Christmas week marks the release of The Greatest Showman in theaters across the US. The movie tells a tale inspired by the imagination of PT Barnum, the creator of the most famous circus show. The movie was released only seven months after Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus billed as The Greatest Show on Earth, closed after 146 years.
The show has already been nominated for three Golden Globe Award, including Best Original Song - Motion Picture, for “This Is Me.” The song tells a vibrant and inspiring story of self-acceptance. Keala Settle plays the bearded lady in The Greatest Showman and sings the song, leading the ensemble cast of “freak show” characters that defined the early days of the circus.
Russ: When I heard this song, I was brought to tears thinking about the profound message this has for the LGBTQ community.
Keala: As much as it can be an anthem for the LGBTQ community, it has a universal message for everyone. And we need it. I didn’t realize the impact this song would make because I was still fighting my own fears. And I still am.
Russ: People are going to notice you’re a big girl. How did this song impact you personally?
Keala: I had my own fears, and still do. I’m a human being. I have to break through my own barriers in order to make room for others who need that as well. It’s not for me, it’s for all of us–for every single person on the planet. Whoever has a disability or a special need or just wakes up in the morning and can’t even look in the mirror because the society and environment that we are in these days telling us there’s something wrong with who we are.
I had to–and continue–to fight the personal struggle every day when I walk out my door and when I had to perform this song on camera was my first step to overcoming my own fear of accepting who I am. That was the charge I accepted. I had to get out of my own way so that I create that song. We need it so bad.
Russ: How did you get started in show business?
Keala: I think my mother—bless her heart—couldn’t shut me up when I was two years old. All I did was harmonize and sing. She was also a singer and so she tried to shove all these movies in my face like “Sound of Music” and “Grease” and “Pirates of Penzance” and all these old American movie classics Betty Grable movies, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies, Gene Kelly—just to shut me up and put my energy somewhere.
I was a sponge. I would learn all these things off of the television and through a VCR. I realized that all the films were actually under the term “musical.” I didn’t know what that term really meant until I got into high school and university. When I was in university, I just wanted to be an R&B singer. I didn't think you could do both at the same time.
I moved to Las Vegas and did a bunch of jingle work and community theater, and ended up hearing about an open call for the tour of Hairspray. I wanted to be one of the Dynamites and I was like, “Oh my gosh, I got this in the bag!” I went into the audition in North Hollywood and eight audition and callbacks later I ended up becoming the standby for the lead of Tracy Turnblatt for the first national tour.
Russ: How did it feel with the double-impact of having to put on a beard and adding one more layer to your character?
Keala: I actually did research and based my character on a woman in England who actually lives with polycystic ovarian syndrome and lives with a real beard all day every day and has since she was the age of six. She tried to shave her face every day. She was suicidal. People made fun of her left, right, and center. I was looking up to her in these moments, trying to relay all of those fears to this film, and without even noticing I realized I was trying to overcome my own.
I don’t have a beard in real life, but I am a big girl and I can say I’m proud of it. I come from a culture where that exists. My father is European and my mother a native New Zealander. That’s just how we’re built. Through that song and through this production, I slowly, so slowly discovered and continue to discover who I am.
Russ: The song was released ahead of the movie. How has it impacted you? How has it been received by others?
Keala: I used to hide a lot. That’s why no one has heard of me. I’ve gone big, I’ve gone small, depending on what the work calls for. But I just hid away.
Hugh Jackman was there for most of the morning and the afternoon the first day after we did initial photography on This Is Me. He came up to me on set and he grabs my hand and says, “You can’t hide anymore.”
I had no idea what that meant at the time but now I do. I wake up to messages on Instagram and Twitter. Sometimes it’s broken English—sometimes it’s not English at all. They are from people, not only from the LGBTQ community but from all over the world. One of them said, “I couldn’t get up to take care of my son today, and I listened to the song and I’m now charged with the faith that I can do this.”
