Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload, the podcast past week that might welcome back
Speaker 1: gys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name
Speaker 1: is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get
Speaker 1: all the inside goss on the popular TV shows you
Speaker 1: may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV
Speaker 1: sets are a major part of our home entertainment, and
Speaker 1: yet very little is known about how our favorite shows
Speaker 1: get made. So each episode I've been finding guests that
Speaker 1: want to dieve just that little bit deeper to the
Speaker 1: shows they're currently making, so that you can hear all
Speaker 1: their exclusive stories and gain access to the biggest names
Speaker 1: in Australian television. I want to thank you for downloading
Speaker 1: or subscribing to this podcast however you've found me. I
Speaker 1: love hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave a
Speaker 1: review or a comment on your chosen podcast platform. Today's episode,
Speaker 1: I'm joined by this week's eliminated queen from RuPaul's Drag
Speaker 1: Race down Under season three. It is the fabulous Ashley Madison.
Speaker 1: The Melbourne based drag queen started her career over eight
Speaker 1: years ago and is now a staple amongst the ever
Speaker 1: increasing queer entertainers we have in Australia, even starting our
Speaker 1: own talent agency book A Queen, which I'm sure is
Speaker 1: going to go gang busters over the next few years.
Speaker 1: This is in Some viewers found Ashley Madison a bit
Speaker 1: savage to start with, but after a hit Snatch Game
Speaker 1: performance as Jesus, she quickly developed a cult following around
Speaker 1: the world down Under. It will not be the same
Speaker 1: without her, and today we are going to unpack the
Speaker 1: third season like never before. I will find out how
Speaker 1: Ashley's Jesus character was received by Rue Paul and if
Speaker 1: producers tried to censor her. We will talk bump a
Speaker 1: Love and what the truth is behind their past relationship
Speaker 1: and how that has affected this season. Ashley will open
Speaker 1: up about her inner saboteur, why she thought she probably
Speaker 1: couldn't do season three, and what she thinks of an
Speaker 1: all star season for next year. Plus, we will get
Speaker 1: plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes of RuPaul's Drag
Speaker 1: Race down Under, which is now available to watch on
Speaker 1: STAN Australia. Full disclosure, as I was recording this episode,
Speaker 1: I did have a power outage and my audio doesn't
Speaker 1: sound as polished as usual, so I kind of apologize
Speaker 1: for that, and I hope you can put up with it. Anyway.
Speaker 1: Let's bring Ashley Madison into the podcasting guys. I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy this very special look at RuPaul's Drag Race
Speaker 1: Week five. Hi Ashley, how are you? Hi?
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm actually really good. You know what's really funny was
Speaker 1: that I was driving along Chapel Street on Sunday, you know,
Speaker 1: just had to pop down to JB Hi Fi, and
Speaker 1: you walked past, like you literally were at the window
Speaker 1: of my car as you walk past, and I straightway
Speaker 1: rang my partner to be like, oh my god, there's
Speaker 1: RuPaul's Drag Race queens walking past the car.
Speaker 2: A are you stalking me?
Speaker 1: One? I love a good stork. But you know what
Speaker 1: was really surprising as well was I'm really shocked at
Speaker 1: how tall you are.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, i mean I'm six foot two, so you know,
Speaker 3: and then and then you tuck on heels and you
Speaker 3: tuck on a wig.
Speaker 2: And that gets even bigger.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm assuming that you were heading down to the Emerson,
Speaker 1: which is like a popular Sunday haunt for us. Melbournian's right, absolutely, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I wasborn in menimous, and I think we did.
Speaker 1: Being out at the clubs of Melbourne. What is it
Speaker 1: that the partners are coming up and talking to you about,
Speaker 1: Like what do they want to know when they get
Speaker 1: a chance to meet you face to face? Oh?
Speaker 3: Well, in the last week it's been Snatch Game. You know,
Speaker 3: everyone everyone wants to talk about Snatch Game. Everyone wants
Speaker 3: to talk about Jesus. Everyone wants to talk about, you know,
Speaker 3: how good they thought the character was or whatever. And
Speaker 3: that's been lovely. I mean everyone, it's interesting now. Obviously
Speaker 3: I came across apparently quite caddie or quite bitchy in
Speaker 3: the first couple episodes, but it's now interesting that people
Speaker 3: will come up to me and they're like, I didn't
Speaker 3: like it at the start, but I think I'm okay
Speaker 3: with you now, and I'm like, great, that's an amazing
Speaker 3: thing to hear.
Speaker 1: I think that the Snatch Game character is this season's
Speaker 1: highlight for me. Like I think that there might be
Speaker 1: other queens that are doing just a little bit better
Speaker 1: job than what you've been doing all over, but that
Speaker 1: particular moment is iconic, and I think that's what people
Speaker 1: are going to remember this season.
Speaker 2: For I hope.
Speaker 3: So, I mean it's been very divisive, you know, and
Speaker 3: we mentioned that when we filmed the show, we don't
Speaker 3: know how this is going to come across, and we
Speaker 3: don't know how people are going to feel, but you know,
Speaker 3: it'll leave its mark no matter which way.
