The first queen of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8 sashayed away in an emotional elimination this past Monday.
Naysha Lopez, one of the most beautiful queens to ever compete on the show, was the unlucky queen to get sent home. Following her elimination, we got the chance to speak with Naysha and learn a little bit more about this gorgeous pageant queen. From revealing how hard working pageant queens are, to stories of girls putting glass into other queens’ powder, Naysha holds nothing back.
Check out the full interview below and don’t forget to come back every Tuesday for our full recap articles. Enjoy!
Related: “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Recap Realness: 100% Pure Love
Queerty: Since you were eliminated, how have the responses from fans been online?
Naysha: Overwhelming. Everyone is so supportive and so nice.
Because you were unfortunately the first to go home, we didn’t get to see much of you on the show. Was there anything in that first episode that we didn’t get to see that you wish they aired?
Everything! No, haha! You got to see my love for pageantry, which I was telling Chi Chi [DeVayne] about. But the thing you didn’t get to see is my work ethic. Unfortunately I do not sew, but that is in now way a representation of who I am or what I do when I do drag. I put every inch of me into what I do. I love my craft and I work very hard at what I do. I wish you got to see a little bit more of that.
I think my mom gave birth to me on a runway. When I’m onstage, it’s a whole ‘nother thing, and I’m so sad you didn’t get to see that.
Pageant queens haven’t typically shined on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Do you think it’s a curse or that the show is built against pageant queens?
When you say that, I think about it and I’m like, well, “How many pageants has RuPaul won?” And she hasn’t, so maybe that’s what it is. Haha! No, I really don’t think the show is built against pageant queens.
This is how I look at it. For example, Alyssa Edwards, who is a good friend of mine. She was on the show and didn’t win the show, but in my eyes she won. We still talk, appreciate and love her. There’s this thing that us pageant girls have. We have discipline. There’s work ethic behind it. We work for it.
There are different kinds of queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race: The kind of queen that needs to get on because she won’t have a career unless she’s on there, and the one that doesn’t because she’s going to work for it and she’s going to do what she needs to do to work. I feel like us pageant girls do what we gotta do. That’s it. Period. And we’re gonna work.
So, clearly you are going to continue doing pageants.
Absolutely! Laila McQueen and I were talking about this. Pageants only polish you and discipline you for your every day drag life. Am I a pageant girl? Absolutely. But does it define me? Nope. It’s a great thing to have under your belt.
Pageants have a reputation for being shady and cut throat. Queens cut up other queens gowns, hide their stuff and do whatever it takes to win. Have you ever had any negative experiences at a pageant?
I’ve been blessed to have a great support system and great people around me. They haven’t allowed that to happen to me.
I’ve gone to pageants and there’s so many people there with me. There’s so much love and support that negativity has never come through. I’ve never had anything stolen from me at a pageant… shows are a different story! I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by a lot of positivity.
I’m sorry I don’t have a juicy story. I don’t have any stories about glass in my powder, someone coming for my face, haha!
Wow, that’s a crazy idea! Have you thought about doing that yourself? Haha!
These are old school stories that I’ve heard, and I’m like, “Are you kidding me?!” And they’re like, “Yass gurl, you gotta put the glass in the powder!” Oh my god!
What advice do you have for future RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants?
Be yourself. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re doing the wrong thing or that your drag is wrong. Drag is an art and art is subjective. It only needs to make sense to the artist, so do you.
Who are you rooting for to win season 8?
Bob The Drag Queen. Bob is a dear friend of mine and I love her to death. She has a special place in my heart.
Looking to the future, what are your plans?
I’m going to keep working and just be the best me that I can possibly be.
Catch new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8 every Monday at 9/8c on Logo and check out the preview for episode two below.
Marcus Antonius
Too much hype about pageant queens. They aren’t anything special. Any bitch can put on a Givenchy dress and wave like her wrist broken.
