Michelle Buteau is beyond funny on screen in Netflix’s hit new show, Survival of The Thickest, and off screen, she’s just as funny – and trying to real impact change, too. Josh Smith finds out all about her inspiration for the series in his latest GLAMOUR UK column, Josh Smith Meets…
I have been on Zoom with Michelle Buteau, the creator and star of Netflix’s new hit comedy Survival of The Thickest, for approximately 0.2 seconds – and I am already in pieces.
“It feels like my quinceañera, my bat mitzvah, my first wedding – LOL, I've only been married one time – all at the same time! It's been a long time coming,” Michelle says, reflecting on the long journey it’s taken to get her show, inspired by her New York Times best selling personal-essay collection, onto our Netflix screens.
“Even starting stand-up comedy, my dream was always to have my own TV show and the fact that it is finally happening some 20-odd years later, I'm so proud of myself and I'm also so glad that I age well, bi*ch… because it took a while, to be honest!” And there comes the first punchline and the laughter which seasons our entire chat.
It’s *that* comedic timing that has given Michelle the title ‘The Queen Of Quips’ in the comedy world after years on the stand-up comedy circuit – which sounds like a rollercoaster experience. “I learned from the bad rooms more than I learned from the good rooms,” she shares. “I've had people tell me I'm not funny, I'm not sexy or I'm too sexy to be on stage. I've had people come on stage, bum rush me. I've had a guy throw a glass at me.”
But all of those experiences have made Michelle the performer and the voice she is today – and Survival of the Thickest is deeply reflective of her lived experience as a plus-sized black woman navigating our society, whilst also being a laugh a minute. The show follows Michelle’s character, Mavis Beaumont – a fashion stylist who describes herself as “proudly thick” – who is on a mission to empower others (including, even, a celebrity who wants to upstage their ex-husband’s funeral).
The show is a brilliant celebration of all bodies, queerness (Drag Race royalty Peppermint co-stars), Blackness, and the intersectionality of both, with sex positivity thrown into the mix, too – strap-ons and three-ways included.
It’s no wonder that Michelle says of creating the show: “every day was a big titty Ted Talk.” Jokes aside, Survival of the Thickest comes at a crucial time as drag bans come into force in parts of America and more anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been passed into state law in the first four months of this year than at any other time in U.S. history. Making the show as inclusive as possible was important to Michelle, especially as a parent to her twins, Hazel and Otis.
“I wanted the show to be authentic to me, to my New York and that it was inclusive and felt more important than ever,” Michelle says. “With the Supreme Court doing what it does and just trying to erase people's truth, to ban books, to not even have proper healthcare for women, to not even acknowledge that non-binary or trans is not only a thing, but a beautiful thing, is wild. That's not the kind of country I wanna live in and so I felt like if I'm gonna get the opportunity and I have a platform and Netflix is in 190 countries, I'm gonna use that platform because that's what my real life is. And I can make anything funny, funny is not the problem – I need to make it important and I need to make it mean something.”
She adds: “My friend Jordan Carlos told me, ‘when you have kids you're gonna learn how to parent yourself.’ I didn't know what he meant. I thought he meant on a tired day don't be sad or some sh*t. But it's like, ‘oh no, I'm out here trying to make a difference 'cause I need to show them how to be good people, how to think outside of yourself for five minutes and just realise that we are stronger together.’”
“It starts with the arts and culture, music, TV, film and fashion,” Michelle continues. “That's why this was really important too, because these mother f**kers, they will not go to a Black Lives Matter protest, but they'll buy the front row seats at a Kendrick Lamar concert. And I'm like, ‘thank you rich white people, but that's not the allyship I need you to have.’ I hope this show is a teaching moment, an educational moment and an entertaining moment for people who need it. Not just like the fatty baddies and the oddie bodies but for the mom or dad that doesn't understand how to talk to their non-binary or queer child.”
