Courtney Act spills piping hot Drag Race Down Under tea: ‘It was exclusively hairless sphynx cats’
Courtney Act during the “Death Drop” dress rehearsals at Garrick Theatre on 3 December 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
Courtney Act has revealed some closely-guarded secrets from the upcoming season of Drag Race Down Under.
Courtney appeared on Drag Race season six and currently co-hosts a drag podcast Brenda, Call Me alongside best friend and ‘sister in crime’ Vanity Faire. In the latest episode of the podcast, the pair discussed the upcoming spin-off Drag Race Down Under, which will feature queens from Australia and New Zealand.
Though Courtney isn’t slated to appear on the show, she is currently in Australia and has been privy to some inside intel.
According to Courtney, there was a bit of confusion around casting for the new series.
Drag Race usually put out an open casting call for people to audition for the show. But according to Courtney, Down Under opted to have casting producers send messages to prospective contestants from their personal accounts.
“They didn’t put out a call for people to submit auditions which they normally do,” Courtney said on the podcast. “Instead, one of the casting producers just sent messages, but the thing is it wasn’t from an official account.”
She explained the producer had an Instagram account that “exclusively had photos of those hairless sphynx cats”. Courtney said queens from Australia and New Zealand appeared to keep getting a “lovely but seemingly crazy cat lady” sliding into their DMs asking them to “please send me an email”.
The Brisbane-born drag queen sent her love to the new Australian and New Zealand queens, welcoming them to the “Ru girl family”.
Drag Race staple Michelle Visage and incoming judge Rhys Nicholson revealed the Drag Race Down Under cast during the Sydney Mardi Gras parade on 6 March. The contestants include First Nations drag queen JoJo Zaho, non-binary artist Etcetera Etcetera and New Zealand queen Elektra Shock.
? Here they are! Meet the queens of @StanAustralia Original Series RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under! ? #StanOriginals #DragRaceDownUnder pic.twitter.com/B9J7T88StL
— Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras (@sydneymardigras) March 6, 2021
The series has already garnered some controversy ahead of its release, as two contestants have been forced to issue public apologies for racism and Blackface.
On Friday (12 March), Drag Race Down Under contestant Scarlet Adams issued a grovelling apology for performing in Blackface and engaging in cultural appropriation after being called out about it online.
Just a few days later another contestant, Karen from Finance, said she was “remorseful” after several people noticed she had a tattoo of an anti-Black, racist caricature.
She said she had “long been remorseful” about the golliwog tattoo, which she got because of a collection of toys she has had since childhood.
Drag Race Down Under is arriving on streaming platform Stan later this year.
