I do not know
what H&M did to RuPaul
but he was not happy, was he?
Hello, Jodie Harsh here.
Welcome to Tea Time with Attitude magazine,
a weekly show where I'll be spilling
the freshly brewed tea
with each eliminated queen
from RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
Today, I'm joined by Joe Black.
-Joe Black was back.
Hello
-Very briefly.
-So let's get straight to it.
Can we expect an H&M collab from you?
-I'm calling, I'm calling, I'm calling.
They're just not answering the phone.
They're like, "Sir, please leave us alone.
We don't want to be associated with you.
You and your Fagan gloves can get out of here."
-Rare to see Ru explode like that
during the critiques,
like, what did it feel like
to be stood there in front of her?
Were you bricking it?
-I was just, I was thinking
this is very dramatic, isn't it?
I mean, I've never, I've never seen
pink velvet evoke such
a strong emotion in someone before.
I don't, I do not know what
H&M have done to RuPaul,
but he was not, he was not happy.
-On a scale of 1 to 10
how pissed off was Mama Ru, really?
-I'd say, probably, maybe a 17.
-Wow.
Wow.
Do you think Ru's comments were fair?
-I mean, I think it's you know an unspoken rule
that it's, for the challenges
you just kind of look a way
that's kind of vaguely appropriate for it.
And that's not judged.
So it did seem a bit, you know, strange,
but you know, I'm a reasonable human.
I stood there and smiled.
And, you know, he said what he said
what he needed to say.
And I was like, "Yep".
-And where's that H&M dress now?
Like, please tell me that's framed or burned.
It's in a drawer that I'm looking at right now.
And I'm trying to work out
what to do with it
because I feel like
if I tried to wear it casually now,
it's going to be too much of a thing
so I'm trying to think of a way to like solidify it
I don't know whether I should auction it off for charity
or try and do something good with it.
Do I wait until, like, DragCon
and I put it in, like, you know,
the way that they have the Annabel doll
in like a booth,
in a glass case that says like "Do not touch",
you know, like,
-100 per cent.
-People can have photos with the dress.
-And your actual runway look,
which definitely wasn't off the rack
was amazing.
Do you wish that Ru paid more attention
to the runway look?
-I mean, it's
I walked down that runway covered in seagull shit.
So I think that's, that's, that's quite,
quite a sight
I was so happy with that look as well.
I mean, he didn't really
pay much attention to that apparently
but I guess that's the power of pink velvet, isn't it?
It just takes all the, takes all the emotions to there.
-And you arriving on set in an animal costume
was a bit of a shocker.
And Ru was wearing a bright yellow wig,
which I was also,
which also took me aback
was, do you think that was like a dig at Ginny Lemon?
-I think maybe, you know,
they'd spent the whole of the kind of lockdown
thinking what an absolute icon Ginny Lemon is.
And that, you know, I think that neon hair
may have been a tribute
to our Lord and Saviour Ginny Lemon, perhaps.
Maybe, perhaps, but maybe you know,
lockdowns do strange things to people.
You know, I know I walked around the house,
you know, looking batty as f***
at some point.
So Ru was just like, you know what-
Someone, actually, I mean,
it didn't obviously make it into the show.
Someone did ask, you know,
"So, what's with the wig?"
-Yeah.
And RuPaul said, "We're drag queens,
we don't have to explain anything."
-100 per cent, 100 per cent.
-Almost all the queens voted
for you to return to the competition.
-That was nice.
-Were you surprised that
the vote was so heavily in your favour?
Because it must have felt amazing.
-It was absolutely lovely.
You know, I try not to
expect too much.
Do you know what I mean, like, whatever happens happens.
Like, you know, my time on the show again,
you know, even though some
dramatic shouting was happening,
I was like, "Oh, it is what it is."
And I, you know, just smile.
You know, if no one had voted for me,
it would have been "Thank you very much.
It's lovely to have been back."
So it was nice.
The one that really shocked me was Tayce, actually.
-Because I really thought Tayce
would have just gone,
gone with Asttina,
because, you know,
they've been friends for a long time.
So that was really lovely.
I've kept, I managed to steal one of the mirrors
so I've got Ellie Diamond's one
in my living room on a thing.
And I've, every time I've gone live or something
it's been in the background I've been like "Whoops".
- How much time
did you have
to prepare after finding out
you might return to the competition?
-Three weeks.
-Wow, OK.
-Yeah, I wish I'd had 7 months.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I also want to ask you,
a few of the queens got
some cosmetic procedures done
during the break from filming.
Did you struggle to recognise any of them?
-Oh, I mean, I thought
they all looked absolutely glowing.
-I loved everyone's new faces.
-Yeah. Do you think there's a pressure
of being on TV to sort of look good.
Do you think that was the thought process behind that.
-I mean, no one had,
I think what generally happens is
like All Stars isn't it people do it
because they see themselves on TV
and then go "Aha",
which I think is actually not
you know, obviously everyone
can get done what they want to do but
it's, it's, it's
I think it may sometimes breed insecurities
and people start nitpicking at stuff.
But, you know, Bimini or A'Whora insist
they all did that for them.
You know, they hadn't seen themselves on TV
and picked themselves apart.
They were like, this is for me.
I think they look f***ing gorgeous.
-Me too.
And I'm, of course, no stranger
to a little subtle help along the way.
-No!
I want to ask you as well,
was it easier or harder to hear
the words "Sashay away"
for a second time?
-So much easier.
It was like, I've done this before.
And I, kind of, there was like,
after the H&M dress fiasco
I was like, I started going,
"I'm not staying,
I'm absolutely not staying.
He's furious.
He's absolutely furious."
So I had that whole time
to kind of go, "I'm going home"
And also to be, you know, being completely honest.
I hadn't done episodes 2, 3 and 4.
How unfair would it have been
if someone who'd waited
those whole seven months
to go back
was eliminated in place of me?
Who, I'm happy to have made a guest appearance.
And that's why I was super pleased
I couldn't rightfully have taken someone else's place.
I'm glad to have appeared.
But the, it would have been unfair.
Those ones have all earned,
you know, getting to episode 5.
I just, I appeared
and I was really, really grateful for it.
But if Tia had gone home,
I, you know, a part of me
would have, maybe, done a Ginny Lemon
and gone, "You know what, babe? No, you stay."
You spent a whole 7 months preparing for this.
I'm happy to be a guest player.
-Really good.
Well, I've said it before,
and I'll say it again.
I'm sure we haven't seen the last of you.
And you're amazing.
Thanks for chatting to me today.
-Thank you very much, lovely to talk to you, Jodie.
Thanks for watching Tea Time
served to you by Attitude magazine.
Tune in next week
for another cup of scalding hot content
with me as I'm joined by
the latest queen to be given the chop
from RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
See you then.
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