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An interview with Ruby Rose

Australians have been privy to the talent that is Ruby Rose since 2008, when she won a contest to become an MTV VJ. The model-turned-television personality became a household name when she took more presenting gigs, started a fashion label and became an all-around multi-tasker, juggling DJ sets and becoming the face of Maybelline with advocacy, all the while attempting to maintain romantic relationships. Ruby said that this has ultimately been kind of impossible, as she’s a constant traveler, and has now relocated to Los Angeles to broaden her proverbial horizons. “I’ve been meaning to make the move for about a year and a half,” Ruby told me. “But I love being back home with my friends and my family and so many different job opportunities, so it was always kind of like ‘Yeah, I’ll move, I’ll move,’ but always something would come up and I’d want to do that. So it was just about me kind of going ‘alright, I can either stay in Australia and do that forever or I can move to the States for a little bit and see what happens.”

Since Ruby has had her in hand in all kinds of pots, it’s not that she’s going to be doing anything too different in the U.S. as much as she hopes to reach a new audience.

“I love everything I do back home, but at the same time, it’s like I have been doing it for five years and pretty much everything I’ve wanted to achieve back home, I’ve been lucky enough and been blessed enough to experience,” Ruby said. “It’s cool because all the lessons you learn as you go along in the industry, I learned those pretty quickly, I’m glad I’ve done all that at home, so here I can hone on what I really want to do and not spread myself too thin.”

Ruby has been out as a lesbian since she was 12 years old, and she has never shied away from being out in the public eye. She said the only time she was advised not to be out was when she first auditioned with MTV.

“[At the beginning], MTV didn’t know I was gay at all,” she said. “I mean, I wasn’t asked. Somehow it came out and I was like “That wasn’t so hard,’ and they were kind of like ‘If you get asked, kind of steer away from it a little while just so you can establish yourself as a presenter and a VJ and before people get too crazy with it.’ And I said ‘Yeah, yeah I get that, but if I”m asked, I don’t want to lie about it.” And she doesn’t, which means that Ruby’s presence in the Aussie tabloids are often prefaced with the descriptive “lesbian,” which doesn’t bother Ruby as much when it might be relevant. The thing is, a lot of the time, it isn’t.

“Some of the time, I feel like it’s so unnecessary – it’s already a non-article. If it’s like ‘Ruby was seen with a friend having coffee and she identifies as a lesbian,’ it’s like, that’s not even an article! Come on – writing that I’m a lesbian before my name doesn’t make it more interesting,” Ruby said. “Why does everything have to be about Ruby being a lesbian? If I’m at a gay rally and it’s about gay marriage or something that actually involves my relationships – ‘Celbridyke’ and what’s the other one? ‘Celesbian.’ It’s sort of derogatory when it shouldn’t be because I’m proud of it and I embrace it.”

Ruby has had some relationships with high-profile women, which has only heightened the paparazzi interest in her and her sexuality. Her serious relationship with model Catherine McNeil was followed closely by the press, who took photos of them while they were out and quoted anonymous sources about their engagement and subsequent break-up.

“The thing with Catherine and I was we really never came out and confirmed it,” Ruby said. “We were dating for a year and a half and I was in L.A. DJing, here actually, and there was Australian media here and they asked me and her something and I said, ‘Yeah I’m lucky to be dating the sexiest woman in the room.’ I think that’s pretty much the only thing. Obviously we both had engagement rings. … Obviously we had the engagement rings and everyone kind of knew. We were living together and it would have been hard to say ‘We’re not together’ when we clearly are. And actually we’d love to just be like ‘Yeah, we are and we have a house,’ but there was so much going on at the time, and managers and this and that, doing different things and it was hard. ” And there was a rumored announcement on Ruby’s Facebook page that eventually made it public as well. But the traveling both women do as part of their careers took its toll.

“We’ve known each other for seven years. We met when I was 15 and then we got together when I was 19 or 20 and we had a good two and a half years,” Ruby said. “But what people forget about Catherine and I is we’ve known each other for three years before we were together. I’ve known her for, like, my entire life.”

Ruby and Catherine met when they were competitors in a Girlfriend Model search in 2002. Catherine won the competition and Ruby took home second, but they maintained a friendship and on-and-off again relationship thereafter.

“I was actually going to get together with her last week when I was in New York but I just got busy with Fashion Week. We’re friends,” Ruby said. “It does suck. When we were happy, we were the happiest we could possibly be. And like nothing will ever take that away, truly. And like any other relationship, we wanted different things and we were long-distance for a long time, and not only normal long-distance but her being in a different country every week because she doesn’t stay in New York. She’d be in a different country, she’d never stay in New York. She’d be in London and Europe and then Asia and we couldn’t even get our minds wrapped around the time zones. It was really hard. We both love each other and she needed to and I needed to move on. We might never have another relationship-kind of thing, but we’ll always be in each others lives.” Traveling is what makes it hard for Ruby to date anyone, much less someone who has a full schedule of her own.

