Tim Gunn Talks to Movieline About Project Runway, Confronting Gretchen, and Crossdressing J. Edgar Hoover

Let's talk about last week's episode of Runway when you admonished Gretchen for her bossiness and Gretchen's team for their subservience. I was surprised you stepped in to say something. Was the way she acted really worse than other Project Runway contestants of past years? Kara Saun incensed me during the season one finale when she acquired all those expensive shoes from a friend as a favor.

Well, I let her have it too backstage at Bryant Park! I had lost my patience with her too. That was more private, with me and Kara Saun speaking. I have to say, I was just as unnerved by the other members of [Gretchen's] team because they allowed it to happen. Like, "What's with you people? I mean, you each have a potent point of view as a designer. No one ever said compromise who you are to execute this challenge. As a matter of fact, there are no team leaders." I kept repeating that, yet they allowed her to design and direct everything. She's nothing if not a control freak, big time. I was furious with her, but I was almost as mad with everyone else. I kept asking myself and even the producers, "Why do you think they're allowing her to bully them around this way?" I came to the conclusion myself that they were afraid of her. I will say though, she has many dimensions to her personality, and we will see others. I ended up being very fond of her.

In your wonderful video blogs, you've called some of the decision-making this season the result of "crackpipe-smoking judges." While that makes for good TV, are you annoyed when the judges seem unpredictable and crazy?

Here's my conundrum, Louis: I see one of my roles in the interaction with the designers to have an ability to anticipate where the judges will fall out on these things. This season I was completely at sea. I didn't have a clue. There seemed to be no consistency in what they were doing or saying, even in a particular challenge. It was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride in my opinion.

I lump you in with Tina Fey as a celebrity it must be difficult to be. You make yourself seem relatable on screen, and I'm sure people want to approach you all the time. You seem like a private person! What's it like being bombarded by pedestrians who want you to tell them how nicely they're dressed?

And they do that, I have to tell you. One of the comments I have received with frequency is that people see a lot of me, but they don't know much of me. That's what this book became about. I used the book as a time to open up and say, "You open up with me, I'll open up with you. We'll do this together." While I'm telling stories about the behavior of other people that I've witnessed that they shouldn't be particularly proud of, I've owned my own indiscretions.

Can you single out your proudest moment on Project Runway?

You know something, and I am welling up with tears, sorry -- the proudest moment is coming up this season. You'll know what it is. It's a big one. I don't know whether it's two episodes from now -- sorry for this reaction! Just asking that question stirred me up. Yes, it's coming. That's all I can tell about that so far. Someone reveals something very personal that's a beautiful moment. And it happens on the runway.

Can you single out a most disappointing moment?

I'm constantly unnerved not by who wins, but by who goes home. It's a roller coaster for me. I frequently don't understand why it's that person and that design. It happened in the first challenge. McKell's dress versus Jason's safety-pinned kimono? I mean, that was ridiculous. I will admit that McKell's styling was not the best, but if you think about the garment design? I was horrified by the outcome and mystified. I still am. I have many of those moments.

I would pick during season five when Jerell was eliminated before Bryant Park but after he'd just won a challenge where none of his competitors had been axed.

I'm with you completely. Completely. I didn't understand that either. It was bizarre. I hate those eliminations. If they're good enough to make a collection, they should show. We know that they really do, but the audience doesn't because that collection doesn't make air time.

Finally, we do a segment at Movieline called "My Favorite Scene." You mention some movies in your book that have inspired you -- but can you pick one particular scene?

Oh, boy, Louis. I have so many, but this is something that's been on the tip of my tongue recently. It has to do with crowded subways and slow taxis and just the gridlock of New York. It's a scene from -- and you'll be able to tell me whether it's on DVD -- Sex and the Single Girl, where Lauren Bacall's in a taxi and she's trying to get to the airport and there's terrible traffic. She wants the cab driver to move faster, so she goes from yelling at him to next scene when she's beating him on the head of her purse. In the following scene, she's driving the taxi and the taxi driver is out of the car altogether. Running that through my head -- playing those scenes -- has been purging and cathartic for me the past couple of days. I was out of New York on the home visits two weeks. Returning has been kind of a shock.

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