Speaker 1: How nervous were you though that you might offend audience
Speaker 1: is because were you worried that, you know, you'd be
Speaker 1: savaged online by taking on, you know, our religious character
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: There was a concern.
Speaker 3: Obviously, I've had a couple of months to come to
Speaker 3: terms with the fact that that might have been a reality,
Speaker 3: and so I kind of prepared for that mentally, knowing
Speaker 3: that that could come. You know, I'm more like when
Speaker 3: it came to drag Race, I was more worried about
Speaker 3: you know, offending my peers than than than you know,
Speaker 3: right wing religious folk.
Speaker 2: But I was quite concerned.
Speaker 3: But then I realized when watching the episode that you know,
Speaker 3: Rue and Michelle and Reese all said that I'd done
Speaker 3: it quite respectfully, and so I was hopeful that that
Speaker 3: was going to make the cut, so that like, you know,
Speaker 3: the audience would feel that way too, and thankfully it did.
Speaker 1: Were there conversations with producers or with Rue before you
Speaker 1: actually took it on, Like, were there conversations about how
Speaker 1: far you could go? Was there any nervousness.
Speaker 3: Or well, I didn't have any conversations with producers when
Speaker 3: it came to whether or not I could do Jesus.
Speaker 3: I mean when when we're preparing, we are asked to
Speaker 3: like tell them what our ideas are, you know, because
Speaker 3: I believe there are some characters that you can't do.
Speaker 3: But I told them I wanted to Jesus. They didn't
Speaker 3: have any issue with that. There was a lot of
Speaker 3: conversation in the walk.
Speaker 2: Through with Ruth.
Speaker 3: They didn't quite make the cut in the edit about
Speaker 3: Jesus in the back because obviously she's she's is religious.
Speaker 2: In some way or another.
Speaker 3: And so my my worry really walking walking into that,
Speaker 3: because I prepared most for Jesus. My worry was that
Speaker 3: I was going to walk in and was going to
Speaker 3: be like, absolutely not. But thankfully that didn't happen.
Speaker 2: But Rus seemed.
Speaker 3: Ruth sense of humor is kind of like an old
Speaker 3: sense of humor, you know, they like to laugh at
Speaker 3: the things that are a little bit riskuy, and so
Speaker 3: I think that really played into me being successful in
Speaker 3: sept Gem too.
Speaker 1: Who are these.
Speaker 2: Characters that you can't do?
Speaker 1: Like? Do you know that? Is that like an underground
Speaker 1: known thing that there's some characters that you're not allowed
Speaker 1: to touch?
Speaker 3: So I I will say I haven't been told by
Speaker 3: any producers or anything that that that I can't do anything,
Speaker 3: But there's there's been rumors on on the grapevine that
Speaker 3: Chris Lilly characters are not allowed.
Speaker 2: That there was a rumored that the Dame Edna.
Speaker 3: Wasn't allowed because of her transphobic comments, but obviously that
Speaker 3: changed in season two. I guess yeah, But I believe
Speaker 3: that the Chris Lily characters, so no Jamay and obviously
Speaker 3: no like Jonah from Tonga or anything like that, because
Speaker 3: you know, you can't go on and write Jimmay on
Speaker 3: that piece of paper. You have to write Chris Lily.
Speaker 3: So that might be the issue there. I believe we
Speaker 3: also are allowed to do Pauline Hanson because she's too
Speaker 3: likely to suit.
Speaker 1: I kind of think, you know, if someone did do
Speaker 1: a Chris Lily character, they might do it better than him.
Speaker 1: So maybe that's the concern.
Speaker 2: That's definitely possible.
Speaker 1: Do you know what it comes to snatch game. Everyone
Speaker 1: wants to know how long you're actually sitting there and
Speaker 1: doing it. Is it a lot longer experience or is
Speaker 1: that exactly how it happens.
Speaker 2: That's more or less exactly how it happens.
Speaker 3: When we're not there for long, I mean, we're not
Speaker 3: told in advance how many questions we're going to be asked.
Speaker 3: So we're sitting there, like, we don't know if it's
Speaker 3: we don't know if it's three, we don't know if
Speaker 3: it's five, we don't know if it's ten.
Speaker 2: We were asked four. We were asked four questions.
Speaker 3: I think we were maybe there sitting there for like
Speaker 3: thirty minutes or so, and Rue just goes down the
Speaker 3: line and she asked each person the answer to each question,
Speaker 3: and then you know, afterwards, production decides which ones are
Speaker 3: funny enough and which one's you know, bomb enough to
Speaker 3: make the cut.
Speaker 2: But we're not really there for long, and so I
Speaker 2: think people have this.
Speaker 3: People have this opinion that you've got to like go
Speaker 3: somewhere with your character, and you've got to like to
Speaker 3: be highs and lows.
Speaker 2: It's very difficult to do that in the short amount
Speaker 2: of time that you're allocated and.
Speaker 1: Everything was put on the show, so there was nothing censored. Well,
Speaker 1: there was nothing censored.
Speaker 3: I don't think that there was anything that was necessarily
Speaker 3: like offensive or anything that I said that they cut out.
