Her name is splashed through gossip columns, her sexuality remains a point of public discussion and her raunchy shoot for FHM had everyone talking – being the first lesbian to grace the magazine’s covers.
Her name is splashed through gossip columns, her sexuality remains a point of public discussion and her raunchy shoot for FHM had everyone talking – being the first lesbian to grace the magazine’s covers. She is Ruby Rose. She is a dare-devil who has a sense of flair and individuality. 100% grabs a slice of time with the lady who downed 100 shots in 100 minutes on national television to talk about MTV life and dealing with the personal made public.
If there was such a thing as a permanent Facebook status, "busy" would be the word to describe the lifestyle of alternative bombshell Ruby Rose. During the time of this interview, Rose is celebrating her 25th birthday… sitting on an aeroplane back from Perth where she recently hosted the 2011 Oasis Ball, an initiative of the WA advertising and media industry to help raise funds for the Salvation Army’s Crossroads West program. The Oasis Ball is just one of the many programs and events Rose is involved in. She is a supporter of charities Wear It With Pride and Headspace – Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation. She lends her voice to campaigns for anti-bullying and is an ambassador for Fashion Targets Breast Cancer.
But that isn’t all. Rose’s current project is MTV Style, a fashion-travel show of sorts to be launched this April. The program will see Rose travelling through Australia, New York and Tokyo to hunt down new trends, discovering and exploring local style. "We have not finished MTV Style yet, we are half way through [and] it’s been amazing so far," Rose begins. Given Rose’s background in the fashion world – having shot to fame back in 2002 when she competed in the Girlfriend Model Search and appearing as a guest judge on Australia’s Next Top Model, MTV Style embraces Rose’s love for fashion and her TV show hosting talents. "Top Model was fun, I loved being on it. I liked that the girls were in a much more supportive house then previous years," she says. Rose has also been working as a designer alongside fashion label Milk and Honey – launching collections which see denim, razor back singlets, mini dresses and biker jackets making a big statement. "I am still working with Milk and Honey. So far we are up to winter next year. It’s in stores now [at] Glue, Myer and Globalize."
It’s been a solid four years since Rose first became involved with MTV back in 2007 but it wasn’t the typical recruitment process that landed Rose the job. It was the ability to down 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes and kiss complete strangers on the street, all while filmed for national television, that saw Rose become MTV’s hot new VJ. "Dude that was four years ago, how funny!," she laughs. "My memory is pretty minimal from then probably due to those shots. I always knew that this is what I wanted to do and when I saw there was an opening for a VJ I jumped at the chance."
Downing the beer shots was the easy part, it was kissing complete strangers on the streets of Sydney that Rose was unprepared for. "That was the one challenge that I didn’t do very well at, I didn’t really go up to anyone," she says. "Doing 100 shots of beer is one thing and kissing a stranger is another. I did accidently walk up to two junkies and ask them if they wanted a kiss. Then when they turned around and had no teeth I reneged on my offer."
That wasn’t the only awkward but ‘look back on and laugh’ experience Rose has had since jumping on board the MTV train. "When I interviewed Wu Tang Clan in a tiny room filled with some kind of foreign smoke and smell, we all ended up feeling rather hungry," Rose reveals. "It was a very funny interview because by the time we had set up the cameras, we had been in there for to long. It was all down hill from there."
Having recently bought a house, Rose calls Melbourne home. "It’s right near my mum and grandma," she says. "It gives me a chance to recharge and be around the people I love. When I can’t be at home and I want to get some solitude, I sometimes have to get that within myself." Leading a life that is so often made public, Rose has her own way of dealing with the journalistic gossip. "The media and I have and will always have a very public love and hate relationship," she says. "However, when it comes to my personal life, I keep most things private and even when things are made public they are usually a very small percentage of what happens in my life. I take it all with a grain of salt, more often than not it’s hard to find truth in a lot of tabloid articles."
Even though she keeps most things private, Rose reveals her infatuation with Melbourne indie synth-pop duo Gypsy & The Cat. "I love everything about them," she says. "There current album Gilgamesh is hot. I have a huge crush on Lionel Towers [keyboardist] and if I had to turn straight for someone, he would be the person." Rose also has a bit of a thing for Madonna, having previously claimed that she’d love to go on a date with influential superstar. "Yes I have said this before. Of course I would love to go on a date with Madonna, she is an icon," she says. "She embodies everything that is art, fashion, music and individuality. I find her very powerful."
She may not know it, but Rose embodies everything she claims Madonna does. In 2009, she travelled to Kenya to assist with local community projects. "There is so much about Kenya that people don’t know," she says. "It was a very life changing experience. It would be next to nearly impossible for me to sum up even half of my trip in words… it was a really important thing that I have always wanted to do and I urge others that have the same passion to do the same thing. It’s one of those things that stays in your mind forever and helps put things in perspective, I hope to go back soon."
Having just built a studio in her house, Rose says music is a huge priority for 2011. That, and driving her new mini cooper which has made her all that more excited about appearing at The Grand Prix 2011’s Sidetracked festival alongside one of her favourites – the Yacht Club DJs. "I have become a car person very quickly because I drive like a F1 driver on my L-plates," she concludes, cheekily. Get ready Melbourne, Ruby Rose is ready to rev it up.
Ruby Rose [AUS] plays at Sidetracked at The Grand Prix on Saturday March 26.
