As one of a select few queens who have endured success as four-time Drag Race-rs, Eureka’s status as a franchise legend is indisputable. In season nine, she happy-cried to Lady Gaga slash Ronnie as she reflected on Mother Mother’s LGBTQIA+ impact and made herstory, albeit not in a positive way, as the first queen to be eliminated as a result of an injury. The self-described “Elephant Queen” made a triumphant return the following year, earning a spot in the final with two challenges under her belt and one of the series’ most iconic lip-sync showdowns with Tennessee bestie Kameron Michaels.
Although she failed to secure the crown with her third attempt on All Stars 6, Eureka won the – as various queens have put it – the ‘race after Drag Race‘ when she co-led three seasons of HBO’s We’re Here, which collected four Primetime Emmys and a Peabody Award. Again, because it bears repeating: she’s a legend.
In her fourth attempt at Drag Race victory on Canada vs the World, Eureka exuded joy in her newfound skin as a sober trans woman. While her time ended prematurely, sashaying away in sixth place, she assures GAY TIMES that it “felt right” for her journey. “I don’t necessarily know if it was my time to return competing. I think I really wanted to share my trans journey and where I was right now in my life – desperately, almost. I was maybe overly excited, that I jumped in a little quicker than I should’ve.”
Here, Eureka is as raw, shady and hilarious as she has ever been as she reflects on her Canada’s Drag Race vs the World experience (including her lip-sync battle with Miss Fiercalicious and the challenge she “hated”), the season 10 queen she wanted to “send to the house” and feeling “pleasant comfort” in her trans and sober journeys.
Eureka, it’s a pleasure to speak with you, but it’s also… annoying? I didn’t want you to go this soon.
It’s never ideal! Honestly, it felt good and right in the moment. I’m a present person, officially, so I was living in the present. I had a good time, but also being there, I don’t necessarily know if it was my time to return competing. I think I really wanted to share my trans journey and where I was right now in my life – desperately, almost. I was maybe overly excited, that I jumped in a little quicker than I should’ve.
I don’t know, that’s kind of bullshit too because when RuPaul calls, honey, you answer the call and show up! It’s always an opportunity to give back to the franchise. I’m blessed with the experience that I’ve had. When I got to see my exit episode, it was such a reminder of where I am now in my life, where I was then, and how much farther I’ve come with my emotional stability. It was also a great reminder of where I wanna go and focus on.
This was quite an emotional episode for you, but having seen all of your seasons, it feels like you were at your happiest? You were a joy to watch.
Thank you. I guess “happiness” is a good word, but I think the biggest part of happiness is weirdly comfort. I’ve lived in such discomfort most of my life because I’ve always tried to play the part to get the success I wanted, to have a place in my social atmosphere to support my family… There are so many factors as to why I needed to make it and have a successful career, but also this desperation of wanting to be in this spotlight. Growing up, I wasn’t very celebrated unless I was over-achieving, so I have this crazy drive to over-achieve and be the best at everything, which has caused this perfectionist narcissism that I live with daily. I think I just relaxed out of that. There’s something about when you start living more for yourself versus everyone else. You do find this sense of pleasant comfort.
This episode, you opened up about your sobriety and how it’s impacted your mental health and performance in the competition. How did this affect you personally, but also the relationship with your sisters and the audience at home?
I think that my sisters finally understood me a little better, being honest with where I was at mentally and where my insecurities come from. Addiction is a shame-fuelled disease, so it comes with a lot of shame about when you use or why you use, the traumas and releases [that results in someone] becoming an addict. You stay isolated and start living in this place of shame, and that’s how you stay using. For me, it was also to push myself to work, work, work, work. It was this desperation to attend and be apart of everything and be my best at everything. Also, I lost my parents, my grandmother and my mother very close together. I had a Christmas where – real tea, this is like my backstory – it turned a dark corner for me.
I couldn’t go home and I was in West Hollywood with all the abandoned queer people and it was a beautiful family moment for us to come together, but it was also such a sad time being in this environment with all these people where, the way that we coped, was to party. I started doing it heavily and it kinda stuck with me. I didn’t really use drugs until the pandemic, either. That isolation is also where it also began, finding a way to enjoy myself. The bad part about it is, when we have these not-faced traumas, which most queer people have, we can be [more] susceptible [to addiction]. Also, I think I have some generational addiction. Growing up, my parents were addicts. It explains a lot of my childhood and a lot of what I went through and witnessed. Marijuana was very prevalent, drinking and drugs, so it was normalised in my upbringing. I never really had a negative connotation or perception of it. So when it became a part of my lifestyle I was just like, ‘Oh, this is what people do!’
