“Let me stay”, she posted with humor on her Instagram account following her elimination. An allusion to her Dalida look and to the song Let me dance on which she tried to save her place in the competition. Kitty Space therefore left season 2 of Drag Race France at the end of the third episode broadcast on France 2. The 27-year-old drag queen left with her head held high, proud to be the first Asian candidate for the tricolor adaptation of the show. For 20 minutesthe artist looks back on her journey, admits having hesitated to play with clichés and reveals the personality she planned to embody during the episode on “Snatch Game”…
During this third episode, we saw you in difficulty during the maxi-challenge where you had to embody a teleshopping saleswoman. How did you experience it?
It was quite trying for me because I didn’t do what I wanted to do. I felt like I disappointed people and I disappointed myself. I said to myself “This is what the public will see from me and it’s a shame, in fact. » I know that I can be very funny and strong in improvisation. My friends, after seeing the episode, told me that they didn’t recognize me, that it wasn’t me.
What unsettled you?
I put too much pressure on myself. Initially, I wanted to do another character for the maxi-challenge, but I was afraid of offending someone. I was too much in my head, I thought too much about political correctness. I lost my means of stress and fatigue.
Did you have a more provocative idea?
In fact, my idea was to start from a stereotype. As I played a teleshopping saleswoman, I thought of the cliché about Asians trying to sell you shoddy things in the markets. I wanted to show that we Asians can be self-deprecating but only we have the right to make these caricatures. I also thought it was a way of breaking the cliché. But I was afraid it would not be taken well by the Asian community. I asked myself too many questions. When I played the others the skit I had envisioned, they laughed their heads off and told me I should have done it. I should have listened to myself rather than trying to please everyone.
Before leaving you said: “I hope I have made my Asian sisters proud”…
Today, I can say that I am proud. I received lots of messages, from people of all origins, saying to me “Ah, finally an Asian representation! That made me happy. I was afraid that people would tell me that I was just a quota. But the reactions show me that this is not the case at all. I don’t know if people were expecting me or not, but I tell myself that if they were happy to see me, it was because they wanted to see more diversity. My sisters from the Rice Queens [un collectif de drags asiatiques dont Kitty Space fait partie] told me they were very proud, they even made me a little video, it was so cute.
The Rice Queens collective was created in Paris to highlight Asian drag queens and after realizing that they were rarely, if at all, invited to join the main drag shows. Are things going well there?
It has to change again. It is not acquired. I hope we’ll be booked more and not just me because I did “Drag Race”. I wish my sisters from the Rice Queens were also in demand. There is more and more diversity in drag shows, but there is still a long way to go to include racialized artists, drag kings, creatures. There are still great scenes of Parisian drag shows that never appeal to us. In fact, we often see the same people spinning.
During the episode, you also mention “the little boy who [souffre] a lot behind this drag queen”. Kitty Space help this boy?
And the boy also helps Kitty. I don’t trust myself at all. As a boy, I suffered a lot of teasing and rejection, including by relatives. I suffered from it, I still suffer from it. It’s true that sometimes Antoine [son prénom à l’état civil] was able to hide behind Kitty to gain more confidence. As I said on the show, doing drag paradoxically allowed me to accept myself as a boy. But you have to know that Antoine gives a lot to Kitty, that he makes a lot of concessions and sacrifices – I gave a lot of time and money so that she could shine. Sometimes I would like Antoine to shine too. I want people to know that behind drag there are people, men, women, who give themselves body and soul so that the drag personality can live and shine.
What do you regret not being able to show?
I regret the “Snatch Game” [une épreuve en forme de jeux télévisé où les drags doivent incarner des célébrités] because I had a really good character and I could have shown that I was good at comedy, that I had a sense of humor. I also wanted to do ball, because it’s a sewing challenge and I’m a stylist. I think I showed very good looks on the show and there, I particularly wanted to present one, which might have enabled me to win the challenge.
Who would you have played in the “Snatch Game”?
Louis de Funes. He’s an actor I’ve loved since I was little. My grandmother, my parents, watched his films. I know them all by heart, I have all the references. I imitate him very well. He helped me in my childhood. I was often alone in primary school, in college, and films with de Funès made me laugh and allowed me to escape. And then, he is a mythical figure of French cinema! I didn’t want to do an Asian personality. It would have been too simple. To be made up as a white and elderly actor was a greater and wacky challenge. I will post a video on Instagram, I hope people will be convinced!
Where can we come to applaud you next?
I animate the viewing parties [visionnages publics] at Who’s (Paris 4th) on Fridays, except the 21st because I will be in Toulouse at the Lova la Diva party at La Cocotte Fleurie. I couldn’t be there because it also falls on a Friday, but on July 28, there is a Rice Queens show at La Folie (Paris 19th).