ET chats with the 'AS6' cast about the big twist, biggest drama and making 'Drag Race' herstory.
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 6 is going to be iconic -- at least, according to the All Stars. Zooming with ET's Brice Sander, the returning queens each offered up a single word to describe their season: Iconic. Expensive. Gaggy. Memorable. Sickening. Triumphant.
Considering AS6 comprises some of Drag Race's biggest personalities, it's no surprise they all had something to say, even if what they said was the exact opposite of what another queen had to say.
"Impactful," offers Silky Nutmeg Ganache. "Because I went in, and I didn't hold anything back. Why should I? A million girls -- literally, because there's a million girls in the franchise -- could have got an opportunity to come back, but they called me. And so I had to come back and do my thing."
"I held a lot back," Scarlet Envy chimes in, "just in terms of how corseted I was."
Below, ET chats with 12 of the competing queens (Yara Sofia was not in attendance) about stepping back into the Werk Room, making Drag Race herstory and what to expect from AS6's big twist.
All Stars Rudemption
All Stars isn't just another chance at winning the crown. It's an opportunity for a queen to prove something to herself and the audience. AS6 includes a couple of queens who are back, back, back yet again, even more that have spent years campaigning to get on for years now and one or two of the franchise's most polarizing personalities.
Serena ChaCha: I love the word polarizing. Globalizing. Franchising. Entrepreneur-ising. All of that. To be chosen with this group of fierce queens, it's just so fulfilling for me, and it reminded me that I still got it.
Kylie Sonique Love: Initially, I was really hoping to get a call for season 5, but I'm so grateful that I didn't. [Laughs] I tried to tell myself not to fight the universe, not to get my hopes up or whatever, and I think that year -- from [All Stars] 5 to 6 -- I learned so much more about me. And I'm just so grateful that I got the call when I did.
Trinity K. Bonet: Well, I have been campaigning for All Stars since season 3. So, I had been ready years prior. I don't think I'm one of those girls who could be like, "Oh, just call me next year." And I'm happy I did it because it was just needed and necessary. You're being pushed to your limits as an artist, and I appreciated that.
Jan: You're not guaranteed to get this call. That's a misconception that a lot of people might think. If they're calling you, they're interested, and you might not get that opportunity again in the future. I think a lot of people might have some criticism of me going back so quickly after my season, but I'm like, "Look at Monét. Look at Monique. Look at Katya." They all made it to the end. Some even won. I was like, "I believe in myself. I believe that I can do this too. So, let's get back into the race." I don't feel like I have to prove anything to the judges or to the world.
Ra'jah O'Hara: Now was the time that they called so now was the opportunity that I was given. And once I got the call and hung up the phone, I was like, "Oh my god, what did I just do? Am I ready?" Ready or not, here we come. I really want to show who I am as a queen, authentically with no extra. Season 11 with a lot of extra extra, OK? But All Stars 6, I wanted to come back and be myself and actually have fun this go round.
Scarlet Envy: I wanted to finish my story. I feel like the first time it was cut short, and sometimes there's nothing you can do about that and it's totally fine. But I had just gotten my tits done. It was perfect timing. I was ready. I said, "Yes, Mommy, I'll be right there."
A'Keria C. Davenport: Honestly, we were coming out of a pandemic, so I was like, "These girls are going to be broke. They're not going to have anything to bring. So let me take advantage of this." [Laughs] But no, I felt like it was time. Like Jan said, you don't get this opportunity all the time, and I'm one of those people that I just go for stuff. I do my best work on a, what is it? A whim? A limb? That's how it was for me. Y'all know The Body. Y'all know what The Body's capable of.
Jiggly Caliente: Coming back on season 6 of All Stars, it just felt right. It literally has been a decade since my time on the franchise. Season 4 was filmed in 2011 and coming back in 2021, I'm a different person now. I'm at a different space in my life and a different mindset. This time around, people are going to get to meet not just Jiggly again, but they're going to meet Bianca, who's the driving force of the Megazord that is Jiggly.
Pandora Boxx: It's a whole different audience now than it was for season 2 or All Stars 1. Also, there was that moment that I was like, "Well, I would like to prove I'm not a wretched bitch like I was in All Stars."
Ginger Minj: I would love to scratch All Stars 2 from my record. I'm proud to be a part of that cast and that season -- it's a great season -- but I wasn't mentally ready to compete again. And all these years later -- half a decade later -- I know who I am, and I know what my drag is and I have a very specific point of view that I want to share with the world. So, I'm very excited to finally be able to do that on my terms.
Silky Nutmeg Ganache: I have absolutely nothing to prove! They asked me to come back, so I figured they needed more good television. So, I said I was free on those dates and I came back.
Eureka!: When I got the call, I was in a dark place because of the pandemic. I really needed a way to express myself with drag. I had gotten the call the year before, and it just didn't feel right. And when I got the call this time, there was something telling me, "You're ready to do it. It's time to do All Stars." Sometimes when it's right, it's right. And honestly, I wouldn't be happier with any other cast than this one. It's just a hardworking, driven, fierce f**king cast. And I don't think the world's ready for this season. I just don't.
"A Gag Within a Game"
Mama Ru always has a new twist in store for her All Stars, and this season is being teased as "a game within a game." What exactly that means is to be revealed, but the queens revealed their first reaction when they learned "the mother of all twists":
Jiggly: F**k my life!
Kylie: I was so confused when they were saying that at first. It's so crazy and it's exciting.
