“I didn’t know that Pangina [Heals] would be the next Manila [Luzon]. I love that!” laughs Blu Hydrangea. The Northern Irish talent is fully aware that she’ll ignite more backlash with her comments, but she’s sticking to her mothertucking guns and giving us drama, honey. “People are sending me hate and I’m like, ‘Ooh, send me more hate. I love it!’ The attention is great.” In the fourth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World, Blu generated an enormous amount of controversy online when she chose to chop Pangina, the frontrunner for the crown (at the time), from the competition; sparking a debate in the process about “All Star rules” and whether they should, like the Drag Race Thailand co-host, sashay away from the series.
“Pangina, I think the pressure of Thailand and her culture was on her shoulders and it just broke her. I didn’t expect it, that’s why my lip was quivering,” Blu tells GAY TIMES. “Someone said that was a sign of a panic attack, but I’ve never had a panic attack before so I don’t know. I think it was more that I was just upset seeing my friend upset. It wasn’t like I made a malicious decision, I just made a decision that was part of the competition and I didn’t expect it to affect her in such a visceral way.”
Although her lipstick decision continues to be met with uproar online, Blu has received widespread praise this season for her elevated runways and comedy – particularly for her ridiculously entertainting impersonation of Mike Myers’ signature character Austin Powers (and Dr Evil) on the Snatch Game. And, in similar vein to Bimini and Ginny Lemon’s discussion about their non-binary identities on UK season two, Blu’s heartfelt conversation about her gender continued to provide visibility for non-binary and trans viewers at home, with one fan saying the queen is “the non-binary icon I wish I had growing up.”
With the Drag Race UK vs the World finale looming, we caught up with Blu to chat about her decision to cut Pangina, coming out as non-binary and sashaying back into the werkroom as a new and improved Hydrangea.
Blu, this outfit is stunning.
Thank you so much! I thought I’d put on something casual just for GAY TIMES. It’s my syphilis realness. It’s my haemorrhoid moment.
How are you feeling ahead of the final?
I’m great, I’m bloody knackered though. They flipping put you through it at the BBC, they’re really trying to make some magic happen here. Good for them.
I wanna start off with your Snatch Game, which was incredible. What did Mike Myers say when he DM’d you?
He didn’t! I was raging because he probably needs the press these days, I haven’t seen him in anything for a long time. No, I’m just kidding.
How dare he.
That’s the second Snatch Game that I’ve done where I haven’t had a message from a celebrity.
You never got a message from Mary Berry?
No, but I did get a creepy message from Paul Hollywood asking me to dress up as Mary Berry and to meet him behind the bins.
Now that’s an exclusive. We can just end the interview right there.
He said he was a wee bit into it.
Blu, you caused a lot of controversy this season by eliminating Pangina. When you revealed her lipstick, did you ever imagine the response would be this chaotic?
[Laughs] Chaotic is the word. You watch All Stars and you see these queens go, ‘Thank you so much Ru,’ say their catchphrase and then they leave. Then, they tour the world and make their money. Pangina, I think the pressure of Thailand and her culture was on her shoulders and it just broke her. I didn’t expect it, that’s why my lip was quivering. Someone said that was a sign of a panic attack, but I’ve never had a panic attack before so I don’t know. I think it was more that I was just upset seeing my friend upset. It wasn’t like I made a malicious decision, I just made a decision that was part of the competition and I didn’t expect it to affect her in such a visceral way.
Shock factor wise, it felt like when Naomi Smalls eliminated Manila Luzon on All Stars 4. It seemed incredibly tense and emotional on the stage, can you take me back to that moment?
It was very intense. I didn’t know if I’d made the same decision as Baga [Chipz], and I think that if I did know that it would have settled my mind a bit that I was making the right decision. I normally like to pass things by my partner before I make massive decisions like this so it was very, ‘I’m on my own here in this moment, I don’t even think Ru’s going to stand by this decision and I have to pull this lipstick out of my sleeve and ruin someone’s dream.’ It was very intense but it was kind of bittersweet because I had just won, so I was like, ‘Good, great for me.’ I was also going to get rid of the biggest competition so, although her reaction was that intense, I was inside smiling. Somewhere deep within I was very happy, but also very outwardly sad.
After the elimination, you said you enjoyed it…
Oh yeah, it was a bit camp wasn’t it?!
