewers b b to take away from this documentary when they watch this. Well, I mean, the documentary like I mentioned, it's it's it's about me, but it's about the art form of drag. The art form of drag is just a small part of what it is. It's about living the human experience, it's about dedication, it's about discipline, It's about dreaming and keeping hope alive and and you know, you fall and you pick yourself up and you keep going and there's always the light at the end of the channel, I'm hoping that everybody, you don't have to understand drag or no drag. But hopefully when you watch it, you get to see different facets of my life. You get to see my family and the communities that I am with and how they react to what I do. And, and maybe it stares up some conversations and create some clarity on certain topics. You know, and I'm hoping and that has been happening to be honest with you. I get so many people come to me and maybe this is what I took from the, from the film. Oh, I, I didn't know your mother was like this or your family was like this. So I didn't know the art form. Everybody takes what they take and that's what you want it to do is do the kind that kind of work. One other thing I think is really interesting that you talk about in the in the documentary is you say you're not okay with the perception or in the notion that if you do drag or you dress in drag that you're automatically gay. And we've sort of realized and seen this over the years, most drag performers, I think people perceive as gay men. But look, we've seen trans queens, we've seen non binary queens last season, we had our very first straight male drag queen in Mad Amorphous is sort of talk a little bit about why you sort of want to dispel that notion here. Well, because at the end of the day, you know, we are artists. I think that when you use the word drag, drag is just another, just another technology. When it comes to our artistry or when it comes comes to, you know, art. And I think a lot of times, because of how we present ourselves. Everybody wants to stereotype what that looks like. But if you think about it, if you think of Prince, you think of David Ball way you think of Michael Jackson, you think of Elton john you think of Boy George? There's so many on and on. Who uses over the top kind of regalia for their presentation. But when you take all of those clothings down, there are still so many layers of who they are. They're musicians. They're still singers, the dancers and performers or whatever. So how we present ourselves is just how we choose to present ourselves. And I feel like it's very important that we are still part of pop culture, which I know we are, but we need to be placed in pop culture as just artists and we don't have to label a drag. I know it's drag, but it can just be, I'm just an artist. I'm just a performer, which is how I present myself in whatever shape or form. I think it's important and we are all not Kwehr, You know, not everybody's square. Well, look, this is my mama always says we're all born naked and the rest is drag. But yes. Amen. Okay baby. I only have a few seconds left with you. What does pride mean to you? Since it's pride month right now. What does it mean to you? I am in celebration. It means acceptance. It means happiness. It means freedom. That's what it means to me. It means togetherness and really quickly. By the way, if we have a photo, I want to show this to our viewers. I saw you at drag con. This is me and you and my husband. BB at drag con in 2019. Such an amazing moment and baby, I'm such a beautiful. Who was that? Yeah, it's me and you honey. It's not my husband that I'm just kidding. It's such a pleasure to have you here drag performer. BBC hair up in a the feature documentary. Being BB makes his broadcast from here on fuse in the US and out tv in Canada on june the 21st