Following her elimination from RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7, Dragaholic talks with Tempest DuJour about her time on the show, her family and so much more! Read a transcript of the interview below or listen to the full podcast interview above.
SEE ALSO: 10 Things You Never Knew About Tempest DuJour
Tim: Hi Tempest, how are you doing?
Tempest: I am doing fan-tastic. How are you doing?
How about we take this to the next level?
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I’m doing really good. A little sad of course because of your early departure, but I’m doing great. I’m glad to have you here with me.
Well thank you, thank you, I really appreciate that. It’s been a bizarre day, that’s for sure.
Why’s that?
I mean, you know, it’s not a situation you can kind of prepare for, and you never know how people are going to react. People have been incredibly kind and supportive and loving. I’ve received hundreds of messages today from all over the world, and they’ve been unbelievably wonderful to me. I couldn’t ask for more.
Since you were doing the pre-show, have you notice a sort of change in the way that people are messaging and talking about you?
I felt lots of love before the show started airing. I mean, there’s always going to be haters and ignorant people who say mean things, just for the sake of saying mean things, but you ignore that, right? And you focus on the people that are showing kindness. I’ve been bitch slapped with kindness today, it’s been amazing.
Good, that’s what you need to get through it, right?
Yeah, absolutely!
On that note, I want to get right to the punch and ask you, we had a few people ask us on Twitter and Instagram, how did you feel about being first eliminated?
If you watch ‘Untucked’ and sort of the supplemental video that goes along with the actual episode, you’ll see I mention the one thing coming in was please God don’t let me go first. I mean, nobody wants to be the first to go.
When it sort of became obvious to me that that was going to happen, you have a choice to make: you can sulk or you can pull yourself up by your bra strap and push forward. And that’s who I am. I’m a my glass is always half full type of person, so I had to give it my all. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I’m not gonna let it go by without giving everything I have for it.
It was terrible. It was devastating. I’m not gonna lie. But you have to make the best of what you’re dealt with, right? They say your character is judged on how you respond to terrible things, so, you know, hopefully I’m doing OK with that.
It had to be hard to finally see your elimination. Martinthelamest on Instagram wanted to know how was it watching your elimination?
It was scary to be honest. I missed my own viewing party – I didn’t get to see it with everybody else because I was actually returning from a premiere party in Miami and my flight was late. I didn’t get in until very late and so I got home and the kids were in bed, my husband went to bed, and I stayed up and watched it, which was probably the best way for me to see it. I was so nervous going into it.
I tell ya, I was more nervous watching the lipsync for your life because it was all blurred in my memory and I was hoping that I would look OK in that. I was happy with it. It’s a hard thing to watch, you know? It’s not fun.
I talked last night with The Haus of Mimosa on their new podcast episode and I had a great little kiki about how disappointed it was to see you, after your fabulous runway looks, get sent home.
Yeah, I know.
Look. We knew what we were signing up for. This is TV, and there’s a lot that’s involved in making good TV, right? I knew what I was signing up for. I knew that the editors could make me look any way they wanted, and this show is called ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ so it’s ultimately not what RuPaul thinks, it’s what RuPaul wants.
I loved my looks. I stand behind my looks. I stand behind everything I did. I think it was good. I definitely don’t think I should have been the one to go home. I think there were worse looks and performances, but that’s the hand I was dealt.
I agree with you, and people didn’t want you go home. One of the questions that came from faunic on Instagram was, who do you think should have gone home instead of you?
[Because of her love for all of the girls of Season 7, Tempest decided to not answer this question – listen to the full podcast episode above to hear her actual response. She does read some bitches, but respectfully wouldn’t name names.]
Honestly, I think from seeing your pre-season looks, and what you actually brought on the runways, I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting you to be kind of campy the whole way through, and to see those high fashion looks that you brought to the runway of the mini challenge really blew me away.
Well thank you, that’s very kind of you. Mission accomplished. That’s what I was trying to do.
Because of that, many people have requested that you share your would-have-been runway looks for this season, like April Carrión did last season. Do you think you might do that?
I think I might as the season progresses. I’m not gonna do it now because it’s gonna give away the challenges. It would be unfair. But as it gets closer to the end of the season, I would absolutely do that to show what I would have done for each challenge. For sure!
Are you allowed to tell us how much time they gave you before you actually had to be on a plan to LA?
Yeah, it was probably two or three weeks. It was pretty quick. You don’t just show up with a bag of stuff and hope it works, there is some references given to you that you might want to prepare something like this, and there might be something like this.
I’ll tell you though, we showed up with stuff that was never used as well. I think the challenges evolve as we’re there and some get edited out, some get added. You have to be on your toes, you have to be quick.
Interesting. So, is there anything that wasn’t shown in episode one that you wish would have been shown or that you were surprised they didn’t show?
Not in episode one, no. But certainly, having talked to some of the girls about episodes coming up, yes. (laughs) That’s all I’m gonna say about that.
—
I’m going to cut things off here in this transcript because Tempest and I got into some more serious topics that I don’t believe the written word will do justice for. Listen to the full podcast episode above to hear the rest of our conversation. You can skip forward to about the 10 minute mark if you want to bypass this portion of the transcribed interview.
Later in the interview, Tempest and I laugh about a video she released on YouTube following her elimination. I’ve embedded the video below for those of you who haven’t seen it.
Follow Tempest DuJour:
Watch: Tempest DuJour’s Very Bad Day
https://youtu.be/1KMGADXEzvU”
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XXX
Sad to see her go so soon.
Kristyn Ramone Campbell
I really wish she didn’t go! I really really wanted to see more from her
@DragaholicTim
Agreed! I wanted to see more of her sickening fashions
Stefy
I’m a sucker for a good story and this bitch has triumphed over some serious adversity in her life. Go Tempest, you’re a winner in my book if that means anything at all.