Queer Eye reportedly a pretty toxic place to work, partly due to Jonathan Van Ness’ “rage issues”
A wide ranging Rolling Stone report also discusses competition between the Fab Five that exacerbated design expert Bobby Berk's departure
Aux News Jonathan Van Ness
It seems like things were far from fabulous behind the scenes of Netflix’s feel-good hit, Queer Eye. This might not come as a total shock to fans who followed either the recent, extremely sudden departure of design expert Bobby Berk or reports of carjacking and other crimes plaguing the set of their most recent season in New Orleans. But the severity of the issue, specifically as it relates to grooming expert and internet personality Jonathan Van Ness, is troubling, to say the least.
This new information comes from a wide-ranging Rolling Stone report, in which the magazine spoke to 10 anonymous Queer Eye staffers, as well as an undisclosed number of other “well-placed sources,” that characterized Van Ness as an emotionally “abusive” “monster” and “nightmare,” who had “rage issues” and was constantly putting people down on set.
“[There’s] a real emotion of fear around them when they get angry. It’s almost like a cartoon where it oozes out of them. It’s intense and scary,” a source said of Van Ness, who uses he/she/they pronouns. One staffer estimated that they would have an outburst at least once a week. (“He was a yeller,” they said.) Another said that it was “at least once a day” that “they would need to yell at somebody. It might be something small, but there’s always going to be somebody to point out and blame and make the villain of the day.”
“When he comes on set, everything changes if he’s in a bad mood,” a source shared. “Working with him is very difficult in any capacity.” This apparently extended even to the other members of the Fab Five—Berk, Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, and Tan France—whom they “didn’t want to ever share the spotlight with.” “There were times when we couldn’t even shoot scenes with certain members of the Fab Five together because it got so bad,” the source continued.
It was all of this tension that indirectly led to Berk’s departure. According to the report, most people on set—including the stars of the show—assumed the series was going to end after its recently aired eighth season, and had already begun planning for other things. But when Netflix made the surprise decision to renew the show—owing, at least in Berk’s approximation, to a gap in programming due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes—he was the only one who didn’t re-sign. This came as a shock, he told Vanity Fair in a separate interview. “We’d just assumed that the show wouldn’t come back if we all didn’t come back. I was like, I’m not going to be having FOMO ’cause the show is not going to happen. I had become at peace with it.”
Unbeknownst to Berk, however, France had allegedly been campaigning along with Porowski to replace the former home-builder with their friend, interior designer Jeremiah Brent, who was announced as a full-time cast member last week. It was “mean-girl antics,” in the estimation of one source.
The full report delves a lot deeper into all of this drama and bullying and is absolutely worth a read if you’re a fan of the show or just like to read about drama in general, but the following quote from another anonymous production member sums it up pretty well: “It’s not a new story that a boy band falls apart,” they said. “Essentially they were a group of people put together in their mid-thirties and told to be best friends. But people don’t expect that Queer Eye could be that. That’s truly what it was: a manufactured boy band with big personalities that certain ones were favored and certain ones were not, and then eventually [things] turned really toxic.”
Representatives for Jonathan Van Ness and Netflix did not immediately respond to The A.V. Club’s requests for comment on this story.
64 Comments
SHOCKER.
Some of these dynamics aren’t that shocking—it was clear pretty much by season 2 or 3 that the “best friends” thing was a schtick. They’re coworkers. And that’s fine! Sometimes coworkers get petty. Not particularly shocked that JVN is all drama and not as sunny off screen, but it’s disappointing to hear how bad it apparently is. One thing that I thought the Rolling Stone article did well was lay pretty bare exactly why everyone but Bobby might decide to return—their individual projects outside of Queer Eye are floundering, whereas Bobby’s is not. Plus, Bobby got very minimal screen time, which I always found weird. Like, I really wanted to see his process behind designing the spaces. And Bobby’s part was a much heavier lift—home renos in 4 days!—than some of the other guys’ (I’m lookin’ at you, Karamo with poorly defined “culture” duties and Antoni with your non-cooking cooking). I think it was right for him to get out. The Rolling Stone article really is worth a read. The JVN bits are just part of it, and honestly not that interesting because it doesn’t go much deeper than “he’s a screamer who yells at people on set.” But the discussion of the internal dynamics is, I think, very well done and pretty even handed.
