Phi Phi O’Harasaid , " We ’re just game piece for [ RuPaul ’s ] show and she did n’t deal enough to sleep together who we were . "
1.Recently, Yvie Oddly, the season 11Drag Racewinner and a contestant onAll StarsSeason 7,wrotea Twitter thread detailing her issues with producers and getting paid her winnings.
In her tweets, Yvie Oddlyallegedthat she was not paid the $100,000 cash prize for winning Season 11 for over a year. She even said that the winner of Season 12, Jaida Essence Hall was paid months before she was.
She alsotweetedthat the show’s producers “are often the greediest, most-calculating, capitalist culture thieves” and that the show messes with “real people’s lives, career opportunities, and health.”
Shesaidthe show’s producers “drive themselves home in their luxury cars when their contestants are sleep-deprived, depressed, and DRASTICALLY underpaid for their contributions to the cultural phenomenon.”
2.Willam is the first and only drag queen inDrag Raceherstory to bekicked offof the show for breaking rules and she’s had issues withRuPaulin the years following.
In Season 4 of the show, after winning a main challenge, Willam wasdisqualifiedfrom the show for breaking the rules. In the Season 4 finale, it was revealed that she was disqualified for receiving “conjugal visits” from her husband, which violated her contractual agreement with the show.
However, in an interview withSissy That TalkShowhost Joseph Shepherd, Willam shared that this explanation was scripted by the producers and she was actually disqualified for violating several of the show’s rulesincludingsmoking weed, entering restricted areas of the film lot, and stealing props.
Since then, Willam hassaidthat she doesn’t watchDrag Raceanymore because she’s had bad interactions with RuPaul that have “tainted” the experience.
Willam hassaidthat RuPaul doesn’t look at the contestants as people anymore. Willam alleged that RuPaul once said to the contestants on the show: “‘Do you know why you’re here? Because you’re doing my legacy work.’"
3.Season 7 finalist Pearlexplainedwhat happened behind the scenes in the moment leading up to her iconic “Do I have something on my face?” comment to RuPaul.
Pearlexplainedthat the reason she was so dull in the first few episodes of Season 7 was because she had a moment with RuPaul that broke her spirit.
“I turned to RuPaul andsaid, ‘Oh my god, thank you so much. It’s such an honour to be here, such a pleasure to meet you, you have no idea.’ Just giving her everything I ever wanted to say to her,' Pearl said. “‘She turned to me and she said: ‘Nothing you say matters unless that camera is rolling.’”
“That broke my spirit, and that is the reason why I had one foot in and one foot out the entire time I was on that show. It was so heartbreaking because I idolized her. I felt like it was just so disrespectful," shesaid.
Pearl alsoadded, “That was not the only negative experience I had on set. It’s not just me. I’ve had conversations with multiple queens, off the record, just me and them, that went through the exact same thing."
Pearl alsosharedthat she’s been banned from returning to the series. “If you wanna know the real tea, I had a producer fromRuPaul’s Drag Racecall me after the interview aired and guaranteed me that I would never come back and doAll Stars."
4.Phi Phi O’Hara, a contestant on Season 4 ofDrag RaceandAll Stars 2hastweetedthat she was done with the show because it had “broken” her and that they edited the episodes to make her appear like a villain.
Sheclaimedthat in the fourth season of the show, she got the villain edit which made people hate her and prevented her from growing a fanbase.
When she came back forAll Stars 2, she was depicted as the villain again. After she spoke out about her frustrations, RuPaul sent ashadytweet that seemed to be a response to Phi Phi’s claims.
Oh , ok.pic.twitter.com/mYabN8YUbQ
Phi Phisaidafter seeing that tweet, “I’ve completely lost all my respect for RuPaul. Because she has the power to stand up and say, ‘You know what, this show is only for entertainment purposes. The edit for Phi Phi is not authentic to who Phi Phi is, and I wish you guys would just sit there and see that.’ Instead, she keeps her mouth closed when she sees someone visibly hurting and crying about a situation that she can control.”
