Three talented Canadian celebrities are leaving a physical mark in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal with a series of murals, part of the MADE | NOUS Hometown Hero campaign. Drag superstar Priyanka, Kim’s Convenience and The Mandalorian actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, and the late filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée now have portrait-style murals in their honour.
“It’s very shocking,” Priyanka told Yahoo Canada about being chosen for the campaign. “These things keep happening in my life and they feel like I’ve won one big, giant contest.”
“I have huge imposter syndrome and it’s just recently, it’s just starting to dawn on me how weird my life has become over the last few years, in a wonderful way, obviously, but it’s still from very humble beginnings,” Lee said in a separate interview.
“Our father always believed that storytelling had the power to transcend boundaries and connect people on a deeply emotional level,” a statement from Vallée’s sons, Alex & Émile, reads. “This mural honours his spirit and his unwavering commitment to his craft.”
“It’s a beautiful tribute to his roots here in Montreal, a city that shaped his vision and where his journey as a filmmaker began. We know he would be deeply moved by this gesture, and we hope it inspires future generations of artists to follow their passion.”
‘Am I the gay Drake?’
Priyanka’s mural is located in Toronto at the corner of Church and Wellesley, the heart of Toronto’s Gay Village.
“The coolest part about this mural is that I actually got to be involved in the design and how it looks and what I wanted to say,” Priyanka explained. “Because I too am an artist, I was like, ‘Here’s some photos of me that I like.’ … I looked at the artist’s work and it’s incredible. … They came back in the first draft, I was like, ‘This is it. Period.'”
With Priyanka’s impressive career from hosting the YTV series The Zone, to winning the first season of Canada’s Drag Race and now touring her debut album “Devastatia,” she’s a true inspiration in Canada’s entertainment industry, who now has a physical stamp in the city where things really started for her.
“I think about how proud Drake is of being from Toronto and I’m like, ‘Am I the gay Drake?’ Like what the hell is happening?” Priyanka said. “Drag was one thing that made me so proud of who I am culturally, my Guyanese heritage … and Bollywood and all that kind of stuff. And then the next chapter is being proud of this city that enabled me to become a global drag superstar.”
“I want people to see it as inspiration, just to be inspired to be like, I’m literally one of you. I was that queer kid discovering myself on Church Street. … And it just shows that we all have a journey. We can all do it. … That’s the cool thing about the photo that we landed on, my eyes are closed, and just embracing it, it’s because you have to just lean into your destiny.”
I want people to see it as inspiration … I was that queer kid discovering myself on Church Street.
There’s also something particularly impactful about Priyanka being celebrated in Toronto at a time when drag queens have been the subject of gross vitriol and dangerous rhetoric. But the star highlighted that queer people continue to carve out their own spaces and see success.
“A lot of queer people are very tired of having to fight the fight, but I think this and all the other wins that many other queer people have as well, it just shows that we can always do this in the same society together, but no one’s working on how that happens,” Priyanka said. “Yes, inclusivity. Yes, understanding of each other. Yes, patience. Yes, compassion. But what does it actually mean?”
“Just because you are queer, just because you’re a drag queen doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Just because it is rhetoric and life is hard doesn’t mean that you’re not successful. It’s just this thing of like, we have to keep carving out our own space, because there has never been space for us. But now there’s carved out space, my face is on the side of the wall, so I think we’re carving out space just fine.”
‘Growing up I didn’t have that kind of example to look towards’
For Lee’s mural in Calgary, he wanted the image used to be a really authentic representation of himself.
“That’s me. I’m not done up. I’m wearing my hat that I’ve had for years. I’m wearing a shirt that I’ve had for years,” Lee said.
“It’s kind of neat that they found this perfect building actually, because it’s known as The Blue Store and it’s like a convenience store, and they also rent videos and movies and stuff, and I kind of love that. The colour was great too. Growing up in Calgary, the one house I do remember is the big blue house that we lived in on 19 Avenue.”
Now being celebrated to inspire future generations, Lee reflected on his path to success he’s had so far, highlighting that he didn’t have many people to look up to who had a similar lived experience.
“Growing up I didn’t have that kind of example to look towards, I kind of felt like one of those pathfinders and you’re in a strange new world, you’re on your own, you’re trying to navigate it,” Lee said. “You don’t have very many mentors or people that you know who have the same sort of lived experience who can give you the benefit of wisdom, or let you know what things to avoid or what to look for.”
“I’ve been very vocal in terms of the whole idea that representation matters. It does. It’s so important. And it’s not wokeism. It’s ridiculous, I hate the way they’ve subverted the word ‘woke’ into that, but really, when you see yourself reflected in any way, in any sort of a successful light, it’s inspiring.”
You don’t have very many mentors or people that you know who have the same sort of lived experience.
Lee added that while the road hasn’t been easy, he hopes to be that inspiration he was missing growing up, to make the journey “a little less lonely” for others.
“I have worked extremely hard, I’ve had to eat a lot of crap sandwiches, like many other BIPOC artists, struggling years ago just to get work,” Lee said. “So for me, it’s incumbent on me as somebody who’s reached a modicum of success to sort of help the next generation along, and to kick that door open a little bit wider and bring as many artists through as I can to make their journey easier, to be that mentor, to be that example of, hard work plus good fortune can equal success.”
“More importantly, they’re great success stories for your parents who are terrified of letting their children go off into the unknown to struggle, because as parents, we don’t want our children to struggle. We want them to work hard, to do all those things, but we don’t want undue suffering because of the choices that they’ve made.”
While Lee is not finished working hard and getting more opportunities in film and TV, he said it’s “mind-blowing” to know that he has this physical mark on Calgary with this mural.
“My journey began as this little Asian kid who was kind of on his own, playing with his action figures and … trying to find his way in high school, and having a very small but great group of friends that I was able to sort of find myself and be myself with,” he said. “Never in a million years would I have thought that my … face is going be on a mural in Calgary, my hometown.”
“And I’m not selling anything. That’s the thing, the message is, ‘You can make it.’ … And to be proud as Canadians of who we are, what we accomplish. We don’t have to feel ashamed because we get success and I think that’s always been the default mode setting for Canadians, especially Asian Canadians. Like, ‘Oh, you’re successful. Be quiet. … Don’t let people know about it.’ It’s good to advocate for ourselves and say, ‘Hey, no, no, we’re good at this.’ And it doesn’t mean we’re better than everybody else, but it’s great and it’s healthy to have a good sense of ownership of what you’ve accomplished.”