Bruno Alcantara has entertained audiences with his handsome looks but now he hopes to delight our souls as well. The Brazilian model and beloved Pit Crew member from RuPaul’s Drag Race is stepping into the spotlight as the host of Happy Endings with Bruno, a deeply original new series from World of Wonder premiering July 5 on WOW Presents Plus.
In this feel-good, full-body experience, Bruno trades tight shorts for healing hands and invites celebrity guests into his massage studio for a mix of soothing ASMR, laughter, and emotionally honest interviews. But don’t let the playful title fool you: Happy Endings with Bruno goes well beyond the skin-deep. Each episode is a chance to slow down, get real, and explore the journeys that shape queer identity from mental health to self-love to affirming your purpose.
With guests including Drag Race icons like Kameron Michaels and RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! dancer Nick Lemmer (who you may also know as Lazi Susan), the series is as diverse as it is tender. And at the center of it all is Bruno’s warmth, strength, and vision on full display as he guides guests (and viewers) toward discovering what their “happy ending” truly looks like.
We had a chance to chat with Bruno about the new series in our exclusive interview.
Congratulations on the new show. How does it feel to go from being on the Pit Crew to having your very own show on WOW Presents Plus?
Well, sometimes it’s unbelievable. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. I’m like, yes, this is happening. Sometimes it makes me cry, honestly. I’ve been in the US for 11 years, I couldn’t even speak English, so I’ve been living the dream. I’ve been having beautiful, amazing experiences. I’m very grateful for my relationship with my Drag Race family and everything that has been happening.
And of course, I want more and more things and I think this shows one opportunity I have to show another side of me…to go beyond the eye candy and just bring something else. I get to step into a new position and, more than that, be in a project that brings a beautiful message to people.
We are in a moment right now when it’s been very hard to keep balance and to be grounded. As a human being in general, it’s not the easiest thing to be in tune with our emotions and our bodies and I think this show is just coming in a perfect moment that can touch and inspire so many people if they are interested. I’m very excited and happy for many different reasons and for being a host of my own show but on top of that, this is coming with a message that I feel like everybody can learn from. I think we can all learn from the stories that were told.
After I finished filming the show, I think what I was most satisfied about is how comfortable [the guests] were with me on set and how open they were and the vulnerability that they brought to tell very deep stories or things that are very meaningful or hard to even talk about for them. So, I think that alone just made me very happy because you cannot guarantee the result of anything but, of course, I brought the best intention possible. I think when you do things with the right intention, nothing wrong can happen from that.
Massage is such a personal experience where you’re talking to people at kind of their most vulnerable. How do you create a safe space for your guests to open up on camera?
I think it started with the energy. I’ve worked with massage for years and I always start a massage with the right intention of healing, with the intention of creating this space, a moment when this person can just relax, either sleep or whatever. But if you as the healer or the therapist come with the right intention, it already helps because they were willing to be so comfortable and then just do a good job. We can feel our emotions really are reflecting our bodies in different ways or different muscles and all that so as you touch, you can feel the areas, the tensions and all that.
You also need to read the room – even for massage. Some people come for a massage and they don’t like to be touched, and that’s very interesting because that happened to me many times before. It’s like someone is coming for a massage, but as they are touched, they will say something about their lives or things they’ve been through and if they’re willing to talk about it and share, it becomes a very beautiful healing moment as well.
You’ve got some really great guests coming on the show, like some of the queens from Drag Race and notable content creators. What surprised you most about the conversations that you had with your guests on the show?
Listen, I think there are a lot of things that I remember and one of them is how we are all humans and we all go through the same things, emotions, and we are all vulnerable. We all have trauma. It doesn’t matter how you look. It doesn’t matter what kind of job you have. It doesn’t matter how much money you make. It doesn’t matter where you come from because we have a variety of people and body types and jobs and nationalities – starting with the host – and that’s the beauty about it, because we can all relate to the human aspect of what we are talking about. I think I did not expect to hear some things for some of those people because looking at the way they look and then finding out the kind of the things that been stressing them out or the kind of experiences they went through in life.
We have the tendency to judge, as people say, the book by the cover and if we just get a little more curious instead of judgmental with people in the world in general. We’ve got to find out things about people that we don’t actually expect.
Another thing that’s very interesting is that we go through in the world thinking that we need to look this way. We need to do things that society tells us to do and I think in a few situations, all the traumas, the pains, or the challenges come from you trying to just be yourself. You’re just trying to please yourself. You’re just trying to choose what you think is right for you – and I include myself in this – now you have to fight to be you. You’ve just got to be yourself. You just have to fight for what you think is right for you but a lot of times, that comes with a cost. The cost of just being disliked, the cost of people not proving what you’re doing.
I saw some stories that were connected to that, the passion to be choosing that and how hard it was and how hard it is to deal with the choice that you already made. You think it’s right for you, but sometimes you second guess yourself because everybody’s not understanding or not proving what you’re doing. But I think as we realize that we are here to make ourselves happy without doing anything wrong to anybody else, we’ve just got to keep it going.
Did you learn anything surprising about yourself while you were filming the show about yourself?
I mean, like, oh my God, I was made for this. I like it. It was a challenge, of course, because not only was it physical work, but I also needed to focus on what they’re saying. There are cameras there, so you know, it’s a show and I’m excited, but I’m a little bit scared. And, after all, it’s nice to realize, oh, I can do this. Hey, I was made for this. Bring me more!
What are you hoping that people will take away from the show?
I hope they can relate to the stories from the guests. I hope they can realize that we are all humans and we all go through things. I hope that helps them not to feel alone, feeling the worst, feeling wrong. I think one dangerous thing about people that are struggling with mental health is that they feel pain about their situation and their lives and feel there is no way out. I hope that by watching the show, they can think, oh my God, I’m not alone. I’m not the only one struggling with this. I’m okay. I can deal, I can get over this. I hope that the show can give them validation for the pain, the traumas, whatever they’ve been through, and hope to actually get over it and be in a better situation.
And if they can look at me and think, wow, this guy that was on Drag Race, just showing his body, is now here doing this. Wow. I can do that too. So that could be beautiful as well.
Happy Endings with Bruno premieres on July 5 on WOW Presents Plus. Follow Bruno on Instagram.
Join the SL Community
Have an opinion on what you just read? Sign up to be a part of the Socialite Life community in order to post a comment, bookmark your favorite articles, topics, and contributors.
