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Melissa McCarthy Used To Perform As "A Big Old Drag Queen"

The comedian says the drag scene helped to launch her career.

Before Melissa McCarthy was a famous movie star, she was doing standup in Hell's Kitchen as a drag queen named Miss Y.

The comedian told Rolling Stone a few years back that she was encouraged by her gay best friend, shoe designer Brian Atwood, to get on stage, and she decided to do it as a "dragged-out" character.

“It was me there with my lovely gay guy friends and I was dressed like a big old drag queen,” McCarthy said. “I went by Miss Y. I had a gold lamé swing coat on, a huge wig, big eyelashes."

The actress said it gave her so much confidence that she continued to perform as Miss Y for months, even attending the drag festival Wigstock during "the time of Lady Miss Kier, RuPaul and Lady Bunny."

Sounds like heaven to us.

McCarthy says she took what she learned during her time in the drag scene and has applied it to her characters now, which might help explain why we love her so much.

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