Interview: Dylan Mulvaney

When Dylan Mulvaney began publicly chronicling her gender transition on TikTok in early 2022, amassing more than a million followers in just 17 days for her daily Days of Girlhood videos, the American assumed she was waving goodbye to Broadway. Notwithstanding that she'd toured in The Book Of Mormon across North America, stage roles for openly trans actors remain few.

But a one-woman Edinburgh Fringe show is a decisive step for wresting back control of a career that has seen Mulvaney cast as an influencer, LGBTQ+ icon and lightning rod for the culture wars over gender identity. Having now quit the treadmill of posting clips every day, “nothing has made me happier than writing and working on this show,” the 27-year-old enthuses from Los Angeles. “Mishmashing” her TikTok style with more traditional theatrical storytelling, with multiple characters and musical interludes, rehearsing “I realised that I'd forgotten what it was like to, you know, sit in a room for 10 hours without windows and not check my phone” she admits. “And it made me so happy.”

Setting some of the record straight, her Edinburgh debut, F*GHAG, aims to be more personal than her most soul-baring or physically exposing videos.

“So much of my online persona and the sort of content I was putting out there was broad, insofar as it had to be for millions of people,” she reflects. “But I'd like to show what my life looked like from the other side. My personal relationships, the connections I had to my loved ones and different folks throughout my life, pre and post-transition. There's still going to be a high level of camp and funny and earnestness. But hopefully with a little bit of vulnerability in there too.”

Mulvaney's fame grew exponentially after she interviewed President Biden in late 2022 about his views on trans issues, an event she confesses to having mixed emotions about now.

“I think I metaphorically blacked out when it happened” she says. “I don't know if I was the perfect person for that gig because a lot of people, especially early on, heavily politicised me. I'm grateful that I had the opportunity but I'm an entertainer, an actress, a comedian, and there are so many other wonderful trans people that would be perfect for that job. I still look back on it fondly though.”

Which is more than can be said for her brand partnership with Bud Light in an Instagram post last year, which saw her vilified by the US right-wing media. Budweiser's stock value tanked as conservative opinion-formers called for a boycott of the beer, with knuckle-dragging singer Kid Rock filming himself obliterating several cases of Bud Light with a submachine gun.

“There might be a small wink to a particularly sticky situation in the show” Mulvaney coyly acknowledges. “But it's such a small part of my story. And again, I'm always trying to find the funny.”

Public backing from Lady Gaga has helped take the sting out of some of the attacks, with Mulvaney delighted about “just having her in my life. She's been so scrutinised and picked apart over the years, especially by the media, I've already learned a lot from her. The support she's shown me privately and publicly is one of the best gifts I've ever received.”

The haters are unlikely to be mollified by Mulvaney exploring her devout Catholic upbringing and faith in F*GHAG however.

“A lot of the queer community has been burned, or felt exiled from this idea of a higher power and that's something I really want to expand upon” she says. “How can I feel connected when so many people are telling me that I don't have a right to that connection?

“God is a very camp character in my show and at times a little silly. But there's a lot of truth in how alone and distanced from God I felt, how I've had to come back to a more productive relationship with an idea of God.”

Often taken out of context and distorted on the internet, Mulvaney isn't overly worried about those “coming to see the show for the wrong reasons.

“A screen creates distance. But theatre offers a much more personal relationship. For a full hour, they'll have to see me up there. They'll have to feel my energy, know who I am.

“I'm hoping they'll come with an open mind and an open heart, leaving with the realisation that not one of us is the same but that we can all find some similarities between us, trans or not.”