Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This entire season ofRuPauls Drag Race, the name on everybodys lips was Suzie Toot.
Queens and viewers alike couldnt stop talking about the Betty Boop look-alike with a weird sense of humor.
And yet: Why?
That question echoes through theDrag Raceuniverse following her earlier-than-expected elimination in this weeks episode.
But now look at her,struck down before the finale.
They hated everything she did, all the way down to her ugly character shoes.
How did it feel to watch the challenge play out?It was crazy.
What would Susie Toots Vegas Look be like now?Im furious about this to this day.
Looking back, I had this long, red Jessica Rabbit sequin dress.
There are many shows in Vegas that have nothing to do with gambling or feathers.
I think its a valid direction.
However, aesthetically, it was not as exciting as what the other girls brought.
Were the queens confused that there was no verse challenge?I was confused.
I was so excited for verses!
And I was like, Literally, fuck you.
My verse would be so good.
I was so ready to do a girl-group challenge.
But I wouldve ate and done very well.
I wanted the girls to underestimate me and think that I was some dinky-dinky kind of girl.
In my perfect world, that was going to carry on the rest of the season exactly that way.
There were definitely moments that were less shining than others for me.
Did you expect to be an underdog?I definitely did.
Im an underdog in the drag world.
In Fort Lauderdale, nobody expected me to be anything.
I never even really thought of it that way.
And I think it was kind of a halt to the story line that was supposed to be.
Is that still how you perceive it?Not at all.
I could rely only on myself.
Had I been in the bottom once before, it could have been a different journey.
What do you think wouldve changed?It would have loosened me up.
This isnt a real photo shoot.
The challenge is interacting with RuPaul.
Its not taking a nice picture.
How did you conceptualize the challenge of the Latrice interview?It was a job interview.
The script is written, baby.
Just get me out there.
That part of the challenge, Im very proud of myself and how I did.
Both of us were spooked at the reality of it.
On the first day, there was no hiding.
Suddenly your mom is there and so is your life, your childhood, everything.
I think the fans have really, really enjoyed that episode, so Im very grateful for that.
But it was definitely a scary thing.
There were a lot of complicated feelings that went in to it.
I had been riding on such a boisterous high up until then.
Was there a different tenor when you guys arrived at the top five?One hundred percent.
When you meet somebodys parents, you bond with them in a totally different way.
We were all genuinely so thrilled that Jewels stayed, as well as Onya, in that lip-sync.
I was going to say if she left, I wouldve been furious.
No, I wouldve been thrilled, but it wasnt going to happen.
The writing was on the wall for Jewels.
She thought she was going home!
We had just become such a unit of the five of us.
You got to be there for the entirety of the experience.
She had gotten another bottom-two placement and still only had the one win.
It felt like if she did not win the challenge, she wouldve gone home.
You know what I mean?
So because she won the challenge, that changed everything.
The math was different?The math was very different than when we walked into this episode.
Every single runway and every challenge, I wouldve tweaked something.
And I did a great job all things considered.
But I guess Im curious about the changes not only as an artist but as a reality-TV competitor.Yeah.
Theres definitely a game there that I learned a lot about doing the show.
That is the law of the universe.
And I would say that to any contestant going on the show.
You have to accept it.
Thats something that I could have played along with more in the moment.
