In a particularly fascinating and entertaining episode of the unmissable Friends Of Dorothy podcast, Rachel True joins Candy Warhol and Kiki St Clair for a thoroughly ‘Halloween-y’ listen!

The actress, author, tarot card reader and 90’s icon stops by to chat about her new book, tarot card deck and how they can be used in all our lives. She also discusses her time on The Craft, the connection between her character and the LGBTQ+ community and how she fought for the role.

The queens also count down their top ten pop culture witches and discuss what’s making them gasp and gag in the world right now including the Pope, Tiffany Trump and Candy’s run in with Angelica Houston!

And don’t forget – tomorrow, Friday, October 30, at 8pm sees the queens crawl right into your home for a live virtual Halloween Spooktacular as part of GCN’s In And Out Festival of LGBTQ+ Creativity!

Born and raised in New York City, Rachel True grew up fascinated with folklore, mythology and after discovering books on her parents book shelf – the world of tarot. She was also wildly excited that it was possible to buy castles in Ireland, “When I was little I would read the property ads in The New Yorker and tell everyone you could buy castles in Ireland with moats around them – that’s where I need to be.”

Rachel’s free spirit and blissful thinking was first threatened when she moved to upstate New York as a teenager, “There was so much racism there, kids refused to sit or stand next to me because I was brown skinned. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, they think I’m not beautiful’. I’d never had to think about that before.”

This feeling of being an outsider was intensified when she moved to Hollywood to pursue her career in acting. “Hollywood made it clear I was not the leading lady but her quirky best friend,” she shared on the Friends Of Dorothy podcast. ‘’My friend said that there was a script about four witches floating around Hollywood and I said I was going to be in it. My rep repeatedly told me I was not right for the part but I fought to get in the room, got the part and fired my rep. My character was originally white and bulimic but they changed my storyline to have themes of bullying and racism which I think was a good idea.’’

These themes and challenges were unfortunately mirrored in reality when Rachel was left out of press events to promote the movie. ’”I would’ve liked as much character details in the movie like the others girls did, I would’ve liked to have my family shown and I wish they would’ve included me in the press junkets but the movie has also done a lot for me and people resonate with my character.’’

That movie was the 1996 cult classic, The Craft – a staple in coming of age high school movies and the story of four outsiders facing challenges of racism, sexual abuse, body image, class issues and, of course, witchcraft. It was these themes that led the movie to become a huge queer classic with many members of the LGBTQ+ community identifying with Rachel True’s character of Rochelle and Fairuza Balk’s Nancy. “I get so many messages about our two characters and even if your not brown and Jewish like I am, you might be gay, or something that’s totally out of your control, and you get hardship for that. That’s always why I played my character with such conflict when she puts a spell on her bullies, because if you’ve ever been bullied you would never want someone to go through that.”

Through all of this that she not only maintained her interest and fascination with the world of occult and tarot but practiced tarot reading regularly. In the last year she has gone from reading tarot professionally to limiting it just friends (although this year she has read for Katya and Billie Eilish) and this month she has released her debut book and card set, True Heart Intuitive Tarot. The book not only features a set of decks but a detailed manual (Rachel says everyone should learn and calls it a shrink in a box) and a set of autobiographical memoirs.

In this Halloween-themed episode, Rachel True also discusses her love of Rocky Horror, partying with the ultimate club kid James St James and her love of Ireland and its mythology. The queens also give a top ten countdown of their favourite pop culture witches and share their thoughts on the Pope’s recent comments about homosexuality. All in a day’s work for the queens.

You can listen to Friends Of Dorothy with Rachel True here, and makes sure to give the girls a follow on Instagram!