Ariana Grande Talks About Her Close Ties to the LGBT Community for V Magazine

Photgraphy: Alfredo Flores

Whether she's headlining Pride events, resting comfortably atop the pop charts, or licking donuts, Ariana Grande is never to stay out of headlines for long.

One of her latest steps into the spotlight found her in Ryan Murphy's horror-drama-comedy amalgam, Scream Queens. She sat down with Murphy, who directed her in the series, and chatted with him for V Magazine, touching on the show, her new album, and how fiercly loyal she is to the LGBT community.

On those rumors that she can be a bit of a diva on set:

Ryan Murphy: "Well, I'm here to tell people you're not a diva at all. In fact, you are the most down to earth person...your mom was around on set, she's a ball, I love her. You're sort of the most cool girl to hang with. I was obsessed with how everybody kept telling me that Ariana would be carried from her trailer to the set by her bodyguard. I'm like...that's not true! She's not carried around! Where did that ridiculous thing come from?"

Ariana Grande: "I posted a picture with my friend Gryphon carrying me after a video shoot because I was doing pointe. At this point I hadn't done pointe in like, five years. So I was up on my box all day on a 15-hour shoot, and to go from not doing pointe for five years to being on your tippy-toes for a 15-hour shoot day, you're pretty much fucked at the end of the day. My friend Gryphon was carrying me and I posted a cute picture of it. So of course the media turned it into some evil thing. But hey, Gryphon and I had a good laugh about it."

On her upcoming album, Moonlight:

RM: "On set, you and I were talking about your new album and you were playing me tracks. Tell me about the Moonlight experience."

AG: "Well, Moonlight is very honest and very special to me. I feel like this is the most personal music I've made, by far. I'm very proud of it and I'm very excited. It's scary...it's vulnerable and kind of terrifying."

RM: "Well, everybody at this point knows that you've gone through a high-profile breakup this year. Some of the stuff you've been going through in your personal life, have you written songs about it? Any cathartic power anthems?"

AG: "You know, people found out quite a while after it actually happened. By the time I was writing the new album, I had kind of moved on. It's not going to be captured on the album too much. I'm in a happy place. There aren't any breakup anthems because I had moved on. I was like, alright. Well, fuck it."

Why she has no patience for homophobic people or bullying:

AG: "I mean, here's the thing: I wasn't raised in a household where it was considered abnormal to be gay. So for me to meet people who use the word "faggot" as an insult, with a derogatory meaning, I can't take it. I don't understand it. It's so foreign to me. I was raised in a household where being gay was like, the most normal thing. You know, my brother is gay, all of my best friends are gay. When my brother came out of the closet, it wasn't a big deal for my family. Even my grandpa, who is like, super old-school, was like, Good for you! It's outrageous to me when I see people hate on someone because of their sexuality. I hate the intolerance. I hate the judgment. I hate it so much. Most of my favorite people in my life are gay. It's something I'm super passionate about, because whenever I would see my friends get bullied, or my brother get hurt for his sexuality, I would become a raging lunatic. I would literally become a raging lunatic because I just can't take it. When you see someone you love hurting, for such a superficial, bullshit reason, it's like, how small and spiritually unenlightened and dumb as fuck can a person be? How much further can your head get up your ass that you're actually judging someone as a person based on their sexuality before you even have a conversation with them?"

Read her full V Q&A with Ryan Murphy here.