Fact alert: Mo Heart is one of the most consistent contestants in Drag Race’s ever-expanding herstory. While she may have not advanced as far as fans expected in season 10, due to a lack of budget, she still managed to provide viewers with endless amounts of entertaintment with her confessionals, humour and of course, her catchphrase “brown cow stunning!” The full breadth of her charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent wasn’t witnessed until her All Stars 4 follow-up, where she landed three maxi-challenge wins and cemented her status as one of the supreme lip-syncers of the entire franchise (Mo vs Latrice Royale really was the Gay Super Bowl!). Although she’s only secured one win on the international spin-off, Mo has continued to do what she does best: and that is by flexing her “pussy cunt”.
“Hindsight is always 20/20,” Mo tells GAY TIMES ahead of the UK vs the World finale. “I came in killing All Stars 4, so I was like, ‘I’m going to kill it on this one too.’ I was not worried about anyone coming in, and when I didn’t win like I wanted to win, I was like, ‘What the heck is going on?!’ Then I looked at it and said, ‘If I had won like I wanted to, I would’ve been that bitch.’ I was like, ‘Oh Holy Spirit, you love me, thank you! I’m supposed to be right where I am, girl, back here safe. I’m gonna be in the top four, thank you!'”
The first ever international version of Drag Race has been mothertucking ride. From Jimbo’s hammy clown performance to Janey Jacké’s berserk arm choreo in the Vengaboys lip-sync smackdown, to the highly controversial eliminations, UK vs the World will go down in the herstory books. As we await to find out which competitor will be crowned ‘Queen of the Mothertucking World,’ we caught up with Mo to discuss the drama of the season and her most memorable moments, including her werkroom outfits and insightful conversation about the horrors of conversion therapy.
Mo! How are you?
Hi Sam! How are you, my dear? I’m fabulous. I’m not in drag because my bags were lost, so…
You’ve been killing this season with your werkroom looks, so it’s fine by me…
Thank you! I had to make a quick stop over to Miss Zara. You look fabulous on the show, then you should try to maintain it. I wasn’t going to show up in jeans and a t-shirt, you know what I mean?
I saw someone on Twitter say that your werkroom outfits are just as exciting as the runways and better than another queen’s actual runways…
Look I will tell you this, and please type this in, this is true, two of her designers did screw her. One of those designers I was supposed to work with. My cat look became my cat look because we had the same designer, and they decided to give us the phone call the week before we left. That’s not fair to us, we’re going on Drag Race and you’re going to wait until the last minute? So, she got double-y screwed. Give her a little grace! But the facts are that I did turn, and turn… Facts! But, we did want the record to be known because people were like, ‘Girl, what’s the tea?’ If you get screwed over right before you go, what else are you going to do?
The level of unprofessionalism… Well, I’ve never been so excited to see a queen walk into their werkroom in their normal clothes?!
It’s funny because that’s what I wanted. Here you go, you get the phone call to go and you’re like… This is facts, I’ve been telling everyone this, they cut this out of my story in the confessionals. I watched season 13 on Saturday, it came out Friday. RuPaul comes down in that fabulous look and I said in the depths of my heart, ‘Holy Spirit, if I ever… would you please give me the opportunity to go back just one more time?’ And I got a phone call that Wednesday. So I said, ‘Wait a minute Holy Spirit, you’re playing with my heart! What are you doing?’ So I said, ‘Wait a minute, baby, my confessional look needs to be a look and my entrance clothes, every time I walk into the werkroom, you need to be the international superstar that you are coming in, not at who you are when you finish.’ So that was my mindset.
Mo, can I just say that you demolished last week’s episode more than anyone has demolished any challenge this season…
Thank you, thank you. Finally, finally, finally! I thought the Rusical was really going to be my moment, I really did. Talking to the girls going into it, they were like, ‘You got it.’ It had the name change, it had the whole rebranding and the performance songs. I was like, ‘This is perfect.’ Then that cartwheel, girl. Not because I couldn’t do it, but because the velcro got stuck to my garment and I slipped. I was like, ‘No!’ Then Pangina [Heals] went home and I thought, ‘Okay now I might have a chance.’ I said, ‘Bitch, let me just kill the rap, kill the show and eat the girls up.’ I was like, ‘Finally the bitch is doing it now, finally.’ Praise God!
What is it with your wardrobe malfunctions in the Rusicals? First your Aaliyah outfit, which I still think looked amazing, and I don’t think that warranted you being in the bottom…
I also think we should’ve been in the top for that. Our group and our song was a lot better than the other group who looked crunchy, but whatever. This is what you learn when you do the show. You learn certain things like, ‘Hmm, this look may look good in a photo but not on a runway.’ I learnt that the bubble coat is good for a look but when it’s time to perform, you are a six-foot man sweating in a vinyl coat that, when you try to take it off, it’s stuck to you. It’s just different things to learn. I will tell you this: I learned that I should trust my intuition. I heard, clear as day before we did the Rusical, ‘Take the gloves off.’ You do it twice, that’s just how we do it, and I was like, ‘I should not have these damn gloves on,’ but I kept them on because I didn’t want to get read, and then I fucked up.
I have to talk about the lip-sync against Juju. I personally think you won that…
Can you please say that again, please?! Here you go, watching it and understanding… Because it’s funny, we’re really not allowed to talk once we are done with the day, because that would take away from the story. You don’t want to miss out on that, they want to keep all of that. So watching everything play back, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I did win but maybe she was just good because…’ Wait, I can’t tell you… Never mind. You’ll have to wait until next week for me to answer the question. We’ll just talk next week Sam, okay? I can’t give you too much because then you’ll understand other things, but yeah…
The mystery of it all…
The mystery!
