The queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18 are clear on one thing: this is not a baby cast. As they gear up to hit screens via MTV, the contestants are reflecting on their unique bonds, the diversity of their drag, and the joy of finally stepping into the Werk Room.
For Kenya Pleaser, getting the call to join RuPaul’s Drag Race was “honestly the most humbling thing that ever could have happened to me.” She grounded the moment in where she comes from, repeating, “I grew up in South Carolina. I did drag in South Carolina. To be the first representative and people know my name, it is honestly such an honor. It is such a privilege. It is such an amazing, life-changing thing that happened to me.”
Kenya spoke about her upbringing at length. “I’m from South Carolina. I grew up by a lake, grew up in a home that I always go to church. I went to church every single Sunday. I did not quit my church job until I got the call to be on the show.” When the cast announcement went public, she said, “When the cast got announced, you ever heard that term, ‘Just f**k this city up?’ Girl, I f***ed the city up. Girl, they was like, ‘I know that’s not him.’”
She remembered her response clearly. “I was like, ‘Honey, it’s me. It is me, doing my big one.’” No matter what happens next, she said, “It is such an honor to be the first representative to work and cultivate the drag in South Carolina. I’m over the moon. No matter what happens, I am over the moon and I’m blessed.”
Nini Coco spoke about being frequently compared to Alyssa Edwards. “When I started drag, and whenever I put on a blonde wig, immediately people just clock it as Alyssa Edwards,” she said. She recalled being mistaken for Edwards at a local bar. “At a local bar, there’s a meet and greet that happens, and there was a different headliner, but they were like, ‘Alyssa,’ and I thought they were just kidding. They were fully serious, and I just did a fake, little tongue pop.”
Ciara Myst spoke about confidence and alternative drag. “I think that there are so many different types of artistry, and if you know that your drag is sickening and you bring it on Drag Race, that’s what resonates with people; people who have confidence, people who are sure of their artistry,” they said. “It’s when people are insecure in what they’re presenting, or they’re not sure of their identity, in or out of drag, that that reads as weakness.”
She continued, “There was no part of me coming into this that was unsure of who I was, as an artist, so I was super excited to bring something that was a little bit different, but at the same time, whether it’s fans or judges, there are so many different types of art that, yes, it may not be the one that you would prefer, but it’s going to resonate with somebody.” Even if it doesn’t resonate with everyone, Ciara said, “So, even if it doesn’t resonate with Michelle, Ru might live for it. If it doesn’t resonate with this section of fans, there’s a whole other audience that is dying to see me and come see you. I knew that whatever I was bringing, somebody was going to fall in love with it, because I love it.”
Athena Dion spoke about entering a competitive environment again after years of leading her own spaces. “I talk about this a lot to professionals, that it was hard for me to give up control because I am a bit of a control freak,” she said. “I run drag brunches, so I’m used to being the mother hen in the chicken coop. And so for me to be one of the chickens of the chicken coop was like, ‘I haven’t done this for a year,’ because I haven’t been rushed around and told what to do for a long time.”
She added, “So I was a little bit out of my element, but it did humble me a little bit. It did take me back to being my original drag queen, kind of starting in the club circuit. I did have a nice little nostalgia to it, but it was still getting into it and took a lot of getting used to.”
Discord Addams reflected on nearly quitting drag before finding community in Florida. “I was kind of like on the verge of quitting drag, because I just was tired of kind of just the cattiness that is typical that you find within drag scenes,” she said. “Then, I moved to Florida and I spent so many nice uplifting queens who just want everybody to succeed.”
That environment changed everything. “That’s been my motto forever, is every single person has the same right to succeed as me. Finding that in Florida just changed my whole career, and I was like, ‘Guess what? I’m not going to quit, actually. I want to keep doing this, and I want people to feel as uplifted as St. Pete helped me feel.’”
Mandy Mango spoke about how her work as a nurse informs her drag. “Working in HIV and sexual health, you work with some of the most marginalized people in the city,” she said, adding that “Philadelphia faces unique challenges when it comes to sexual health, addiction, and substances.” With seven years of experience, Mandy said, “I think being able to have a seven-year-long career, where I have confidence that no matter who walks through the door or whatever is about to come at me, I can handle it with poise and be there for somebody, at either their most vulnerable or at their most triumphant.” That perspective, she added, “just gives you perspective on the community of what really matters and why drag is so important to either distract or give voice to something in the scene.”