Speaker 3: I was a little I was a little worried that
Speaker 3: they were going to cut out my two thousand years
Speaker 3: a guy I was black comment.
Speaker 2: I was worried that that wasn't going to make the cut.
Speaker 3: There was a joke I said in there because I
Speaker 3: in the edit, I didn't answer the the Jason Momoa one,
Speaker 3: and I said something along the lines of like Moses
Speaker 3: led men through the desert for forty years, which just
Speaker 3: goes to show that even back then, men couldn't ask
Speaker 3: for directions. And reu loved at that too. But obviously
Speaker 3: they're probably not going to show everybody's answers for everything.
Speaker 3: But I guess that one was maybe the least funniest
Speaker 3: that they showed.
Speaker 2: I guess, well, I love this.
Speaker 1: For you because you know that for the rest of
Speaker 1: your life people are going to be talking to you
Speaker 1: about that snatch game.
Speaker 2: Well, I hope, so you know, I'm glad that I
Speaker 2: went on and did something successfully. No, I don't know,
Speaker 2: you were great.
Speaker 1: I mean the thing for me was that you started
Speaker 1: super strong, like I love that sort of not bitchy,
Speaker 1: because I didn't necessarily think it was that bitchy anyway,
Speaker 1: but I love that stronger drag Queens style that you
Speaker 1: were doing right at the start. But you definitely saw
Speaker 1: the wheels come off this week. Sorry about the Bear
Speaker 1: Mex Bandit's accidental pun there. I mean, I really didn't
Speaker 1: think i'd be talking to you today. I thought I
Speaker 1: would be talking to Bumper, But here we are. What
Speaker 1: was going on in your head? Because I felt like
Speaker 1: it was teased last episode that you were going to
Speaker 1: start to feel less confident, and that it was sort
Speaker 1: of in full swing by the time we were watching
Speaker 1: this episode. What happened.
Speaker 3: I think what happened was I when I got cast
Speaker 3: with Drag Race, I wasn't one hundred percent sure why
Speaker 3: I was cast. I was happy to be cast, and
Speaker 3: I was happy to go on and have a fun
Speaker 3: time and meet Rue and show the world to I
Speaker 3: am but I'm not someone that's like, oh, I'm amazing
Speaker 3: at this, and I'm you know, I'm great on whatever.
Speaker 3: And as much as that may have come across in
Speaker 3: the show, that's all of us sad that, you know
Speaker 3: Drake Quen's build up over their career. So I walked
Speaker 3: onto the show being like, I'm not I'm not going
Speaker 3: to make it more than halfway. I didn't even prepare
Speaker 3: a finale dress. I didn't even get one made because
Speaker 3: I didn't think that I was going to make it
Speaker 3: to the end. And then winning Snatch Game, I think
Speaker 3: broke me a little bit because I was like, wait, wait,
Speaker 3: who wha, whoa, I've done something successfully here, Like I
Speaker 3: did something well.
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 3: I didn't even fathom that that was a possibility for me,
Speaker 3: And then I started kind of questioning why I never
Speaker 3: thought of that for myself and why I've.
Speaker 2: Come in with this idea that I was going to
Speaker 2: go home and I think once I want Snash Game.
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't know what else I have
Speaker 2: to show here.
Speaker 3: I don't know what else I have to give, because
Speaker 3: I feel like I've shown I've shown everything, and I've
Speaker 3: had such a high.
Speaker 2: It's all going to be down from here.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a really interesting thing that you talk
Speaker 1: about this, because you know, winning Snatch Game and doing
Speaker 1: such a great job at that I would have thought
Speaker 1: would be giving you the confidence to be like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to pull this together and I've got a
Speaker 1: level up because I felt like the character leveled up
Speaker 1: and I definitely feel like it's in you. You know,
Speaker 1: watching the show, you could definitely see that you could
Speaker 1: be one of Australia's best drag queens that we've ever
Speaker 1: had on the show. It's interesting how that inner saboteur
Speaker 1: comes into the minds of people when they're in that place.
Speaker 1: But it is disappointing to hear that. You know, going
Speaker 1: into this competition, you thought, why are they picking me?
Speaker 1: What could they possibly have to gain by putting you
Speaker 1: in the show if if they didn't think you were ready.
Speaker 3: I mean there's a lot that they could because you know,
Speaker 3: you've got to have There's always there's always a queen.
Speaker 3: I just I didn't know what I didn't know what
Speaker 3: my place was because in drag Race that there tends
Speaker 3: to be there, tends to be placed there, tends to
Speaker 3: be like one legendary queen. There's always like one lipstick assassin,
Speaker 3: and there's always one one bitchy character. There's always a
Speaker 3: comedy queen, like there's all there's always these like specific
Speaker 3: people that are really good at at one thing, and
Speaker 3: and when I got cast, I wasn't sure where I
Speaker 3: fit in that And because dun unders so small, I
Speaker 3: walked into drag Race knowing who the entire cast was
Speaker 3: prior to walking into that workroom, and I still couldn't.
Speaker 2: Quite work out where I fit.
