Drag Race UK winner on ‘almost killing Michelle Visage’ and possible return to the franchise
Drag Race Uk winner Kyran Thrax has spilled all the tea (BBC)
The winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season six spills on what she said to the runner-up after winning the crown, the need for drag kings on the franchise, and why filming the show was the ‘happiest I’ve ever been’.
Warning: sickening spoilers ahead.
Well kids, we did it. Season six of Drag Race UK has finally crowned a winner, baby, and after ten stellar weeks of one of the “best seasons ever“, Kyran Thrax and her accomplice Suzy have made off with the crown, sceptre, and more bin bags than she can shake a wig at.
It would be an understatement to say that Kyran bodied the competition: the 26-year-old made a splash in just week one, winning the top two lip-sync against La Voix following the talent show to snatch the season’s first badge.
She grabbed two more for the season’s Snatch Game and acting challenge, and kept it one hundred for a breezy ten weeks before facing off La Voix again to lipsync for the crown.
Speaking to PinkNews the day after her win – and her acceptance of Drag Race UK‘s first ever cash prize (£25,000), mind you – it’s clear that this is going to be no ordinary reign.
“It’s bin day forever now. This isn’t just a year long reign, baby, you’re stuck with me,” Kyran gleefully tells PinkNews via Zoom, complete with Suzy holding her brand new jewels in the background.
“That money, and this reign is going to make sure that I am putting on the biggest and best shows, and doing the biggest and best things that I can possibly do. Because I’m going to work hard. And make a room out of bin bags.”
Kyran did, indeed, come to collect in the end, but she faced stiff competition from La Voix; the season’s frontrunner in terms of badges going into the finale.
The pair, by the end of the season, were inseparable, and it looks like that’s going to continue in the future.
“It meant absolutely everything to me to be in the top with La Voix,” Kyran beams. “I love, truly with all of my heart, and I respect her so much. Getting to experience this ride with her has been amazing. I just cherish her, and I’m very excited for the work that we’ll do together.”
For anyone hoping for some behind-the-scenes beef, we’re (not) sorry to disappoint, because Kyran shares that after her and La Voix “were sat there basically having panic attacks” as the finale played, her rival’s message after the winner was decided was nothing but love.
“She turned to me and she said, ‘You did it.’ And then I just said, ‘I love you.’ And then at the end, there’s a little clip where we’re just holding each other at the end that went on for minutes. We could not let go of each other.'”
Kyran’s favourite unseen moment of the series also happens to involve La Voix, and occurred backstage of the first runway. And brace yourself, because even Kyran admits that it’s possible a ‘had to be there’ moment.
“We were about to do the runway of the very first episode, and me and La Voix were talking, but then one of the queens went, ‘What time do we think it is?’ But I didn’t hear anybody ask that, and La Voix turns to me and goes, ‘I want to say six.’ And I was like, ‘What? Just six?’
“You know when you’re in the back of class and the teacher’s telling you off and it makes it so much funnier? It was literally that.”
That’s not the only moment that didn’t make the cut; Kyran also reveals – in a “full on exclusive” – that she “almost killed Michelle Visage” during the season’s Hate, Actually acting challenge via flying cue cards.
The scene was a spoof of Love, Actually‘s infamous carol scene, where Andrew Lincoln’s character holds up placards to confess his love to Keira Knightley’s. The Drag Race version saw Kyran’s Hugh Grunt do something similar to La Voix. But in flinging those cards away, the crew, including Michelle Visage, became unwilling targets.
“I almost accidentally knocked Michelle and the crew out!” Kyran laughs. “I’ve not said this to anyone because I forgot that it happened. The scene where I was holding up the cards and throwing them, the first take I was throwing them so, so hard. And Michelle and the crew didn’t want to cut, so they just were dodging out the way and avoiding all of these cards!
“My first off camera moment with Michelle was me going over and going, ‘I’m so sorry that I almost killed you with with those cards’. But we got the take!”
It’s clear from speaking to Kyran that she loved her time on Drag Race, and the new winner admits that “the happiest I’ve ever been in my life” was while filming the show. So much so, in fact, that should she get the call-up from Ru for a second All Winners All Stars, she’s a definite yes – already.
“Listen, if RuPaul calls now, I’d go back tomorrow. I’ll be there, I will be there,” she laughs. “At the end of the the end of the finale, I turned when we were leaving, and packing up, and I said, ‘Can we can we do 10 more episodes?’ It was my happy space. I’m waiting by the phone.”
The bin queen herself was also known for playing more than a few male character during her Drag Race tenure; Hugh Grunt, George Michael in the Rusical and Elvis for the Snatch Game. So should her success in these roles open up the door for the first ever drag king to be cast on the show?
“I don’t see why there’s any reason not to. Drag kings are so incredible and such a huge part of the drag industry,” she says. “If there’s anything that shows that they could excel, it’s me winning multiple challenges as a male character!”
You heard the woman; it’s bin day now, and forever. And what exactly is Kyran’s MO for her reign?
“I’m going to make every single person that supported me and loved me, including my family, my friends, my partner, my little sausage dog, my little baby nephew, Franco, every single person that has left even an emoji under my post, I’m going to make every single one of those people proud.”
And then she adds: “I won’t be wearing any antiperspirant, I’ll tell you that. I’ll tell you that for free, I’m going full commando the whole year. So everyone enjoy that!”
Drag Race UK is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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