‘There hasn’t been a better time for someone like me’

With its joyous exuberance, Netflix‘s hit show Glamorous feels like a close cousin to Emily in Paris, but with one groundbreaking difference: it’s probably the most genuinely diverse TV show ever made.

Set in a shiny New York office, it stars Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall as Madolyn Addison, a former supermodel who now runs fading beauty empire Glamorous by Madolyn. Cattrall, 66, is an inspired choice as queen bee of a vibrant young team, one of whom boasts, ‘Titanic is the oldest movie I’ve ever seen – and I don’t know who Cher is.’

Even more interesting was Netflix launching the show at the same time as the new series of And Just Like That…, the Sex and the City spin-off that stars Cattrall’s reportedly estranged former co-stars. Although she has a brief cameo in And Just Like That…, acrimony remains, so don’t expect her to be cozying up with Sarah Jessica Parker in real life any time soon.

What is it like to be in this revolutionary new show, which also stars Miss Benny, who is winning plaudits as Cattrall’s witty gender-nonconforming assistant Marco Mejia?

There’s no one better to ask than Damian Terriquez, who plays Dizmal Failure, a popular drag queen who befriends Mejia.

Only four years ago, Mexican-American Terriquez, 25, was contemplating a life in marketing, having studied international corporate structure in London. The pandemic brought an end to that and Terriquez moved to Hollywood to do odd jobs on film sets.

As a nonbinary actor, they were convinced a big part would be a long time coming. Born in San Diego, California, Terriquez and their family relocated to their mother’s hometown of Tijuana in Mexico when they were young, but returned to California when they were in high school.

Today Terriquez lives just outside Los Angeles with their fiancé, actor Luke Lowry, and their miniature schnauzers Nadia and Nala.

Appropriately Terriquez had just kissed Ireland’s famous Blarney Stone while on holiday when they heard about the audition for Glamorous.

However, they tell me, ‘I was a trained dancer with an academic mindset and not much acting experience. I thought, there’s no way I’m going to land a Netflix series with Kim Cattrall. But Luke encouraged me to go for it and here I am.

‘Glamorous came around a few months after I decided to act,’ Terriquez adds, ‘and there hasn’t been a better time than right now to be someone like me – a nonbinary Latinx. Two years ago you wouldn’t have had two similarly diverse people on a show. In Glamorous everyone in the cast is a different facet of diversity. I’m hoping this changes the idea that a show can only have one such role.’

Terriquez, who is dressed for our interview in a navy rollneck, dark denim, and pearls, says they grew up watching the Sex and the City movies with their mum – they were ‘too young’ for the TV original – and admits being intimidated when first meeting Cattrall.

‘I was quiet, so I suspected she knew I was a little nervous of her, but in our scenes together she couldn’t have been nicer, always asking how my day was going.’

As well as being the star, Cattrall was also a show producer and Terriquez says it was impressive watching her juggle both roles. ‘As soon as they called “cut”, she was very quick to do rewrites, saying, “I think this or that would make more sense”. It was always a long day on set but then having to work after the cameras stopped was something I hadn’t seen before. It was an inspiring process.’

Cattrall didn’t socialize with the younger actors, who, unsurprisingly, had great fun off-set together. ‘It was like summer camp. There was this board-game café in Toronto where we’d hang out and it was always someone’s birthday, so lots of celebrating.’

Filming for the show began last year in the Canadian city, which was also used as a New York lookalike in Suits, and the vast Glamorous offices were one big set.

‘I’ve never worked on something so meticulously built,’ says Terriquez.

While Sex and the City’s legendary costume designer Patricia Field created Cattrall’s outfits – the pair remain friends despite the other fallouts – the rest of the cast were dressed by film and TV costume designer Nancy Gould. For one scene she put Terriquez in a pink catsuit with sequin platform boots – a look they’ll never forget: ‘My heel came off and embarrassingly I fell out of my trailer!’

As well as flamboyant clothes, the show has introduced Terriquez to make-up.

‘Before I might occasionally do a soft eye, but now with all these red-carpet events, I am having fun with make-up. I love Tom Ford, which was used on the show, and more affordable brands like Clinique. If I’m getting ready for something I put glitter around my eye and powder around my beard.’

While there is talk of a second series of Glamorous, at the moment Terriquez is busy planning their wedding to Lowry, which will be in Mexico next year so all of their 450 relatives can attend. The couple, says Terriquez, met online as ‘people my age do… I find it so novel now when I watch a rom-com. I think, “Oh, wow, it’s so cute – they met in person! How did they know they liked each other?”‘

Of life off-screen Terriquez says: ‘I enjoy the quiet. I’m trying to live out my fantasy of being an aristocratic English countrywoman. I’ve started knitting and gardening and I have my dogs.’

They also have their eye on Netflix stablemate Emily in Paris. ‘There is this idea that everything has to be Succession-level intense, but a fun show to disengage from the world is perfectly valid. Emily in Paris was great – I can speak French and I have a marketing degree, so come on!’

A new co-star for Lily Collins?

Glamorous is available to watch on Netflix now