Speaker 3: I mean, I run I run a booking agency, and
Speaker 3: I run a jewelry business, and I've worked with Bumper
Speaker 3: and isis a lot. So I thought that maybe that
Speaker 3: was the roles that I was going to play. But
Speaker 3: looking back at the season that's aired so far, I
Speaker 3: think that I was cast to be someone that was
Speaker 3: going to have opinions and was going to be opinionated
Speaker 3: and was going to speak what to my mind and
Speaker 3: do all these different kinds of things. Like like we mentioned,
Speaker 3: my reputation was in that first episode, but I don't
Speaker 3: think that like the producers or whoever cast me really
Speaker 3: realized that, Like I'm a real person underneath it, and
Speaker 3: I and I you know, I have faults and I
Speaker 3: think about my faults, and I think that that all
Speaker 3: came out in this episode.
Speaker 1: This is what I say to everyone, if you just
Speaker 1: relax into your insanity and unpack your bag of shit
Speaker 1: in front of the camera that resonates with audiences. I
Speaker 1: think better than being the most creative or you know,
Speaker 1: the person who can sew the best, do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's interesting because I thought the same thing,
Speaker 3: and especially in episode one when I broke down, I
Speaker 3: was like, I spoke to the producers afterwards and I
Speaker 3: was like, I'm hoping that this comes across like vulnerable,
Speaker 3: and this comes across real because I want people to
Speaker 3: show I want people to see who who I am.
Speaker 3: And it was interesting looking back to the way that
Speaker 3: that ends up being edited, because I looked at it
Speaker 3: and I was like, that's That's not how it was
Speaker 3: in the moment because I when I sat there on
Speaker 3: that on that couch and I took off my lashes
Speaker 3: and I started crying. The first thing I said was,
Speaker 3: I'm so embarrassed to be in this position in front
Speaker 3: of Bumper and isis because I have so much respect
Speaker 3: for Bumper and Isis you know, Bumper gave me my
Speaker 3: career in Isis It's been an inspiration for my career
Speaker 3: this whole time. And I really spoke about how I
Speaker 3: was embarrassed to be in this position in front of
Speaker 3: them for such a small problem and that I could
Speaker 3: go home in the first episode because of that small problem.
Speaker 3: Then then when it aired, it was like, well, well,
Speaker 3: Ash's crying and I was like, oh okay, especially when
Speaker 3: Ivory had a lot of the same kind of embarrassment feelings.
Speaker 2: Then she cried and it came across quite vulnerable.
Speaker 3: And there was even a moment that we filmed where
Speaker 3: they took as they took me out into the car
Speaker 3: park with Gabriella and had any cry out there too,
Speaker 3: that didn't make it didn't make the cut either. So
Speaker 3: there's all of these really emotional parts that happened in
Speaker 3: that first episode that didn't make it to air. And
Speaker 3: maybe that's because they knew that this was coming, you know,
Speaker 3: when they were editing it all together, that they knew
Speaker 3: that I was going to be vulnerable eventually. But you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's hard hard looking back and being like, you know,
Speaker 3: be vulnerable in all of those moments. But it's interesting
Speaker 3: that some of those vulnerable moments can be taken from
Speaker 3: you and be edited in a way that is a.
Speaker 2: Bit like, oh, well, you know, poor her, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an interesting it's an interesting show. But I
Speaker 1: guess you've kind of leaned into something there, which is
Speaker 1: maybe a bit of a tease to this answer. But
Speaker 1: you know, last week I noticed something a little unusual,
Speaker 1: which was you complimenting Bumper and saying that you know,
Speaker 1: Bumper should be in the top two or top three.
Speaker 1: I'm sort of paraphrasing here, but it seemed like you
Speaker 1: were not necessarily being genuine And then Floor called you
Speaker 1: out for it and said, is that true? And so
Speaker 1: I was trying to work out your motivations. Why would
Speaker 1: you want to give Bumper a compliment.
Speaker 2: Like, well, it's interesting.
Speaker 3: So I guess I've got a question for you if
Speaker 3: it wasn't because obviously we're walking into this situation going
Speaker 3: there's going to be a top three and bottom three,
Speaker 3: So who would you have put in that position instead
Speaker 3: of Bumper?
Speaker 1: Definitely wouldn't have put Bumper. It was not an obvious choice.
Speaker 1: It was not I did not think that Bumper deserved
Speaker 1: to be in the top three. It seemed like an
Speaker 1: odd choice for you, And.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting I guess that that all comes down
Speaker 3: to the way that things were shown on the episode,
Speaker 3: because you know, I look at Holly Snatch Game that
Speaker 3: that that happened, and I know for a fact that
Speaker 3: there were zero laughs that happened when we filmed that,
Speaker 3: and now there's there's there's laughs in the edit.
Speaker 2: And so when it came to the Snatch Game, I
Speaker 2: was looking at it and I was going, Okay, so
Speaker 2: Holly got no laughs.
Speaker 3: So she there's there's no way that she could be
Speaker 3: in the top three with us, and I obviously read
Speaker 3: Reader got none and so and I really feel for
Speaker 3: her in that moment. So I was like, Okay, so
Speaker 3: it's not Reader and Flaw. Flaw was Charro and she
Speaker 3: was a chari to an intro into an inch of
Speaker 3: her life. But it wasn't necessarily funny, and it was
Speaker 3: interesting because you know, and you know, you'll you know,
Speaker 3: I guess at some stage you'll talk to Bumper about this.
