RuPaul’s Drag Race has landed in the UK and we couldn’t be any more excited about it. This multiple-Emmy-award winning show has had eleven successful seasons in America, so quite frankly it was about time we got our own version.

But if you’re watching it wondering what it’s * actually * like to go on RuPaul’s Drag Race, then listen up. Brooke Lynn Heights, 2019's US runner-up, shares ALL the behind-the-scenes info you need to know.

RuPaul's Drag Race

1. ‘The auditions are the worst’

“I auditioned three times to get on. You have to make a video that’s no longer than 20 minutes, but in that 20 minutes you have to do two lip sync performances, acting challenges, three snatch games, 14 runway looks, as well as a boy interview, as well as a costume you made out of paper… You had to get them all in there. The hardest part was the boy interview because they said it should be no longer than three minutes, but they ask you like 20 questions. I had to speed talk.”

2. ‘We find out the catwalk themes before the show’

“We're sent a list of looks to bring for the runway in advance of filming. We don't know what order they're going to happen in, but we have an idea of what to bring. We got things like: 'bring a look based on your star sign, bring a fringe look, bring an orange look'. So they give you an idea but it's never super specific. You find out what the exact theme is a day before the runway.”

3. ‘We're all put up in a hotel together’

“We don't get to have visitors or phones. Filming took six weeks, and we probably filmed about 14 or 15 hours a day, so they were long, full on days. The further you got on in the process, the more worn down you got, and wanted your home back and to talk to people. I missed my cats a lot, so that was hard.”

4. ‘RuPaul doesn’t really speak to us when the cameras aren’t rolling’

“RuPaul is lovely, and very tall. We'd probably see him once or twice a day. He's very professional, and I think it's important that people realise that there has to be kind of a separation from the judge and the contestants. He's not chumming it up with us all the time. When the cameras aren't rolling, he doesn't speak to us really, because we're making a TV show it needs to be kept for TV. But he was never cold.”

5. ‘I ate better during the show than I did in my normal life’

“I had three square meals a day, and awesome snacks. It's lovely, there’s an on-site caterer and they give you a menu and you order. They took good care of us that way.”

Cosmopolitan UK

6. ‘We have to wear a specific interview outfit’

“We did those interviews for like two hours a day, and have to wear the same thing each time for consistency. I brought a really cute interview look – this beautiful motorcycle jacket – which they approved beforehand, but then they mic'd me and said it makes too much noise. So I had to do all my boy interviews in the clothes I wore in the van to the first interview, which was that horrible red hoody.”

7. ‘RuPaul knows everyone’s name’

“Every time RuPaul walked into the room he knew every cameraman's name, every PA's name, he knew who everybody was. A lot of those people have been with him for 10 years. They really are like a family. They all work really well together.”

Cosmopolitan UK

8. ‘We have to film the runway scenes twice’

“You do it to the music first and that's great. Then you do it again and it's silent apart from the judges making funny comments about your outfit. You have to try not to laugh. The reason they do that is so that they can get all the judges’ commentary in. So if the music's playing it's harder to hear, and it also gives the judges the chance to come up with the commentary.”

9. ‘You get given an iPod to learn the lyrics for the lip sync battles’

“When you first get there, you get an iPod loaded with all the lip sync music. They sometimes ask for them back at certain points, taking songs away and adding songs on as the season progresses. They also give you all the lyrics on a sheet so you can actually memorise them.”

10. ‘They film two crownings’

“They do that obviously just for security's sake because the finale is filmed in an auditorium of 1,000 people, and gets aired a month or so after. I wasn't allowed to tell anybody which was difficult, because I’m not the best secret keeper.”

11. ‘I'm the first drag queen to ever get their own spin off’

“My next big thing is I will be a judge on Canada's Drag Race. I’m super excited about it - I'm the first drag queen to ever get their own spin off from the show. It was always a goal of mine, though I thought it was very much a pipe dream. But less than a year after the finale, here we are.”

Cosmopolitan UK

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Anna Bonet Anna is a Features Writer at Hearst Lifestyle and Reads Editor at Red Magazine.

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