Dawn reveals “Drag Race” sex rumor she started, reacts to 'Body' lip-sync: 'She dropped a nuke on my ass'
The beloved evil elf tells a hilarious story she spread about her sisters and savors the fun she had on set: "I’m just a chaotic little bitch, and I’m at peace with that."
Evil elves might wobble, but they don't fall down — they just (sadly) get "nuked" by their sisters, apparently.
Though Dawn courted a mass amount of fans for her jaw-dropping runway looks and hilariously shady confessionals throughout RuPaul's Drag Race season 16, the self-professed "chaotic little bitch" met her untimely end on Friday's episode, after being saddled with two seemingly insurmountable tasks: First, designing a bathroom for the Maxi challenge, but also lip-syncing to Megan Thee Stallion's "Body" against BBL, body-shimmying heir to Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige's lip-sync assassin throne, Morphine Love Dion.
Though neither endeavor worked in Dawn's favor, she still enjoyed her time on the show — and tells' EW's Quick Drag podcast (above) that she made the most of every second on set. Including that time she playfully spread a sex rumor about Plane Jane and Nymphia Wind that first reared its head during Megami's EW exit interview in February.
Listen to Dawn's full Drag Race elimination interview above, and read on for a breakdown of the Q&A, including her initial plans for more Meghan McCain Snatch Game gags, an update on her mental health journey, and who she thinks is the real villain of season 16.
RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 continues Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s rip the band-aid off. Let’s start with this lip-sync. Do you think it’s fair to say it was a murder?
DAWN: Girl, it was more than a murder. She dropped a nuke on my ass. That s--- was horrific, like, it was crazy.
What was your approach to the lip-sync? In Untucked, it seemed like you were upset — more defeated than we’ve seen in the past.
I had such a good time every single day, even the days I was safe on safe on safe, I wasn’t in the top, I still came into Untucked happy, excited, having fun, joking around. That day was the first day where I was like, just not feeling it. I don’t think I’d given up, but I didn’t realize I was in the bottom two until they called Nymphia safe. I don’t want to call that delusion, I want to call it hope.
I want to talk about a few moments earlier this season, like when you all voted Sapphira Cristál as the flirtiest. What’s the tea? Was there kai kai?
I don’t think there was kai kai with anybody; she’s just a top, and she made it known she was a top in a roomful of twinks who were mostly bottoms.
There was a rumor that Plane and Nymphia were… uh…
Oh, I think I started that.
You started it?
I might’ve. I just thought they were f---in’. They both have told me that they’re not, and I believe them, but I just thought they were f---in’. I thought it was true, okay?
Megami first teased that in our exit interview, and Xunami wouldn’t spill. Plane told me they weren’t, so, we can blame this on you?
I think Megami probably brought it up first publicly, but I put that in her ear months ago. Sorry about that. But, I thought they were f---in’!
Let’s talk Snatch Game. We cover The View a lot at EW, and I was excited to see you do Meghan McCain. You eviscerated her in your confessional, but in the actual challenge, we didn’t see too much. What did you plan to do that didn’t come together?
Snatch Game was a total brain fart for me. Snatch Game is so weird and specific, and you’ll never know how you feel until you’re in that moment. I wanted to say, “My father” for everything, I wanted to get a horrifically styled, braided bun wig, but I ran out of time.
You and Plane went at it, perhaps playfully, online this season. Is it real tension?
As far as I know, that’s my sister! I love her, we’re cutting up, having fun, fully shooting the s--- and getting a rise out of each other. I’m going to tweet about how ugly her dress is, but I also texted her like, “Hey girl, you know I think this dress is ugly, so I’m going to ham it up, but I won’t make it more serious than that.” Even on the show, when we’d get into the doo-doo clown of it all, to me, that was a fun moment. Watching it back, I think perhaps she was angrier with me than I was in the moment. It’s still silly fun TV time, it wasn’t like, “F--- Plane Jane.”
You’re also close with Amanda Tori Meating, and she has particular feelings about Plane’s behavior. Is it difficult maintaining friendships with both?
