Drag Race: Scarlet Envy addresses ‘surprising’ UK vs the World drama

Scarlet Envy speaks with GAY TIMES about her “surprising” rift with Hannah Conda and why she’s “glad” she was eliminated instead of Marina Summers.

WORDS BY SAM DAMSHENAS
HEADER BY YOSEF PHELAN
SPECIAL THANKS TO MARY JONES AND ELOISE LONGDEN AT THE BBC

“Scarlet Envy” and “viral” go hand-in-hand at this point.

Ahead of her stint on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6, the Southern beauty added a new phrase into the ever-expanding queer lexicon – “is it me, am I drama?” – while a resurfaced clip from season 11, in which she put the “race” in “Drag Race“, had fans declaring it one of the funniest moments in herstory. Scarlet continued to add to her viral allure on the second season of UK vs the World when she diverted attention away from La Grande Dame and Keta Minaj’s lip-sync smackdown by tumbling off the back of the stage – dressed as the Creature from the Black Lagoon, we should add. (Explain that sentence to a heterosexual.)

Alas, viewers will miss out on more potential viral moments from Scarlet as, this week, the queen sashayed away from UK vs the World in fifth place. In their semi-final challenge, the six remaining competitors were tasked with delivering a roast at the nuptials of Michelle Visage and Graham Norton. For the first time this season, RuPaul announced a bottom three – with Scarlet joined by first-time bottoms Marina Summers and La Grande Dame. After dominating her first lip-sync, winning her first RuPeter Badge in the process, Hannah Conda – who suggested that she didn’t feel “comfortable” around Scarlet earlier in the episode – revealed her lipstick.

In her exit interview, Scarlet tells GAY TIMES that she was “shocked” with Hannah’s admission and reveals why she was “glad” the Australian queen didn’t pay homage to Blu Hydrangea’s elimination of Pangina Heals by chopping Marina. She also reflects on her aforementioned virality and teases her upcoming poetry collection and cabaret show.

Scarlet, did you enjoy the nuptials of Michelle Visage and Graham Norton?

I love a wedding. Yes, I had a great time. I will say, I thought it was going to be an open bar situation, but there’s always next time!

Was it the best wedding you’ve ever been to? The worst?

I would say… Looking at how things shake out here, I think it might be the worst wedding I’ve ever been to.

Your set did make me cackle because you were so confident and committed to all your jokes, but the panel did not respond well.

Yeah, I’m not really sure what happened there. That’s nice of you to say, I’m glad that you were entertained. I think that’s the most important part: who’s on your side of the screen. So, we’ll see. I have to be honest with you, I have yet to see the episode so I’m gonna have to take your word for it. But, I am very excited to see it. I really enjoyed writing it, specifically, and maybe they were written better than they were delivered? I take full responsibility if it was sub-par but, I don’t know, I remember it being pretty fun.

One of my favourite moments from the whole episode is when you looked down and said, “laugh, for god’s sake!”

It’s never good when you have to tell them to laugh in the middle of your stand up set. It is what it is! We all have those days, I guess. I really enjoyed that I got to wear that fun cupcake dress.

How did you feel when you were delivering the roast?

I felt a bit nervous, obviously, because that’s a nerve-wracking situation to be in. You have to shake all that away first because nothing good is gonna come out of nerves. Other than that it was a sense of calm, ‘I wrote this, I know my lines and I have them written in front of me if I need them.’ I was really comfortable with Ru and Michelle [Visage] this series because I’ve seen them twice already and they’ve seen me twice already. I felt at home just chatting back-and-forth with them. Of course, a lot of this is on the cutting room floor because you only have an hour for an episode. They’re very talkative and chatty with all the girls on the main stage and really nice and warm. So, I was trying to channel that: chatting with them and keeping it conversational, trying to forget that you’re reading the icon and legend RuPaul and pretending you’re reading a friend to make it feel natural.

I mean, it’s shocking to me that you were eliminated during the roast when, a couple weeks ago, you delivered the best read with your condom tweet…

Oh yes! It’s funny, I’m glad that that resonated with the gays. There’s truth in jest, you wanna be safe out there!

Hannah gave you the chop. She also chose to send you home last week. In your confessional, you questioned whether she actually likes you or not. Why didn’t you two click?

I don’t know. It was news to me when she said that we didn’t “vibe” – I think that’s how it was put. I worked with Hannah when I was in Australia last year, so I knew her going into it and I was really excited to see her there, because we had a cute little kiki backstage and she was really warm and welcoming to me when I performed with her and her sisters. So, I was kinda surprised to see that I maybe hadn’t picked up on something that was in front of my face the whole season, that I just didn’t notice, I guess. I was shocked when she picked my lipstick the first time because it really wasn’t what I expected. Even after sitting down with her, I still thought for sure that wasn’t going to happen.

This week, were you hoping there was going to be another Blu Hydrangea/Pangina Heals situation with Marina getting the chop?