Survival of the Thickest will mean different things to a lot of different people, and it is certainly a beautiful celebration of body positivity. All bodies are welcome on this show – something that hasn’t always been possible on TV – and Michelle is deeply proud of creating that environment for herself and others. “That journey means a lot because it was a hard one,” she tells me. “I feel like I always knew deep down inside that I was beautiful but it's really hard to believe that when you don't see yourself anywhere in the world and even then it's like you're either a problem or you're a fetish. So you never really have a moment to be whole.”
“I did the dieting, I did the fasting, I did the weird workouts, I tried everything. The last diet I ever did was ‘The South Beach Diet’ and dropped 40 pounds for my wedding, then my wedding dress was too big and falling off of me. Then I literally had a potato and tequila and blacked out for most of my wedding. I realised then, I am never going to fit this unattainable, patriarchal standard of what being attractive is and nor the f**k do I want to. Thank God for comedy because that's given me a space to really just do me. I also now see Lizzo out here, I see all these thick bi*ches shaking their sh*t. There's also room for us and if people don't get it and it is not for them – bye!”
Setting the show within the fashion world and showing Mavis hustling her way through an industry which has not traditionally made space for her, or Michelle herself, was an important move for her. “I remember having anxiety going to Macy's junior department,” Michelle reveals, looking back on her early experiences. “I even auditioned to be a cheerleader in college. I'm flexible, easy to get along with and chipper and they wanted to book me on the cheerleading team, but they couldn't because they didn't make my size and it was a cropped cheer uniform.”
“I love that the fashion industry is low-key trying to keep up, but there's still so much more work to do because I think that there still is a lot of insensitivity around it,” Michelle adds. “I don't think it's up to us to wait for them. It's up to us to make our own lines but I really wanted my character to be a stylist to highlight how horrible the fashion industry can be. I also thought being a stylist was the perfect parallel to stand-up comedy that I could understand and write about because if you have immigrant parents like I do, who have come to America to have you be a doctor or a lawyer or even a f**king X-ray technician, do something to make them proud that's in an office every day, in scrubs, and all of a sudden I wanna tell jokes and they're like, ‘what?’ But most of all I just wanted a motherf**king budget for the clothes bi*ch!” Michelle screams – and I scream in return.
Another aspect of the show – aside from the wardrobe budget – that is refreshing is the show’s approach to sex. Mavis is out there getting under men to get over her rat of an ex.
There might not be much newness in your Netflix most watched bar for a while.
“Let's talk about the sex scene,” Michelle says enthusiastically. “I wanted it to be thoughtful, sexy and also real because I'm so tired of bi*ches on TV and film always being portrayed like we should be so thankful somebody finds us attractive. I'm sorry, we still break your d*ck off. So back up! You could quote a bi*ch because I don't see it and I'm not out to be a bumper sticker, but I'm gonna be the change I wanna see.”
That is what is so special about Survival of the Thickest – it's the change we want to see whilst being highly relatable, especially in the dating and sex department of life. Michelle has dug into her back catalogue of disastrous dating stories for our own comedic gain and to make us feel a little less alone in our disasters too.
“I'm a sexual person,” Michelle discloses. “Bi*ch I'm no Cardi B, I can't balance on anything. I shouldn't mix my liquors. I've thrown up on someone before and he was still unbothered, we still ended up hooking up and he put together all my furniture the next day. That's a true story. I have fortunately and unfortunately gotten gum stuck on someone's penis in the backseat of a taxi. Don't judge me. I'm out here living my life.”
Michelle wants us all to get out there and LIVE a little more. “What I do know is if you are not living, then you are dying. So live a little bit. I always tell my friends who have a very long laundry list of what they're looking for in a partner: ‘open your head, your heart and your legs to love, 'cause you never know what you're gonna find.’ I found my husband out of a one night stand. Very fun. And it's a forever relationship.”
So like Michelle says, open your… (fill in as you wish)!
Survival of the Thickest is streaming on Netflix now.