Yeah it was really funny re: Bobby being given such a short shrift. Like essentially if you go on Queer Eye the real prize is a fucking 5-figure home renovation lol. Everything else is gravy.
Exactly! The home makeover is the real prize. Sure, some of the clothes are nice, but just as often Tan’s clothes can really miss the mark. The heroes learn nothing from Antoni. And really, anybody can get a shave and a haircut from a decent place on their own. But the home makeover is what really benefits the people.
Yup, seems like all these guys aside from Bobby need the show.I stopped watching because the show is just…very predictable at this point. And that’s why some people love it! But I started guessing the emotional beats right before they happen and just got bored. It’s not a show for binges, imo.
I got far less interested when it became really transparent, too. Like, when they do a hero just to give their business or cause a boost, it doesn’t feel very authentic (LOL at expecting any authenticity from a reality show, I know, but at least some of the early episodes felt less manufactured).
Honestly I had been hoping they’d replace him with something besides a home designer, because the show had this weird break between actionable assistance that viewers could follow along with (dress in better colors, get a haircut, talk to a therapist, wash your face) and then humming along in the background would be the non-actionable advice of “have a show renovate your house for free.”
A few times in the early seasons I felt like the show actually integrated Bobby and the home decor stuff into the show in ways that mattered. Don’t get me wrong, the renovations he did were very well done the vast majority of the time. He does great work, and I thought that most of the time he did well to adjust his aesthetic to the needs of the homeowners. But the episodes that stand out to me were the ones where he worked directly with the “hero.” There was one with a young man who had roommates, and he worked with them to fix up the house they had, talking about design and how ordinary people can make their spaces the best possible. I think the show can do that, although I’m not sure Jeremiah Brent is the person to do that—he’s been a rich person’s designer for a long time. Bobby I think had a Midwest sensibility that he could tap into with the subjects. Anyway, I would much rather see Bobby working with the homeowner on a project than hear more of Karamo’s armchair psychologizing.
There were some where the heroes were wheelchair-bound and his big focus were on accessibility. Those were pretty good too!
And I really can’t see Brent mugging for the promos and bumpers. Ever.
IIRC, the original Queer Eye show didn’t renovate, right? Just mainly the change in personal appearance and habits. It’s been a loooong time since I watched it…
That is a pretty big disconnect. Never thought of it that way. Of course a lot of people don’t really have the budget to go out and replace their whole wardrobe either, but to a lesser degree than renovating a home.
Space transformation has very real positive mental impacts. Many of the heroes are important people in their community and the work that Bobby does to uplift small businesses, community centers, schools, etc. is super powerful and meaningful. Not only that, Bobby takes into account the needs of the heroes and the individual spaces in a very emotionally intelligent way. Bobby is the fucking big deal of that show. He has an amazing personality and story to bring to audiences. The fact that the show chose not to bank on that more is a major disservice to viewers.
Yeah, I also found the discussion on the dynamics most fascinating. Also respect to how well the article was written as it would have been really easy to start speculating how Bobby being the only of the five finding consistant success outside the Queer Eye was potentially impacting those group dynamics.The JVN stuff was not weird, but awkward. It felt like they couldn’t go into specifics about what they/he/she had done because it could have revealed the sources, but as a consequence the stuff just ended up feeling vague.