Jaime-Arturo Rodriguez Luevano
The the great thing about the pageant world is that it gives you a thick hide and forces you to be professional. But you don’t have to be a pageant girl to be disciplined. A hard work ethic also comes from life experiences, your place of employment during the day and at night, your values, and even an education if you are lucky enough to receive one. Alyssa is a break out star after drag race because she has a unique personality that engages people. If Naysha wants that kind of success she needs to allow the world to see who she really is and quit talking about how beautiful she is and let the world compliment her instead. Naysha is adorable and cute guy. I wonder what his passions are other than his beauty. It would have been nice to see what he was really all about under all those layers.
Robert Stuart
Fucking. Spoiler. Alert. GEESH
Brian
A lot of drag queens have personality flaws that lead them to impersonating women. It’s a
fetish to say the least.
It’s funny how gay men in clubs laugh and applaud men who dress as women but then make horrible accusations against those who wear black face. Talk about a double standard. There’s no difference between the two in terms of impersonation.
Gay men need to assess their values, period.
M J Martinez Crogan
Is that show still on ð???
Joseph Cotgrave
Bitter Anna Cook haha
joeyty
@Brian: And they’re vicious! Like what was once the case with nuns (“The Bells Of St. Mary’s”…etc), Hollywood portrays them as benevolent creatures (“To Wong Foo..”) but when you know them for real…! Oh man. Them putting ground up glass in each others makeup wouldn’t surprise me.
John Malin
I’ve been gay for 71 + years and still have no idea what drag is all about and beauty pageants are even odder. Don’t hate me, just saying.
Steven Hobday
Aaron
Fernanda Ramirez
Spoiler alert!! ð??©
BigG
I’m glad she went first. No excuses to not sew in season 8. She has no creativity, she is just the model wearing other people’s creations. That’s not talent. That dress was awful and she had no business being cast. That spot should have went to another queen.
Invert
@Brian: making fun of gender stereotypes isn’t blackface. Drag pokes fun at social constructs of femininity, not women necessarily.
And stop telling gay people what they need to do, Brian, FFS.
bry5n
she still don’t sew? lol.
i’m pretty sure she told visage in her “watcha packin’ that she was gonna take some sewing lessons. that stuff filmed like 6mo ago so what’s the hold up naysha? every drag queen should learn themself some sewing basics, and shouldn’t even consider auditioning for rpdr if they don’t. otherwise, heather or booger, you might be first to go! xD
Alex Williams
Thanks. It hasn’t aired yet here in the UK. #spoiled
Stached1
@Marcus Antonius: LOL very true. A lot of drag queens are misogynistic, just like drag kings are misandrist.
DCguy
Some pageant queens have done well. Alexis Mateo and Roxxxy Andrews, but both of them were able to do a few things outside of the pageant world, and both of them could sew.
DCguy
One other thing, not to pile on, but how can you claim to have a work ethic, when, after finding out you were going on Drag Race, you didn’t even learn a simple sewing stich or two? Even buying a book to read up on it.
Vortece
@Brian: Blackface used degrading stereotypes of black Americans to entertain white audiences, and since those white audiences were the primary oppressors of black people, Blackface served as a tool to reinforce and propagate the oppression of African Americans by white people. Additionally, blackface lead to ruthless exploitation of African-American artistry as white performers ripped off their musical and performance styles and commercialized them for profit to white audiences, so blackface served as a tool to deprive black artist of both the credit and compensation for the artistic advances of their crafts. It was the purest form of cultural appropriation.
Comparing blackface to drag is the laziest and most ignorant criticism faced by drag today, because it assumes that the readership at wont recognize that gay men do not share the same relationship to women in the 21st century that White people had with black people back when it was still acceptable to perform in blackface. It’s a tired old comparison that I’d suggest you save for people less sympathetic to the plight of the oppressed than you’re likely to find here at Queerty. It does, however, make you look less misogynistic that most of your other posts where you mention women…so, there’s that.
Philigree
@Brian: sometimes, i wonder what kind of a life you’ve had that led you to be so judgmental, presumptuous, hateful and insecure. and i just end up feeling nothing other than pity.
