She Better Work: RuPaul on Queens Having Kids, the Wisdom of Cher and Expanding Her Drag Empire

These days, every channel has its reality competition workhorse that pays the bills. Fox has American Idol, Lifetime has Project Runway and after last year's breakout season, Logo now has RuPaul's Drag Race. Tonight, RuPaul kicks off the show's second iteration by honoring one of her favorite films, Gone With the Wind, in a challenge that requires the dozen accomplished drag queens to craft fierce looks out of curtains, and as usual, the bottom two will lip-sync for their lives in front of an esteemed guest judge (in tonight's episode, Kathy Griffin). But this is only one of the latest ventures for the cultural force, whose new book Workin' It!: RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style hits bookshelves tomorrow. In June, Ru will give straight women the confidence to use "all of the colors in their crayon box" with a new show called Drag University.

Movieline caught up with RuPaul to discuss expanding her reality empire, owning your power, and how everyone could benefit from a little drag.

May I call you Ru?

You sure can.

Okay Ru. One of the reasons Drag Race stands out so much to me is because the contestants are so emotionally available, especially compared to other reality shows like Project Runway or America's Next Top Model, whose contestants can seem stiff. How much of a hand do you have in casting?

I am very much a part of the casting process. We have hundreds of applicants. We're looking for kids who are showgirls, who work in clubs around the country, who make their living doing it. Another element to why I think they are so interesting is that little boys who grow up to be drag queens a lot of times spend their early years being sort of ostracized and outside of the clique. They've had an opportunity to look in and deconstruct it, observe it and really pick out the things that make certain cultures and social circles tick. It takes a strong character to be able to then say, 'You know what, I'm going to put on a pussycat wig, and a pair of high heels and I am fabulous.' It takes a lot of chutzpah and it takes a strong personality to be able to do that.

Other reality shows seem to go out of their way to handpick a few contestants that are a little crazy and will reliably cause conflict. How extensive are your background checks?

With all shows there is a background check and a psych check, but for the most part, our kids are professionals who work in the industry and there's always a lot of courage and a lot of strength coming from these kids because we live in a male-dominated society where boys playing with "girls' things" is so taboo. For someone to be able to do that and to make a living at it, they have to be strong, and have strength of character.

This season, you have two castmates who knew each other from college. Did you have concerns that there would be certain risks in casting contestants who have a history together?

Actually, we didn't know that they were friends from college until they were on the set. In fact, none of the girls knew that the other girls had been chosen until they met on the set. There were actually three sets of kids who knew each other from outside of our show. Two who knew each other from Atlanta and then two who knew each other from Los Angeles.

Did they form cliques?

Some of them did form a bond where they would work against the other kids but for the most part everybody is on their own and, you know, sometimes those bonds have to be broken because in the end, they are in competition with each other.

For the first time in Drag Race history, you have two contestants with children. How did that affect the show?

Right. Tyra has a kid and Paige Brooks has a kid. And you know, they became very sad they were away from their kids for so long. But hey, you know what, that's show business. Welcome to the life of Judy Garland.

How long did it take to shoot the whole season?

We do it in about five weeks.

I watched the premiere and loved the Gone With the Wind theme. Do you have any other classic film themes this season?

I don't think there are any classic film themes. We have a rock episode where the kids have to sing with a rock band and give their best Debbie Harry rock-chic look. Then there is a wedding episode where the kids have to create a wedding dress look for themselves as a bride and also create a look for themselves as a groom and they are photographed with themselves as a bride and a groom.

Another one of my favorite challenges involved setting up the contestants with their drag mothers. We grabbed a bunch of older gay men who had never done drag before -- and we're talking men in their sixties and seventies -- and the kids were assigned their drag mother and they had to make them over in their own image. We thought it would be a good idea to have the revolutionary gay rights liberation generation meet the new crop of kids.

How did you pair the drag mothers with their contestants? Was it random?

There was a mini-challenge that sort of paired the two. I think that whoever won the mini-challenge chose who everyone else was with.

You have some great judges this season but I'm curious if your friend Cher would ever consider coming on the show?

I don't think so. Doing a reality show is so not her thing, but she is probably mentioned in every episode. She really embodies what drag is all about and she would tell you the exact same thing. The wigs, the costumes, the personas. She's like a history book herself. She knows the history of show business and knows the history of presenting yourself in a superficial reality. But I don't think she'd do the show. I could only wish, I could only wish.

Speaking of presenting yourself in reality, you've spoken about how you had been pitched a bunch of reality shows but it took you a while to pin down Drag Race because you felt strongly about presenting all of the contestants in a positive light. How hard is it to maintain that standard? Do you ever get pressure from someone in the editing room about including a clip that would be funny, but is not necessarily flattering to a contestant?

Well, the production company I am with [World of Wonder] has been my family for the past 25 years. These are the guys that produced my talk show on VH1 and actually produced my album in 1986, Starrbooty. We've been friends forever. We have the same aesthetic, the same reverence for drag and for people who dance to the beat of a different drummer. There are no worries in that regard, but I would definitely worry with another production company, because you have to really love the courageousness and not everybody does.

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