The Advocates 2024: Actress and ally Busy Philipps

Throughout her life and career, actress Busy Philipps — known for her roles on shows like Freaks and Geeks, Cougar Town, Girls5eva, and this year’s Mean Girls reboot — has also always used her platform to stand up for marginalized communities. She’s supported marriage equality for years and has also spoken out about supporting her LGBTQ+ daughter Birdie, who came out to her mom at 12.

On her natural outspokenness, Philipps says, “I’ve always been this way, a hundred percent. I have always felt really strongly about the fact that I am who I am, and that affords me certain privileges and rights and ways to use this personality, this big personality. And I’ve always felt like the part of the deal with having that is highlighting marginalized people, and the plight of others who don’t have the things that I have been so privileged to have.”

Still, Philipps notes that standing up publicly for what you believe in can be daunting, especially in today’s polarized political climate, but it’s ultimately worth the risk.

“It can be scary, at the very onset of starting to talk about your values and beliefs, questions that you have, or supporting certain people or causes or organizations. But ultimately, I have found that not only did it not lose anything for me…I in fact gained so much,” she explains. “I just think that being frightened of a hypothetical [outcome] as a person in the public eye, it pales in comparison to the very real effects that so much of the hatred in this country is having on actual humans.”

Busy Philipps (right) and creative partner Caissie St. Onge in the trailer for QVC's 'Busy This Week.'YouTube/QVC

Currently, you can enjoy Philipps on her new QVC talk show, a first of its kind on the network, Busy This Week. Philipps says she and her friend and creative partner, Caissie St. Onge, wanted to create a similar series after her late night talk show , E!'s Busy Tonight, was canceled in 2019. She expalins that they "were really looking to figure out a way to do the show somewhere else. And to be honest with you, I've worked with a lot of brands in the last almost 10 years.... And I felt like maybe that's the answer because the networks and the studio system, it's all complicated, and everyone claims that no one has any money."

"When I worked with QVC to do a holiday special like a year and a half ago, I had a really great creative experience with them," she adds. "They were really open and receptive, and let us just do our thing."

You can also see Busy on the third season of Girls5eva, now streaming on Netflix, and she has a fun podcast with St. Onge called Busy Philippsis Doing Her Best.

"We're super excited," she says. "Yeah, Girls5eva I think is amazing.... Paula Pell's character in particular, I just think is such a fully realized gay woman living her truth in an amazing, hilarious way."

The Advocates is an annual feature celebrating 10 artists, activists, advocates, and others who strive to make the world a better place for all. Click hereto read about our other honorable Advocates, including cover star Cyndi Lauper!

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