I could have predicted that someone dramatic would be dramatic to the extreme on occasion – especially given the pressure of production and extreme budget cuts. And JVN’s segment is practically the only positive interaction since: France puts them in one awful mismatched outfit, Antoni teaches them how to make toast, Karamo spouts Oprah-isms with less authority (and the abusive father daughter Zoom call – OMFG), and we don’t get to see Bobby’s – like ever – anymore. RS… cutting edge expose! *rolls eyes*
Agree with 99% of what you said, especially Bobby getting short-shrift, and Antoni’s questionable grasp of the culinary arts, and the ridiculousness of the delusion that these hosts were IRL all laughing and loving together in The Loft* 24/7 and having sleep-overs and shit. But I need to stick up for Karamo here. I was really dismissive of him when I first heard his schtick was “culture”. WTF is that? I thought that meant he was going to curate the music selection or something. But dude is essentially a social worker. Some of the games and exercises he does seem silly on the surface, and it could be the magic of editing and production, but he seems to forge a genuine bond with folks and help them get someplace emotionally with their family and loved ones over the course of the week. *Every season’s “Loft” reminds me of a fundraiser I attended in one of the Real World Houses, years ago. Everything on the surface was stylish and slick, but then you’d turn a corner and there’d be a weird false wall with a hole cut into it, or there’d be a drawer that just didn’t open cause it wasn’t actually a draw, just the face adhered to something to make it look like a drawer.
I think Karamo is a real mixed bag, but I will also admit that I have healthy dose of skepticism around social workers trying to be therapists. And that’s what I see him trying to do a lot of the time. Sometimes I think he has good conversations. Sometimes I think he lets people off the hook with regard to being accountable for their past/their actions. He’s probably best when he’s having conversations. When they have him do weird activities like building walls with big blocks for the hero to knock down, those strike me as really lame.
Like, I really wanted to see his process behind designing the spaces.
And Bobby’s part was a much heavier lift—home renos in 4 days!—than some
of the other guys’ (I’m lookin’ at you, Karamo with poorly defined
“culture” duties and Antoni with your non-cooking cooking). I think it was right for him to get out.I think part of that is the dramatic pay off of the renovation reveal, for the viewer and the subject. Checking back in with Bobby for a progress update between Tan dressing a schlub in a French tuck and a bomber jacket and Karamo making the subject cry might take the energy out of the process.If even a little of this report is true, it’s not surprising that Bobby is the first to leave the show since he has consistently discussed not letting himself be bullied or remain in a toxic situation.
Can we all talk more about Karamo’s very strange Maury Povich / Jerry Springer-style talk show? I caught five minutes of it the other day, and he was quietly shaming some guy who cheated on his wife while the wife sat next to him.
I’ve only ever caught a few segments from it when it’s on, on mute, in my local rec center. But what I’ve seen is both actively horrible and seemingly at odds with the ethos that Karamo has tried to build up around himself on the show. There was a tonal distance between his talk show and his persona on queer eye that I found very disturbing.
Who would have thought someone who specifies they use “he/she/they” pronouns would be a high maintenance pain in the ass?
These pronouns also caught me … is “he/she/they” a thing? Isn’t that basically saying they’ll use whatever pronoun they feel is appropriate at any given point in time?
it’s almost as if gender fluidity is… fluid.
Sometimes it’s so “fluid”, that it just doesn’t exist anymore.
I’m non-binary and just use “any/all.” It’s the same thing, but like … simpler?
You’re not non-binary. There’s no such thing… You may as well tell people what adjectives to use around you.
That’s the gist of it, yeah. But it also means you can use whatever combination of those you want when talking to them.
It probably also means they’ll yell at you if you guess wrong about which one they’re using at the moment.
Projection in its purest forms.LGBTQ and gender fluid and trans people didn’t create their identity to fuck with you.So wild- but not surprising – that you would think of it that way. It’s almost like you’re a teensy bit bigoted.
yeah… the exact opposite of high maintenance.Weird that you think of it as designed to be a permanent “gotcha”, when it just means “I’m good with anything”. Says a lot about how you view other people for you to jump to the motivation that you did.
Nonbinary people may feel great using any of those pronouns.
What if only 1 in 10 people who know them can bother with that stuff?
Using he/she/they is the exact opposite of high maintenance, it means JVN is OK with feminine, masculine or neutral pronouns. Their assholery has nothing to do with their gender identity. There are plenty of colossal, high maintenance cis-gendered assholes.
