Mistress Isabelle Brooks, the iconic, rotted superstar of the pink bracket of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 10, says that being “rotted” is a way of life.
“To me, I would say my ‘rotted’ mentality is that I say the stuff that you joke around with in private, with your friends. I say the stuff that most people wouldn’t dare to, but it’s something that we’re all thinking,” she said to Blavity’s Shadow and Act in a recent interview. “I think that’s why hundreds of thousands of y’all tune into Mistress Monday [on YouTube], every Monday, and [why] all of y’all love to watch us on Drag Race.”
“You know, I think that people oftentimes mistake being rotted and really saying what you feel with being mean,” she added. “I wouldn’t say I’m mean. I think that [I’m] more so lighthearted, but sometimes when you joke, regardless, some people can’t take it. So, I think that everything is just fun and games until it’s not and I try my best to just operate with keeping other people in mind, but also saying exactly how I feel and we’re all here to have a good time. So I think I carry that energy both on Drag Race and off Drag Race.”
Returning to ‘All Stars’ and knowing her place
Brooks said it’s been “so much fun” for her to come back and compete, especially since she now knows who she is within the Drag Race pantheon.
“I think in Season 15, the first time around, I was so hungry to win. But on All Stars, it’s a different game because I think I know where I stand in the Drag Race stratosphere and most importantly, I know I’m here to make entertainment, because RuPaul says it himself that losing is the new winning, and I got to experience that with Season 15. So going into All Stars, I’m hungry as f**k for the crown. I wanna win so bad. But I also know, regardless of what happens, I’m a motherf*****g star. So it just makes the whole experience really different.”
Tina Burner clash and misconceptions
What hasn’t changed, though, are queens sometimes bristling under Mistress’s iconic sense of humor, as we’ve seen with Tina Burner’s response to Mistress. In their episodes, we see Tina not loving the fact that Mistress made one of her pictures a meme. Mistress said that Tina assumed she knew all there was to know about Mistress from that moment.
“ I think people oftentimes don’t realize that Tina Burner is closer in age to Nicole Paige Brooks than she is to me, and I think with age there, there is a little gap in how people operate and what they find funny,” she said. “I think that Tina is someone who came into All Stars and she thought she had me all figured out. When you think you have me figured out, you’re gonna psych yourself out because you’re expecting everything to be shady or everything to be calculated, and that’s not the case. You don’t have to think that way with me because I’m gonna tell you exactly how I feel and what I’m thinking. When you think you’re ahead of the curve, that’s when you get eaten alive. And I think that’s exactly how I would describe me and Tina Burner.”
“I think Tina is such a great drag queen,” Mistress continued. “I think Tina, honestly, is one of the ones who surprised me the most on All Stars. But I think that she was really in her head as far as it came to me, and I think that she thought she was playing the game, and she really was just playing herself.”
‘I was never an alliance girl.’
Mistress reiterated how what we think we see on TV as a strategy isn’t the case at all. As she said, “The best things happen when you let them happen naturally, and I will say my strategy going into anything is to have no strategy.”
“From the moment I walked in the workroom, I never was an alliance girl,” she said. “What I did was I saw [how] as soon as I came in the werkroom, the energy shifted because everyone knew I was the HBIC. And I’m not saying that to be cocky; immediately, everyone knew to respect me and it’s because of the way I carry myself. And honestly, I’ve been a good sister to these girls outside of Drag Race, so I think everyone was a little bit happy to see me…everyone other than Tina Burner. But from the moment I walked in, I was like, ‘OK my Texas sisters, my Brooks sister, Lydia [B Kollins] was gonna be my daughter…like, I had all the ingredients and I didn’t pledge allegiance to anyone. All I did was acknowledge everyone and made them feel seen, and that made people feel comfortable with me. But after the first episode, especially after the fight with Tina, I felt the energy shift where people were starting to question me. So I knew I only had a small period of time to strike.”
Jorgeous bond runs deep
The one partnership that wasn’t in question was Mistress’s partnership with Jorgeous, whose friendship was created long before Drag Race.
“The thing with Jorgeous is I’ve known Jorgeous since we were kids. I mean, me and Jorgeous grew up in the drag scene together when we were both 16, 17 years old,” said Mistress. “I have known this b***h through many phases, and she’s known me through many phases. When you’re that close to someone, all you gotta do is give them the look and they know to follow your lead. And I think that with Jorgeous, I told her from the second we stepped into the werkroom, I was like, ‘Sister, we’re gonna make it and I’m gonna make sure that we’re successful.’ So I did what I said I was gonna do. I never lied. If I ever tell you I’m gonna do something, I’m a man of my word.”
“But,” she added, referencing the other alliances, “it’s kind of like doing mental gymnastics. I led you to believe what you wanted to believe. The most powerful thing you could utilize in your life in general is to give someone the fantasy, to give someone what they want. To dive into their desires is to have power over them.”
Lydia B Kollins joins the Brooks family
Mistress might have led the other queens on when it came to alliances, but she probably didn’t expect she’d come out of Drag Race as a mother once again. This time, Lydia B Kollins wanted to be crowned a Brooks.
“You know, I have to proceed with caution because Sugar and Spice were so much work and that was a whole journey on its own. But I think, who am I to deny a child success?” Mistress said. “I think Lydia has so much potential. I think Lydia’s an amazing drag queen, but most of all, I think I identify with Lydia most on a personal level because. As we saw throughout the episodes, I would let Lydia have it, but she would kind of let me have it right back. And that’s something I admire and I really appreciate in someone. I like someone who has their own backbone because the truth is, drag is art, and art is subjective. We all have different ways we go about it, and what we think looks nice and what works for us. And I love that Lydia is so unique in what she does. She has amazing ideas. I think she’s a really cool person, I enjoy vibing with her, but she also has that Brooks magic. She’s kind of rotted herself. She’s evil a little bit.”
Every day is the Mistress show
After Drag Race, Mistress is expecting to be polishing her winner’s crown.
“After the season, I’m going to get a glass case for my crown. I’ll probably have it on display in my house in the living room,” she said. “But other than that, other than getting that check and getting the crown, every Monday is Mistress Monday on the YouTube channel. I have my Patreon where you can see so much more exclusive content. I’m gonna be continuing to travel the world.”
“I think a lot of people go back to All Stars to reignite their career. I’ve been so blessed in my career to not have to do that,” she added. “I truly came back to All Stars because it’s what my fans and supporters wanted to see from me. Not because I needed the money, or I needed the ego boost, or the career boost. I’ve been very, very blessed in my career and Drag Race has provided me so many opportunities and it’s because of people like you and everyone listening right now at home who tune into Mistress Mondays that I can continue having every day be the Mistress Show and I can I plan on continuing that.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 10 is currently streaming on Paramount+, with new episodes dropping every Friday.