Speaker 3: But Bumpa did get laughs in Snatch Game, and the
Speaker 3: first half of her Snatch Game was funny, and she
Speaker 3: did have this character that that that that she put on,
Speaker 3: and so when I was thinking about it, I was like, well,
Speaker 3: I guess I guess it's Bumper or Gabriella. It could
Speaker 3: be it could be either of those two. And so
Speaker 3: in that moment, I was like, I mean, I guess
Speaker 3: it's Bumper. It's interesting that afterwards it looks like, you know,
Speaker 3: I may have been playing tricks, or I may have
Speaker 3: been delusional or whatever, But in that moment, I absolutely
Speaker 3: and legitimately thought, if there's a top three, I thought
Speaker 3: Bumper was.
Speaker 2: There with us.
Speaker 1: I'm a viewer watching the edit, and I assumed the
Speaker 1: same thing. Flaw did. She called you out for it,
Speaker 1: so you know, it obviously was more than just the
Speaker 1: way in which you know or maybe the lack of
Speaker 1: what the audience saw.
Speaker 2: I don't think that.
Speaker 3: I think if you watch it back, Flaw wasn't necessarily
Speaker 3: calling me out on the fact that she thinks that
Speaker 3: Bumper was high because she's got her own opinions of Bumper,
Speaker 3: especially in that exact moment. I know Bumper and Floor
Speaker 3: get along very well now, but in that moment there
Speaker 3: was that tension there. I think Flaw was and Flora
Speaker 3: and I got along very very well throughout filming. We
Speaker 3: were like, very very close throughout filming, so when we
Speaker 3: had that moment, I think she was more questioning whether
Speaker 3: she should have been in that top three instead of Bumper,
Speaker 3: rather than calling me out for putting Bumper there instead
Speaker 3: of anybody else. I mean flaor got Last too, not
Speaker 3: that they really made it in the edit, but Flaora
Speaker 3: laughs in Snatch Game, and she she she wasn't funny
Speaker 3: in the sense of like telling jokes or whatever, but
Speaker 3: there were some laughs from Rue that I mean, may
Speaker 3: have been sympathy laughs, I don't know, but there were
Speaker 3: some laughs there. So it was it was interesting to
Speaker 3: me in that moment because I definitely wasn't being dis
Speaker 3: genuine or disingenuous at any point.
Speaker 1: I think the obvious question here is about an established
Speaker 1: relationship with Bumper before you did the show. Did you
Speaker 1: owe or feel like you owed a support to Bumper
Speaker 1: because of that pre established relationship, I'll say.
Speaker 3: No, and you know, and I say that I think obviously,
Speaker 3: obviously we all have hidden biases. But I've worked with
Speaker 3: Isis a lot through throughout my career. I worked with
Speaker 3: Bumper a lot throughout my career. I know Ivory very well.
Speaker 3: Like I've run a booking agency. I book Ivory.
Speaker 2: I know amil and and so I knew a lot
Speaker 2: of the girls that were there. So those biases are
Speaker 2: probably there with all of those characters. I didn't.
Speaker 3: I didn't feel that I owed Bumper anything. And it's
Speaker 3: interesting that a lot of our history wasn't mentioned on
Speaker 3: the show because we leading up to the show, there
Speaker 3: was a lot of stuff that happened prior to filming
Speaker 3: Drag Race, and prior to doing Drag Race, we're Bumper
Speaker 3: and I were not on a good level. We did
Speaker 3: not get along, and so we have this big history
Speaker 3: of very highs and very low s Bumper and I.
Speaker 3: And so I walked into the show being like I'm
Speaker 3: going to be I mean, I know how to work
Speaker 3: around Bumper, and I know what she's like, I know
Speaker 3: what working with her is like, and so I knew
Speaker 3: how to navigate that. But I definitely don't feel like
Speaker 3: I went out of my way to bullshit her in
Speaker 3: any way.
Speaker 1: It seemed like gameplay to me, Like, you know, we
Speaker 1: followed it up this week while everyone said that Flaw
Speaker 1: should be in the bottom and not Bumper, and even
Speaker 1: Rue Paul calls it out and says, I don't think
Speaker 1: that they're being honest here. You know, I think that
Speaker 1: they would have all said Bumper, but they just did
Speaker 1: want to say it to her face. So if Ru's
Speaker 1: saying that, how do you feel about that? Now?
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting because I think I mentioned that briefly
Speaker 3: in the episode, and is that I said Flaw's name
Speaker 3: on the runway for one reason, and I would have
Speaker 3: said Bumper's name for it for another reason. I said
Speaker 3: Flaw's name throughout the season because of the way that
Speaker 3: the judges have placed Flaw.
Speaker 2: Flaw was high in.