This season has been met with a lot of uproar online because of the eliminations. What was it like for you, watching it all play out in front of you?
Here you go. I have this quote when I walked in and I said, ‘The battle is not yours, it’s the Lord’s.’ I essentially watched God pluck these hoes right on out, so I was very thankful to not have ever been chopped. Let’s just start with the order. Lemon going home? That hurt because you saw the progression of Lemon and she came back with all these fabulous costumes. If you follow her on Instagram, she’s turning it… Then she’s the first one out. You felt that like, ouch. Bitch, no one wants to go home! You’re thinking, ‘Maybe RuPaul is going to be nice?’ and be like, ‘Don’t worry girl.’ No bitch, she sent her home. Okay, lovely. Then Cheryl [Hole] went home, whatever. The third went home. Who went home? Jimbo went home. You were like, ‘Ugh.’ I was over her at that point. Then when Pangina went home, girl… I’m a very affectionate, touchy, lovey person. When they said Pangina, I grabbed Janey so hard she said she had a bruise. I was like, ‘Girl, I’m so sorry!’ It took me out. I will say this, hindsight is always 20/20. I came in killing All Stars 4, so I was like, ‘I’m going to kill it on this one too.’ I was not worried about anyone coming in, and when I didn’t win like I wanted to win, I was like, ‘What the heck is going on?!’ Then I looked at it and said, ‘If I had won like I wanted to, I would’ve been that bitch.’ I was like, ‘Oh Holy Spirit, you love me, thank you! I’m supposed to be right where I am, girl, back here safe. I’m gonna be in the top four, thank you!’
Do you think Blu Hydrangea actually did enjoy eliminating Pangina like she said? Because, at the time, she was shaken when Pangina sashayed away…
I don’t know how to answer that question because I know. She was wrecked, the girl cried. I held her, okay, I held her. She was shaking. I felt like I gave her some confidence because I said, ‘Girl, you did what you needed to do.’ And then when she came back into the werkroom she was like, ‘I did it. Bam!’ I was like, “Who is this little demon child? That’s the spawn of Chuckie!’ So, I don’t know if it was an act or… Crazy.
It’s funny because you have been present for some of the most controversial Drag Race exits: Manila Luzon, Jimbo, Pangina. Your power…
Is it me? Am I the villain? The drama? The apocalypse? Put that in there. Is it me? Am I the apocalypse? That’s a sound bite, I need to get in drag and do that. Yeah, I guess so? I will say this: watching Manila go home was like, ‘Damn.’ But the Pangina one, baby, just saying her name I feel a quiver down my soul. It stings a little different, girl, it hurts bitch. I don’t know. Then, the crying at the end?
Yeah, I was shaken.
Yes! Okay look, RuPaul is an actor. If you watch any of the eliminations, RuPaul will do the same thing. He’ll go, ‘I’m eliminating Sam,’ and he’ll go, ‘Mmm.’ Like, watch him. This one, you saw Ru and felt Ru’s reaction. That’s when you know, okay? Baby girl, we were nervous and she let her cry. Ru’s a business person so there ain’t much like, ‘Okay, you’re chopped. Let’s go.’ He was shaken and taken aback and knew that it was such a serious moment. She was weeping and then he goes, ‘Well girls, this is a competition. Let the music play.’ We’re like, ‘Bitch, how we supposed to dance? To, to, to the moon?’ Just hug the bitch. We don’t know what to do? It was crazy. The car ride home? Crazy, quiet, they didn’t want none of the girls talking. I don’t even smoke cigarettes, I was outside with Jujubee like, ‘Bitch, give me a cigarette.’ It was crazy!
On this week’s episode, you opened up about your experience with conversion therapy, which is a very important topic right now in the UK because our government is dragging its motherfucking feet in getting it banned. I just wanted to know, what kind of response have you witnessed from viewers after having that conversation?
The outpour has been so kind and tender and ridiculous. To see everyone, every spectrum, genders, everyone come in with love like, ‘Baby, this helped me,’ ‘This is healing me…’ I mean, tears. People playing the clip back saying, ‘I play this just to go to sleep,’ it just washes over them. It’s just very fitting for me. Here you go, I’ll say this really quick: before I came out, I was in full time ministry and you know I don’t believe in all of that foolishness, but I will say this: I do believe that God can speak through anyone at any time, anywhere. I had this one person say, ‘I feel like you are going to be loving people and washing them with love.’ She says, ‘I see it in a rainbow.’ So when I’m getting all of this, it’s just like, wow, that’s a fulfilment. I’ll give you one more quickly. To be here at the top four, it’s amazing, it’s very fitting, I pray that I win.
I wanted to talk to you about your name change which you said was to give off a more gender-fluid and androgynous approach to drag. What made you come to this decision?
I feel that we’re artists and we’re people, and we’re constantly changing. I wanted to change my name to Ariana Styles, then I was like… ‘Don’t do it!’ I just didn’t want to be in a binary of a female. Yes, I’m pussy cunt baby yes, but I want my aesthetic to be a muscular, gender-fluid man that’s hot, sexy and likes to wear high heel shoes! So that’s why I did it. Also, it’s great for branding!
The RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World finale airs 8 March on BBC iPlayer.
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