Lady Bunny wouldn’t be interested in Drag Race because ‘RuPaul admits it’s completely manipulated’
Lady Bunny has explained why Drag Race would’t be for her. (VH1)
Lady Bunny admitted she would have no interest in taking part in Drag Race because “Ru and the producers admit that it’s completely manipulated”.
The legendary queen and Wigstock founder began her career in the 1980s after moving from Atlanta to New York with her friend RuPaul.
As a drag legend in her own right, Lady Bunny doesn’t exactly need Drag Race, but that didn’t stop a radio interviewer from jokingly asking whether she’d take part in a “senior citizens’ special” series.
“I’m not interested in competing,” she told Glitterbeam Radio, explaining that her style of performance isn’t suited to the Drag Race format.
“I think it’s sad that people see drag… through the prism of competing. To me, the idea of lip-syncing to the sam song as another queen at the same time is absolutely moronic.”
She added: “RuPaul is an old friend, I’m glad he has success with the show, but it would never be my cup of tea, especially since people are edited to misrepresent what they say and do.
“Ru and the producers of the show admit that it’s completely manipulated, they admit that in interviews all the time, they say it’s heavily produced.
“I’m not interested in being misrepresented, even though Drag Race has made drag huge, and I have benefited from it… I don’t think that misrepresenting is mentoring and that’s what the show purports to do.”
Lady Bunny said that there is a difference between what fans see on a reality TV show and the real word of drag.
“We’re not at each other’s throats, but that’s what the public sees,” she continued.
“They see the b****hiness and the catfighting, but that’s actually not what the drag community is all about.
“Of course, there’s competition. Of course, there’s b****hiness and reading, but the drag community that I know is more likely to say: ‘Honey, I need a new dress. Does this get to you on time because this is for a pageant,’ or ‘Does this promoter pay you? Is he shady?’
“We’re more likely to compare notes and be supportive than we are to constantly engage in a backstabbing scenario, where everything is seen through a prism of competition.”
Lady Bunny has previously appeared as judge on the Drag Race spin-off Drag U, and was honoured with a roast on All Stars 4.
Drag Race editor denies villain edit theory.
Last month a Drag Race editor denied intentionally manipulating footage to give certain queens a “villain edit”.
Jamie Martin, the Emmy-award winning editor who’s been on the show since 2014, told Refinery29: “We’re not actively trying to manipulate.
“I think that’s the thing that [fans] online think we’re doing. We’re not manipulating what was said, it just might happen in a different amount of time because we can’t show eight hours of footage.”
She added: “It’s not that we’re trying to put someone under the bus. Everyone on this team deeply cares for all of the queens and we want to have their stories told, how they were told.”