Phi Phi alsomentioned, “watching [RuPaul] on set and seeing how she ignores everybody and she doesn’t talk to the contestants, I was like, ‘What, this is weird, why won’t she say hi to me?'”
Shecontinued"We’re just game pieces for [RuPaul’s] show and she didn’t care enough to know who we were."
5.The Vixen, aDrag Racecontestant from Season 10, is known for calling out the unfair edits and narratives Black queens get on the series.
Shestatedthe makers of the show could “absolutely” do more to protect its Black queens by not presenting queens within an “angry Black girl” narrative.
Sherevealedthat even though producers were infuriated by her walking off of the Season 10 reunion, they had been encouraging drama for the days leading up to it.
“On camera they were telling me I shouldn’t do these things, but the days leading up to it they were saying they wanted drama, they wanted good TV, but their idea of good TV was cornering me," the Vixensaid.
After shewalkedoff set, The Vixen claimed that producers implied they would kick her out of her hotel room unless she cooperated.
She’s evenstatedthat “RuPaul doesn’t see with empathy’ because she’s ‘looking through the eyes of 40 white men.” She added, “Ru creates this platform, but when you look at the 40 white producers that accept an award with her, those are the people that she’s really answering to."
Whenaskedwhether she would consider returning toDrag Race, The Vixen responded, “Absolutely not. You can’t expect the person that hurt you to heal you.”
6.Manila Luzonchangedone of her runway looks onAll Stars4after RuPaul told her it was “bad taste.”
For the Curves and Swerves Runway, Manilaplannedon wearing a period pad dress, but on Instagram, she wrote that “Ru said my ORIGINAL Curves & Swerves Runway look was in ‘bad taste’ and production told me to wear my back up.”
Shecontinued, “My goal with this look was to normalize menstruation by looking sick’ning even if I was on my period! Instead, I decided to wear the beautiful quilted dress you saw in the episode because it is not my show, it’s Ru’s.”
7.Apparently, there was a scene cut fromAll Stars 7where Raja GeminireadMichelle Visage after she critiqued the queen.
All Stars 7was the first all-winners season ofAll Stars, and many fanspointed outthat the judges didn’t give any of the queens negative feedback during the critiques of each episode.
However, at a live show, Trinity the Tuckstatedthat the queens did get negative critiques but that it was edited out. She also said that in Episode 3, Michelle Visage gave Raja negative feedback.
“Raja looked dead at Michelle andsaid: ‘Who are you to judge me? You have no credentials other than being the host’sbest friend,'” Trinity said.
Trinitycontinued, “Then we got offstage, backstage in the werk room, the cameras were cut and she told all the producers [about Michelle] ‘She should be fired.’"
8.Season 15 queen Salina EsTitties wentviralfor draggingDrag Racejudge Ross Matthews for giving her a negative critique on her jumpsuit in the episode where she was ultimately eliminated.
In the episode Ross Matthews said, “There’s so much going on with the jumpsuit, I just realized you even had gloves on."
After the episode aired, Salinarespondedon stage while doing a gig in Los Angeles. She said, “Ross Matthews, you can eat my ass.” She continued, “What the f*ck does he know about fashion?”
She thensaid, “Bitch, look what the f*ck you’re wearing, you sequin sweater jacket-ass little bitch.”
A few days later, the queenrevealedthat they reconciled. In a few tweets Salina wrote, “Ross and I had a really great conversation and we hashed it out as adults. Everything is OK and I have apologized for my actions. I was deep in my feels after reliving the critiques and knowing I was about to be eliminated, I can admit when I’ve mistepped.”
9.And lastly, Tyra Sanchez (also known as the artist James Ross and King Tyra) the winner ofDrag RaceSeason 2 hasspokenabout negative interactions she had with judge Michelle Visage.
On theSissy That Talk Showpodcast, Jamessharedthat after winning Season 2 “Michelle got hired for Season 3, and on her press tour at every stop she made sure to say she didn’t think I deserved to win." James added, “You can go back and watch her old interviews on YouTube. Every single interview she states that if she was a judge I’d have never won.”
In theinterview, they even share an old quote from Visage where she claims if she had been a judge in Season 2, she would’ve fought for Raven to win.
