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Alaska Thunderfuck 5000: Right now, I feel sort of gassy. But I also feel extremely entitled, very demanding, and I want someone to bring me a coffee immediately. [Laughs]This season, you were obviously working hard for that crown. What was your strategy? Were you out for blood from the start?
Yas. I went into it wanting to Bianca Del Rio the fuck out of it. I wanted to win everything: every challenge, every mini-challenge, every lip-sync. That was my goal. And so, of course, when I finally realized that wasn't happening [when I wound up in the bottom three last week], I freaked out and got really upset. It was like in Black Swan,she wanted to have the perfect experience of playing this role. So I'm glad I had a Laganja Estranja-style meltdown, because it adds to the complete story. So I got to be both Bianca Del Rio and Laganja Estranja. I got the full experience!Tell us about that meltdown. It was really the only moment in the whole show where you lost your cool. You were coming so close to something you worked so hard for—how did it feel to have that almost ripped away from you?
I was having a really bad day. I think most people have felt like that at one point in their life. Fortunately, they don't have a camera crew on them when that happens. But I was in a high pressure situation. I really cared about the competition, and I still care about it. It means a great deal to me. And because of that, people are saying I'm a "snake." But if caring about something deeply makes me a snake, then girl, I'll be the queen of the snakes!
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I know Phi Phi in person, and I've never had a problem or any altercation with her outside of the show. But I think the competition brings something out in her that she probably doesn't like. I see her as a person, and I know that we all deal with high stress situations differently. I don't hold anything against her, and I wish her all the best. I think it's too bad what happened. But hopefully we can all move on from it.You said you "know Phi Phi as a person." Do you feel that the depictions of most of the queens on the show are fair? Or do reality producers shape your "characters" and blow things out of proportion?
Well, everything I said, I actually said. And everything I did, I did. So that's real. But, of course, it sometimes comes down to what music is played behind the scenes. Because if producers play goofy clown music behind it, then you look really stupid—whatever you're doing. Or you could be having a conversation with your friend and if they play "O Fortuna" or really dramatic Lord of the Rings music behind it, it looks like you're having a huge fight. But we've all seen the show, we all know that's what we're there to do. We're there to make exciting, dynamic television. And I think All Stars definitely delivered on that.
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Totally. Because drag is so much about the artificial. So there's a hyper-awareness about reality TV, and we can also indulge in it and make fun of it in ways that other shows simply can't do. I've said it before, I'll say it again: It's the best show on television.This season shook up Drag Race's typical rules, and forced contestants to cut each other, rather than the judges. How did it feel to be in the room when you were deciding who to cut?
Oh, it was horrible. It was never easy, it was never clear or obvious. They were making a good TV show, so it was by design that we were put into really difficult Sophie's Choice-style situations. I never made any decisions out of malice or wanting to hurt anybody, and I don't think anybody did. We were all there, trying to just make sense out of a really high-stress, difficult situation. But it made for a really interesting season, so I'm not mad.Why do you do drag, and how has your drag evolved over the course of two different Drag Race shows?
I started doing drag because I thought it was fun, and there aren't any rules to it, really. It's an art form where I can do visual art and videos and music and fashion. I get to be Leonardo da Vinci about it and do everything—that's what attracts me to drag. But the more I've done it, the more I've realized there's a deeper meaning to it: We need to decrease this binary of gender. The hard and fast rules of "men do this, women do that"—we need to blur those lines in order to create a world that's going to be able to sustain itself and not blow itself up and not be at war. I think that drag, and especially RuPaul's Drag Race, is helping us move toward that. That's why I keep doing it.What are you gonna do tonight? Are you gonna celebrate?I'm going to a viewing party downtown. I'm going to go in full drag and watch the episode. I just want the whole experience! I want security guards! [Laughs] Follow Jonathan Parks-Ramage on Twitter.