Speaker 3: The first episode, she was safe in the second episode,
Speaker 3: she was high in the first in the third episode,
Speaker 3: and then she was obviously in the bottom two in
Speaker 3: the third episode, and then Bumper was safe in the
Speaker 3: first episode, high in the second episode, high in the
Speaker 3: third episode, and then safe in the fourth episode. So
Speaker 3: I said Flaw's name because that's the way that the
Speaker 3: trajectory was happening on the show. But if we were
Speaker 3: to go by and I mentioned it, I don't know
Speaker 3: if it makes an editor. I don't know if it
Speaker 3: makes it in the cut. But when I talk about
Speaker 3: I spoke about the fact that if I was going
Speaker 3: by the way that I think people were on the show,
Speaker 3: and that where I would have placed people throughout their
Speaker 3: positions on the show, then I would have said Bumper's name.
Speaker 3: I absolutely would have said Bumper's name, But in that moment,
Speaker 3: I was thinking about the track records of everybody in
Speaker 3: that situation. Up until that point, it just was giving
Speaker 3: me pimp vibes. And I know this is going to
Speaker 3: sound really strange. She's going to have to come with
Speaker 3: me on this very strange analysis. But it seemed like
Speaker 3: everyone was scared of the pimp, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: like that she's the secret boss behind the scenes, And
Speaker 3: that's how it came across to me.
Speaker 1: And I guess you know, when you're watching a show
Speaker 1: like this, you're going to pull it apart and make
Speaker 1: your own assumptions and go down your own delusion. But
Speaker 1: is there a chance that all of you were scared
Speaker 1: of saying Bumper's name in front of her?
Speaker 3: Absolutely not. It may come across that way in the show.
Speaker 3: And we all have a lot of respect for Bumper.
Speaker 3: Don't get me wrong. I think that what she's done
Speaker 3: with her career is amazing in the way that she's
Speaker 3: helped people, in the way that she helped my career
Speaker 3: is amazing. But I definitely don't think that any of
Speaker 3: us were kind of playing a game or I mean,
Speaker 3: and there may be those hidden biases that I'm not
Speaker 3: quite considering, But I think that we all were quite
Speaker 3: genuine and we were all quite real when it came
Speaker 3: to Bumper's positioning in the show, and we spoke about
Speaker 3: that in the third episode. When it came to the
Speaker 3: acting challenge. We were all very honest that we thought
Speaker 3: Bumper should have been in the bottom in the acting challenge.
Speaker 3: There wasn't this grand pooba oh when going to say it.
Speaker 2: No, we said it.
Speaker 3: We said that we thought the Bumper should have been
Speaker 3: in the bottom of the acting charge because she was
Speaker 3: playing Bumper, she wasn't playing a character. So I don't
Speaker 3: think that in episode five suddenly we've changed our minds
Speaker 3: and we have that respect that we wouldn't mention her
Speaker 3: name could to remember.
Speaker 1: Like as viewers as well, we're more surface level watching
Speaker 1: this sort of stuff and interpreting it versus your real
Speaker 1: world experience of being there. I mean, being inside the
Speaker 1: Roupol bubble for twenty four hours a day, seven days
Speaker 1: a week throughout the whole shoot is probably one of
Speaker 1: the most intensive reality shows you could possibly do. I
Speaker 1: have full respect for everybody in that situation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think I think honestly I think being
Speaker 3: in being in that bubble is what broke me this
Speaker 3: episode and what made me quite vulnerable in this episode.
Speaker 3: We don't have access to our phones, we don't have
Speaker 3: access to our support networks, we don't have our best
Speaker 3: friends that we talk to every day, and there is
Speaker 3: a castminder with us at all moments of the day.
Speaker 3: There's someone outside our hotel room doors. And when we're
Speaker 3: on set, they put us on what they call hard eyes,
Speaker 3: which means you cannot talk, or soft dies, which means
Speaker 3: you can talk about anything that isn't the show. And
Speaker 3: so when we're in those moments, you know, obviously you
Speaker 3: are able to get your emotions out, you aren't able
Speaker 3: to get your feelings out, So it's hard to regulate
Speaker 3: what that's like. And you kind of in this bubble
Speaker 3: in your own world, and you kind of lose a
Speaker 3: sense of reality.
Speaker 1: Maybe absolutely, This BMX Bandit's challenge seemed to be a
Speaker 1: big waste of opportunity that no one put on the
Speaker 1: Nicole Kidman curly red hair. Did no one have a
Speaker 1: curly red wig? What the hell was going on with that? Well?
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I mean, we were told, you know, when we were
Speaker 3: cast on the show that were it just said eighties.
Speaker 3: It said eighties dance outfit. I think was what we
Speaker 3: were told. So we weren't told like, oh, this is
Speaker 3: BMX band It's like, you know, here's here's a costume opportunity.
Speaker 2: We were just told eighties dance outfits. So that's what
Speaker 2: we had see this.
Speaker 1: I thought it would have been like BMX Bandits Challenge
Speaker 1: and then I was just expecting someone was going to
Speaker 1: bring a curly red wig alogue, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: No, So what happened was we didn't find out that
Speaker 3: it was being X Bandits until the day before, and
Speaker 3: so then they told us and then they allowed us
Speaker 3: all to go into it was Isis's hotel room, and
Speaker 3: we all sat there together and we watched the movie
Speaker 3: and it entirety to kind of get an idea of
Speaker 3: what we were, what we were doing, and what our
Speaker 3: lyrics might be, because a lot of this didn't really
Speaker 3: have an idea of.
