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RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Le Fil has spoken out on the criticism some fans have had for the way RuPaul ‘spooks’ queens before Snatch Game, which prompts several contestants to switch to different characters at the last minute.
Last night, Le Fil became the latest queen to be told to ‘sashay away’ after landing in the bottom two with Black Peppa, with the pair lip syncing to Spice Girls’ Stop in front of extra special guest judge Mel B.
Earlier on in the episode, the queen from Brighouse transformed into organisational sensation Marie Kondo for Snatch Game, having admitted that Posh Spice was another option they had considered for the gameshow.
While speaking to Metro.co.uk and other press, the 36-year-old was asked for their thoughts on the way Ru can sometimes sway the queens, which this series resulted in Danny Beard dropping their idea to do Louis Walsh, and Jonbers Blonde veering away from impersonating singer Enya.
A number of viewers expressed how disappointed they were that Danny ended up doing Cilla Black instead of the former X Factor judge, with one person tweeting: ‘I’m sorry but I’m never going to forgive RuPaul for taking Danny Beard’s Louis Walsh away from us.’
Le Fil emphasised that at the end of the day, Ru is the one in charge, and the aim of Snatch Game is always inevitably to make the head judge laugh.
Le Fil tried to spark joy on the Snatch Game panel as the ever-chirpy Marie Kondo (Picture: BBC Three)
‘I think throughout any of the challenges, when you say Ru spooks you, it’s like… you have to please Ru. So Ru was going to spook us every single week,’ they said.
‘Unless they pay your bills, pay them b***hes no mind. Ru’s our head boss!’
Le Fil continued, explaining why they decided against doing Posh Spice in favour of Marie Kondo, despite some people in the Werk Room expressing doubts over how funny an impersonation of Marie could be in the Snatch Game.
‘With me, there was a discussion about doing Posh Spice with a Chinese accent and I was like okay, I can try and figure this out and I’ll try and work it out,’ the queen recalled.
Danny was consoled by the other queens in the Werk Room following RuPaul’s less-than enthused reaction to their Louis Walsh impersonation (Picture: BBC Three)
‘In the end I was like, nah, I can’t do that at all. I have to stick to my guns and I’m not doing Posh Spice because Mel B’s there. So I have to do Marie Kondo!’
Le Fil asserted that it ‘depends on your personality if you want to do something directly just to please Ru, or if you want to stick to your convictions’.
‘For me I wanted to do an Asian character. There are so few Asian characters in popular culture and media that I was like, I don’t want to lose that opportunity,’ they stated.
‘I feel like there’s already enough loss with Asian people losing on Snatch Game and going home every Snatch Game, that I’m like, oh my god, that’s a lot of pressure.’
All of those factors resulted in Le Fil making the decision to ‘use this opportunity and focus on Asian representation’ on Snatch Game.
Posh Spice was on the table for Le Fil for Snatch Game (Picture: JMEnternational/Redferns)
Following Le Fil’s elimination, they expressed their gratitude for being on the show and being able to show that ‘an androgynous femboy from Brighouse can be in the world of drag’.
During their conversation with Metro.co.uk and other media, the queen also emphasised how much it meant to be able to ‘break stereotypes’ with ‘expressions of gender’ in the competition.
‘I was dead chuffed to be part of this cast and I think because we always see the sort of traditional drag queens and like she’s – even for me, my pronouns were still he and they throughout the entire season whether I’m in glam or not, because I think there are many ways of expressing masculinity and I want to say that,’ they said.
‘I want to challenge what you see and I think to break stereotypes is the only way to lead to equality. That’s the bigger picture. If you think a certain way about one gender, then that means the other one is going to be like that by default. So I think that’s the thing that I kept trying to smash.’
Le Fil will be greatly missed on the show (Picture: BBC Three)
Speaking about the future of the Drag Race franchise, they added: ‘I think as long as Drag Race continues bringing that diversity – each season has a slightly different evolution of that – then I think it’s going to be amazing.
‘I think people can relate to it because there’s so many of us out there, so many diverse characters, personalities, expressions of gender. We’re not just two binary things. There’s so many out there, there’s so many shades of grey, so I think there’s a lot to choose from for Drag Race, which is very fruitful then for the future.’
RuPaul’s Drag Race returns next Thursday at 9pm on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer.
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Some fans weren’t happy Danny Beard was dissuaded from doing Louis Walsh.