But did you really enjoy it? You are Miss Congeniality!
Of season one! Not this season, there’s a new Blu in town and she’s a bit of charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent! I mean, it’s fun, it’s good TV. That was the moment I’d been sitting on for the past year and I didn’t even know it was going to be compared to Naomi. I said to everyone that Pangina’s going to be a fan-favourite, you need to get her over here and get her booked because she’s going to go down so well. I didn’t know that Pangina would be the next Manila. I love that! I love the attention. People are sending me hate and I’m like, ‘Ooh, send me more hate. I love it!’ The attention is great. My social media engagement that week was great, I was getting booked by all these companies that are like, ‘Oh, is that how many people watch your story? Great!’
When I spoke with you after your Drag Race UK season one elimination, you said you’d be a more confident Blu if you returned for All Stars. You definitely lived up to that…
That’s what I always tell people. I always say I felt like a fly on the wall in season one. The reality is that I was just so bewildered and naive during that whole experience that I didn’t feel like I put my best foot forward, whereas this time I definitely wanted to come out of my shell and not leave any stone unturned. Though I didn’t win very many challenges, I feel like I should’ve been in the top for every single week because I was killing it. That time on the road that we got just before the pandemic allowed me to be on stage in front of loads of people, talk on microphones, work with queens who inspire me and I just learned quite a lot about myself in such a short period of time. That’s the beauty of drag, you can continue to learn and it’s ever-growing, so if you stop learning about drag, there’s no point in you continuing really.
On Twitter, you admitted that you’re quite thick-skinned so you’re able to brush off the hate. But, the social media reaction to this season has been incredibly toxic. What do you think we can do to combat this hate?
I honestly don’t know if there is a way to stop it. The thing that annoys me the most is that Drag Race is so fun and it’s people putting themselves out there – not just their art, we talk about really serious things that are near and dear to our hearts. People don’t appreciate that part of it, they only appreciate the things that they want to focus on. I got a lot of hate for what I did to Pangina, but I saw Pangina get even more hate for sending Jimbo home and I honestly think that race came into that a lot. It just shows you how toxic some of the fans are, because not only are they toxic for sending hate in the first place, but they’re also racist. I said in my tweet that you quoted about being thick-skinned that I’d recently came into all this hate, and that’s because I’m white. Before that, before I’d done anything controversial, I had not been on anyone’s hate list, whereas all these people of colour that just go on Drag Race to better their lives, they get hate for just the colour of their skin and being on TV. So, the reality of the situation is that the toxicity in the fanbase is more than just sending hate to the queens, it’s also a race issue.
You received praise for opening up about being non-binary on the show. It was a really beautiful conversation and it was met with such a positive response on social media. You explained how transforming into Blu caused some gender dysphoria for you, where do you stand on that now? Have you found some balance?
Yeah. I’m very confident either way. When I was having that conversation in the werkroom, a lot of it came from being a chubby kid and I’ve never been confident in my body. But, I felt like what I did on Drag Race was I put so much into Blu up until that moment, and I felt like I’d almost changed something by getting to the final. Now, after that, I can take some time for Josh and I was able to take the time between filming and it airing for me to lose weight and find myself and grow my hair and try new things and wear new clothes. I’d done a lot for Blu and she’d had her moment, and now I can spend time with Josh and I feel very confident nowadays. I’m just living my best life, I’m non binary, I go by they/he/she. The reality is that if you call me, I’ll say hello!
In recent years, the amount of trans and non-binary talent on Drag Race has seen a massive increase with five openly trans queens on season 14. What do you think all this incredible representation means for the future of the franchise?
I think it’s amazing and there needs to be more of it. People said that AFAB queens and trans queens would change the series for the worse and it hasn’t, obviously, in fact it’s made it better. People think that about drag kings. Why don’t we have drag kings? I think it’d be camp. I think its really important to see yourself on TV, and when I was younger Drag Race was my introduction to queer people living their lives authentically and that was through their art. That really inspired me to go down this path and if I didn’t have that… I always used to say I’d just live my life as a straight man. I just don’t think I would’ve accepted myself without that. I can only imagine how incredible it is to see this many trans people of colour on Drag Race this year, it must be amazing.
Blu, I could ask you 10,000 more questions but alas…
Please do, whisper them into my asshole.
That is going in the piece.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World finale airs 8 March on BBC iPlayer.
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