Not difficult. Obviously, they had their moment and they both talked about it here with you. I don’t think Amanda is holding a grudge, but they’re also not great friends now. To me, even right after the show, Amanda had her feelings, and I said to her, like, “Me and Plane are friends, do you have any problem with that?” She’s not a crazy person. She’s been sweet, like, “Be friends with who you want to be friends with.” It’s not difficult because we’re all adults and understand adult relationships. That doesn’t mean that I let Plane slide on everything. If she tweets something nasty about Amanda that I don’t agree with, I’ll be like, “Girl, that’s too much.” That’s an important part of the relationship, is to understand those boundaries and not let s--- slide that you don’t agree with.
You teased in our first interview last year that you might be the evil elf of the season, and it seemed like you worked playful evil this season, especially the shady confessionals and telling Plane to tell Nymphia Wind that she’d save her, but then not do it. Were there any evil things you plotted that people don’t know about?
I didn’t plot s---, I came to set ready to have a good time! At my core, I’m just a chaotic little bitch, and I’m at peace with that. I don’t have issues with any of these queens. I’m friends with everybody. No one has come to me like, wow, Dawn, you really took that too far. We’re there, we’re having fun, we’re filming TV. I wasn’t plotting anyone’s downfall — except maybe Nymphia in that moment. I’m being sarcastic!
Do you think there’s a real distinction between who is the villain of the season?
With shows like this, Plane is absolutely the early-season villain, but I’d say I’ve gone into late-season villain territory, but what does villain really mean? The person fans don’t like, or the person instigating drama? If it’s the person the fans don’t like, it’s not me, but I’m also instigating drama. I’ll say that I was the villain, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
I always see it as a TV show, we’re getting a microscopic portion of your lives in a high-pressure environment. Villain, to me, is mischievous. I don’t think you’re actually evil.
There was one moment where the season aired, where I finally realized — I struggled emotionally with some of the earlier episodes, watching it back was kind of hard — around episode 8 or 9, where if you see the character I am on TV, if you don’t like that, I don’t think you like fun, so I don’t care. I gave up on trying to please everybody, because I watched every episode and without some annoying bitch in my ear telling me that I’m a bitch, I loved it.
It's important that you talked about mental health, too, because this can go awry for people who don’t have the capability to pull back from those external factors once the show airs. How has that journey with mental health been since you opened up about it on the show?
That’s the crux of who I am as a person ... That’s what I’m like on the surface, but my whole life revolves around the neuroses, the anxiety, the OCD, the therapy, and I think that’s the complexity and character that doesn’t always get shown on the show. Watching it back, it’s been difficult. I kind of went through cycles where after the episode I felt so great, and by Monday or Tuesday I’d see people talking s--- about my runways, saying I was mean or bullied Plasma, and it got in my head, like, am I actually a bad f---ing person? I decided these random things people are saying aren’t relevant to me. My mom watches the show and thinks I’m hilarious, and that’s all that matters to me.
In this challenge, the judges said you and Nymphia didn’t vibe. How did hearing that feedback compare to having two judges — Carson and Michelle — in the scenes with you? Could you tell by their reactions in scenes that you weren’t slaying?
No, not at all. The energy when we did it was so frantic. It was early in the morning, we’d been working on this bathroom all day, the main focus was just do it and do it well. I didn’t notice anything was going awry while it was happening, but I didn’t have any context for it. I didn’t get to see what everyone else was doing, so I had no context of them not reacting the same way that they did to [the others.] It wasn’t shocking, but it was disappointing.
I also loved that you brought up your drag king alter-ego, Dusk, this episode. After Naysha Lopez’s recent comments about drag kings, do you think they should have a separate show?
If there was a way to have a drag king show as platformed as Drag Race, I’d love for that to be the case. Drag Race is such a viral and mainstream platform that absolutely drag kings deserve to be on. Maybe in the future once drag queens and kings are on similar footing, sure, they can have their own show, but I don’t see any reason why Drag Race in its current form or in the future shouldn’t allow drag kings. I’d love to see drag kings the show!
Subscribe to EW's Quick Drag podcast for recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race, including reactions from the cast, special guests, and more.
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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.