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Trixie Mattel Reacts to RuPaul Forgetting Drag Queen and TV Show Names (Exclusive)

We all have to be Jan Brady sometimes — even when you’re RuPaul’s Drag Race star Marcia Marcia Marcia.

Though it was curtains for the New York City-based BFA weaponizer of season 15 after her performance in the returning stand-up comedy challenge fell flat with the in-studio audience and guest judge Ali Wong, Marcia was eliminated with jazz hands flying, giving us the old razzle-dazzle against Anetra in one of the best lip-syncs in Drag Race her-story as the pair grooved, duck-walked, and performed high-flying gymnastics to Doja Cat‘s “Boss Bitch.”

https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frankie-grande-and-malaysia-dish-on-rupauls-drag/id1663556472?i=1000603130861

Read on for Marcia’s candid elimination interview with EW, in which she discusses her makeup evolution, unused jokes from the stand-up comedy challenge, Michelle Visage‘s critique about her wearing a similar look to Loosey LaDuca, a response to Kennedy Davenport saying her Night of 1,000 Beyoncés runway looked like a “bag of carpets,” and her jaw-dropping decimation of the Main Stage alongside Anetra in her epic lip-sync swan song.

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 continues Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

RuPaul's Drag Race

Marcia Marcia Marcia on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 15.

| Credit: MTV/World of Wonder

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We’re making history, catching you at the end of your record-breaking safe streak. How do we feel about this?

MARCIA MARCIA MARCIA: It’s truly the greatest honor of my career. Safety first has always been a mantra of mine, so, I’m happy I was able to demonstrate that for the world.

You began this episode not safe from Salina‘s strategizing, after she stole Mistress away from your team and left you by yourself. Did anyone attempt to help or coach you through writing jokes?

When I was put with Mistress, I was like, great, she’s going to bully me and RuPaul is going to love it. When RuPaul told Salina that she had the choice to take someone, [I knew] she was going to take Mistress. If I was Salina, it’s what I would’ve done. Mistress is hilarious and she knows how to get RuPaul. She knows how to make her laugh. Anybody who’s in the competition would’ve been like, yeah, I’ll take Mistress. Writing it, I did it all by myself, but after I had a full draft, Loosey looked it over for me and made little adjustments.

What suggestions did she make?

Like, it’d be funnier if you phrased it this way, I see what you’re trying to go for, it’s definitely there, but swap this with this, or throw in a little thing to tie these things together — little details to make it more efficient.

Anetra decided the order of the show. We didn’t see her deliberation. Did anyone — including you — try to sway her to get the placement they wanted?

I remember telling her that, since I was alone, I felt I should either be first or last, because I feel like putting the one loner in the middle would be weird. I think we all trusted Anetra to make the right decisions.

In hindsight, do you think you would’ve advocated for a different place?

The way that I operate, personally, when I have a big thing to do, I like to just go as early as possible and just get it over with, because I know I’m just going to be sitting there running it over in my head a million times, driving myself insane. For Daytona Wind, mine and Anetra and Salina’s team was the last one we filmed, and I was sitting in that chair for hours, like, come on, I just want to do this.

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You opened the stand-up show, and it looked like the reception was a little cold. What was it like in the room because I know you don’t have the kind of music and finishing touches we see on air.

From what I remember, the crowd was receptive and warm. Obviously, there were things that didn’t land as well as I would’ve wanted them to, but, overall, I remember it being very good. I sat down afterward and Loosey was like, “That was definitely safe,” because she knew that I was worried about it. I was like, “Is that awful?” and she was like, “No, that was safe. It was solid.”

Did you have any jokes you remember writing that you didn’t perform?

There was a section in the moment I forgot to say, and I didn’t realize until after I sat down that I forgot to say it…. Obviously, it was some makeup joke that I made about myself. It was a little section where I was like, comparing my makeup when I entered the competition to things. I think I compared it to the brick wall of the Werk Room, something with Trixie Mattel, like, “I just take one of Trixie Mattel’s used makeup wipes and slap it on my face.” Something like that.

On the runway, you had a campy look, a broke-down pageant queen, and it was ironic that you ended up getting eliminated when you had the most obvious makeup on your face of the season. How did you feel about being placed in the bottom this episode, despite having a solid look and more makeup?