“It’s been pretty difficult so I’ve been single for about eight months,” Ruby said. “But I did have a nice Valentine’s Day, which was kind of cute. Even though I’ve been anti-Valentine’s Day my entire life.”

Ruby said that she doesn’t find that she has a specific type, and she’s dated both women who work inside the entertainment industry and those who don’t.

“My big thing with women is I love girls with a sense of humor. I just think that anyone with a sense of humor is by far more attractive than any other kind of person out there,” Ruby said. “I guess that’s kind of been my one common denominator with the girls that I’ve really liked – that kind of laid back, self-deprecating humor. If you look at people I’ve had close relationships with, there is no really other common element that they have in common at all, it’s kind of strange. I think I just like people that are passionate and people that dedicated to wanting to always learn more and always be more and succeed in whatever they’ve chosen to do with their job or their career or their life. Aside from that, I don’t really mind.”

But when someone is as passionate about their career as Ruby is, that’s when the schedule conflict happens.

“The few times I’ve been with someone, they’ve kind of come around with me for as long as they want and then I’ve been with them where they have to be. You can make long-distance relationships work,” she said. “They’re hard, but I don’t think they’re not impossible.”

Besides Catherine, Ruby has been linked to the likes of Jessica Origliasso of The Veronicas, but she said dating inside the industry can make things more difficult because it’s actually a smaller world than some might think.

“Dating someone in this industry, that’s a make up artist or a stylist or any kind of level of understanding they have of the industry can be great. They understand the hours and the stresses and the kind of things you complain about to someone that doesn’t understand would say ‘Really? You’re going to complain about that when you have so many other fantastic things you get to do in this industry?’ you know?” Ruby said. “It is kind of nice to have someone who understands. But, at the same time, it’s a smaller industry than some people think and if you’re dating someone in the industry and it doesn’t work very well, it can get awkward. It’s kind of like mixing business with pleasure. You have to be pretty dedicated to it. And I kind of – I like when I’ve dated a writer, I liked that because it was so far removed from what I did that everyday it was so nice to learn what somebody else is doing and sort of incorporate it into what you’re doing and work harmoniously. So sometimes it’s nice to date someone who has nothing to do with the industry and thinks it’s a load of bollocks and you can be coming home and going, ‘It was terrible at work today’ and they’re ‘Boo, you’re on TV. That’s not even work.'” Whoever would tell Ruby that she’s not doing “work” clearly doesn’t know her very well. Quite possibly the busiest woman in show business, Ruby may have just moved to the States, but she’s soon headed back to Australia to do a tour that includes dates with the The Veronicas and Jessie J and she’s also working on an album as well as collaborating with Missy Higgins and continuing her stint as the face of Maybelline Australia and acting. The short film she was part of, Old New Shoes, recently premiered at Tropfest in Australia (which she likens to Sundance) and Ruby convincingly plays “a kind of sociopath girlfriend, which is probably not acting and is probably me in real life,” she joked. Acting is something Ruby is interested in, but she said she’s more focused on music in the near future.

“Spreading myself thin like I always do!” Ruby said. One of the reasons people are fascinated with Ruby, besides her talents in all areas of the entertainment industry, is her unabashed take on being herself. Coming from a country where LGBT equality is a constant struggle, Ruby said there weren’t any role models for her growing up until Portia de Rossi came out.

“For a while there weren’t even that many out males,” Ruby said. “[For that reason] I think [my being a lesbian] was sensationalized a lot. [The press] were very supportive in the beginning of it all so it comes with the business. And now that a lot of different actors and singers have come out as saying they are bisexual or gay and you’ve got television programs that are based on gay relationships – it’s not something new and shiny [anymore] so I don’t think people will grab onto it so much automatically.”

And since Ruby is not yet as well known in the States as she is back home, she said “it’s sort of a relief” that the tabloids won’t take interest in her. At least not yet. But we do take interest in Australian performers Stateside, including comedian/actress Magda Szubanski, who came out as a lesbian earlier this month. Ruby says she knows Magda well, and remembers talking with her about when she’d tell the public about her sexuality. “I remember being outside of my house, in her car, talking about if she should come out and when she’ll come out, talking through it,” Ruby said. “I have so much respect for her as a human. I cried when I watched the interview [Magda came out during]. I bawled my eyes out. I love her and I was so proud of everyone praising her and celebrating it. I hope they can keep on this path and not making it about ‘Magda’s a lesbian,’ you know, in all the articles that come out from now on.”

If anyone knows how annoying that is, it’s Ruby Rose.

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