After an early elimination on Season 4 of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Sminty Drop returned for RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. the World, determined to show her growth — and she wasted no time doing just that. From a surprisingly strong Snatch Game to instantly viral reaction shots, Sminty made an unforgettable mark before (another) Week 4 exit.
Sminty said she’s proud of how her performance across both seasons reflected her evolution as a queen. In our exit interview with her for Blavity’s Shadow and Act, we asked if she thought that her track record in both seasons, which consisted mostly of safe and high placements before being eliminated, reflected how well she did in each run.
On Snatch Game, growth, and ‘Big?’
“There were things that I excelled in on Season 4… I wasn’t even in the top for the design challenge this time around, but I was in the top in my original season,” she said. “And I don’t think anyone expected me to be good at a Talent Show format or a Snatch Game format. So to have excelled in those things — I think when you put both seasons together and where I excelled at, it has honestly made me so proud of myself. Because I feel like, you know what? Yeah, I’ve hit so many different targets that do make a fully well-rounded queen.”
She added, “I just wanted to give people a second to look at everything that I can achieve — and put the middle finger up to them as well.”
That energy especially showed in her performance as the Big Bad Wolf Snatch Game, which she is extremely proud of.
“It’s honestly filled me with so much pride,” she said. “I got to a point with drag where I was being perceived a certain kind of way — that literally was just ‘pretty face and then it stops.’ And it really frustrated me because I know how much I have to give.”
She revealed that on her original season, anxiety had created a wall she couldn’t push through. But for UK vs. the World, she came prepared. “I came stacked with little one-liners that I could say. I had so many different avenues I could have gone down,” she said. “I could have done an hour-long show with the script that I wrote that was prepared for that Snatch Game.”
Though she says favorite moments were cut from the Snatch Game episode, one unexpected line made it in — and went viral. “The ‘Big?’ bit…that was something that I didn’t even prepare,” she laughed. “I genuinely just said that at the time because it was one of those things — it was in my head and then all of a sudden it left my mouth. And I was like, ‘Oh, s**t.’”
On the Chippy Tea, that lip sync and Episode 4 exhaustion
Though fans debated whether she did enough to convince Kate Butch to save her with the Chippy Tea, Sminty says her fight just wasn’t fully shown.
“You obviously can’t blame everything on the edit… but there is so much that I did actually say that was me pleading my case that wasn’t shown,” she explained. “And although I don’t want to destroy the TV magic of everything, I do want people to know that the fight was still there in me.”
She admitted her initial instinct was to lead with humor. “In the first few moments, I was like, let me just say something funny,” she said. “But I think people have just seen that humor from me as being like, ‘Oh, she doesn’t care. She feels entitled to the Chippy Tea because she’s been doing well or because she’s from the UK.’ And that honestly wasn’t it at all.”
“I genuinely was struggling to find the words about how I felt because I felt like I’d built a really good friendship with Kate too,” she added. “And I felt like she could see the fact that I was mentally struggling with the fact that I was in this position, because of myself. It’s because of what you do that puts you in those positions, so it does a mental toll on you.”
She also made sure to campaign in her own way. “I definitely did say things that were fighting for my position — like taking into consideration track record and the fact that me and Kate have gotten on so well,” she said. “And I also mentioned the fact that I feel like — I narcissistically said — that I feel like my presence would really be missed next week if I wasn’t here, because who’s going to start all of these conversations? Who’s going to start bringing the drama?”
“There were so many people there that would’ve hated to have seen me go,” she added. “Although you do need to look out for number one in that competition, there was also the side of me that was like, me and Kate got really close, and I feel like she just won’t betray me in this aspect.”
Sminty also acknowledged the toll of the competition itself. “It seems to be a pattern with me that when it gets to episode four, I start to… I get so tired,” she said. “It’s almost like that halfway through mark where it’s like, ‘Oh my God, I’m actually exhausted. I need a weekend. I need to let my skin breathe, my feet breathe.’ Everything just does start to get on top of you.”
Still, she made it clear how much she cared about staying. “I do think that the way it looks is like, yeah, it’s valid that she didn’t give me the Chippy Tea because I didn’t care for it — but I absolutely did,” she said. “And I think you can see how much I wanted to stay in the lip sync. I was doing things that I’d never [do normally].”
Learning that they would be lipsyncing for their lives instead of the win
The one challenge? The lyrics. “We all thought up until Episode 2 that it was going to be the lipsticks,” Sminty explained, agreeing that she would at least have a win in the competition this season if the Top 2 format was implemented. “We weren’t pre-prepared that the gag was going to be a format change. And it did kind of annoy me, actually, because one of the reasons why I said yes to going back was for the lipstick format.”
She continued, “If I was in the bottom, somebody else just taking the power away from me — I didn’t want that last chance to prove myself because it’s one more time to tank. Do you know what I mean?”
Without expecting to lip sync for her life, she didn’t prioritize memorizing every track. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to learn the words to every single song verbatim, because I obviously don’t plan on being in the top every single week,’” she said. “There’s going to be challenges where I’m definitely not going to be in the top and I might just coast by a save. So it’s like, I’ll learn some of the words that I’m not too sure on, and then if it gets to that point where I feel like I’ve done really well, I’ll go back to the hotel and smash those lyrics out.”
After the format twist: “I really should have prepared more learning these words,” she admitted. “I’ve seen some people commenting, ‘Did none of the girls learn the words this season?’ Like, no — exactly. We didn’t, because we thought it was going to be lipsticks.”
And in a season where only one winner is crowned per week, she also believes the format affected her record. “If there was a situation like the previous two seasons where there would be two winners each week… the track record would look even more different,” she said.
“I was just like…you know what? F**k it”
Beyond her performances, fans were quick to notice Sminty’s evolution into a full-on reality TV star.
“I was still getting to terms with the fact on Season 4 of — this is a TV show,” she said. “Then this time around I was just like, ‘Do you know what? F**k it. I’ll go back and I’m going to make some good TV.’”
“If I’m going back and pumping all of this money, time and effort into this, I’m going to get my screen time,” she added. “And people will leave watching this remembering who I was.”
“From Episode 1, I saw that nobody else was going to do it,” she continued. “So I was just like, ‘You know what? You deserve to go home. You should have been in the bottom. I should’ve been in the top for this and you look like that.’”
“And whether it’s received good or bad — the drama is always spoken about,” she said. “Even the little face crack moments, I was very aware of the cameras being on this time around. So I was like, ‘They will get my facial expression.’”
The post Sminty Drop On What You Didn’t See With Kate Butch And Bringing Reality TV To ‘UK Vs. The World’ appeared first on Blavity.