A season of seasoned queens, sisterhood and competition
When asked about camaraderie, Discord admitted she was nervous going in. “I was like low-key nervous, because I was like, ‘How are you going to put us in a room of like 14, high-personality drag queens and expect all of us to get along?’” She continued, “I was like, ‘Ooh. I’m going to have an enemy. I’m sure I am.’” Instead, she found the opposite. “And low-key, I love everybody. I love this season. I love these girls so, so, so, so much.”
She added, “I think a lot of that has to do with a lot of us have been doing drag for a very long time, so we are very well versed in what it’s like to be around other drag queens. We have that vocabulary, and I think it really helped form really, really tight relationships in this cast.”
Athena Dion echoed that sentiment. “What I will say, and I think Discord and I have been the ones who’ve auditioned the most on this season, and watching all the other seasons, I don’t think I would have been good on any other cast, or I don’t think I would have been happy on any other cast, as happy as I am on this one.” She added, “This is truly for me, like my favorite cast. If I would have looked back at all of them and say, ‘I want to pick one,’ I would pick this one.”
Athena continued, “We’re all in the same mental place. We all have each other’s backs. We’re all working girls. There’s so much fundamental stuff that we have in common that really builds our relationship, and then we sprout out to these different artistic creatures, but like on the ground, we’re the same.”
Mandy Mango added, “I think something I clocked when I first came in was like everyone here has a very clear point of view and perspective with their drag, and they’re doing it to the nines.” She continued, “I think most of us are millennials, and I think it speaks to what this sport is saying there’s a certain maturity and mental energy, that I think we all have empathy for for each other, but at the same time, I think it’s like we know we’re on a TV show, we’re going to feed into it, but also understand what the grand scheme of our careers and urge are back.”
Athena summed it up by saying, “There’s a saying in pageantry that if you want to be the best, you have to compete with the best, and honestly, like these girls do drag.”
Discord called the season what it is. “This was an All Stars-quality season.” She added, “It’s good quality drag. I’ve been auditioning since season seven.”
Athena added context to her own journey. “I think I’ve been [auditioning] since five. Season five, because when Latrice [Royale] got on and auditioned after her and she was on four, so she’s from South Florida. I was like, ‘Oh. Let me try it,’ and then I’ve just been throwing my name in the hat ever since.”
When age came up, Athena said, “Oh, girl. I was expecting to be the oldest queen on the cast.” Discord added, “Me too. I was like, ‘I’m going to mother the f**k out of them.’”
Athena reflected on the show’s direction. “I feel like Drag Race has changed the culture so much, and it’s kind of gone down a certain road, and I feel like they’re turning the wheel to bring it back to its roots, like an elevated kind of mature audience.”
Discord was blunt about fandom. “We’re literally collectively done with the Reddit kids. They have no social literacy whatsoever. They’re just little trolls. They hate drag.” Mandy followed, “They love Drag Race, but they hate drag.”
Vita Vontesse Starr described the cast as elite. “I personally feel this is such an elite, talented group of entertainers. I do feel we’re all in our 30s, up in age. Most of us, but the ones who are not are still very mature.” She added, “For the most of us, even the younger ones, everybody is such a mature group.” When conflicts arose, she said, “Any problems that we may have had, like any altercations, especially with this one right here,” she said, pointing to Briar Blush and laughing. “Nasty b***h. Yeah, very nasty c**t [laughs].” Still, she said, “We were able to talk it out, hash it out. Yeah, this is such a dynamic group of people.”
Myki Meeks said, “It’s not a group of babies in the cast. We’ve all been doing this. We’ve all been working for a while. So to put these skills together, although the drama might be more focused on irritations, the competition aspect is stressful. That’s where a lot of the disagreements can come from.”
Briar Blush said, “I want to say that I think doing this experience, I’ve made some really beautiful friendships that have kind of transcend.” She continued, “We did share this wonderful experience with each other. I feel like such a kinship with these girls.” She added, “When the season is in the middle and we see the confessionals, maybe I’ll feel entirely different.” Still, she said, “What a special bonding experience that we all went through. At the end of the day, we all have been so kind to each other and talkative except for one b***h.”
Juicy Love Dion said, “I wouldn’t say it’s kumbaya, kumbaya. I mean, the competition’s fierce, but we’re not at each other’s throats per se, when it comes to our relationships.” She added, “In the challenges, we are at each other’s throats.” Still, “Everyone is so talented. You pick anyone from this group and put them in another season, and they do really f**king amazing. So it’s hard to really depict what’s going on with the girls, but everyone is so respectful.”