Speaker 2: What that movie was before that moment. And then we'll
Speaker 2: watched it together.
Speaker 1: You guys are all twelve. Yeah, not one single person
Speaker 1: was even alive in.
Speaker 2: The eighties except Bumper.
Speaker 1: I love that we've said that at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know, the choreography was so confusing to me. I
Speaker 1: was watching the show and granted your their in real life,
Speaker 1: and so you're getting a longer explanation. But I've never
Speaker 1: been more confused by a choreographer and the history of
Speaker 1: Ruphoulse drag race.
Speaker 3: It was really hard in that moment, especially because so
Speaker 3: I know that Bumper is a trained dancer. She hasn't
Speaker 3: danced for a long time. But Bumper is a trained dancer,
Speaker 3: but Flora and I are not, in any sense of
Speaker 3: the word dancers. And so I walked into this being like,
Speaker 3: I hope he's going to be kind and I hope
Speaker 3: it's going to be easier on us. But he kind
Speaker 3: of went balls to the wall straight out the gate
Speaker 3: and was like, here's all of this stuff, and I'm like, whoa, whoa,
Speaker 3: I have no idea what's going on. I don't know
Speaker 3: what this is meant to be, like, we know nothing.
Speaker 3: And then there's this all of this choreography picking up
Speaker 3: bikes and doing all these hand moves and doing all
Speaker 3: these kinds of things, and so Adhd.
Speaker 1: Would have been so confused by that jacket that he
Speaker 1: was wearing. I wouldn't have learnt anything because I'd just
Speaker 1: be staring at that hideous jacket bang like what I
Speaker 1: hang a sec. I've got to concentrate, and then I'd
Speaker 1: be like just drifting back off to why is he
Speaker 1: wearing this hideous put yourself together? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean look, it was interesting because he I
Speaker 3: will give him credit, he did stick around until very
Speaker 3: very late at night that night off camera, and did
Speaker 3: teach us more and did go more into each of
Speaker 3: the specific moves and each of that kind of stuff. Obviously,
Speaker 3: I think he's kind of played it up for TV
Speaker 3: and and tried to make it look like even more
Speaker 3: difficult and make us look like we were doing worse
Speaker 3: than we might we might have been in that moment,
Speaker 3: but he did. Afterwards, after the camera's cut, he was like,
Speaker 3: he told us, he goes they they they told me
Speaker 3: to be bitchy, and I'm like, okay, and so that
Speaker 3: you know that that's what he did, and and then
Speaker 3: he was really genuine and nice afterwards, and he was
Speaker 3: really helpful, and.
Speaker 2: He even came back the next day.
Speaker 1: Well, I was gazumped by it, Like, you know what
Speaker 1: I did the rock as Dedford, I could do a
Speaker 1: few dance moves, but I was confused. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, And so I had a lot of
Speaker 1: sympathy for you struggling with that. So anyway, it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to hear what you have to say about that
Speaker 1: once you've got a chance to watch the episode and
Speaker 1: see how that is. You know, there's so many people
Speaker 1: in my inner circle talking about this series and talking
Speaker 1: about the Hollywood star. Isis storyline or narrative that's being
Speaker 1: created that they're the most obvious choice to win the show.
Speaker 1: I don't want to know who you think is going
Speaker 1: to win this show, because you probably know more. But
Speaker 1: could you feel a narrative being built in real time
Speaker 1: that those two were probably the strongest queens?
Speaker 3: I think so for Isis, I wouldn't necessarily say that
Speaker 3: I think that there's a narrative. I think that Isis
Speaker 3: like she just legitimately did quite well. You know, up
Speaker 3: until this point in the competition. She is like a
Speaker 3: really genuine nice person. She won Miscongeniality at the Melbourn
Speaker 3: Drag Awards in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. I think so
Speaker 3: she is a nice person and she was very helpful
Speaker 3: to a lot of the girls there, and she is
Speaker 3: an absolutely brilliant drag queen. There were some things with Hollywood,
Speaker 3: like Hollywood's placement in the Design Challenge and Hollywood being
Speaker 3: safe in the Snatch Game, where I was kind of like, okay,
Speaker 3: like I think that, and even even Hollywood thought that
Speaker 3: she was going to be in the bottom in the
Speaker 3: Snatch Gream episode, and even if you look back on
Speaker 3: the runway, she even had a blonde wig under her
Speaker 3: brown wig so that she could reveal if she had
Speaker 3: to lip sync because she was so certain that she
Speaker 3: was going to be in the bottom too, because she
Speaker 3: got no laughs, And so when she was safe, even
Speaker 3: she was confused in that moment. And it's moments like
Speaker 3: that where I look at you know, I look, I
Speaker 3: kind of look kind of look into production and I
Speaker 3: look into that and I'm like, if all of us
Speaker 3: think that she should have been in the bottom, and
Speaker 3: even if she thinks that she should have been in
Speaker 3: the bottom, what happened? How does someone how does someone
Speaker 3: manage to be safe? And other people have put there
Speaker 3: in that position.
