RuPaul's Drag Race star Malaysia reveals how season 3 drama inspired season 15 fight: 'They were trolling'
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RuPaul's Drag Race star Malaysia Babydoll Foxx is here to make good TV, and, if her theory about season 15's latest (epic) Werk Room fight over music selection for the girl group challenge is correct, her fellow queens were all in on making fireworks pop on set.
Malaysia exclusively tells EW's Quick Drag podcast (below) that the heated clash — which erupted on Friday's episode as Luxx Noir London and Mistress Isabelle Brooks fiercely claimed one of three available performance tunes up for grabs, to the chagrin of Malaysia and teammate Sasha Colby — actually has roots in Drag Race her-story.
"I think they were playing a very strategic game. They were paying homage to the time when Shangela.... wanted reggae, it was to just deflect," Malaysia explains, referencing the fan-favorite season 3 moment where Shangela successfully manipulated the song selection process to get the track she wanted to perform during her respective musical challenge.
"I know that I'm going to be chosen last," Shangela, who hails from rural Paris, Texas, said in a confessional during the 2011 episode "RuPaul-a-Palooza," that saw Manila Luzon — leader of the infamous on-screen clique formerly known as the Heathers — deciding on the order in which the queens would choose their music. "I see the genres, and I don't want reggae, so I start whispering to Carmen [Carrera], who's standing next to me, 'Can I have [the choice of] reggae? I love reggae music.'"
Shangela was then relegated to the country genre, which she gleefully accepted, as it was the track she wanted all along.
Paramount +; MTV/World of Wonder 'Drag Race' star Malaysia reveals how season 3 drama involving Shangela inspired the season 15 Werk Room fight over metal vs. country music.
Malaysia theorizes that on the set of season 15 "when the names of the songs were called out, I don't necessarily think anybody wanted metal from the beginning," because that genre of music involved a lot of "screaming."
"They were deflecting, saying that they wanted metal," but, things took a turn for the dramatic when, "in actuality, when they heard the actual song, they really wanted the metal. It was like one of those types of situations, so, they were trolling the whole time. I laughed and played with them for a while."
This led to a fight that lasted around 30 minutes, according to Malaysia, after Luxx and Mistress were intent on taking the metal song for themselves — something she and Sasha weren't willing to accept.
"In that moment, it was really triggering, because I was like, well, I'm not going to have somebody tell me what I'm going to do and that I can't do something that I really want to do," recalls Malaysia, who later called the opposing queens' tactics "bullying" in the Untucked aftershow.
"Let me express myself and feel how I feel in this moment." 👀 Tensions ran high during #Untucked when the convo circled back to Metalgate! ⛓🎸 pic.twitter.com/RfItvi3OUU
— RuPaul's Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) February 4, 2023
On whether or not the word was the right one to use in the moment, Malaysia clarifies: "I wouldn't say, 'bullying.' In the midst of the conflict, at the beginning of the day, it was more of them trolling and being very entitled, and we're giving great TV, but as the day is going on and a lot of stuff isn't seen on camera.... I think it was just very off-putting for me."
"If I could go back and change anything, I'd change that I'd said 'bully,' because it shifted the whole mood and probably made it something bigger than what it really was," she continues. "At that moment, I was headstrong on that was my feeling. It reminded me of how I was treated back at home when it comes to working on a show with other girls who are telling me things."
RuPaul's Drag Race season 15 continues Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV. Listen to Malaysia's full Quick Drag interview — also featuring insight into her Untucked fight with Marcia Marcia Marcia and her story of adopting twins Sugar and Spice alongside Mistress — above, and hear our full season 15 recap episodes — featuring interviews with all of the eliminated queens so far — in the feed below.
Subscribe to EW's Quick Drag podcast for recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race, including reactions with the cast, special guests, and more.
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