'RuPaul's Drag Race': Megami Wasn't Kidding When She Said 'Protect Queer Art'

For every era of it RuPaul's Drag Race, contestants are challenged to “climb Ev'ry mountain” when it comes to weekly challenges while telling themselves, “I have confidence.” But in the last episode of season 16 (continues 17), the girls got to play in one of the fandom's “Favorite Things” – a Rusical!

Friday's episode (airing Feb. 16) of the reality series saw our 10 remaining queens sing their padded behinds to “The Sound of Rusic,” the show's extended take on the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic, The sound of music. Between dancing, lip syncing and (hyper)active action, the contestants created a Rusical to remember with their campy show.

After stealing the show as the lead character 'Mariah', Plasma earned her second win in the challenge for her soulful performance. But in their respective roles as “Sister Sister” and “Schnitzel,” Mhi'ya Iman LePaige and Megami found themselves on the verge of saying “So Long, Good Good” to the other contestants.

Paired with Miley Cyrus' “Flowers,” Mhi'ya masterfully evoked the energy of the self-loving singer with a perfect performance. Megami's heartfelt, heartbreaking performance, meanwhile, left the queen clutching her hand as she walked away from center stage.

Advertising sign spoke with Megami about her thoughts on the Rusical challenge, her origins as a cosplayer, and why she's glad her call to “protect queer art” on this season's talent show got all the attention – positive or negative.

How do you feel after running? Drag RaceMegami?

I mean, it was definitely an adjustment. At first it was a little rough for me, but over the weeks, I think people got to know me and see what I do — as a performer, as a queen, who I am as a person. It's really nice to have people come and support me and support me over the last several episodes. I'm sorry I have to go, just when I'm on a roll! But, it's better to go out feeling great than to start doing really awful and then have people want you gone.

You are known as The cosplay queen here in NYC — what got you interested in combining drag and cosplay when you first started?

It wasn't even about drag at first: it was purely about cosplay and going to comic conventions. My favorite characters were always the girl characters, so I would always want to cosplay like everyone at the convention — but I didn't want to do Wolverine, I wanted to be Jean Grey! So it started as me making costumes for whatever characters I wanted to do that year, and appearing as the female characters I loved. Performing in drag came naturally after that – I wasn't a performer, I liked making costumes and playing characters.

It's also really cool to see you go out of your way to make space in a community that might not otherwise be the most welcoming to queer people, like nerd culture.

It's so incredibly important to me to make space in geek culture, which is traditionally thought of as being for cisgender, straight guys. I want to show people that queer people love games, women love geek stuff, people of color love all of that too. It is so important to occupy this space. Whenever I go to Comic Con or Anime NYC or any of these conventions, people will come up to me and talk about how they suddenly feel inspired to express themselves. That's the point! It's about showing other people that they can do it too!

Before we dive into the episode, we need to talk about you talent show performance from the premiere. What did you think of the audience's reaction to your “Protect Queer Art” number?

Well…at the end of the day, I always enjoy making people laugh, even if it wasn't my intention. I was always the class clown. It came from a very honest and real place, so I won't claim that it was my intention to be a meme or anything — I love drag and this community so much, and with everything going on in the world, it just felt compelled to say something. I wanted to use my 60 seconds on this platform in front of millions of people to say something.

It's funny, because there were a lot of people in places like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, these traditionally very queer cities, who were like, “He's preaching to the choir.” But having traveled a bit in traditionally red states, the number of people who came up to me and thanked me for saying what I said was amazing. Sometimes it seems like some people in these queer bubbles don't really get that Drag Race it's not just watched by queer people. There are so many Other people out there watching this show, especially queer people who might be apathetic towards politics and see the queens as cartoon characters on their televisions.

I hope, at least, people can see us less as characters on TV, see our humanity and understand that we still need you to stand up for us. We need you to become politically active, because we cannot protect ourselves — we need the whole community.

In this episode, we had the Rusical challenge, where – inevitably – some of the girls ended up fighting each other for roles. Did losing the role of Baroness to Q mess with your head as you prepared for the challenge?

Yes, I will say it did. I was really trying to get a role where I knew I could stand out and show off my more comedic skills. Getting a role that I really didn't want, or that I didn't feel like I had enough character to work with…yeah, that was a bummer. [Laughs.] Obviously, it didn't work out so well for me! But I did the best I could with what I was given and I honestly think I did a fantastic job considering I had to dance my ass off the whole show while some people were just walking on stage and pointing at the audience. There is a difference!

I love that you teamed up with Adam Shankman in this episode, especially since you revealed that Hair spray directly affected your love of drag. What was it about the musical and Edna's role in that show that stuck with you?

Growing up, I was always a little girly boy — to be able to see someone be a drag queen like Edna was amazing. It was so nice to see someone embrace the full female imagination and be loved and celebrated on stage and be the hero of the story. And it's not just Edna, it's Tracy too! Fat girl and drag queen can now be the heroes. This was totally me in high school, seeing myself in these characters as an older person and a queer boy who failed to embrace my femininity in that way. So, yes, it's a very important part of my life.

Before you go, we'd like to know — what music are you listening to lately?

I was actually listening to a lot of Chappell Roan! I rediscovered her album a few weeks ago, and she's been really inspiring me lately. As the Queen of Brooklyn, I always try to think outside the box with my performances and I like music that also goes outside the box. “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl”, in particular, is so good. It's a complicated title, but I'm obsessed.