Ginger: I expected something because with All Stars, as I learned on day one of All Stars 2, it's an ever-changing game. You never know what to expect. And they love to throw something new at you. Even if you don't even know what it is, they love to throw that little curve ball. So, I went in with no expectations [and] an open mind, ready to take it as it came.
Ra'jah: We've been saying that it's a gag within a game, not a game within a game. It's a gag within the game.
Eureka!: Honestly, that's tea. Whenever I found out what was even happening, bitch, I was gaggity, goopity, swooped. I was like, "I didn't even know this was a thing!"
Scarlet: Well, it didn't gag me, because I lost that reflex years ago. It is a surprise though. That what we've come to expect from All Stars is that we don't know what to expect. So, in that way, it's exactly like every other season of All Stars. We don't know what to expect, and the viewers don't either. And I think that people are going to love it.
Pandora: It's like The Hunger Games meets All Stars.
Jiggly: Let's be real. RuPaul and Michelle and them loved the movie Showgirls. They just had those marbles in the hands, like, "Run, bitch!" And down the stairs we all went!
The Most Dramatic Season Ever
When it comes to AS6, if you're not watching Untucked, you're only getting half the queen-on-queen catfighting, decibel-shattering story from one of the most vocal casts in Drag Race herstory. So, who causes the most drama this season?
Ra'jah: RuPaul, of course. Mother starts the drama, and she always comes in the room and finishes the drama, too.
A'keria: Because she makes us pick those lipsticks! So, boom, there you have it.
Eureka!: That is the drama, really, when you get to the nuts and bolts of it all. Us having to pick lipsticks is where the drama comes from. It's like, "Oh, bitch, you're going to choose me. You're going to choose her." People are having to plead their case. It's really an emotional experience.
Jan: I think the question of integrity when it comes to the voting is the thing that's the most dramatic about the season. Like, that's the 14th queen of the season.
Scarlet: I was pretty intimidated by, maybe, half the cast when I walked in. But that's only because I had a hat on that was so big, I couldn't see the other half of the cast. Once I took it off, I was like, "Oh, I'm in trouble." Everyone here deserves to be here. They are icons in their own right. It's All Stars. And hopefully everybody knows that about themselves and is excited to go on this journey that we're not really even sure what it's going to be yet.
Ginger: Jiggly and I huddled up in the corner and we went, "Oh, bitch, everybody that's here has something to prove. And everybody is so hungry for that crown." So, we knew from day one, that it was not going to be an easy fight. I know every year, everybody goes, "Oh, it's the best season ever." But take it from me. This truly is the best season ever, because nobody knows what's going to happen.
Pandora: Because it's been so long since I had done the show, it was very surreal to walk back into the room. I shot that show in 1912 and it was still shot in RuPaul's garage at that point, so it's a lot. It was an amazing experience and I really love the cast. I love most of the cast. Sorry, I have to be a little shady.
Scarlet: I think that's what drag queens should be. We should be personality, first and foremost. YouTube will teach you everything else. You either have it or you don't. In this cast, we got it, girl. We got it. Am I the villain? I don't know. Am I in the drama? I don't know. It's already gone viral.
Pandora: Yes. Yes to all of the above. You were all of them. I think I'm going to have some epic eye-roll moments in the show, because there some queens that like to talk a lot, and I'll probably be like, "Oh my god, girl."
Silky: Hashtag Silky is coming.
"Drag Is Not a Boys' Club"
Following in the high heels of herstory-making queens like Peppermint, Gia Gunn and season 13 breakout Gottmik, Jiggly Caliente and Kylie Sonique Love mark another Drag Race first, becoming the first two trans women to compete on the same season.
Jiggly: I was already living my life as a trans woman at the time of [season 4]. I just was very new to my transition and, to be in front of the camera, I was not ready for that kind of judgment. When you're early in your transition, you're still trying to navigate who you are and at that time in Drag Race, it was not that I wasn't allowed to compete as who I was because those questions were asked because they knew. They knew that the woman inside was lurking and living through me.
Kylie: It's such an incredible thing, because you also show yourself things that you didn't know that you were capable of doing, because you don't have to worry about these other things that are in the way. I think that's what's so important about being able to express yourself the way that makes you feel the most authentic is you are able to see how bright you really can shine without the insecurities of what other people put on us. I feel so grateful to be able to have the opportunity to come back and experience it and it feels like the first time, honestly.
Jiggly: Kylie was the first one to come out as a trans woman [during the season 2 reunion]. I feel like she left that door open for the rest of us to come in, and I think it was really beautiful to be able to compete next to Kylie. It was nice to be able to stand together in that moment. And our entrance lines alone, that was kismet. We both were coming in, like, guns blazing in our womanhood showing that we're going to compete against the boys. That drag is not a boys' club. It is everyone.
Jan: I was just like, "Why did it take so long for them to be here?" The two of them, I was just like, "I've been waiting to see them for so long." And I'm happy to be with these two fabulous divas right now.
Jiggly: Now, it's 10 years plus into my transition, I'm a whole different person. I feel whole and I feel like I'm truly showing the world who I am -- the person that is the heart and mind of the entity that is Jiggly Caliente -- and it feels amazing. Fans of this show, I feel like they gravitate towards authenticity. Because a lot of girls can fake the persona, but the real person, you can't fake that. People can see the truth. And I feel like me competing this time around in my complete truth, authentically and just unapologetically me is just the best way to compete.
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 6 premieres with two all-new, back-to-back episodes on Thursday, June 24 on Paramount+.
RELATED CONTENT:
