“Port Charles is a lovely little town,” says RuPaul Charles of the same-named CBS daytime soap. “It’s wacky, but as far as I know I’m the first psychic tranny to set up shop there. There are plenty of trannies, but not psychic ones.” RuPaul, of course, is referring to his Port Charles character (who started appearing July 4), Madame Alicia, a late-night TV psychic who connects with Lynn Herring’s Lucy Coe and confirms some suspicions regarding recent strange events. It’s a role RuPaul is savoring, even if there isn’t much—well, any—social import involved. “None whatsoever!!!” he laughs. “That’s the great thing about soap operas, that it doesn’t have to have any bearing on reality or social commentary or anything like that. It’s all fun. If you’ve got to be home during the day watching those stinking kids and cleaning the house you might as well have some excitement on the tube.”
For RuPaul, appearing on a soap opera had once been a dream—a dream which first came true via an appearance on All My Children opposite Susan Lucci’s famed “woman we love to hate” Erica Kane. “My favorite thing about the show, aside from my scene with Erica,” RuPaul recalls, “was that I got to do one of those ‘fade to black into commercial’ things. Just like As The Stomach Turns from Carol Burnett.” And RuPaul’s opportunity to snag a guest slot on Port Charles arose when he interviewed the cast for KTU during the daytime Emmy Awards, helping to plug the new book Tainted Love, which is also the title of the show’s current story arc. Port Charles’ producers were present and asked if he’d like to appear in an episode, which led to what RuPaul says shall be a recurring situation. “I play a TV psychic— no pun intended,” RuPaul explains of Madame Alicia, whose gender isn’t addressed during these first appearances, and “who is not unlike Madam Chloe, that Black lady who does the tarot cards [in infomercials]. One of the characters, Lucy Coe, and I have a connection and we become friends. And as we were doing our scene together the producers were like ‘hey, this is cool, you guys work well together—I think we’re going to have to bring you back to be a girlfriend of Lucy.'”
Port Charles is shot in California, a location RuPaul insists is more apropos a setting than New York City for daytime dirt (“It seems more seedy out here, being a soap opera actor than in New York.”). However, he admits Port Charles isn’t the trashiest soap opera on TV by any means.
“Well, Port Charles, as opposed to Landview, I think it’s racier … a little more wicked,” he opines. “But the trashiest has to be the telenovelas on [the Spanish-language network] Telemundo. Even though I don’t speak Spanish, the way they’re behaving and the plastic surgery is just outrageous. I watch it just for the plastic surgery. All the actors and actresses, they have plastic surgery in their early 30s, which is so hot! My favorite thing about soap operas in general is the hair and makeup.”
RuPaul admits his real life isn’t quite a soap opera, although a recent breakup provided some daily dramatic fireworks. “There were soap opera moments, but they weren’t really cinematic moments,” he says. But hair and makeup are another story, and speaking of which, RuPaul’s chum Tammy Faye Bakker (whose documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye RuPaul narrated) will surely be jealous when she hears of her friend’s Port Charles lucky break
“She will be jealous,” RuPaul nods. “The world is not fair— there are a lot of injustices in this world and that’s just one of many. But she would be so great as this nosy neighbor or nosy church lady who has a [lesbian] secret. Oh, hot, hot! She’s already got the soap opera makeup, she’s got the shoulder pads.”