Interview: RuPaul’s Drag Race – Naysha Lopez
4 min read
It’s finally that fabulous time of the year: Another season of RuPaul’s Drag Race has officially begun! Another twelve talented queens have entered the race to become America’s next drag superstar—including the 100th queen to enter the workroom!—and it’s shaping up to be one of the tightest seasons in the show’s eight year history. With $100,000 and enough cosmetics to last a lifetime coming with the title, you can expect yet another fierce, memorable competition from the new generation of queens.
Unfortunately, one queen must always be the first to sashay away; in season eight’s case, it was the talented Puerto Rican Miss Continental winner Naysha Lopez. Despite never having a chance to show off her repertoire of skills and fashions, her endearing personality made her a memorable face despite her short time there. We had the chance to ask her a few questions in the wake of her elimination from the competition.
Michael Smith: How was your time on RuPaul’s Drag Race? Are you happy with how you were presented on the show?
Naysha Lopez: My time was short and I wish it had been longer. I promised myself I’d just be me on the show and I think they captured that, so I’m happy with the way I was presented.
MS: How did you find the audition process? Was there anything in your tape that you feel helped you stand out?
NL: The fact that I had won the Miss Continental Pageant and RuPaul has been around long enough to know about it. I think that helped me stand out. The pageant has been around for 35 years and usually transgender women win, so the fact that I won shows them I’m competitive. Candice Cayne, who does choreography for RuPaul’s Drag Race, has won the pageant before too.
MS: The challenge for this episode revolved around working with themes from past seasons of the show. If you had been able to choose a theme for yourself, which would you have taken and what would you have done with it?
NL: Any of them except the one that I got! I would have decorated a fucking boat, I would have made a dress… Anything! And it’s so funny, because when they came up I thought: “Please not drag on a dime. You are just going to get shit!” I know how to sew, but the fact that you get straight-up garbage makes it hard.
MS: Is there anything you regret doing, or wish you had done differently now that you’ve had time to think about it?
NL: Little things here and there that you think about later… Like, in the challenge Derrick Barry didn’t finish her costume. Thorgy Thor did it. And later, I was just thought to myself: “Why didn’t I ask my girl Cynthia for help?” It wasn’t my pride. I just didn’t think of it, and Derrick is over here not finishing anything by herself! Other Queens didn’t finish in time either. I should have asked one of my sisters to help me out!
MS: What sort of challenge were you most looking forward to on the show?
NL: The dance challenge… And it’s the second week. You see the girls dancing in the trailer for next week and I was just thinking, “Wow, this is the one I wanted the most. ” Or anything that had to do with acting. That would have been fun.
MS: If you could have chosen any song to Lip Sync For Your Life to instead of Lady Gaga’s Applause, what would you choose?
NL: Anything but Lady Gaga’s Applause! On the premiere tour bus, the girls would be like “Naysha, what song are you going to do? Applause?” Because they know how much I hate the song now! I’ve grown to love Lady Gaga, but I wasn’t one of those people who jumped on the bandwagon immediately. I love Madonna to death and would have liked to do something from her. I asked Laila McQueen if she knew the Applause song and she said “Oh yeah, I love it.” I was just like: “Well thanks, bitch. I’m going home!” She asked if I could do the splits and I said, “I can do some shit, but not in this!”
Tune into RuPaul’s Drag Race next Monday at 9/8c on Logo to catch a big bombshell moment you won’t want to miss!
Uugh, easy to say ‘anything but drag on a dime’ or ‘anything but lady gaga’. She said on stage that she doesn’t know how to sew. I liked her personality but I don’t think she would have gone far on drag race.