As far as going back into
the competition.
No, I'm good.
I'm good.
[Never ever?]
No, I'm not interested in doing it.
And people think, “Oh, you're being fancy.”
No, just I'm good.
[What is the wildest UK city to visit
when you're on tour?]
Oh, god.
Well, you know, it's wild.
I don't know.
I mean, you know, people in the UK don't care.
I mean, nobody goes to a dentist,
but it's a different world.
They are wild here.
No, you're good.
You're good.
[I’m not.]
I mean, every city I go to that
I was telling someone else earlier,
I said I was so happy to get to the UK
this time around.
I've been very lucky,
this is my fifth solo tour to travel with,
but I was just in Brazil where they,
I don't think they understood
what I was saying, you know, and I've been to Hong Kong
where for a long time
I just assumed they thought I was
Hello Kitty.
You know what I mean,
they have no idea.
So, I'm just happy to be
in a place where they understand me.
And the fact that I get to
perform for our audience is amazing.
So, any city in the UK, the standards are low.
Yeah.
[What kind of responses
do you get from fans when you're out of drag?]
Do you ever get any marriage proposals
or underwear thrown at you?]
Oh, I wish it was. It's never anybody cute.
It's always a girl.
It's always a girl with a disease
who wants to meet me, says it's their dying wish.
I'm kidding, because death is funny.
No, it's never, it's...
Come on,
people have been very kind and what’s so fascinating for me,
because I've done drag before Drag Race
is that it's that thing where in the early,
well late nineties when I started, no one cared
what you were out of drag.
No one was interested in you.
So, Drag Race kind of changed the game for me.
So now people are fascinated
or they might recognise your outside of it.
But when I started in 1996, no one, no one gave a shit.
Even the gays hated us.
Gays hated drag queens
in 1996, it was a different world.
They were like, “Oh, you're too feminine.”
I would go, “Have you met me?
I’m feminine?” I've been called
many things, but never feminine.
So, now I'm just fascinated by anybody who cares.
You know, it's a different world.
And shockingly, it's now been nine years
since Drag Race.
We filmed it in 2013.
So, it's been nine years.
So, it's been a long journey.
So, the people I've met and the places I've been
and the things that it's,
I'm beyond lucky to get to do it.
So, I consider that the blessing,
not so much the people I meet.
[You've kept a comfortable
distance, respectable distance, from the show.
What do have to say about the power of saying no?]
Well, I think, no,
No, comfortable distance, listen,
the platform that Drag Race has given me
is astounding and amazing.
I wouldn't be here with you without the opportunity.
But also, I know you don't
shit where you eat.
So, I had a great run.
I came out unscathed.
So, it's one of those things.
I'm grateful for the opportunity
and they've been lovely and any chance
I get to go back
and be a part of the show I totally say yes
and it's usually about schedule and calendar
if I'm home and if it works out
because, you know, they film
so many seasons back-to-back.
So, any time I can be included,
I always say yes
if it's allowed, but it doesn't always work
as far as going back into a competition.
No, I'm good.
[Never ever?]
No, I'm not interested in doing it.
And people think,
‘Oh, you're being fancy." No, just I'm good.
Would you go back to high school?
[No.]
Exactly.
[Never.]
Exactly.
Did you even go to high school?
I'm curious, I mean, you are working for Attitude.
Is that a requirement?
Is it a requirement to go to high school?
[What were your rejected drag names?]
Oh, rejected?
You know, it's funny,
I didn't, the funny story about my name
was that a friend of mine, Nikki Ridge, talked to me
and she told me once because I was using the name
Marvel Ann,
because I had done a production of this show
called ‘Psycho Beach Party’
and a friend of mine said, "No,
you remind me of my friend Bianca who's died."
So, I had Bianca Del Rio became my name
and so that was that.
And so cut to the night that I won Drag Race,
I had like 700 text messages from everybody going
congratulations, congratulations.
And my friend Nikki Ridge, who gave me the name,
she goes, "Congratulations, you won.
By the way, Bianca is not dead.
She's alive in Florida and she's pissed."
So, 18 years later,
there's a bitch
with the same name as me in Florida who hates me.
So that's why
I am ‘The Bianca Del Rio’ on Instagram,
because there's another Bianca Del Rio
who, can you imagine the hate mail she gets.
She must get a lot of hate mail.