As the first Nigerian drag performer in Drag Race herstory, Luna DuBois was truly a game changer for Canada’s Drag Race Season 4. While DuBois has departed the competition following the Snatch Game challenge, her stunning runways and scorching lip syncs definitely left a mark on the season. I sat down to chat with DuBois about her Canada’s Drag Race run, Nigerian representation, & the chaos of Untucked this season.
Michael Cook: Tell me about your Canada’s Drag Race experience now that it is in the rearview mirror?
Luna DuBois: It was a fun experience, I had a great time. I did what I came to do and it may have been cut short, but I think I had a good run. I made some new friends and made some great tv!
MC: A great deal of what was keeping viewers compelled with you was that you have absolutely no problem speaking your mind in a competition setting like the one that you were in on Canada’s Drag Race.
LDB: I don’t, I really don’t. I’m a really honest person and I really don’t like to beat around the bush, I just say how it is. I respect whether or not they are the same as me and whether they are or not, they will always get a piece of my mind.
MC: Snatch Game is one of the most prolific Drag Race challenges ever and you chose to portray Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s polarizing cast member Mary Cosby. Did you go into the competition intending to portray her or was she a last minute choice?
LDB: Of all of the Snatch Game characters that I have used to audition for the show, in Canada there are restrictions that are so much more intense. There were some iconic things that I did with Mary that did not air because they may need to be portrayed in a good light. For example, I made a joke about her grandfather and the Bravo fans would have lived for it, but it had to be cut obviously. I do a really great Dominique Jackson also, but I do her as Electra (from Pose), so you can’t really do that because it’s a character and we can’t get away with that here in Canada for some reason. The only other one …I do a good Joanne the Scammer as well, but she is also a character.
MC: Mary Cosby is truly an inspired choice, she is polarizing and a person with so many layers that you could portray.
LDB: Exactly! Mary Cosby was the only one who I thought that I could possibly portray because I was just out of ideas and I had to come up with something. I went into the show preparing that. I watch the show and I had some things planned, but it came down to what questions are asked. The iconic part of her life that got people hooked on her, that got cut out. If you saw the edit, it was not too bad (laughs)!
MC: What do you think your rose and thorn of your Canada’s Drag Race experience are?
LDB: The thorn was definitely the second episode, I was just finding my footing in the competition. I knew of some of the girls, but I didn’t really have a friend there. It takes me a minute to blend with people that I don’t really know that well, I am just that kind of person. That was a rough week and I had to lip sync, but I thankfully saved myself. After that, I was just finding my groove up until Snatch Game. The Golden Beaver thing, decisions were made, we all saw the episodes where people did not want to leave and didn’t leave, they got saved, and I think if the Golden Beaver was not in play, things would have happened much differently.
All that said, I think I showed a lot of myself and a lot of my drag, and the fan reaction has been great and amazing and people want me on their screens. I think that says a lot so maybe I will go back on their screens for more reality television shows.
MC: The Golden Beaver was truly a game changer on this season of Canada’s Drag Race and that is reflected during Untucked, which has been very emotionally charged this season. Do you think that is due to the Golden Beaver truly changing up the competition or to just the personalities in the mix?
LDB: I think that it’s a mixture of both. I mean, Melinda (Verga) wanted to leave. There would have been no incentive or no way to save her from leaving, other than giving her a pep talk. In the state of mind that she was in, no one was giving her a pep talk except Kiki Coe. No shade to my sister Kiki, but Miss Thing will try on cue if you press a button and she was just so emotional. She was the only one riding for Melinda, the rest of us were like “Yeah girl pack it up”. She might have actually left, there was nothing there at the end, it was in our power; Kiki had that power. Had it had been someone else, they would have been gone. That’s why I think I am not too phased by the outcome because the Beaver definitely comes into play and it really comes down to relationships in the competition. If it was just down to the judges decisions, I think that things would have gone absolutely different.
MC: What do you think you want to do now with your post Canada’s Drag Race platform?
LDB:I think that I want to see myself on reality tv. It doesn’t necessarily have to be competition, but I want to do more of it, I think I have so much fun just showing myself. Before Drag Race, especially in my chosen community here, people just know “Luna”. I know a lot of people, but my core friend group, I keep that very tight and those people know that side of me. On Drag Race, you got to see a glimpse of who I am. Me getting ready, with my shirt off, doing the most and Kiki-ing with the girls, which is what I do with my best friends.
I think I feel comfortable doing that on screen because I represent so many people like myself; Nigerian queer people and just black queer people in general. I just enjoy watching myself on tv also so I want to do more of it. I also want to branch out into podcasting, I have been getting a lot chatter of about my voice, people love to listen to me speak. I want to do some content creating and perform. Not just any shows, produce shows and perhaps a one woman show in the future as well.
MC: What does it mean for you to represent the Nigerian queer community? How does you feel to know you represented so many?
LDB: I honestly feel honored; I always longed for that. There was a time in my life that I never thought that I would be that person. To be put on a queer platform to represent queer Nigerian people and I am that person now. I am hoping that I am not the last. I have been getting a lot of DM’s from Nigerians in Nigeria and Nigerians around the world cheering me on and so happy to see me representing them. It is such an amazing feeling to see yourself represented on tv. As much as I am a black person, I am Nigerian first. Not having queer Nigerian representation on television did a disservice to most of us, and now I am able to do a service to queer Nigerians. I hope that the cycle keeps going.
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