Four years ago, Miss Benny (born Ben J. Pierce) was a makeup-obsessed YouTuber with a few small TV credits, working photo shoots, and various odd jobs when a call came in about starring in a new series. The protagonist: a makeup-obsessed YouTuber.
“I remember thinking, ‘Okay, if I don’t get this, then I’m never going to get anything, because this is the best I can be,'” they recalled. (Benny identifies as non-binary and uses she/those pronouns.)
In the new series “Glamorous,” which premiered on Netflix Thursday, Benny stars as Marco, a gay Latino man who is swept away from his job at a mall makeup counter and enters the world of luxury cosmetics when he waits on a supermodel turned mogul, Madolyn Addison (Kim Cattrall). Madolyn likes the kid’s style and offers him a job as her second assistant. With telltale shout-outs to “The Devil Wears Prada,” the series puts a quirky twist on a time-tested story: the neophyte plucked from obscurity and into a new, high-stakes, high-pressure world.
In addition to his demanding boss, Marco must also contend with her haughty sales director son (Zane Phillips), two potential love interests (the jockish Graham Parkhurst and nervous co-worker Michael Hsu Rosen), and the nagging feeling that he’s not good enough for his new gig. The tone is light workplace comedy; the makeup is, unsurprisingly, fantastic.
“Glamorous” took a winding path to Netflix. There was a pilot shot for the CW, which didn’t get picked up, then extensive rewrites, then Covid-19. But a nice result is that the show arrives on the same day that Cattrall’s old “Sex and the City” castmates are back with another season of “And Just Like That…”, which Cattrall emphatically refused to participate in. (She does have a brief cameo in the new season, though.)
We caught up with Benny, 24, from their home in Los Angeles as they talked about landing their dream job, growing up gay in the Bible Belt and the virtues of YouTube. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
How has “Glamorous” changed since its inception?
It was originally supposed to be a sort of fresh out of high school, very flashy kind of show. Now the show is a little more mature and a little broader. It used to be very streamlined about Marco’s experience entering the makeup industry, but now it’s about relationships and friendships and family and just a general coming-of-age experience, which I’m so happy about. I felt like it was done before, but I’m so glad we had that time to keep improving it because now it feels super sleek and super special.
How and when did your passion for makeup start?
Growing up, we had a lot of costumes around the house and we made a lot of home movies because we had a lot of time to kill. My older sister used to dress me and my brother, and I had to be Padmé Amidala from ‘Star Wars’. That required a lot of makeup, and I remember thinking makeup was so cool and transformative. At night, when everyone was sleeping at my house, I would steal that costume makeup and my mom’s makeup, and I’d hide in the bathroom and do all my makeup. And then I would wash it all off and go to church the next morning hoping no one would notice that I had makeup on the night before.
How did feeling made up make you feel?
I would feel great. As I got older, it became a constant for me to express myself and express my femininity. But as I got more comfortable with makeup, I became more aware of the fact that walking around the world wearing makeup as someone born a man isn’t as easy as you might to hope.
It was really transformative because I was in no way comfortable being perceived as male. So makeup was a way for me to proclaim to the world that this is who I am and that I feel comfortable here. It always felt like putting on my super suit and getting ready to go out because I felt my best when I had time to do my makeup.
You’re from Texas, just outside of Dallas. What was it like growing up gay in the Bible Belt?
My family was very, very religious and my parents homeschooled all their children so we wouldn’t experience anything secular. But I already knew I was queer when I was 6 years old. I had a crush on one of my soccer teammates, and I remember picking flowers at the goal post and giving them to each other.
I actually thought for a long time that the word “gay” meant “ugly” because I’d heard it said on Xbox Live when my brother’s friends would be playing. I remember thinking, “They say it to offend someone, so it must be ugly.” At the time I knew I was odd and had these rides, but I didn’t know they were bad. When I was about 11, those ideas became connected to me through what I was taught in church. Then I went into catch mode. Those few years were probably the hardest. I was very lucky to get out and move to LA to pursue acting when I was 14. From that moment on my whole world opened up and I was suddenly able to sort myself out.
You’ve had a significant presence on YouTube, including comedy skits and music videos. What has the platform meant for you?
YouTube was the first place I ever saw happy strangers. When I was a kid, all the representation I could find was on TV or in a movie, and it was usually at the expense of a joke or someone going through a trauma. If you saw a strange character on TV, they were usually facing the horrible process of coming out or at the end of their life. There was nothing in between.
Then I found some strange YouTubers who were so happy. They were just talking about going to the store and going on first dates and going to concerts. And I remember thinking, “These people don’t seem miserable at all. This seems like exactly what I want in my life, so that means I can have it.