THIS IS ME

He’s best known as drag diva Courtney Act, but beneath the wig, eyelashes and fabulous frocks is Shane Jenek, the boy from Brisbane. As revealed in his explosive memoir, he conquered shame, bullying and social conventions to show the world who he really is.

- JULIET RIEDEN ·

It takes three hours or thereabouts at The Weekly’s photoshoot for Shane Jenek to emerge as Courtney Act, with the donning of one of a variety of blonde wigs lined up on his dressing table a glorious crowning moment. The wigs carry glamorous echoes of iconic bombshells, be it Farrah Fawcett, Marilyn Monroe or ABBA’s Agnetha, and while you can still see Shane – the chiselled cheekbones, lithe toned body and piercing blue eyes of the boy from Brighton, Brisbane, are all in beautiful evidence – Courtney really is a whole new woman. Or is she?

“That’s the interesting thing, I don’t feel different,” Shane tells me the following day, kicking back in his non-drag ‘relaxing at home’ baggy pink pants with white and pink floral short-sleeved shirt. As Shane, this 39-year-old global celebrity is movie-star handsome, impeccably polite, quietly charming; his voice slightly deeper and mannerisms less pronounced. And as I settle in for a starkly personal and often heartwrenching discussion, the searching, smart intellect behind Courtney Act the performer comes into sharp focus.

I soon realise that to see Courtney as some sort of alter ego, the sassy ‘she’ Shane perhaps longed to be growing up in suburban Queensland, is to miss the point entirely. Shane is Courtney and Courtney is Shane – they are one whole multifaceted, complex human being.