“RuPaul's Drag Race” star Q reacts to elimination before finale: 'Definitely a bummer'
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Q tells EW she made her book cover outfit in her hotel room and has had a rough time with fans: "Try to be more kind," she says.
Though she may have the shortest name, Q is primed for lengthy success after her run on RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 following her elimination just before the finale.
After wowing audiences with her self-made runway looks that rivaled high-fashion couture creations, Q also dabbled in ruffles of a different nature when she caused a stir among the fandom for her seemingly plucked disposition after a series of missed challenge victories throughout the latter portion of season 16.
Now, after her elimination at the end of Friday's branding challenge that tasked the final four with designing their own memoirs, Q tells Entertainment Weekly's Quick Drag podcast (above) why she felt so protective over her victories on the show, plus she elaborates on the surprising circumstances surrounding the creation of the look that ultimately sent her packing.
RuPaul's Drag Race airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV. Read on for Q's full elimination interview.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First thing’s first: Q, is this lip-sync against Plane Jane finally the one to beat the “can’t dance” allegations?
Q: I thought I slayed it, honestly.
You seemingly started a trend when you did your little booty-tooch dance on the floor in your first lip-sync, which Plasma and Dawn repeated. Did you all have a pact to do that?
All the white girls, we just decided that we’d make fun of ourselves on national television.
I want to talk about this episode, but there’s so much to cover from earlier in the season — particularly, Morphine Love Dion told me to make sure to ask you about Mhi’ya allegedly picking at you and also farting on you on set?
Mhi’ya was definitely the undercover menace. There’s a side to Mhi’ya that we saw that not a lot of the audience got to see at all. She showed her ass off-camera, for sure [Laughs]. She just very much would talk under her breath or the way it seemed like any time the camera would be off, she’d get her little jabs in, and then be back to being sweet Mhi’ya.
She also farted on you?
Yes. She’s a menace, girl.
I asked Morphine to recall the smell. I want to see if it lines up with your recollection.
Like a hot Miami sweaty swimsuit after it chafed all day in the sun. Just repulsive. Putrid.
Radically shifting gears, another big moment for you this season was your coming out as HIV+. I’m curious about the response you’ve received from audiences to that moment.
Overall, it’s been very positive. You get some people who want to be negative or say something nasty, but just saying that and the people who’ve come up to me and told me that it’s helped them, that made all the difference and made it worth it to me.
Plane’s reaction to you coming out — “Mama, kudos for saying that. For spilling” — turned into a meme. How did you react in the moment to that? Did you know it would become a meme?
No! Looking back on it, thinking about what she’s saying, for sure it sounds a little funny and weird. But, she was completely sincere in the moment, so we didn’t even think about it being something funny or turned into such a meme.... By that point, bitch, I knew. I’d dealt with all sides of Plane Jane, so, that was the least surprising comment coming out of her mouth.
You had fans talking over this narrative of being plucked over placing high-safe, especially when Sapphira won the board room challenge. You said this episode that you should’ve won over other people. Can you clarify which challenges you think you were robbed on?
For sure the CEO panel. That’s probably the only one for sure.
Your makeover was my favorite.
I did think that Nymphia or I would take the makeover, as did everybody. It’s funny because they get me saying all these things that literally everybody else also says. [Laughs]
In the context of reality TV, why was winning so important to you?
I hold myself to a high standard, and if I’m not meeting that standard, I feel disappointed in myself. Most of the time, that’s a reflection of how I was feeling instead of being upset with anybody else other than myself. When you think about how much money and time we put into all of this, for a lot of people this is just 90 minutes of entertainment on a Friday night, but for us this is our career and future. It’s higher stakes than it is for people watching.
MTV
Q talks 'RuPaul's Drag Race' eliminationYou can tell how much this means to your lives and careers based on how deeply feedback online gets to some of you. You left X earlier this year over that criticism. Has leaving X solved the urge to seek out what people are saying about you? How has dealing with that been?
I don’t think I ever sought out that feedback. We get on social media and it populates in our feed no matter what.... The only thing that populated on my [grid] was everything Drag Race. I’d see comments about me all day, and finally I was like, I’m going to set a personal boundary. I got off of it. It helped a lot. I still have moments where it’s been harder, and toward the end, as there are less people, I’ve become a conduit for a lot of the negative energy, but it happens that way and you have to deal with it.
Dealing with things and talking about it is important. That makes me think of this conversation about a particular accent when you spoke to Mhi’ya. Mhi’ya responded to this on X a few days ago, laughing about it. Naomi Smalls and Monét X Change also brought it up on Sibling Rivalry. Is this something you were conscious of in the moment? How do you feel about all of this?
It's something I’d never recognized. It was never brought up to me by my sisters or the community I grew up around in Kansas City. It was a first, and I’ve never had any issues with people that know me and have hung out with me and been around me.... But, I’m always open for conversation about it.
Speaking of Sibling Rivalry, was your robot look a tribute to Bob the Drag Queen’s?
No. Absolutely not.
This episode, the mini challenge was so funny. I loved your lip-syncing under water. But, there was also a big reveal in that Sapphira Cristál had an appropriately sized breast plate this time. She also said she had a breast plate connection. What’s the tea?
I think she was able to get one replaced early on, after getting the critique that they were a little bit too tiny.
In the main challenge, you posed for your book cover. We’re used to seeing you often in really elaborate wigs and headpieces, so what was the inspiration for wearing a more traditional wig and a frilly loose dress for the branding challenge? Do you agree with the judges’ assessments?
At that point, I was running out of outfits. That outfit, I made the night before in my hotel room. It’s not something that we prepared for; you just have to pull from what you have left. At that point, I didn’t have a whole lot of outfits left.
MTV
Q poses for her book cover on 'RuPaul's Drag Race'How do you feel about it being a top three and not a top four this year? Do you feel robbed?
It’s definitely a bummer. I’ve processed that by now. Honestly, I don’t know if staying longer in the competition has benefitted me more [as it might’ve if I left] earlier. It’s always that kind of toss-up with how you’re perceived by the audience. Who knows if me even staying this long was good. I’m at peace with it.
Is there a part of you that maybe wishes you had gone earlier to get a robbed narrative that we saw with someone like Plasma?
I don’t think I wanted to leave earlier for a robbed narrative, but I underestimated how much being in the public eye would take an effect on myself in general. I think being out of that space for a longer period, I might’ve been happier with how things turned out.
Is there anything you’d like to say to the people who made it difficult for you?
Try to be more kind. We’re all out here trying to make a living and make our dreams happen. We finally achieved this huge thing, and we invest thousands of dollars and hours just for it to be scrutinized. Just try to be kinder to the people on the show.
Subscribe to EW's Quick Drag podcast for recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race, including reactions from the cast, special guests, and more.
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