Drag Race Down Under is delivering excellence each episode this season, but Karna Ford was part of a historic lip sync when she battled it out with two other competitors in a stunning Lip Sync for Your Life! While she may have departed the competition, this Filipino/Australian performer has global plans post-Drag Race Down Under. We sat down for a chat recently and dished on everything from the Asian excellence throughout the Drag Race franchise and the wisdom she would impart going forward.
Michael Cook: Condragulations on a fantastic Drag Race Down Under showing! Season 4 was definitely one like no other, so what was your experience like?
Karna Ford: It wasn’t what I expected! After watching the first three seasons of Down Under, I thought I knew what I was going into; all of that definitely got flipped around! But the experience was incredible and there is no other season of Down Under that I would want to be a part of than this one.
MC: This year of Drag Race Down Under has such a strong and wonderful cast So far, it also seems like everyone is getting along fairly well, am I correct?
KF: Yes. While I was there we all loved each other (laughs)!
MC: Having Michelle Visage serve as the host this season was a definitely game changer. What was it like for you all?
KF: Having Michelle there was great. Michelle did the job and she cared about what we wanted to do. She obviously got our Down Under/Australasia drag. At first when we first found out that she was going to be the host, we were a bit robbed of the RuPaul experience, but after having Michelle, I could not have wanted it to be any other way than to have her as the host.
MC: Snatch Game this season was a definite game changer and a bit of a change up of the now-classic challenge. Was it as challenging as you thought it might be?
KF: Oh yes, most definitely one of the hardest things that I had done on the show. Having to be in character, having to listen to Michelle and trying to answer the question in that character, it was very hard. I felt like I struggled quite a bit with that one.
MC: The final lip sync on the Down Under main stage marked herstory, as the first ever three person lip sync on the main stage. What was it like being a part of that?
KF: It was very daunting. I thought that because the first episode was a double save, that there was going to be a double elimination. Max Drag Queen is someone that I adore and love, even before the show. Now me being a performer, I thought that I was going to save my ass with every lip sync. With her talent, I thought that if there was one person that could send me home, it was her. The fact that we were in the bottom with her I was not too confident (laughs). Nikita (Iman) also must have shown something that I did not see as well because we were all performing together.
MC: How did you get your initial start in drag and know that it would be more than a hobby a was your true passion?
KF: Actually for the first year doing drag because I was a dancer, I got asked to be put in drag because there was a show show where they needed Asian drag queens and there were not many Asian drag queens in Sydney that could dance. They grabbed a bunch of us Asian boy dancers and put us in drag! For the first five times that I did drag, that was my situation; that was my first year doing drag, I only did it five times.
Then we got into COVID and at that point, I obviously started loving to do drag. I started practicing my makeup at home and the whole time we were at home, I used that time to practice my makeup. After we got out of COVID, that is when I started going out for drag for fun and going out into the community and learning the real meaning of drag. I would say that the first year I was just doing it for work, but after COVID I started doing it because I loved it!
MC: You are part of an influx of performers that are part of the Drag Race franchise that are delivering total and complete Asian excellence. What it is like to be a part of such a wonderful new group of performers?
KF: Yes I do think it is great to have this influx of Asian performers on our screen now! I think definitely that is something that I would never see, even on the stages of clubs with drag queens. I think that is also one of the reasons that wanted to push myself to be the best that I could because I wanted to represent and show that there are fierce Slaysian drag queens!
MC: What’s next for you post Drag Race Down Under?
KF: One of my main goals is to travel the world more and definitely hit the Asian markets. The Philippines, Thailand, all of the countries where Asian drag is just insane. I want to experience it and show what we have down here in Down Under as well!
MC: What advice did you get before Drag Race Down Under are you taking with you from this experience?
KF: I think the advice that I was given that I would love to pass onto other people, whether they do the show or just in life in general, is to not get in your head. I got in my head and it affected me, but I have gotten over it. I would probably say, just don’t get in your head!
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