Ciara Myst: RuPaul’s Drag Race Rate-A-Queen Interview

After a one-week stay of execution, Rupa has recommenced telling queens to “sashay away” on RuPaul’s Drag Race. This week’s victim was Season 18’s “shapeshifting superstar” Ciara Mystknown for her larger-than-life costumes and overdrawn lips.

“I describe my drag as female illustration rather than female illusion,” Ciara tells Gold Derby in her exit interview. “I always want to feel like a comic-book character or a drawing come to life. The lips are an homage to the way women are drawn in comic books. If Angelina Jolie was put into the pages of X-MenI think that’s how she might look.”

Unfortunately for Ciara, that quirky aesthetic and a somber spoken-word talent show number weren’t enough to protect her from elimination. Unlike the first three queens eliminated this season, however, Ciara found herself in the bottom two thanks to the return of the Rate-A-Queen twist.

After splitting up into two groups last week, the queens were tasked with ranking the other group’s queens following their talent show performances, with the Group 2 queens ranking the Group 1 queens last week, and the reverse this week. Unfortunately for Ciara, who had tried to create an alliance with her fellow GLAM girl group challenge queens, she was the lowest rated queen from Group 1 and, therefore, the first queen sent into this week’s lip sync.

Coming into this week’s episode, Ciara knew her (beautifully illustrated) head was on the chopping block, and so she initially tried to land Group 2 member Discord Addams in the bottom, hoping she’d be an easy queen to beat in a lip sync. In the end, however, due to some last-minute strategizing in Untucked, Myki Meeks ended up being the Group 2 queen to send Ciara home.

Following her elimination, Ciara Myst sat down with Gold Derby to discuss why she chose a serious spoken-word piece over a more humorous talent, her thoughts on the Rate-A-Queen twist, and why her alliance fell apart.

Read on for our full exit interview with Ciara Myst:

Gold Derby: How did you settle on the spoken-word piece for your talent show act?

Ciara Myst: Well, the transformation, the butterfly, and turning myself inside out are things I’ve shared in my art before. I actually created a makeup piece that was photographed and put on display in the mayor’s office in Atlanta in 2019, and that was my way of sharing my story and experience with depression, reinvention, and identity at that time. Thinking about Drag RaceI knew I wanted to revisit that story. Unfortunately, I think depression, reinvention, and finding yourself in the darkness is something too many queer people can relate to. I always wanted to tell a story that was bigger than just one challenge on Drag Race.

Were you worried at all that your message wouldn’t translate on TV, given that most queens choose humorous talent numbers, and you only have a minute to perform?

A promise I made to myself going into Drag Race was that I would have fun every single day, and I wanted to stay true to myself. While I love to laugh, and my typical drag performance may be silly, sexy, or irreverent, there’s also a huge part of me that is a community advocate who’s not afraid to speak up for people who may not have a voice. Going into Drag Race and playing the game to receive positive critiques or do what I think is going to read on TV is not who I am. It feels disingenuous to say, “I’m going to change my drag, just for how I think this should be received.” It was far more important to me to honor myself and who I am authentically, rather than placate an audience or the judges. Ultimately, they’re looking for us to be ourselves, and if they love it, they love it, and if they don’t love it, that’s okay, somebody else will.

How do you think the Rate-A-Queen twist factored in here? Do you think you’d have been sent home if RuPual had been judging instead of the other queens?

We saw a sliver of the feedback while the judges were deliberating, and it sounded like Darlene [[Mitchell]and Vita [[VonTesse Starr]were also in trouble. I think the compliments I received on my runway presentation, as well as the originality of my performance, probably landed me more in the middle. So I think there’s a possibility of a different outcome in an alternate Marvel Cinematic Universe.

There was a lot of talk about the GLAM alliance, but that ultimately didn’t pan out. What happened?

Rate-A-Queen, in the middle of the season, unearthed everyone’s psychological trauma in a way we could not have predicted. It was a shake-up that even the most emotionally mature, stable beings in that Werk Room could not fathom. We were cracked, and despite any attempts at alliances or strategic planning, you get into that voting booth, and everything goes out the window. That inner saboteur becomes the outer saboteur. Unfortunately, we saw Kenya Pleaser spiral. There’s no trust with What Coco and Kenya. I’m second-guessing everything. I don’t know who supported my alliance, who voted me in the top or in the bottom. I do Myki [[Meeks]a disservice. The whole alliance flopped because of insecurity at the voting booth.

'RuPaul's Drag Race,' Ciara Myst — Ciara Myst

You end up lip syncing against Myki Meeks, who was in the bottom based on your group’s Rate-A-Queen votes. Why did you rate her so low?

Myki delivered something that, honestly, I would perform myself. That style of horror/comedy/burlesque is very much in the same realm as Ciara Myst. I enjoy the concept. I enjoyed her delivery. I think we are at a point in the competition where we’re plucking pussy hairs, and so when I see the wig starting to fall apart, and I think about runways from week one and week two, I take these into consideration. I’m overthinking all of the factors instead of just saying, “You know what? That’s my friend. She really served c–t of on the runway last week, and we have an alliance, so I should support her for that.” Instead, Discord lent me some jewelry, and it was very Roxxxy Andrews & Alaska.[In[InRuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 2, Alaska saved Roxxxy Andrews from elimination three times, largely based on their prior friendship and not Roxxxy’s performance in the challenges.]

There was a lot of talk this week about Kenya Pleaser not knowing the words to her lip sync. Was that something you noticed in the room?

I did not notice that Kenya had trouble with the words when I was watching the talent show. I was just watching someone deliver a fierce performance. But in Untuckedit did seem to be quite the question. Nobody seemed to mention that Vita didn’t know her words to her lip sync on the previous week, though.

Oh, that’s tea! Going back to the red carpet mashup challenge. I was surprised you didn’t win. Were you also surprised?

Well, I was in the top, so the upward trajectory was there. I think I was robbed of a top placement in the girl group challenge with my glamorous eyeball gown, so I was just excited to break free of my job as the host of Untucked and be a top placement, getting some critiques. But I was surprised I wasn’t able to snatch the win. Kenya and I had one of the most difficult combinations — to tell a story with denim and meat and not only honor the original outfits, but translate them through our own style of drag. I was able to accomplish all of the parts of that challenge in a way that my competitors were not. While Vita is an incredible seamstress and that win is definitely deserved for the beauty of that garment, the materials she and Mia [[Starr]were presented with lent themselves to a more glamorous presentation. Whereas non-stretch meat fabric was certainly not something I would have picked to make my job easier.

Ciara Myst: RuPaul’s Drag Race Rate-A-Queen Interview

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