How do you feel right now in your journey? If that’s not too personal to ask, of course?
No, you’re fine. I appreciate you asking. I feel good. I’ve been doing really well with my personal and mental health, especially my recovery journey in general. Everyone’s journey is different, mine has been quite the rollercoaster as I explore my transness. I think that’s real for most people. In the AA community, there’s this addiction format of, ‘I’m an addict, and this is what I’ll always be forever,’ and I just feel that I’m a recovering… circumstantial addict. I’m also still narcissistic and a perfectionist and don’t want to admit that I have a horrible monster somewhere deep down inside me – we all have one. That’s the short answer! I am sober today, which is a beautiful thing. I’ve been in recovery for three years. I’ve had my “slips”, as we call it in the community, and minor relapses, but I am a proud three-year recoveree.
In a year, you can say you’re a four-time Drag Race-r and four-time recoveree.
A four-time Drag Race competitor and in recovery!
And then the next year when you appear on Global All Stars, five-time for both. That’s how it’s gonna be.
Maybe not that soon! I don’t know. We’ll see. I mean, right now I’m very much in the headspace of where I wanna live and pursue acting. I’m doing a show right now in Vegas that’s scripted, called Disco Show, which I’m very proud to be part of. I really want to branch more into writing, a lot of different things. Competing takes a lot of your spirit and attention, like prepping for the season’s release. Maybe so, but girl, I’m still trying to recover from the financial debt of Canada vs the World.
For me to have things custom made at that caliber, it costs a lot of money. If I’m ready, I think I would do Global because I appreciate all the franchises. But, I just wanna make sure I’m in a place where I’m financially secure and safe, and I’m emotionally in a place where I won’t go in feeling like I have more of a story to tell. Going into Canada vs the World, I really did have this idea of, ‘I’m excited to do this because / I wanna talk about this.’ It would be nice to go into a season without that pressure, maybe.
I’m hoping for appearance five, six, seven – whatever. I want more Eureka on my screen.
Well, my dream is that they do a plus-size All Stars. I would love that. Wouldn’t that be great?
Who would you want to go up against?
All the big girls! An all-big girl season. I don’t know how many we have now in the franchise, probably enough to do an eleven, twelve cast. All the legends to celebrate the plus-size and big girls. Normally there’s one a season, so what if we had ten or eleven? It would be drama. It would be cunty. Also, it could be “THE BIGGEST COMPETITION YET”. The PR would be great.
I hope World of Wonder is listening right now…
Me too!
Let’s talk more about Canada because you demolished the lip-sync again this week with Fierce, who has become your close friend. You’ve lip-synced against a best friend before with Kameron, so what is that experience like?
It’s emotional. Kameron was emotional, but season 10 I had this drive because my mother was sick and I was the returning queen, so I was very much in this headspace of, ‘I love you girl, but I’m not going home!’ This time with Fierce it was a little different because she was so emotionally connected to the competition. It definitely meant so much more to her to be there than me, just as far as her need for that platform and this opportunity in her career. Also, she’s young and sweet and she’s my number-one, and it was so hard because before we lip-synced, she was wanting to give up.
I grabbed her like, ‘Miss Thing, if you don’t go out there and slay me the house down boots, imma beat your motherfucking ass.’ I didn’t want her to win easy, so I had to give her a piece! I was very proud of Fierce, so if I was gonna go home, I would rather it be to someone like that. I hate lip-syncing for my life because I hate having to send people home. At least I didn’t have that heartbreak because La Kahena broke my heart, Kalorie Karbdashian broke my heart. It’s taking someone’s dream away, you know?
I know you hate lip-syncing for your life, but I love watching you lip-sync for your life…
I don’t wanna lip-sync! What’s so bad about that? I just don’t want to, girl! That was a mess, watching that back. I was being dead serious, by the way, episode one when I said I didn’t want to lip-sync. I was being honest like, ‘Maybe Lemon will appreciate the honesty.’ We did our entrance, we had been up in heels and a corset all day… Mama, I was ready to sit on that couch and sip my water, honey, and watch somebody twirl. I did not want to send La Kahena home because I know I weren’t gonna go home the first episode – don’t get crazy! Bitch, I did every little stunt I had, honey, I woulda snapped something if I had to!
