The Drag Race alums talk about their new horror movie, its “very important” anti-drag hate message and their hope to become the “Gay Avengers.”
Heidi N Closet and Crystal Methyd are ready to Slay all day.
The pair star in Tubi’s new original comedy alongside fellow RuPaul’s Drag Race alums Trinity the Tuck and Cara Melle, pitting the foursome against a bar full of vampires at a gig gone terribly wrong.
And while they may not have any real-life experience going toe-to-stiletto-covered toe with bloodsuckers, they still have drag show horror stories that would make any queen squirm and shiver.
“Ooh, there was one drag gig where there was like no bathroom, and they just had me pee in a drain, a hole in the floor,” Methyd told TooFab while promoting the new film in full Nosferatu drag. “I was a boy scout, so I know how to rough it, but I was like, this is strange. And this is where they dumped the ice!”
“Well, my worst one wasn’t anything that the venue did,” Heidi then shared. “I was in LA, and then I had to fly, I think it was up to Salt Lake City … And it was fine. I went kind of just like this and flew.”
“And then I started doing my makeup, I’m in my hotel room, I walked out the door, and a blizzard had hit,” Heidi continued. “And I’m wearing these [sandals] and these are the only shoes I brought because I go home the very next day … and I’m stuck there with frozen feet, getting ready to go to the show!”
Looking back on that night, Heidi exclaimed, “It was a mess, girl. It was a mess. I had socks on, they were wet. I was like, this is too much.”
On Drag Race, the girls are often put through the wringer with acting challenges, learning full skits in a matter of hours before sometimes embarrassing themselves on the main stage. Thankfully, for Crystal and Heidi, being on a real movie set was a very different beast.
“You definitely get more takes,” said Heidi, as Crystal celebrated how much more time they had to prepare themselves. “They want to get that good shot, no matter how long it takes. Whereas in Drag Race, there’s just so many moving parts. They got to keep going no matter what,” the latter added.
They also loved how far ahead of shooting they got the scripts — with Heidi quipping, “Now, whether you read it or not, that’s all you.”
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All four drag superstars get their moments to shine throughout the fun and freaky flick, pulling off some excellent fight choreo — in full face, heels and latex! — while poking fun at vampire movie tropes and celebrating the queer community all at the same time. The movie also pulls no punches calling out anti-drag hate, a sentiment which has unfortunately become far too common in recent years.
“It’s very important, especially going into this next year with all these legislations and bills being trying to be passed and stuff,” said Heidi of the film’s bigot criticism. “I feel like the way that [writer/director Jem Garrard] was able to do it in the film made it not come off as preachy. It was able to poke fun and bring levity to a very serious and heavy conversation.”
“We have to have the conversation, but if we can lighten it and make it easier to talk about, it makes it wider and more available to everyone to be able to talk about,” continued Heidi, who also found it pretty cathartic to fight back against some pointy-toothed homophobes in the film. “I definitely used a lot of those emotions from feeling all that for many years back in the day. I was like, well, let it out now. It’d be great. Get in touch with your emotions. Feel it. Be the fantasy.”
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Heidi also gets herself a love interest in the film, a cute superfan of the drag quartet played by Gabriel Meltz. That, naturally, begged the question: Would either of them date a superfan in real life?
“Personally, I can’t date fans, only for personal reasons,” said Crystal.
“I can’t date a fan, but I can …” added Heidi, before Crystal said, “She will take you to her hotel room.”
“Be intimate; I can be intimate with him,” Heidi clarified, adding that her current partner was also a bit of a Drag Race fan before they started dating. “He was team Crystal,” she quipped, joking, “He was like, ‘You did okay on the show. I’m more a fan of your friends, but you’re cute though as a person.”
With Slay out now, the girls are all hoping for a sequel.
After Crystal said she’d love to go somewhere tropical, Heidi threw out the idea of them taking their monster mashing to a cruise ship or possibly a cabin in the woods. “We could put some werewolves in there,” added Methyd.
When TooFab suggested a whole horror universe pitting the queens against all the supernatural forces out there, they were down. “Oh my gosh, a cinematic universe … yes, we’re the Gay Avengers!”
For now, check out Slay on Tubi!
