Jackie Cox’s return to the Drag Race franchise ended sooner than she hoped.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12 alum became the first queen eliminated from Season 1 of Canada’s Drag Race: All Stars after the other queens chose to save Juice Boxx with the Golden Beaver, leaving Cox to lip-sync against Nearah Nuff.
In an exit interview with BLKCinema.com, Cox opened up about why the timing felt right for her return, being judged by fellow queens, entering a cast with established relationships and whether she would compete on a U.S. All Stars season.
Jackie Cox says the timing felt right to return to television
“I guess it’s debatable whether it was the right opportunity, but I went anyway,” Cox said. “I had a great time doing it. I hadn’t done it in a long time, and then this opportunity came up. It was nice because it’s a shorter season, so no matter how it was going to go, I knew it was only six episodes. It wasn’t that big of a deal. We filmed back in February, which isn’t a very busy time for bookings. Summer we’re really busy, then Christmastime, but February it’s usually… I didn’t have that much on my calendar. I just had to move a couple gigs around. So I was like, ‘Let’s go try this. Why not?’ It was just kind of a right-time moment, and I guess it’s up to you and the viewers whether it was the right opportunity.”
On being judged by Brooke Lynn Hytes, Priyanka and Jimbo
Cox said she respected the perspectives Brooke Lynn Hytes, Priyanka and Jimbo brought to the judging panel, though they are more like her peers.
“There are so many different points of view on drag, and certainly I respect all of their opinions,” she said. “They’ve been working at this probably about as long as I have. I’ve been doing this now for 16 years in drag, so it’s a long time. I think they all had really valid points. What’s interesting is the drag I do is so different from all three of them, so I wonder if they were able to connect with it as much. But it’s OK that they didn’t.”
Cox said the experience came with pressure, but she remains selective about the feedback she carries forward.
“It was a lot of pressure because that’s kind of a big deal,” she said. “But I take all feedback from whoever wants to give it. The things I find useful, I keep, and the things I don’t think serve me, I throw away. I give that advice freely to anyone who ever goes on any kind of judging reality competition. The feedback is there for you, and you can take it and use it or not. Brooke Lynn’s critique of my swimsuit — I guess it doesn’t look as swimsuity as maybe she would’ve liked, but that’s okay. Opinions are opinions.”
Why she felt like an outsider among the Canadian queens
Cox said one of the most difficult parts of the experience was entering a cast whose members already had close relationships.
“That was probably the weirdest, hardest thing about this. I didn’t realize how close they all are with each other, because the drag scene there is a little bit smaller,” she said. “Most of them have worked together, even outside of the show, for a long time. So I felt very much like an outsider coming in, being like, ‘Oh, hey, hi, nice to meet you. OK, bye.’ I feel like since the season, I’ve gotten to know them all a little bit better, which has been great. Unfortunately, because that first season was kind of a singular-talent thing, we didn’t really get to work together either, which was too bad. But they’re all lovely girls, and I’ve had a great time getting to know them since the season.”
Jackie Cox says the queens wanted to give Juice Boxx a second chance
Cox said Juice Boxx’s existing relationships with the Canadian queens played a major role in the Golden Beaver decision.
“To be honest, the biggest thing that impacted whether I was saved or not was that Juice knew her fellow queens from Canada, and they really felt like she didn’t get a fair chance on the season of Canada’s Drag Race,” she said. “To be honest, that was kind of the main factor in why more of the queens voted to save Juice — she is so beloved, and people really wanted to give her that second chance, I think. But I can’t speak for all the other queens.”
Cox then had to lip-sync against Nearah Nuff, a match-up she knew would be difficult.
“Nearah is an amazing lip-sync assassin,” she said. “She’s truly incredible. I was just like, ‘I’m never going to out-dance this girl, so I’m just going to have some fun with this song,’ because this girl can really do it all. She’s amazing at what she does. I had a good time lip-syncing with her, but pretty much once I was going up against Nearah, I knew my fate was sealed. I had fun anyway. I was like, ‘I’m still going to give them a show.’”
She says says ‘never say never’ to a U.S. All Stars return
Asked whether she would compete on a regular U.S. All Stars season, Cox first reflected on the format used during earlier seasons of the show.
“I loved the Season 2 format, where the winner decides who goes home. It’s fun to see the top two lip-sync,” she said. “It is tough if you’re a winner of a challenge to send a girl home, but I like the drama of that. I think that was really fun. Every episode had two winners too, which was kind of fun.”
As for whether she would return herself, Cox said she is not ruling it out.
“Never say never,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of chatter online about me coming back for the U.S. All Stars. If I ever did it again, I’d go in with a little more sass, because that was something… It would be different going on a U.S. All Stars, since I know more of those queens, and Canada’s a whole different production team than the U.S. version. In addition to not knowing any of the girls, the girls also all knew the production over there, and they knew everything. So it felt like, ‘Oh, I don’t have any home turf advantage here.’ Maybe I’d feel a little bit of that if I went on a U.S. All Stars, but maybe not. There is now a demand for me, especially because one of the things I was so excited to bring to Canada’s Drag Race is that I’m more of an acting comedy queen, and that’s something I really wanted to showcase that unfortunately I didn’t get to do.”
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