David Dewberry
this is a 50 year old Urban Legend…
DCguy
@Brian:
Unless babies are born wearing make-up, heels, and wigs, comparing blackface to drag is not only lazy it’s disingenuous.
robho3
Ok so this is season 8 of the Drag Race and any queen with half a brain who has watched even one of the last 100 episodes would know that you need to be able to sew to be successful on the show…. Miss Thing thought she could skate by on her looks…. the show is more than that….so bye Felicia!!!
He BGB
It’s always sad the first couple of queens to go because you don’t get to see something special they could have done that set them apart. But I tend to agree that she should have learned how to sew. Lol.
DCguy
@robho3:
You know, I totally agree, but, the only defense I could think of, is after that horrible season 7, which was just acting challenge after acting challange after acting challenge maybe she thought they were getting rid of sewing. lol
galatians328
@Vortece: HOW BORING! … Your silly ideological rambling is virtually pointless in 21st century … because
a. People of color people ‘blackface’ methods
b. White people use ‘back face’ methods to entertain diverse audiences including audience of color
c. White and Black people use ‘asia face’
d. People of all colors use ‘act Black’ in music, art, fashion, business and people of color ‘act White’ in music, art, fashion, business
etc
Brian
Drag is no different from black-face.
baggins435
@John Malin: I never “got” it either. In the 80s I went to visit one of my brothers (also gay) who lived in another state. We went out clubbing and one of the clubs had a drag show at midnight. Well, one of his friends, “Bob”, who I had previously met, was performing that night as Celeste(?) and I made the, apparently unforgivable, sin of calling him “Bob” as that’s how I knew him. My God! I was read the riot act. You should have been there when my brother tried to explain “Fright Drag” ala Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. If some guy wants to play dress up, go for it. I just don’t understand it. I really don’t understand gay guys who call each other “girlfriend” either. I’m a guy who likes being a guy and who likes guys who like being guys. I don’t hate feminine guys, but I also don’t particularly care to be around them. I know it takes all types, but some guys prefer blonds or brunettes, I like “manly men”…LOL.
spemat
I am bi and masculine but I was with the goths and we wore make up and dresses (straight goths did too but very few were gay for some reason) and we looked pretty but we also were not fucked with because I was the leader of them and was the state winner in judo tournaments for years and had some dude come up to me and my girl and call me a part time homo and my girlfriend a lesbian whore and I broke his jaw. I know transwomen that can wipe the floor with transphobes too but I have yet to see one gay dude stand up and their fights are hair pulling etc. I date only bi men and women though just to ease the fear of drama and the 2 sided fear that the other will dump us as inadequate.
Drag Queens got bitchy with me a few times when I attempted the gay centers briefly because we always had this dracula, lydia from beetlejuice shit going on and I was a really pretty one and they’d always be catty and shit…. I learned the art of backhanded compliments and veiled criticisms etc but I got kicked out of a “community” picnic/fair thingy when I had some catty drag queen make some petty threat for saying I’d break his jaw if he fucked with me. I was the Regina George, dickhead bully type… I out bro’d the goth bros, lead on a lot of the followers etc. But what is up with the mean bitchiness of femmes. They hate us, never want gay men but are obsessed with heteros and they later call us and gay men who aren’t femme, self haters. I hang with straight friends and we’re bros and when they have parties, I hang with them and their girlfriends hang with femmes talking about Kim K and sucking Appletinis and shit and one after a few starts running it about how I am trying too hard and am stuck up etc.
They tell their girlfriends to watch me because we get hetero guys with girl/girl action etc. It pisses me off. Their boyfriends hate them and they call them homophobes and their girls sometimes get weird about us being friends… some rude, catty bitch who usually goes off about asking heteros if they would try it etc and it is creepy. I have been mis-identified and had those experiences and I have a black belt in both sucking dick and eating pussy so it isn’t homophobia, it is creepy. It is unsolicited, they never change the subject and it is always just from being cordial. It’s rude. And we get hated. Bi femme men are rare but they try to act like they are “stronger” than us because gay people accept them more even though they are rarely believed.