I’m curious, do you have an all-time favourite lip-sync of yours?
Ooh, erm, hmm… Yeah, okay. I would definitely say mine and Kameron’s lip-sync. We’re both Tennessee girls. We were both like ‘we don’t wanna send each other home’ before the music started, but as soon as the music started, mama we were in! When you’re in like that with someone else on stage, you feel that energy. I think that’s what made it such a good lip-sync. Also, that synchronised split! Bitch, both us were like, ‘Oh no mama, I love you, but you’re going to the house.’ It was very much that. I also liked season 10 finale with me and Aquaria, the Janet Jackson song. I had a good time with the tearaways.
You’ve been in a few where no one’s gone home. Can I ask you a shady question: out of all of those double shantays, is there one in particular where you think the other person should’ve lost?
Yeah, season 10, the first lip-sync with me and Aquaria.
Okay… why?
She should’ve went to the house! They kept her, I don’t know why they kept her. Probably because she was whining about double shantays. She did okay, but the crowd was chanting my name after that lip-sync and I just knew that I had sent her to the house. That was my biggest competition for season 10, in my eyes. I knew that she was the projected winner. I felt like it was between her and Asia [O’Hara], or me and her, really. Kameron, yes, but she had lip-synced so many times. Obviously she’s a great lip-syncer, but at that point, we’d seen everything she could do so I wasn’t maybe as stressed about her. But yeah, I would’ve loved to see Aquaria peace out.
Yeah, the edit on that was weird…
It was weird because she failed at all kinds of shit. Honestly, she deserved to stay regardless. She really turned it the whole season and never lip-synced. At the end of the day, I’ve had double shantays so I can’t say nothing about it, but I would’ve loved for her to go to the house.
Thank you for sharing that shady moment with me, I loved it. Canada vs the World was your first season without RuPaul or Michelle Visage, how did that impact you and your performance?
It was different. I think of when I got back and me and Angeria [Paris VanMichaels] were kind of kiki-ing about our experiences because she had filmed All Stars. We were at my house and me and my roommate cooked something for her. I said something catty to her and she went, ‘Well bitch, how’s it feel turning tricks for Brooke Lynn Hytes?’ It was a read! I said, ‘Girl, don’t be over here all high and mighty ‘cos you’re twirling for mama again! I did that! I done been there!’ We were just playing.
But, I think it adds a different kind of pressure, weirdly. RuPaul has this sense of motherhood about her, where it’s intimidating and scary, but there’s also a sense of comfort and nurture. Brooke Lynn is very much a peer, but still an icon. To me, she gives very pageant vibes too. It felt a little less like competing on Drag Race and a little more competing in a pageant.
Canada has not been afraid to shake up the Drag Race format. As we can see from the following episode, we don’t have a proper Snatch Game. What are your thoughts on that?
I don’t know. The Reading Battles were okay, but I love getting a chance to read all the girls. That, to me, is a little more fun. I mean, it was fun? The Reading Battles were a little weird for me. Nah, I hated it actually. Maybe if it was a reading roast or something? I don’t know. Go them for pushing the envelope. The Snatch Game Rusical… I guess I’m glad I wasn’t there for it. I would’ve been over it because I love Snatch Game. I love the whole energy of it, the comedy, what it represents for the brand. So, I probably would’ve hated it but at the same time, I hate that I didn’t get to do my character.
Alright, who was that then Eureka?
Oh, you want to know?
I want to know!
You wanna know? Okay, you can send me a CashApp tip – no, I’m kidding! I was gonna do Mrs Claus and it was fierce, so I’ll post my picture next week. It was really sickening. I would’ve actually loved to do a Rusical, it would’ve been fun as this character I created. She’s from the Deep South, the South Pole y’know? ‘Mama had to find her a man so she sent her all the way up North Pole,’ very that. So, she’s country and sassy and very my tea: big titties, white hair, jewelled out of her mind. I actually wrote a one-woman show called The Divorce Claus for my character, so maybe you’ll see that.
Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs the World season 2 is streaming in the UK on BBC iPlayer.
You can watch our interview with Eureka O’Hara here or below.
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