Drag Race star The Vivienne felt 'a punch in the gut' after missing the All Stars 7 top 4

Joey Nolfi
·9 min read
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There was maybe a little collusion among the cosmic fates controlling The Vivienne's destiny on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 7.

The Drag Race UK season 1 winner flexed royal might across the pond on AS7, but ultimately fell short of making the final four on Friday's episode. The penultimate installment saw her ace a pop star-quality performance during the talent show challenge, but her overall Legendary Legend Star tally blocked her from advancing to next week's lip-sync for the crown against finalists Shea Couleé, Monét X Change, Trinity The Tuck, and Jinkx Monsoon.

World of Wonder/VH1 Drag Race grab
World of Wonder/VH1 Drag Race grab

World of Wonder/VH1 The Vivienne on 'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 7.'

Still, as Mama Ru promised at the end of the episode, all hope isn't lost for the queens who aren't moving on, and she'll compete in a separate "She Done Already Done Had Herses" lip-sync against her fellow non-finalist sisters, Raja, Yvie Oddly, and Jaida Essence Hall.

Before the RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 7 finale premieres Friday on Paramount+, read on for our full Q&A with The Vivienne, including tea on the secret item she smuggled into the Werk Room, the definitive truth about the Smokers Alliance, how she really felt when RuPaul informed her that she hadn't made it to the lip-sync LaLaPaRuZa, and a reveal of a few unheard jokes from the Kennedy Davenport Center Honors roast challenge.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The first order of business, the most hilarious story to come out of this season. I'm hoping you'll have some tea for me: Viv, who f---ed Monét?

THE VIVIENNE: I've got no idea, but my director from Netflix just messaged asking why the hell me and Monét are trending on TikTok, and the YouTube comments on our Etiquette Class have gone insane. Apparently, the fans have come up with a storyline that Monét was talking about me that she slept with, and I can confirm: It is false! It's lies. She's trying to get more fame through me. [Laughs]

You have no idea who it is among the cast?

Listen, Monét loves f---ing with people. I think she's lying through her teeth. I mean, who's going to f--- Monét? Definitely a lie. [Laughs]

You also allegedly engaged in behind-the-scenes strategy: Monét told me about a Smokers Alliance, Raja said that you had the real tea, but Yvie said it wasn't for strategy. Once and for all: Was real strategy discussed in the Smokers Alliance?

It's not really an alliance, we just all happen to smoke. It was the place to be, though. We were the cool girls. There was so much going on that I can't even tell you about.

Like what?

Oh, f--- it, we filmed it now. I'm not going to say names, but I was sneaking bottles of wine into the Werk Room and having a blast.

The Smokers Alliance was a secret smuggling alliance?

There was a Smokers Alliance, a Drinkers Alliance, all sorts of alliances. There was nothing to it, the alliance didn't do anything, we just smoked and gossiped.

RuPaul's Drag Race digital cover
RuPaul's Drag Race digital cover

Vijat M for EW The Vivienne for EW

Speculation started when Jaida gave you the xylophone during the lip-sync against Jinkx. How did you decide on Jaida being the one to give it to you?

I took the xylophone; it came all the way from England because there was another lip-sync song that sounded like a xylophone. Lo and behold, there's a xylophone breakdown in "Love Will Save the Day," and me and Jaida were so close. I tried to stick it in my costume, but I had a leotard on, so I couldn't fit it anywhere without it looking bulky or stupid. I [asked Jaida] to hand it to me at the right time. She did, and she took it home with her. She stole my xylophone and my tambourine! Sometimes she'll just FaceTime me, play the tambourine, and put the phone down.

You're the queen of pulling things out in lip-syncs this season. You also seemingly got a water bottle out of nowhere for the lip-sync against Raja, which I can't imagine fit in your costume.

I set it off stage somewhere, I hid it just in case I was in the lip-sync. I was scared because I'm not known as a lip-syncer or dancer, so I was thinking how I could prepare in case. I thought the lip-sync was good by my standard. I'm now part of the crunchy cartwheel club. I'm proud of that.

Yes, we also saw Jinkx do a cartwheel and everyone looked shocked when she did hers.

