Plastique Tiara talks Asian representation, family pride and her accent

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Plastique Tiara arrived at "RuPaul's Drag Race" with an impressive pedigree. She's part of the Haus of Edwards dynasty, a drag family overseen by Alyssa Edwards that includes Shangela, Laganja Estranja and Gia Gunn.

She also boasts gag-worthy social media numbers, including 1 million Instagram followers.

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Plastique slayed the runway week after week, but the judges often cited her lack of personality. And during this week's Los Angeles Drag Patrol challenge, her nine lives expired.

But there's plenty of work/werk to be done. She dropped a new music video and is relishing in her role as a representative for the Asian immigrant community.

What's your overall takeaway now that the show is airing?

I have to say it's very different once you've gone through it all. To watch yourself on TV, it's the strangest thing. I still haven't gotten used to it. It's just mind-boggling. How was I able to do that? But I was just proud of myself, honestly. I think my biggest challenge was me not getting in my own way and just to have fun. Alyssa's advice to me before I went was to have fun, and I kind of forgot that in the beginning.

The judges often cited your lack of personality, and the other girls questioned your honesty. Was it difficult to deal with?

When I explained (my family situation), it was hard for myself, too, because I had to come to terms with it. Because of how I was raised, it was hard telling my truth. It was somewhat embarrassing for me, you know, because my past isn't something that I'm usually proud to talk about. But after I said it, it was very freeing on the show. Despite whatever comments were made afterwards, I had so many responses from the fans. As an Asian immigrant, we're not really represented in today's media. I was really glad that the fans could relate and that I can be somebody on TV that a little child can look up to as somebody that I never had the chance to look up to when I was growing up.

How is your relationship with your family today?

One of my family friends in Vietnam said to my grandparents, "Oh, wow, Duc is on TV in America. It's very hard for Vietnamese immigrants to break through the mainstream media in America." My grandpa came up to me, and he was like, "Good job." I'm not sure if he knows that his grandson is dressing up as a woman on national television. But I thought it was pretty cool.

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Did you feel the weight of that representation during the competition?

We had two Asian girls (including Soju) this season, so of course I was very, very proud. Especially for the Vietnamese community, I didn't get to see a lot of that on American TV growing up. I was just ecstatic, and I was very, very proud.

Who were your heroes when you were growing up?

In Vietnamese music, I've always looked up to this one singer. Her name is Minh Tuyet. I always idolized her growing up. She actually left me a comment on Facebook saying, "You have my support." That was really cool. When I started watching "Drag Race," the first queen I watched was Jujubee. To see her as an Asian, queer, beautiful woman on TV was absolutely amazing. I idolized RuPaul and Alyssa for the longest time. They know what they want, they know who they are and they know how to get it.

OK, so give us the real story on the accent.

When I first moved here, I was in ESL for four years. I really had the thickest Vietnamese accent you could ever think of. I realized that people were trying to understand me but they couldn't. That was the most frustrating thing for me, ever. No matter how hard I tried, no one could understand me. I never made friends because of it. When I would go home, I wouldn't talk to my mom, either, because we weren't really connecting at the time. I just had to learn to hide it away so that I could talk and have people understand me. When I say that my real voice is the Asian accent, it's very easy for me to go back into it. I've learned to suppress it. Over time, it has become easier for me. That's how it is.

Joey Guerra is the music critic for the Houston Chronicle and also covers everything from "Drag Race" to "Idol." Follow him on Twitter. Send him news tips at joey.guerra@chron.com.