Gay&Night-ZiZo Augustus 2014

Interview / Adore Delano
What did you think were the
major differences between Drag
Race and your time on American
Idol, other than being in drag?
They’re two completely different experiences.
I mean, let’s just talk about how
FOX runs American Idol. That’s all I’ve
really got to say. It’s run by Republicans,
and it’s just very conservative. I was
really controlled in terms of what to say,
what to sing and what to do. When I
was on Drag Race, it was all me. I got to
show my personality, it was an actual
reality show where the audience got to
know who I was as a person, as opposed
to being this little molded character.
How much of a mentor is RuPaul
to the contestants after the
cameras stop running? Do you
call her up to ask for advice?
Not really, but I think we all knew that
when we signed up for the show. She
gave us an awesome opportunity. I ran
into her when I was filming something
for World of Wonder recently, and she
gave me advice and was very sweet
and loving. She’s a matriarch; she’s
somebody that we all look up to. She’s
like a goddess. It’s very rare that she
actually has, like, lunches with the
queens. I know she’s close with Raven,
Raja and Manila. She goes out to lunch
with them a lot, but I’ve yet to see that
happen with the newer queens.
What would you say was the best
advice that was given to you by
the judges?
What Ru would tell me is ‘some people
get it, some people don’t – that’s as simple
as it gets’. Everything in life is magic.
He told me to stop being addicted to the
high that I get from the adrenaline rush
of freaking out. I was too focused on
negativity, being very insecure about
everything. Ru told me to knock it off,
that everything isn’t that serious. He
really explained it in a way that no one’s
ever explained it to me before. So he
helped my insecurity issues a lot.
How did you feel about the
whole she-mail controversy that
happened when this season
was airing?
I didn’t understand why it took six years
for the community to get offended.
I was basically transgendered in high
school, I lived my life as a girl and
I thought that was the route I was
going to take. I would not have gotten
offended, I would have kiki’d along with
it. You know, it’s all about the context of
the show, and they celebrate the trans
community. It’s a very fun and tonguein-cheek
type of show. I just never
looked at it as something negative, I just
thought it was a funny play on words.
But I can see both sides of it.
Sometimes girls who have been
on the show complain they were
edited to show them being nastier
than they really are. Do you feel
you were accurately portrayed?
Absolutely! I was very happy with the
way it turned out. Bianca and I were actually
talking about it the other day. We
were saying that the reason they didn’t
show us talking shit about anybody is
because we weren’t! We didn’t give
the producers that. We were focused
on winning, and that’s just what it was
about.
How did you feel about the way
they taped the finale, with several
possible outcomes being taped
and you not knowing who the
winner was until it actually aired
on TV?
It was pretty crazy! I’m never wrong
about a winner and I knew Bianca was
going to win as soon as we started rehearsing
for the finale. But they filmed
four endings actually, they also filmed
a tie between me and Bianca. I was like
‘holy shit, this gonna happen!’ But I
was so convinced Bianca was going to
win, everybody was. I had already made
peace with it.
Do you have any idea why they
don’t just do a live finale?
I don’t know! I think it’s because Ru
does so many takes and stuff like that.
She improvises a lot.
Out of all the songs on your
album Till Death Do Us Party,
which one would you say is
most special to you?
‘I Adore You’ is one of the most personal
songs on the album. I wrote most of that
song. I co-wrote the whole album, but
that’s the one song I did not want them
to touch at all, really. I really love how it
turned out. I wrote the melody to it as
well. It’s special to me. Prior to shooting
the video, the song was about commitment
issues and how I would hurt guys,
not getting that second chance when
you’ve already shat on a relationship.
But then the video was about cheating,
and made me the victim.
We’ve got gay prides coming
up in Amsterdam and Antwerp.
What does pride mean to you?
I’m proud of being an avid pizza eater!
Pride is so many different things.
It’s liberating, it’s peace, it’s coming
together, it’s celebrating fucking
humanity, man! Not just the LGBT
community, it’s everybody coming
together and just accepting each other
for who they are as human beings. I just
love it.
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