She landed her cartwheel, so I'm going to blame the water on the stage for my not landing it. Self-sabotage.

Speaking of sabotage: I'm also seeing this video going around where you headbutted Jinkx? Miss Viv, what is going on here?

The fans are insane. They're like, how could Viv headbutt Jinkx? Read the caption, we're literally doing an acting challenge. Me and Jinkx know how to perform an on-stage headbutt, so I did it, she reacted perfectly, nobody contacted anyone, it was just a bit of fun. It looked good though.

Let's go back to the competition. Two weeks ago, Monét made the decision to block Raja over you after she previously made such a big deal about being angry with you for blocking her early on. Was there secret strategy to that decision?

I didn't have any conversations. I wasn't part of anyone's alliance. I was quite shocked watching the season back, because out of all the queens there, I probably knew and was friendly with Monét and Trinity the most, so to see them walk around the Werk Room and ask 90 percent of the cast to be in their alliance apart from me, I was like, oh, you shady f---ers! I probably would've said no, because alliances are not a great place to be. It was an unspoken alliance, but I was never going to block Trinity, I was never going to block Raja, I was never going to block Jaida. Even I gasped when I blocked Monét, like, why did you do that? I felt bad watching it back because we work together so much, but I didn't feel too bad because she didn't ask me to be in her alliance, so, there, shove that plunger up your ass!

So you had no idea that they were sneaking off?

Obviously as the season went on, but that initial day on episode 1 or 2, walking around asking everyone, I was like, oh, that's the game. Monét made her feelings way too vocal, way too early on. She was like, "I'm in an alliance!" and it's like, f--- off!

Did you ask them why they didn't ask you?

No, I haven't. I'm not that bothered. I don't need an alliance. [Laughs]

RuPaul's Drag Race
RuPaul's Drag Race

World of Wonder The Vivienne blocks Monét X Change on 'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 7'

What was the vibe like in the room for last week's roast?

It was great, before we even started writing those jokes, it was like go in, nothing is off limits, do your best, which is how a roast should be. I can't remember if it was five or 10 minutes, we all did so well, apart from Jaida, bless her, but she had a way of turning it into something good because she's so admirable when she's her. When she just does Jaida, she pulled it back. It was so much fun, it felt like a load of friends sat there roasting each other…. I got to get Ru cackling. You didn't see all of it, and a lot of stuff got cut, as it did with everyone's, but it's four hours into a one-hour show, so that's just TV at the end of the day.

Filming for that long, obviously not everything can fit. Do you remember jokes you wrote down, but didn't say?

There was the one I tweeted about, the AJ and the Queen joke, I think for Jaida I had something about, "Wow, you must've been so proud winning your season beating off such strong queens as Aiden Zhane and Jan." Jaida was screaming at that. I think I said, "Ross Mathews is so fat…" and then looked at him like, "Oh, scratch that, moving on," because he's lost weight.

This week, it was sweet seeing you cry at Monét's opera. She sang live, right?

She went out there and blasted it out…. When she did a mic check, the judges' mouths hit the desk. It was game over for us at that sound check.

Did you have any other ideas you thought about doing before you landed on your song?

So many queens go down the song route for the talent show, because you only get 60 seconds…. you can't do comedy in 60 seconds, you just can't. I thought about doing puppets with impressions, I was going to bring Bette Davis, Jennifer Coolidge, and Donald Trump for this comedy skit, but 60 seconds…. It just wouldn't have worked.

At the end of this episode, RuPaul also announced that you, Yvie, Raja, and Jaida — after Monét's vote — wouldn't be in the smackdown. What went through your mind at that point?

The floodgates opened. I just burst into tears. It was gutting. It felt like a punch in the gut. You put everything you have into doing the best you can and you actually do really well in the season, and then there's a twist that can take someone from the bottom into the top four. It was hard. Good for them, but, as a queen stood there, it's hard to go through.

Hope isn't lost.... for the four queens who didn't advance to the lip-sync smackdown, as Ru teased at the end of this episode. What can you say about what's ahead?

Let's just say, maybe all isn't lost.

Subscribe to EW's BINGE podcast for full recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race, including weekly All Stars 7 recaps and reactions with the cast, special guests, and more.

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