Vita VonTesse Starr made her exit this week as the latest queen to sashay away from RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18. In what was arguably the most emotional elimination of the season so far, in which the other queens were clearly moved by her leaving the competition, Starr left with one win and a Top 2 placement.
She told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in an exit interview how the week’s challenge — creating a commercial arguing for and against hilarious “political” platforms — had her “a tad bit overwhelmed.”
“It’s just getting accustomed to everything,” she said. “Like, girl, I’m from Alabama. Even a smaller city than Birmingham. So I’m not used to the lights and the directors and Michelle [Visage] sitting there in front of me and all of the cameras. Not just one [or] two cameras, but there were five, six cameras and all of the crew just standing there and… I kind of folded in a sense.”
“It was like, ‘Oh my God, am I doing this right?'” she continued. “And you’re not getting that much feedback as I would’ve wanted. And, mind you, we’re on a time limit, so it’s just like you start to second-guess yourself. I think that kind of played out and became part of my way of thinking and my facial expressions. Am I doing good? Am I not doing good?… It was a lot.”
Being honest about life as a queer Black person in Alabama
Part of Starr’s narrative this week was discussing how living in Montgomery, AL, can be extremely difficult for queer Black people. While the state’s capital does focus a lot on racial equity and the history of civil rights, a focus on queer Black life is much harder to find. Starr said she wanted to be honest when talking about the issues that come with living in Alabama.
“It’s challenging at times because, getting on this platform, I absolutely want to present my best throughout everything I do and say. However, it becomes challenging because I never want to lie or put on as if something is greater than it actually is,” she said. “There is a lot of turmoil. There’s a lot of prejudice still in the city. There are a lot of things that I face as an African American man every day. So as much love and support as I’m getting from the city, I cannot just lie. I have to be real and be honest and open about the other circumstances that are happening around me with the prejudice and the racism and the murders and the disappearances of all these queer communities. I just wanted to be open about that.”
After getting through judging and realizing she was facing the bottom two with Juicy Love Dion, Starr said she couldn’t pay attention to what Dion would do on stage.
Staying focused during the lipsync and what’s next after ‘Drag Race’
“I honestly don’t know what to think because I didn’t even look at Juicy. I couldn’t look at her,” she said. “I didn’t want to get sidetracked or anything because going into the lipsync, I already know who I’m going up against. So the best thing that I could do to keep myself focused and level-headed is to just tune out everything and just focus on the words [and] the lyrics.”
“That girl is an assassin,” she continued. “She’s badass. But I couldn’t even tell you that it was neck and neck. I’m so excited to see how it plays out [on screen]. I’m really nervous to see how it plays out. But what was going through my mind was just trying to stay focused and keep my attention on Mama Ru.”
After Drag Race, Starr said she’s jumping into fashion.
“I am definitely focusing on my fashion career, my design career,” she said. “If there’s anything that comes my way for Drag Race, I am jumping on that train, headfirst.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on MTV.