No, not realistically. I don’t think anybody really thought that would happen. I was just throwing wrenches and stirring things up on my way out, I guess. And I’m glad in hindsight that didn’t happen, honestly, because I don’t think that the blowback from something like that happening, just so I could stay for one more episode, would actually be worth it for me. I’m glad that didn’t happen.

I’m sad you missed out on the final because, as we’ve seen in the past, you’re a great lip-syncer. Your lip-sync against Ra’Jah O’Hara in season 11 had a trick or two, so I imagine you had something prepared for the lip-sync smackdown?

I guess we’ll never know! You can’t give your secrets away… But, there is normally a trick up my sleeve, whether or not I’m wearing a sleeveless gown, I’ve always got something going on.

Over the years, fans have expressed how they don’t feel like you were fully appreciated by the judges on your first two seasons of Drag Race. Did you feel appreciated this time around?

Yeah, I do. I think you can always be a bit more appreciated. But yes, I do. Again, it’s insane to get this opportunity one time. It’s life-changing, quite literally. So to get it three times… I’m nothing less than grateful to have done this three times and to just keep going back and being silly and making good TV. That’s what I’m really here for. I like to be on TV and stir some things up because I have been working really hard since season 11 on all kinds of aspects of my drag, just sharpening things up. And I’m proud of the work I’ve put in.

You have been so incredible throughout all three seasons, but I do think UK vs the World is the season where we’ve seen 100 per cent of Scarlet Envy.

Yeah. I was trying to be comfortable [with the judges] and try to make it feel natural, and have a good time. I do feel like I was seen this season, even though there are a few things maybe they missed in the season that I was doing well on… I feel like I was still pretty seen.

I still cannot fathom that you made that Cinderella gown…

Well thank you! I’m glad you liked it. I liked it too. We had to find scraps all over the werkroom, so it was separated into maybe five pieces that were shoved into little burlap sacks everywhere. I collected most of the fabric that I could find because I knew I wanted to make something really big, and so that’s how I decided; whatever I could get the most of the same fabric I was going to use, so it happened to be this really pretty blue, and we went for it girl!

Witchcraft, really.

I’m a good witch though!

What’s been your highlight of your UK vs the World experience?

My highlights? Well, this is actually just a wig. It’s not my hair. My highlights… Winning a lip-sync to Kim Petras in front of Kim Petras. That’s pretty iconic. That was a fun moment. Little behind-the-scenes tea for you guys, I met Kim Petras before. I was hosting a Marc Jacobs birthday party at Saks Fifth Avenue last year, and Kim was one of his guests. I was walking him through this immersive experience after dark – they turned all the lights off and everyone had a flashlight – and we went through the sound bathroom, then this next room, and ended up with this dinner on the top floor with his new collection. So, it was wild that Kim Petras was the guest for the interactive experience challenge that we had to do, because that’s how I met her. That was meta for me. We got to chat about that on the main stage, which is fun. But yeah, winning the gold RuPeter Badge is legendary. I have it right over here; one of my prized possessions that I keep next to my RuPaul statue from All Stars.

There’s one thing non-UK vs the World moment I have to ask you about, because it makes me die with laughter every single time…

Oh god.

There’s this clip from season 11, which I never spotted when I originally watched it, and it’s after the six-way lip-sync when…

I know what you’re gonna ask me. About running to the back of the stage?

It’s like you’re running from a serial killer.

You know what’s funny about this, Sam? I’m glad you brought this up because I haven’t ever discussed this in an interview before, I don’t think. I was being silly and stupid, as I usually am, especially on camera. I was just gonna run to the back of the stage to make light of a very stressful situation for myself. It was one of those [situations], ‘Oh, before she changes her mind, let me make sure I get back with the girls who are safe in the back.’ I just thought it would be silly. It’s funny they included it in the edit. Similarly, it’s funny that they included my falling backstage, also on the main stage, during the lip-sync. It’s these little things that Drag Race keeps in the edit that I think is silly and fun.

It’s the way you hilariously skedaddle off the stage and the camera cuts to Honey Davenport in a state of distress.

I know! And I hate to make light of a situation that sucks for my two sisters on stage still, but whatever. It’s funny. And I made it! I lived to see another day.

Is there anything you’d like to share or promote about your post-UK vs the World career?

Yes, thank you for asking. I’ve been working very hard on my very first book. I have Scarlet Envy: She’s a Poet coming out, my debut collection of poetry. I’ve been working on it for about 10 years or so, and it’s just a really gorgeous gift to myself and my fans. The poems are silly and fun and kind of embarrassing, and there’s also some really beautiful photos. That’s available for pre-order starting next month, on my website. We’re also working on my album, with some music and tours in the works. I’m really excited. We’re working on a cabaret show called Bad Advice, of course, calling back to the talent show. ‘Make sure you go down on the Brit Crew and use lots of teeth,’ and other really exciting bad advice.

Drag Race UK vs the World is streaming in the UK on BBC iPlayer.

The post Drag Race: Scarlet Envy addresses ‘surprising’ UK vs the World drama appeared first on GAY TIMES.