Image Credit: ‘Lady Like,’ Freestyle Digital Media
Every queen is a lady, but what’s it take to make Lady a queen?
That question’s at the heart of Lady Like, a fascinating, intimate, and joyful new documentary from filmmaker Luke Willis about RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14 runner-up Lady Camden, a.k.a. artist & dancer Rex Wheeler.
The Camden Town, London-born performer (hence the drag name), has been subverting people’s expectations of him pretty much his entire life:
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“I remember you guys telling me that you thought I was going to be really kind of butch and sexy because my name is Rex,” he jokes to some people he’s working with early in the film. “And then I got here and you’re like, ‘Oh, he’s a sister!'”
That element of surprise has certainly played into his drag career, too. When Lady Camden first strutted into the Werk Room on Drag Race, she certainly had polished looks and some solid dance moves that proved she earned her spot there, but it took some time ’til she really showed what she was made of and blossomed into a real threat for the crown.
(For our money, the turning point was definitely the episode that featured her hilarious “Daytona Wind” acting performance, her immediately iconic faux-stumble on the runway, and her energetic winning lip-sync to Blondie’s “One Way Or Another.”)
So how did Wheeler go from classically trained dancer at the Royal Ballet School in London to the performing in drag on the biggest stages of the world? Well, that’s what Lady Like is all about!
Described as a “rags-to-riches origin story,” the documentary starts at the very beginning. Though he grew up around the electrifying nightlight & arts scene of Camden Town with a mother who has long supported his interest in the arts, it wasn’t always easy for Wheeler, who faced bullying and other challenges in his youth.
However, life’s troubles are what inspired him to turn to the fantasy and escapism of the performing arts, a place where he could become anything he wanted—even a glamorous drag queen named Lady Camden.
Image Credit: ‘Lady Like,’ Freestyle Digital Media
Lady Like also offer an unprecedented look at what its like to be a “local queen” suddenly thrust into the spotlight of a massively popular series like Drag Race. As someone who has always struggled with their self-confidence, Wheeler couldn’t quite anticipate what it’d be like for viewers of the show to suddenly be criticizing her every look, her every though. her every plie.
But just like Lady Camden sang in her Season 14 finale song, every time she fell down, she got right back up again. And though she may have come just short of the crown, her victory was something greater, which the film proves as it takes us with Wheeler on his whirlwind journey around the world to perform for—and connect with—adoring fans moved by his empowering message.
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“Following Lady Camden the past few years through her rise to international fame has been an incredibly healing journey for me,” director Luke Willis shares in a press statement. “Lady Camden/Rex’s journey to seek sanctuary in the theater is universal even beyond queer communities because it is a story of searching for one’s place in the world. Everyone in all walks of life knows what it is to feel like an outsider. It is incredibly powerful to witness someone harness the courage to strike out and find where they do belong despite the odds.”
Featuring narration by fellow Drag Race alum Nina West, Lady Like made its world premiere at the BFI Flare London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival last spring, and has since played festivals all over the world, now it’s finally heading to streaming VOD channels in the U.S. on January 3, courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media.
Check out the newest trailer for Lady Like below:
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