Speaker 1: For the first two seasons, we didn't see a lot
Speaker 1: of Melbourne queens and Melbourne queens in Australia are so iconic.
Speaker 1: I'm from Melbourne and I've watched you know, I've been
Speaker 1: going to drag shows since the nineties. Why do you
Speaker 1: think we haven't seen some of those old queens in
Speaker 1: the show. Do you think it's because they won't audition
Speaker 1: and they want the producers to come after them, or
Speaker 1: do you think that it's just not on brand and
Speaker 1: we're looking for younger queens to do the job.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, I would absolutely adore if there were
Speaker 2: some old the queens on the show. There are some
Speaker 2: absolutely spectacular drag queens in Melbourne that haven't been on
Speaker 2: the show. I know for a fact that there are
Speaker 2: some queens. I won't mention.
Speaker 3: Anybody's nas specifically, don't want to call anybody out, but
Speaker 3: there I know there are some queens that will not
Speaker 3: go on the show, have absolutely no interest whatsoever. And
Speaker 3: I know that there are some queens that have been
Speaker 3: specifically asked by production kind of more or less like
Speaker 3: please audition, we would love to see you and have
Speaker 3: chosen not to. So a lot of those big names
Speaker 3: that I would absolutely adore to to be on the show,
Speaker 3: I think production is knocking at their door being like
Speaker 3: come on like, well we'll have you, like you'll you'll
Speaker 3: be great. But I think, and I think for a
Speaker 3: lot of them, I think that they're happy with what
Speaker 3: they've got, They're happy with their career that they've built,
Speaker 3: and there's too many unknowns, perhaps with reality TV.
Speaker 1: I like Susie Ridge, Laura Gravity, Paris, you know all
Speaker 1: of those.
Speaker 3: Parish I literally I spoke to one of the producers
Speaker 3: on set about Paris and I said, if you ever
Speaker 3: get Paris on, you're gonna need You're gonna need to
Speaker 3: give her more than five suitcases, because she's that's merely
Speaker 3: one costume.
Speaker 1: Five suitcases just for her ego. No, I'm not just
Speaker 1: for the libs. And everyone's talking season four. Oh, if
Speaker 1: they're doing a season four, we know it's going to
Speaker 1: be All Stars. Everyone's saying that it's going to be
Speaker 1: all Stars. Are you hearing that narrative as well?
Speaker 3: I've heard it mentioned I. Look, I I don't think
Speaker 3: it's probably going to happen. I know the drag Races,
Speaker 3: spun Yard I think has an All Stars after after
Speaker 3: the third season. Look, I don't know if that's necessarily
Speaker 3: going to happen. We've done I would love if that
Speaker 3: happened for for down Under, especially because there are other
Speaker 3: queens in in uh In Drag Race that have that
Speaker 3: have won the same challenges as me that have gone
Speaker 3: on to do All Stars and things, and so that's
Speaker 3: definitely something that might be in my purview.
Speaker 2: I would absolutely adore that.
Speaker 3: I don't know if there's going to be an All Stars,
Speaker 3: but I know that I'm contractably obliged to do it
Speaker 3: if there is one.
Speaker 1: You know, I I just really want to see an
Speaker 1: art Simone Quen Kong challenge, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like those two kill each other to win that prize, Like.
Speaker 2: Oh, I would love to see a lip sync art
Speaker 2: Simon and quin Kong. That that would be something.
Speaker 1: Well, I just want to say, I think you are
Speaker 1: so fantastic. And just before you go, ask everyone who
Speaker 1: joins the pod, what's something from behind the scenes, something
Speaker 1: that we don't see that we won't see?
Speaker 3: Actually, you know what, there is one thing that I
Speaker 3: had no idea how to director, and I don't think
Speaker 3: it's really peeking behind the curtains at all. But when
Speaker 3: we are on the stage in rousters, like it's your
Speaker 3: time to lip syncuse they have to take us off
Speaker 3: stage too, d MICUs so that we're not you know,
Speaker 3: if we take anything off during our lip sync, that
Speaker 3: our microphone isn't going flying everywhere. And while we do that,
Speaker 3: they get either producers or cast minders or stage hands
Speaker 3: and they get them to lip sync to the song
Speaker 3: that we're about to perform on this stage in front
Speaker 3: of Ruin the judges, and then we come out afterwards.
Speaker 3: And so that was really fun every week, trying to
Speaker 3: work out we were trying to get, trying to get
Speaker 3: which we were trying to push.
Speaker 2: Which producer to go on and do that. And then
Speaker 2: there was one person that works there that was doing
Speaker 2: like flips and kicks and all of this kind of
Speaker 2: stuff in front of Root Poulet. It was amazing.
Speaker 1: There's some amazing people work on that Chino Pip, I've
Speaker 1: had her on the podcast before. Yeah, some fantastic people
Speaker 1: that are putting that show together. Ashley Madison, I am
Speaker 1: obsessed with you. Good luck with where you want to
Speaker 1: take this, and I really appreciate you for being so
Speaker 1: generous and and sharing a story and talking to me today.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I've had so much fun