Give me a good pandemic - I just flourish! Ha! I don’t know why that is or how that happened, but I think people were looking for just some laughter. He’s been called the “Quarantine Comedian” and “Social Media Mister Rogers.” To all his new fans and even those who know him from “Will & Grace” and in other bit parts, though, he’s most thrilled to be known now as simply Leslie Jordan.Ĭongratulations, first of all, on surviving and thriving in a pandemic.

But the kind of “viral” his friend was referring to was related to Instagram, where he has gone from just thousands of followers to, currently, around 5.6 million. When a friend told him he had gone viral while Jordan was quarantining with his mom in Tennessee in mid-March of last year, Jordan told that friend that, no, he was fine. Jordan’s three-decade career has, most iconically, seen the 65-year-old actor in the Emmy-winning role of Beverley Leslie, a rival of Megan Mullally’s Karen Walker, in “Will & Grace.” But his career in TV and film goes back to the ’80s, in guest appearances in a variety of major shows: “Murphy Brown,” “Star Trek: Voyager,” “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” “Reba” and “Caroline in the City.” More recently, Jordan starred in several seasons of Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story,” and this year he stars alongside Mayim Bialik and fellow out actor Cheyenne Jackson in the Fox sitcom “Call Me Kat.” In one clip, he listens to a Katy Perry song that is “so lit,” while another finds him curious about Lizzo’s definition of “her juice.” Internet virality might be new for Jordan, but, at least in the LGBTQ+ community, he’s always been a star.

There, as a COVID respite, Jordan has delivered lighthearted frivolity and cheeky humor to those he calls his “fellow hunker-downers,” in, of course, his signature Southern drawl. Throughout the pandemic as he’s documented his quarantine experiences, that same bed has been seen all over his Instagram feed. “It’s the only room I’ve got!” he chuckles, noting that he’s on video from his bedroom in West Hollywood. And finally a tickled laugh when I tell him I recognize that he’s in the same room that made him a viral sensation. A peculiar sound that may or may not be a fart.

Then Jordan scoots so low that only his forehead is visible. Puckered together in a kind of duck-face pout are his elastic lips. His face smothering the camera as he wonders where his eyes should be, Leslie Jordan is settling into our video interview like it could be a comic routine about somebody trying to use Zoom for the first time. “Where should I be looking? There? Or there?” By Chris Azzopardi | photos courtesy of Leslie Jordan & Fox

Reborn by Michelle Fox