With her busty blouses, take-no-prisoners attitude and ease with a gun on Netflix’s “AJ and the Queen,” it’s hard to believe it’s been more than 25 years since Tia Carrere’s turn as bad girl Juno Skinner in “True Lies.”
Looking just as much the badass at 53 as she did back then, Carrere plays the foil to RuPaul’s Ruby Red on the show, about a down on her luck drag queen whose money woes are due, in part, to Tia’s fantastically-named Lady Danger.
Speaking with TooFab, Carrere called the role “the gift of my career,” a career even she acknowledges has gone through quite a few phases since she got her big break on “General Hospital” back in the mid-’80s. That run was followed by the classic “Wayne’s World” films, the aforementioned James Cameron blockbuster, the “Tomb Raider”-esque TV show “Relic Hunter” and the “Lilo & Stitch” franchise, all while working on music — which she won Grammys for in 2009 and 2011 — and serving as a Girl Scout Troop Leader!
Yeah, she’s been all over the place.
“This was the gift of my career, because it was just a part that meets me right where I am,” Carrere told TooFab. “It’s like Lady Danger doesn’t give a shit and I’ve been sort of in that mood in the past few years, just like bringing it, a ballsy broad. I always wanted to grow up to be a ballsy broad and that’s what I am in this.”
Noting that her career “has been a tapestry of different adventures,” Carrere also opened up about how the roles she was either being offered or played through the years began changing as she got older.
“I was the hot, sex symbol ingenue and then you go through this period where you’re not quite old enough to be the mom — which is kind of funny because it dovetailed with me being a mom, being a Girl Scout troop leader, PTA member, fundraiser and going on camping trips,” she explained. “And then now, to have this kind of hot mess of a mom, I’m a crazy grandmother in this, which is hilarious. I love it, I just love it!”
The show has a very diverse cast, fronted by an out, black drag queen. In addition to Ru and Carrere, the core players include an 11-year-old girl, the studly Josh Segarra — who is of Puerto Rican descent — and Michael-Leon Wooley, who plays another black drag queen who is also blind.
“I think it’s a lot more inclusive,” Carrere said of how she sees Hollywood now, praising “diversity in sexuality, ethnicity and in shape.” She added that back in the day, actresses who didn’t “look like a soap opera actor” would simply be told, “Sweetheart, don’t even go [to that audition], because you have no chance of getting a job.”
“I’m really really glad that we’ve cracked it open and you’re seeing more of real life reflected in these different platforms now,” she continued.
“I know when I came into the business there was no one that looked like me, that’s for sure. And then I was on ‘General Hospital,’ we were the Asian storyline, in the Asian corridor and I never had an interracial relationship on daytime television, so we’ve come a long way baby!”
With all of Season 1 of “AJ and the Queen” already streaming, Carrere said she’s “hoping and praying for Season 2,” promising Lady Danger still has some “skin in the game” should the show continue. She also teased new music on the horizon, adding that’s she’s “putting together a new act to go out and sing live.”
“AJ and the Queen” is available now on Netflix.
See Tia Carrere (And Her Daughter!) Now at ‘Wayne’s World’ 25th Anniversary Event