Boston drag queen Kori King left prom early after being eliminated during Friday’s design-focused episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She spoke to Newsweek‘s Parting Shot about her the Boston drag scene, wanting her friends to roast her and her surprising lip-sync kiss with Lydia B Kollins.
“We’re making TV, I wouldn’t want people to be nice to me,” Kori told Newsweek. “That’s not interesting to me.”
Friday’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race had the Season 17 queens get creative in designing looks inspired by renowned American fashion designer Betsey Johnson—who appeared as a guest judge this week.
Designing their own look based off one of three Johnson-inspired collections—”Punk Grunge Flappers,” “Prenup,” or “Betsey’s Prom”—the contestants tried to strike a balance between showing off their own personality while paying homage to Johnson’s classic style.
Kori’s runway look for the “Betsey’s Prom” category—a short pink dress with a bow on the bustline—failed to elicit wows from the judges. Judge Michelle Visage called attention to the execution of the look, saying “the hemline is just pulling my eye, and it shouldn’t be” during the episode’s deliberations, while Johnson said, “I would’ve really garbaged that dress up—I’ve never been able to do simple and severe very well.”
Kori landed in the bottom two for the episode alongside Lydia B Kollins—whom she has said she has been seeing romantically throughout the season. The show couple battled it out in an energetic lip-sync to Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly,” concluding with a climactic onstage makeout session between the queens.
“It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, like a ‘read the room’ thing,” Kori told Newsweek. “The song is called ‘Kiss Me Deadly.’ You kind of feel the energy.”
Though her competition partner Lydia ended up sending her home early, Kori feels no remorse about her time on the show. “I loved it, 10 out of 10. Being there was amazing,” she said. “It felt like vacation to me because I don’t really stress about anything. I loved every single minute of it.”
Kori says what she loved most were the confessionals. Not necessarily hearing her fellow contestants’ thoughts, however, but more the fact that she “basically narrated half the season.” Though in hindsight, she wishes she was even meaner than she was.
“I wish I was meaner, honestly. I was holding back!” Kori told Newsweek. “I wish I really just let it all hang out.”
“There are so many fans that are giving us hate for being mean or shady, so I feel like now it’s only going to water down the show,” she continued. “I feel like now, next season, girls are going to be scared to be themselves or be shady. So we have to embrace the girls like me and everyone that’s giving you shady edits because if not, the show is just going to be boring!”
A big reason for Kori’s love for shade comes from her background in the Boston drag scene. “In the Boston drag scene, I just feel like compliments are so fake––I don’t want my friends to give me compliments. My friend giving me a compliment is almost an insult,” she said.
“I don’t want my friends to tell me that I look good and that I’m slaying,” Kori added. “If you’re my real friend, I want you to roast me.”
Going forward, Kori says that after her time on the show, she doesn’t feel the need to change her drag in any particular way. “Has it changed my perspective? No,” she said. But for the rest of the show, she’s rooting for “her man” Lydia, along with Suzie Toot and Jewels Sparkles.