It’s overwhelming. It makes me cry. We’re all in the same boat and to be able to offer that in any way is extremely humbling to me.
Russ: Do you think the world is ready to accept the message that This Is Me inspires?
Keala: Just last night I was talking to my sisters about this. I just want to make a difference in our world. So many people want to make a difference these days without being angry, without setting fire to people or without hurting people or killing people. I want to make a difference, I just hope that through this song and this movie that other people will latch on and try to do the same thing. It’s that simple but it's scary. It's daunting.
Russ: Would you say that This Is Me is the message of the movie?
Keala: I would have to say yes, it is. We were in rehearsal when the election happened, and the next day we were all stunned and scared and crying gathering together. We had to perform. We were excited about the project but because of the current events at the time we were still shaken and that’s when we realized that there was a shift that was going to happen—a positive one. We're gonna keep going on because that's what we do. We survive, we move on, and we take everybody we can with us—in love.
Russ: What’s your best behind the scenes story from the movie?
Keala: It was that first day we shot This Is Me. I sang full out for sixteen hours. I had an earwig in my ear that was playing the track so that I was synced up properly while all the cameras were rolling. Around me the whole time I had hair people, I had makeup people. They were crying. I was crying. We were trying to keep my beard on. It was just so ethereal and “other world” that whole day.
My first assistant director Peter (I called him Uncle Peter) would come up to me every morning and say “Where’s my bearded lady? I need my kiss from my bearded lady.” He would always approach me and say, “Are you OK to go on? Can we do it again?” And I would say,”Yeah let's do it. Let’s do it until you have everything you need.
The only way that I could have ever had that kind of discipline and determination was because of Broadway. Broadway is “*bleepin-bleepin*” hard. If you can swing Broadway by any chance– by any extent of the imagination—if you can do Broadway full out, you can do anything. Every time you do a take, it’s like opening night every single take. As hard as it was I would do it all over again. I owe the Broadway community so much "
Russ: Is the song easy for you to perform now?
Keala: Yes, but I have to check myself because I get too into it and start crying, because like I said, I’m still trying to fight my own fears. It gets easier because I realize I'm not alone every time. I am listening to what I'm telling you! I am not alone so I’m okay.
Russ: What’s next for Keala?
Keala: Maybe, just maybe, I have a record coming out. Maybe it's gonna drop before Christmas Day. I’m also working on putting a documentary into TV series. I want to produce. I want to do film. I want to do it all! Now that I’ve been given this opportunity to do this project with Hugh Jackan—it’s his fault I’m in it—I want to create the conversation and keep us thinking and moving forward as a people.
If there’s anything this film has taught me is that you have one life. You can make it or break it on your own. There’s a ripple effect. No matter how much you don’t want them to be affected, we’re not supposed to be alone. Everything else in our ecosystem moves together and grows together and people seem to be the only ones trying to move against that and succeed. You’ve got one life so celebrate it.
Russ: One last question.. you said you were having trouble keeping the beard on, but my mom wants to know how you kept the boobies tucked in?
Keala: [Laughs] Honey, that’s probably why the film is PG. It could have been G but no thanks to my titties, its PG. We had been filming my song and our line producer goes “CUT!! Where’s wardrobe??” And they start to cover everything up, and I’m like, “Y’all I've been in this costume for a week and nobody said nothing??”
Here’s the deal. When you put a corset on, it doesn’t COVER your boobies. It REDISTRIBUTES your living, physical, fat cells around the body. That’s what a corset does. And a man invented that. So why are they mad? You know what you can do? You can CGI my boobies. Put dots on them so you can put somebody else’s picture on them. I can’t believe I’m telling you this story. But what am I gonna do? We could have had a G rating. I blame myself.
Russ: [Laughing in tears] That was not the answer I was expecting. I thought you were going to say you duct tape them down like the drag queens tuck.
Keala: No, no, no, I’m way to strong for that. But we could have had a G rating.