Vita added, “Walking into the Werk Room the very first day, we were like, ‘Is a brick going to walk in?’ Everybody came in looking so beautiful, so well put together. We were like, ‘When is somebody going to walk in busted?’”
Mia Starr said, “I feel like even after we wrapped, we really have a friendship. We are really a family. We still root for each other.” She added, “I don’t know how other seasons are, but it feels like such a loving bond that we do have. And if anybody has a problem with any one of my sisters out there in this world, they could come see Mia Starr, thank you,” she said, laughing.
Myki added, “Especially coming off of 17, the median age was 23, going into a season where the median age is 33, it’s getting these younger kids to watch the show, and now they’re seeing queens who’ve been doing this.”
Juicy said, “I feel like it’s going to be very inspiring for the fans. It’s nice for the fans to see different drag that’s not just a cunty stunty, and this is coming from the cunty stunty performing girl.” She added, “It’s fun to see different types of drag. So I’m excited for the fans to receive everybody and get to enjoy this beautiful, beautiful cast.”
Briar added, “We also have been doing drag for so long. We’re not in our 30s, but I’ve been doing drag seven, eight years. And we started so young and probably in our scenes, the new ones are probably like granny, hag, has been,” she said, laughing.
Darlene Mitchell said, “It’s a lot older cast than the past couple seasons and I feel like that is honestly a really good representation of what drag is like, kind of like where we come from or what we do back home or what we’ve been doing for years.”
Jane Don’t recalled an early moment. “There was a day really early on where we all went around and were like, how old is everybody? When I found out Mia was 40, I was like, ‘Baby, baby, baby.’” She added, “Through the history of drag, drag is not a young person’s game. I love a b***h who’s just in Palm Springs on year 47 of telling the same jokes. That’s drag.”
Jane continued, “Time is so strange on the show because it’s like you’re filming episodes, but you’re filming multiple episodes a week and so you have to say week so it makes sense to the viewer.” She added, “Within the first episode, I feel like I already was like, ‘These are my best friends.’”
Darlene added, “These are sisters that I have known my entire life. This is my family. You don’t necessarily realize, like what you said, how fast that’s going to happen and how fast emotions can really start to steer the ship, girl.”
DD Fuego said, “Then how much the other girls rally or what dynamics that starts creating because you see another person struggling or you’re struggling, automatically that sisterhood elevates you.”
Jane added, “I feel like it’s really easy to do the thing in your head of going in and being like, my eyes on the prize, I’m not here to make friends or whatever.” She continued, “It really, at least it was shocking to me, how quickly I was like, ‘Well s**t, I really actually like these people.’ That’s sort of a wrinkle in my plan.”
DD said, “I will say one of the things that did happen is a lot of the girls knew each other from the internet and a lot of the people then became more quickly connected, and some people didn’t, and that plays out in ways maybe more internally than externally.” She added, “Being the one New York girl alone without anyone to be like an ally with felt a little icy.”
Asked if she expected more New York queens, DD said, “Of course. I was gagged myself. I kept thinking more were going to walk through the door and when the final girl walked in, I was like, ‘One New York girl.’”
Jane explained, “Well, and I don’t think any of us anticipated being on — I just signed up for Drag Race. I didn’t realize it was Florida versus the world.” She continued, “I don’t think any of us anticipated that we were going to have half of the drag queens in Miami in the workroom.”
DD added, “Yeah. Option A is join the Dion family, option B is go home, and we had to fight for that.”
Jane continued, “It was intimidating. I felt very intimidated because I was like, ‘Well, there’s a whole family of people here, so if they need anything or if they need help or they…’ You know what I mean? I was intimidated because I was like, ‘Well, they just walked in with their support system.’” She added, “I was very jealous because the rest of us are there by ourselves, friends, partners, cats are at home. Then I was like, ‘They just get to hang out with their best friends. This sucks ass.’”
Darlene Mitchell echoed that feeling. “I knew nobody. Nobody knew me,” she said. “Again, you [DD] saying you expected more New York. I was expecting at least some West Coast or more LA that I’d be like, ‘OK, at least I’m going to have this person.’ Someone.” She added, “Walking in and literally having no one know who I am, me not knowing anyone, and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is going to be…’”
Jane finished by saying, “We have five Florida girls, but it’s also like Briar lived in Florida for a while.” She added, “So then Briar was also like, ‘Well, I know all of them because I did live in Florida.’” Then she capped it with, “It got to a point where I was like, ‘Is this a DeSantis side?’ At what point are we like, there’s a bigger plan at work? This is getting crazy.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18 premieres Jan. 2 on MTV.