“After back-to-back weeks of sending girls home,” Jax didn’t “anticipate” a lip-sync challenge leading to her Drag Race downfall.
The eighth episode of season 15 saw the return of the LaLaPaRUza, with the queens competing in several lip-sync smackdowns before a final sudden death elimination round.
After losing her lip-sync against Mistress Isabelle Brooks and joint showdown with Anetra and Luxx Noir London, Jax and Anetra served flips, kicks and splits – and walked that fucking duck! – to the beat of CeCe Peniston’s 80s classic Finally.
Ru ultimately chose to save Anetra, with Jax getting the chop.
Viewers came out in droves to support Jax; many expressded that she was “Jasmine Kennedie-d” due to their similar trajectories as lip-sync assassins who annihilated each of their respective LaLaPaRUza’s but were sent packin’ anyway.
Although the self-described “Simone Biles of drag” tells GAY TIMES that she “came to peace” with her exit “pretty quickly”, she admits: “I think it’s fair to say I was not anticipating that outcome! It was still a blast to go out swinging.
“We go to Drag Race with a specific package and skillset at that given time, and I was hungry to get to work on the things I was being critiqued on, but at the same time I was just very proud of myself for giving it my all.”
Jax “absolutely” understands the comparison with Jasmine Kennedie’s elimination, describing it as a “deja-vu moment”.
“Jasmine and I are sisters who used to host brunch together in NYC,” she says. “However, even though Jasmine and I love to turn the party, dance, and are former cheerleaders, we are both very different queens. It is an honor though to be considered amongst the ranks of lip-sync assassins.”
All of Jax’s lip-sync losses in the episode were heavily debated online, as well as the werkroom, with her sisters looking visibly shocked when Mistress was announced as the winner of their smackdown to Taylor Dayne’s Tell It To My Heart.
“It’s honestly been such an honour,” she says of the online reaction. “To even think that people look to me in the ranks of some of my all time favourite entertainers is insane to me. I just do what I do, and I’m so grateful people gravitate towards that and are entertained by it.”
When we ask Jax if she was also surprised by the outcome of her lip-sync with Mistress, she explains: “Yes and no. I definitely gave it my all in that lip-sync, and you can’t deny that I was good.
“However, drag is one of the most subjective art forms in the world. Mistress and I performed it the ways we wanted to turn it out and I think we both objectively did great regardless of having to choose someone to win.”
Jax’s final showdown with Anetra came to fruition after the latter chose to save Spice, with Anetra later stating that she wanted to compete against the best-of-the-best. (“I can’t lip-sync against Spice,” Anetra said in her confessional. “Like, do ya’ll think that’s fair?”)
“I was definitely thrown in the moment. Not being saved for that round and going into my fifth lip-sync on the show, I could tell the writing was on the wall for me if I wasn’t saved,” shares Jax, who goes “back-and-forth” with whether or not she would’ve chosen to lip-sync against Anetra or Spice.
“I believe in the moment I would have chosen to save Anetra, we had just lip-synced against each-other and I know what she’s capable of!
“I also just saw her going all the way in the competition. But I also fully agree with Anetra’s stance of wanting to have a proper battle. You wanna go up against competition and prove yourself!”
Jax continues to explain that the LaLaPaRUza is “definitely not how I remember, but nothing ever is [on Drag Race]”.
“Drag Race is truly that, a race – it is all happening so fast in such a condensed time period I could barely blink before we were on to the next challenge,” she says.
“It has definitely been interesting watching everything back this season, and looking at that TV version of myself through an entirely different lens and seeing how much I’ve grown from the experience in how I act, dress, and even perform, it’s drag boot camp.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race has completely “changed the trajectory” of Jax’s life, with the show ruvealing to her that she could use the art of drag to “combine and pursue” all of her passions.
“I’m so grateful to be traveling the world now performing and doing what I love!” she says. “But I’m also a workhorse with a lot of energy and a mind that’s all over the place, which means I want to try and do everything; making my performances bigger, honing in and continuing to polish my drag.
“But, staying true to myself and doing what I want to do because I’m the happiest and the most proud of myself when I remain authentic and do what I’m passionate about.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 is available exclusively in the UK via the streamer of all things drag, WOW Presents Plus, with new episodes dropping weekly from 2am GMT on. Subscribe now via https://uk.wowpresentsplus.com/
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