Throughout the eighth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race," Huffington Post Queer Voices will interview each departing queen on the Tuesday following the air date of their elimination episode. Check HuffPost Queer Voices weekly to hear these queens reflect on their time on the show and their legacy as queer artists and performers.
On the March 7 premiere of the highly anticipated return of "RuPaul's Drag Race," Puerto Rican queen Naysha Lopez became the first competitor to pack her bags and sashay away.
Sent home by the punk rock Laila McQueen, we only got to catch a glimpse of Lopez's drag and personality. The Huffington Post chatted with Lopez on Tuesday about her early departure and the advice she would give to future competitors on the show.
The Huffington Post: Thanks for making time to chat with us. What is your thought process right now? How are you feeling?
Naysha Lopez: I’m devastated. No (laughs). Listen, it’s one thing when you live it – when it happens. I really was devastated and I relived it yesterday and it was quite surreal. But you have to understand that, for me, I’m a very positive person. I don’t have any regrets – I’m the type of person that can learn from anything and everything that I do. And I can honestly tell you that I learned so much and I’m so grateful for the opportunity that I got being on this show and being able to be a part of a great sisterhood.
If you could do it all over again would you do anything differently?
Nothing differently. Like I told Ru and the rest of the judges -- I don’t sew. And to be honest with you, there’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and then there’s the real world where you do drag. And in the real world we don’t sew every item of clothing that we wear. The fact of the matter is that after this I still do drag and I do it well -- I don’t need to sew a dress, I don’t need to sew my clothes. So, do I have any regrets? Absolutely not. I was honest with them. Before then I have never sewn anything in my life besides a f*cking button (laughs). So no regrets whatsoever – this doesn’t define my drag in any way, whether I can sew or not.
Has your drag changed, or evolved at all since filming the show? What impact did the show have on your art form?
I’m a pageant girl, and because of that, we tend to be a little more OCD about everything (laughs). We like to be polished from head to toe so going into the show I tried to be polished from head to toe any time I was on. But having come off the show, I didn’t think I could become more OCD about my look, but I promise you that I have actually become a little more! I learned so much on the show -- I think that I can tell you I learned something from every single person because that’s just how much talent there is. I'm an open mind and I like to take all of this in and it only makes me better.
What advice would you give future queens who are competing on the show?
Don’t compromise who you are. Don’t let anyone tell you that what you’re doing is wrong because drag itself is an art and anytime you’re doing anything artistic you have to remember that art is subject and it only needs to make sense to the artist. So there’s no such thing as doing art wrong. With that said -- do you, be happy doing you and do not let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s all about expressing yourself through the art that we call drag and you can’t let anyone take that away from you.
What do you want people to know about Naysha Lopez? What do you want your legacy as an artist to be?
Well, besides my beauty -- no, I’m just kidding (laughs). To piggyback off what I just said, I want people to know that this is an art form, this is what I choose to do, I love to do this, I love being able to express myself through this beautiful art called drag and explore my feminine side and have people know this is not a weakness. Even in our gay community, some people -- not all, some -- look at drag as negative… but it takes a whole lot of balls to do what we do… If I have some kind of legacy that’s going to stay with people, it’s that I’m doing this because I love it, because I choose to and because this is the best way I see fit for me to express myself artistically.
"RuPaul's Drag Race" airs on Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Logo.
Want to catch up with the previous winners of “Drag Race”? Head here and check out the slideshow below for interviews with the previously eliminated season eight queens.
