The 35-year-old 'Queer Eye' star recently appeared in Swift's 'You Need to Calm Down' music video.
Antoni Porowski was feeling anything but calm about starring in Taylor Swift's latest music video!
ET caught up with the 35-year-old Queer Eye star at The Variety and Mercedes-Benz Power of Pride event in New York City on Monday, and revealed why his featured role in Swift's "You Need to Calm Down" video was actually a long time coming.
"I've long been a fan of hers," he said of the 29-year-old pop star. "Actually, here's a fun fact. Want to get a little first that nobody else has gotten? Remember the music video for 'Blank Space'? I auditioned for that when I was a waiter and I got called back twice and it was between me and two other guys and in the audition. I had to pretend like I was running away from the lion in the green screen -- and I told her that."
While Porowski didn't land the role because, he said, Swift "ended up changing the direction" of the video, he still appreciated the final cut, which starred model Sean O'Pry.
"It's unfortunate how terribly unattractive he is," Porowski quipped of O'Pry. "He's not. He's extremely attractive. So, I did have a first chance at a Taylor Swift music video and I didn't get it, so now I felt like Phoenix rising redemption and I got to actually be in one. As myself. How weird is the world and life?"
Though "Blank Space" wasn't Porowski's time to shine, "You Need to Calm Down" certainly was, as the reality star shared the screen with his Queer Eye castmates and other LGBTQ stars. Swift, Porowski shared, reached out to everyone individually to make the music video.
"It was so much fun," he said. "There was like, the sets, there was details on that set that you probably couldn't see in the video. Everything was so carefully curated, like it was fine English bone China with the porcelain that we were drinking from. There was a little honey bear from the 1930s that was solid glass to use to sweeten our teas. Like every single little thing."
"It was very Queer Eye approved," he quipped.
Though Swift was delighted to have Porowski and others on set, that didn't mean that they got a sneak peek at her then-unreleased song.
"There was no music, she didn't even play the music," Porowski said of being on set. "She runs a tight ship and she's written about this and spoken about this. She really wants her fans to have that moment of discovery when she comes up with a new song or a new album and she keeps it super hush and then it's just this beautiful explosion and then fans around the world get to rejoice. So, the song is not playing on set. She wanted all of us to enjoy it when it came out."
"... She's very much in control of her whole creative process. While she is very collaborative -- I love the way she communicates with everybody on production -- it's very much a vision that she has," he added. "And I think that's so admirable and I see that with a lot of creative women and I think men can really learn from strong women in media and in pop culture who are actually doing that. I think it's really freaking dope. And I respect her tremendously."
Porowski first saw the video after Swift texted it to him and he couldn't have been more pleased with the result.
"She texted it and I saw the video and I freaked out and I thought it was so cool 'cause I didn't even know everybody else who was in it," he said of fellow stars, including Ellen DeGeneres, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Katy Perry and more. "Just to see all these wonderful LGBTQIA+ personalities and allies who were featured in the video was, like, she doesn't have to do that and she does. And I really respect that."
"The message of the video was about inclusivity and really promoting LGBTQIA+ talent and allies and I think she did a tremendously good respectful job at doing that," he added.
When he's not starring in music videos, Porowski is gearing up for an incredibly busy rest of the year, leading up to the release of his cookbook in September and Queer Eye's season four premiere next month.
"It's been a much more personal work than I had imagined or expected," he said of writing Antoni in the Kitchen, which is due out on Sept. 9. "[It's] very autobiographical food from, like, my Polish heritage, to food that I ate when I was a broke student, to dishes that I prepare for family and loved ones now. And it's very multi-cultural and diverse, which is what my story was like in Montreal and the way that I grew up."
"There's a lot of head note writing with every recipe, 'cause I really do believe that every important dish, like that thing that you remember, has an important story behind it, whether you tried it on a trip with a loved one or on a date or something you ate when you were a student," he continued. "... I'm very emotional about food and so to actually have a book where I got to put the time and effort to really organize everything in one collection is just, I'm really excited."
While Porowski was tight-lipped about what fans can expect from Queer Eye's upcoming season, he promised that the emotional and heartwarming moments will definitely continue.
"When we went in from season one to season two we were so excited because diversity continued to be the focal point of our direction and where we were headed and it continues to be the case," he said. "We get to tell even more stories as the show progresses and what's really cool is that I realize that our stories are so endless and we get to just like experience new heroes."
"I'm thinking of two in particular who really made me cry. I know that doesn't say a lot because I cry a lot, but they really made me cry like Mama Tammye made me cry," he added, referencing a fan-favorite season two hero.
Season four of Queer Eye lands on Netflix July 19.
--Additional reporting by Darla Murray
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