Going into the competition, this was the only challenge I was remotely worried about, because in my life and career I’ve done improv and acting, singing, dancing, choreography, I’ve done all of that, and stand-up comedy is one thing I’ve never done before…. I was like, if there’s any week that I should be worried about my performance, it’s going to be this one. Being alone, I knew I was at a disadvantage, so I was like, okay, it’s a possibility from the beginning, all you can do is give the best performance you can and turn the lip-sync in a way you know you can.

Michelle pointed out that Loosey had a similar runway a few weeks ago. What did you think when she told you that you should’ve thought of something else to do this week, given that you brought this look?

During the ball, when I saw Loosey come out in that outfit, I was like, no, please, stop, do something else! When Michelle [said that], it’s like, well, when would I have done that? But, cool. It’s one of those caveats of doing Drag Race, you brought what you brought, you can’t get distraught.

Did you and Loosey, after her runway, discuss that you had a similar look coming up?

Not really. I hoped it would be more than, what, two weeks later? And no one would remember? That’s what I was gunning on. We all just, in the moment, have to work with our first instinct, especially in the design challenges, you have to get your idea and run with it. It’s no biggie. I like the look a lot, I think it’s fun and goofy.

Speaking of runway, what did you think of Kennedy Davenport saying at Roscoe’s that your Beyoncé look was a “bag of carpets?”

I don’t really understand what she means by a bag of carpets. But also, you know, we all struggle with outfits from time to time. Some of us are glamazons that were once set ablaze and crystallized and step on the runway, and some of us are bags of carpets. Everyone has different aesthetics. In the scheme of my runway package, the Beyoncé one was one I didn’t really know how to approach, because I was like, God, what is Marcia Marcia Marcia going to do that will represent Beyoncé? It didn’t feel like something I could’ve possibly done. I like to make things campy and silly, and for whatever reason, I love to injure myself [in looks]. I didn’t really know what to do with it, so I just went elegant.

This lip-sync is my favorite of the season. I think it’ll go down as one of the all-time great Drag Race lip-syncs. There was a moment you bent over backwards and Anetra leaped over you, it seemed like you were interacting, but I couldn’t tell if it was choreographed. Was it all improvised?

It was entirely improvised. I did not know that she jumped over me until I got off stage and one of the PAs was like, “That was amazing, Anetra jumped over you!” In those moments, you’re blacked out, doing whatever you can. I absolutely love Anetra, so when they told us, I was like, good, Anarcia until the end!

Can you explain how you honed that energy with Anetra on stage?

I think a lot of it comes from, it’s going to sound hippie-dippy, but feeling the energy of the other person and understanding that there are two of you on stage, and it’s not going to be fun for anyone if you’re just trying to stand in front of the other person. My favorite lip-syncs in the Drag Race canon are ones where the queens are working together. I think my favorite lip-sync in the history of Drag Race is Brooke Lynn Hytes and Yvie Oddly doing “Sorry Not Sorry,” because they’re like, I’ll let her do her thing, but I’m going to do my thing, and if we happen to do our things together, fantastic. I was obviously very upset in Untucked, and I was able to shake that off and say, okay, this is the moment you pull out everything you have and hope it works out in your favor, regardless of the outcome, going out on a strong lip-sync is one of the things I’m most grateful for and having Anetra there is something I was so grateful for, because she’s so sweet and supportive and incredible performer. Getting to do it with her was an honor and a privilege.

It’s up there with Brooke and Yvie as one of the best. Could you sense that it had gone over well in the room, and did you anticipate a double shantay?

I definitely knew it was going well. Ali Wong was losing her mind. The whole judges panel was screaming. I had a lot to prove to RuPaul, and to see RuPaul at the end of it with this huge grin, it was almost like maybe she didn’t expect it. I did what I had to do, and if a double shantay was possible, I did everything in my power to make it happen.

We’ve seen lip-syncs on Drag Race go from straightforward to reveal-heavy to minimal again. Did you have any backup reveals planned for any time you had to lip-sync that you ended up not doing?

I think the only look that I made that came off in case I had to lip-sync was the Beyoncé look. The skirt, I could just take it off and it was a little unitard. I like that we’re getting more to performance-based core for the lip-syncs, because that’s ultimately what all of us are doing in our shows back home.

This interview was edited and condensed for length and clarity.