With her Greek and Canadian roots firmly planted, Pythia was a welcome force of nature on the RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars stage. Presenting consistently stunning garments (and a swarthy and swoon-inducing Zeus during Snatch Game), Pythia’s departure might have seemed early to some viewers. I sat down with the Canada’s Drag Race alumni to dish about her time on Global All Stars, the talent she came into the competition with, and reconnecting and reclaiming her stunning Greek culture.
Michael Cook: You added a spectacular dose of high fashion to this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars. What was your experience like?
Pythia: It was such a great experience. This time around I really just grabbed it and ran with it. I wanted to just fulfill all of these dreams I’ve had in my head, these outfits I wanted to make, concepts that I wanted to bring to the table, and they worked out for the most part. I was really happy and I had a lot of fun.
MC: Canada’s Drag Race is like a wonderful cousin to RuPaul’s Drag Race and it’s brought forth so many wonderful moments and talented performers. Coming from Canada’s Drag Race do you think you had an advantage or disadvantage?
Pythia: I don’t know, it’s strange because I feel like in Canada it felt more homely right? I knew a lot of the queens before the show, I knew Brooke Lynn (Hytes) before the show, and I knew the backstage team, a lot of them work in film and theater. They are people that are in the same field so I felt a little more comfortable, homely, at peace and at home. Filming Global All Stars was a little bit more stressful and scary, I was like “Oh my God this is the real thing”! It was like when I moved to Canada, like “Where am I”!?
MC: When you saw the entire Global All Stars cast assembled, is there anyone that you were absolutely thrilled to compete against?
P: Well there were a couple. The very obvious choice would have to be Alyssa Edwards, she is a drag legend! Alyssa was a bit of a scare for me, she is a legend and she is going to devour! I was happy to see Soa (de Muse) and Athena (Likis) because I knew them before the show and they’re my friends, it was like “I have friends here”! At least they made me feel at peace here and grounded in the competition.
MC: Your ability to design and sketch is unparalleled, to the point that even RuPaul was visibly impressed during a walk through. Conversely the competitors that did not sew clearly were slightly shook. How much of an advantage did it make you feel you had?
P: It’s what I do; before drag and everything I worked in theater and film, I have a degree in costume design. It’s what I do and what I love, I do a lot of cosplay in the past so I was confident with making anything work beyond the professional setting of a theater show for example. I am very crafty and I can make anything work, I can find something and turn that into something; I think that’s my biggest strength. I’m glad that resonated with you and you loved it.
MC: One of my favorite looks to go down a RuPaul’s Drag Race runway is without doubt, your multi-head look on Canada’s Drag Race and it is one fans talk about to this day. Did you think when you created that look it would become so legendary, even all these years later?
P: To me it was a little something (I whipped up)! I was very excited to show it because I’ve had it in my mind for so long. It got such a great response, to this day people get it tattooed, recreate it, make Styrofoam heads and send me pictures for Halloween. It is my favorite thing in the world, I absolutely love it. Who’s to say, maybe there will be a few more heads this season…
MC: What are your rose and thorn of your RuPaul’s Global All Stars experience?
P: I think my highest high would just be designing. I think this time I kind of just had fun, let loose and didn’t have an expectation, I just went with it. I had so much fun in every single challenge, even the dance challenge I missed half a step at the end and they put me in the bottom for it, but I had so much fun. I enjoyed it, I wrote a verse in Greek which is so special to me. I’ve just gotten to connect with so many great people and expanded my artistry and brand. My lowest low, I don’t know…not one particular thing, I mean the roast obviously didn’t work out in my favor it’s not something that I do. I was just tired at one point, I was like honestly, “Send me home”. It’s a very tiring experience and I think that my lowest low is just exhaustion.
MC: What is it like to bring your special brand and style of drag from both Canada and Greece to Global All Stars?
P: It’s literally the one thing that I really wanted out of this experience, so I am so happy. This is a very loaded question…there have been a lot of times in my life that as an immigrant to Canada where I sort of had to hide and assimilate myself here. Try to change my accent a lot, change my name, the things that I ate at school; I felt very out of place in Canada. A lot of the times I felt share about my culture, but through drag I found the ways to love and appreciate it and realize that there is a space for me in it. Growing up in a very Orthodox country where you are told that you are wrong with everything that you are, it really takes a toll on you.
Through research and exploration and reconnecting with my culture and seeing how vital queer people have been in history, not just in Greece but everywhere around the world. It made me confident to say “We’ve always been here; and we’re not going anywhere”. You cannot tell me how I get to experience my culture. In a way, this has allowed me to reclaim it. I am so happy to bring queer Greek stories to the forefront; we have such a great scene and a generation of youth that are fighting for queer rights in Greece. Everything is changing for the better and it is so nice to be a part of it. I mean, Greece just legalized same sex marriage; it’s crazy!
MC: What is the best piece of advice that you’ve gotten and who gave it to you?
P: I think honestly it would be my parents, and my mom. I went through some bullying at school, but then it was also questioning who I am, my identity and if I belonged here. Maybe it’s not really “on brand” with a lot of religions, but she said “God treated you with his own hands and placed you on this Earth for a reason. Every part of you, every cell that you are made up of is created and is means to exist in this part of the world. You belong here and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise”.
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