Jaymes Mansfield Wishes She Could've Been the Villain of 'RuPaul's Drag Race'

This post contains spoilers for the March 31 episode of Ru Paul's Drag Race.

On every competitive reality show, someone has to bear the ignominy of being the first person eliminated. On this year's season of RuPaul's Drag Race, that dubious distinction went to Jaymes Mansfield, the campy comedy queen who couldn't decide if she was a floozy or if she was snoozy or if she was a little bit of both. Instead of a mini-challenge this week, we were treated to a drive-by cameo from Lisa Kudrow for no good reason whatsoever, then it was straight to the maxi-challenge, where the two teams took each other on in a cheerleading competition.

After a rather blasé lip sync to "Love Shack" by The B-52s, we bid adieu to Jaymes, who never seemed to take his blonde bimbo screen siren schtick far enough for it to reach the cheap seats. Now she's back in Milwaukee, bringing it home for those Midwestern girls. While she would have liked to have stuck around long enough to get into a terrible conflict with another queen, Jaymes told me she isn't bitter about getting sent home.

VICE: How are you feeling today, after your elimination?
Jaymes Mansfield: It feels like the curtains are drawn, the mirrors are covered, I'm going into a withdrawal. No, I'm totally kidding. I'm fine! It [was filmed] a year ago. It's so spooky watching it back, it's like watching a horror movie.

What did it feel like watching yourself on the show?
Watching myself is mortifying. There's other girls that are so self-confident, and so into themselves, they're like, "I look really great." And I'm like, "Oh. I look like Leatherface."

We saw in the challenge that some of the queens were very difficult on you when you were trying to learn how to be a cheerleader. How did you feel when that was happening?
I was like, it's a competition. Most of us were just going crazy just from being there. It's like a bunch of hens cooped up in a hen house so of course we were pecking at each other. And I was the most prettiest and most talented, so I guess I was the easiest target.

Have you ever done cheerleading before?
No, the most physical I have ever been was that I took a yoga class. I was not mechanically inclined for that challenge, let's put that out there. But that didn't stop me from trying! I put my body on the line.

The judges were saying that they didn't feel like you were taking it far enough, you weren't being crazy enough, how do you feel about their criticism?
When I was up there on the judging day, I was like any performer when you hear criticism, you don't agree with it. In your mind you're like, "Well, they're all wrong. I was brilliant. I was marvelous, I don't know what they were thinking." I went into that challenge knowing I was going to be critiqued on something I don't do. So, if you don't do it well, you can't take it too personally. It's not like getting rejected for your act that you do every time you're on the stage.

Did you take those criticisms into account as you've been refining your drag over the past year?
No! The thing is that you're taking criticism from one person who is a drag queen, and the rest of them are distinguished guests. And the one who's actually a drag queen doesn't critique you anyway. So you take it for what it's worth, and either you accept it and you like it or you don't.

So there were a couple of weird things I noticed in this episode. One is that they showed a shot of this super creepy life-size RuPaul sex doll in the workshop. Did you see that?
It's a wax figure! Not a sex doll, gosh VICE. Head in the gutter!

Is it as crazy in real life as it is on TV?
I wanted to touch it and I couldn't. I really wanted to go poke it in the mouth. That's just the weird Midwesterner in me, I wanted to steal it's wig.

So they literally told you that you can't touch the doll?
Well it was on loan from Madame Tussauds. It's fragile.

The other thing I noticed was that it was really weird when Lisa Kudrow came in, said hi, and then left.
Yeah, I loved that. It was kind of like being at the petting zoo, where you're allowed a certain distance from the gate.

Did we miss anything? Did they let you say hi to her afterwards?
My biggest regret. I guess she was on a busy schedule because they shuffled her out of the room and I didn't get to shout out, "Thank you for inventing Post-its!"

Which of the queens do you think has a good chance of taking it all the way?
I thought I did, but apparently that wasn't the case. As far as other girls that are still there, I'd say look out for Peppermint because I know her history and I was a huge fan of her before I got on. You'll be surprised at what she can pull out.

So you said you thought you could take it all the way. What do you think you were missing? What is it about yourself that you didn't portray on the show?
I'd say I didn't rise to the occasion of being a good cheerleader. Which is fine, because it's never something I aspire to do anyway. As far as the whole show in general though, I feel like I gave a lot of myself and I got to present the best of what I brought. Or at least I got to present a good chunk of what I brought. I can't be too bitter about it. And, I got to be on the show, which is already winning in itself.

Were any of the girls really mean to you?
I don't feel dissed. I feel like I had a brilliant and beautiful connection with all of the girls when I first met them. I wasn't there long enough to grow to hate anyone, that's my big regret. I wish I was there long enough to hate people sooner. I wish I could have been the villain.