“Drag Race” queens' new horror movie “Slay” led to bloody on-set injury: 'Acting challenge on steroids'
Heidi N Closet and Trinity The Tuck tell EW's "Quick Drag" podcast about their Tubi flick, also starring Crystal Methyd and "Drag Race UK" queen Cara Melle.
Maybe drag is a contact sport after all — at least, that's what RuPaul's Drag Race alums Heidi N Closet, Trinity The Tuck, Crystal Methyd, and Cara Melle learned while fighting off bloodthirsty vampires in their new Tubi horror movie Slay.
As Heidi and Trinity exclusively tell Entertainment Weekly's Quick Drag podcast, the queens' battered and bloody battle gear was less armor and more "cumbersome" glamor, as the latter explains that they had to "go through stunt school" to learn how to do battle with their monstrous foes while wearing "wigs, tight dresses, and jewelry" — all while smashing sharp objects over the heads of villainous creatures trying to suck their blood.
Tubi, Inc.
'Drag Race' queens Trinity The Tuck and Heidi N Closet in 'Slay'"We did most of the stunts ourselves. Heidi literally gets picked up by her throat and slammed on a table. She did all of that, over and over," Trinity recalls, while Heidi admits "it was kind of hot, too," in addition to simply looking fabulous (and, given its stars' status as full-fledged drag artists, altogether unlike anything else seen in a mainstream horror movie before.)
"It was definitely not a Drag Race acting challenge," says Trinity, who excelled at her respective acting challenges on season 9 and All Stars 4, while season 12 and All Stars 8 star Heidi takes the assessment one step further, calling Slay a "Drag Race acting challenge on steroids."
Tubi, Inc.
Heidi N Closet, Cara Melle, Trinity The Tuck, and Crystal Methyd in 'Slay'The plot of Slay lays the foundation for silliness and splatter, taking light notes from genre classic From Dusk Till Dawn and fusing it with the kind of camp-comedy bliss found among Drag Race and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Its story follows four queens mistakenly booked at a rural bar, where the uninspired crowd soon becomes a collective late-night snack for an army of vampires, with the queens ultimately tasked with saving the townsfolk from the ravenous threat.
While the story is mostly packed with fun and ferocity (of many kinds), Heidi reveals to EW that, among the "gross" fake "blood splatter" the queens endured daily, there was an on-set accident that drew real blood from one of the performers.
"There was an injury. It wasn’t one of us. One of the vampires," she shares. "[My love interest in the movie] smashes a bottle over their head. We had to do it multiple times, so we had multiple bottles. So, the first one went, and we dusted him off, but apparently, baby, we had missed one of the pieces of glass, so when we did the second one, a piece had cut him and he had to get that taken care of, a bandage, but he was such a trooper and very sweet and kind," she remembers.
Another brutal development, Trinity says, occurred when the cast realized which of their fellow performers would be playing Heidi's body double.
"We were in a van going to a location and, out of nowhere, in the distance, comes Heidi’s extra, her body double, walking toward the van, bitch. We’re like, 'Who is that?'" Trinity says. "Ooh-wee, honey…. I don’t want to be mean. Let’s just say they were a great stunt double, but I don’t know that drag queen is their profession."
Tubi, Inc.
Trinity The Tuck, Cara Melle, Heidi N Closet, and Crystal Methyd in 'Slay'The foursome at the center of Slay, however, proved themselves to be professional ladies in front of and behind the camera — for the most part.
"Even just wearing a tuck, duct-tape around your head, all of that is so brutal," Trinity notes. "I don’t think people realize how cumbersome and taxing drag is on your body, for hours and hours — but, it was totally worth it."
Slay is now streaming on Tubi. Heidi and Trinity's full Quick Drag podcast interview premieres Monday on EW.
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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