I wonder if the OP thought JVN wants people to use all three pronouns to refer to them/him/her lol.
Everyone has pronouns, including you. Relax.
99% of men/women don’t make pronoun usage an issue. Relax. It’s just how most of the entire functioning world communicates.
You’re an idiot.
Says the gender fascist…
There’s literally zero correlation, but thanks for letting us know that you’re an ignorant dipshit!
THAT was your takeaway from the article?
Yawn.Now start whining that you’re cancelled.PS – the thing you’re calling “high maintenance” actually means “say whatever you want”. So… the polar opposite of high maintenance. You’re so fucking primed to be annoyed by LGBTQ and gender fluid issues you having your whining pre-loaded, and clearly don’t care enough to understand if your whining even makes sense.I’d say “be better”, but we know you’re not interested in that.
It’s truly astounding to me how little folks in your position understand what pronouns are.
Yeah nobody who’s “he/him” has ever been a pain in the ass
Who would have thought someone who specifies they use pronouns would be a high maintenance pain in the ass?
he/she/they pronouns is not an invitation for the referring person to use any of them, it’s a series of tripwires the person referred to has set so he/she/they can rage at someone whenever he/she/they wish.
You. Just you.
This all seems to track with JVN’s Comedy Bang! Bang! appearance where he wasn’t willing to play along at all.Respect to Bobby.
Holy shit! I gotta find that episode now!
Bobby was the hot one, anyway 🙂
I have no problem with someone using they as a personal pronoun, but as writers it is still incorrect to use plural verb forms in those cases.He is, she is, they is. Looks weird, but it’s grammatically correct. As a writer I think this is part of the confusion that’s generated when using they to refer to a singular individual.Also I work with someone who’s neighbor was one of the hair stylists on the Austin Queer Eye and she has nothing but horror stories about Van Ness. Constant petty rage and belittlement every day on that set.
Ah… the ol’ grammatical loophole that makes bigotry ok!
What are you talking about? Where do you see bigotry in Chairman Kaga’s statement? Because they think that you should have subject-verb agreement when using ‘they’ as a singular pronoun? He directly says that using they as a singular pronoun is not incorrect. I think you have reading comprehension issues.
Is reading comprehension ok? You completely missed the point he was making in his post.
There’s also a poophole loophole, that makes excuses from toxic queens okay.
Language evolves. It has since the beginning of human existence. Get over it.
Language evolves but should be clarified to better communication.Using plural verbs for both singular and plural ‘they’ is confusing, full stop. I could barely read this article because it’s so imprecise. Half of the time I thought the “they” was referring to the Fab 5 as a group, not just JVN alone.
*whose neighbor
The more “nicer” and “accepting” some celebrity is known for being, the more of a crazy, toxic, frauds they really are. Just off the the top of my head: Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen, Lizzo.
I really wish that the whole group had chosen not to re-up and just get a whole new cast. One, I feel bad for the crew having to put up with personal drama BS but also their “heroes” on the show are often dealing with big emotional issues and I imagine being around that much tension would make the whole experience incredibly stressful.But I’m grateful for the good days of this show and I’ll never forget the face of Shorty when they told her they were going to pay to get her teeth fixed. It made me wish there was a show that just covered “cosmetic” dental work for people who can’t afford it. It’s so incredibly expensive and can truly change your life and employment chances to have decent teeth.
If Jonathan goes with he/she/they, then these stories could’ve easily been written using “he”… unless people enjoy grammatically confusing articles. Or use “they” for the whole thing. But jumping back and forth is poor writing.
No one cares what you think.
The anonymous sources are the ones jumping back and forth. The only way to correct it would be to change their quotations and add in bracketed comments… which isn’t really any better.I’m less interested in their grammar, and more interested in their identity. What role do they play, and how well do they know these people? Are we talking about an involved crewmember or someone who dropped off donuts one morning two years ago? It all just sounds so gossipy almost to be meaningless.
But at least the show is unwatchably insufferable
Jonathon’s a diva? No way.