December 5, 2022 • 45 mins
Loni is back! They chat about their Thanksgivings, current TV/film projects, and what it means to be first on the call sheet. The two also discuss their feelings about the tragic shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs and the passing of the Respect for Marriage Act. And of course, it wouldn’t be complete without a serving of Drag Race… “Drag Race UK” series 4 and “Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. The World” to be exact.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, Hello, Hello, and welcome back to another episode of
Squirrel Friends, the official Ruf Paul's Drag Race Podcast. I'm
Alec Mapa and it is my privilege and pleasure to
introduce America's sister, the Queen of show Business, Bonnie Love. Oh,
I'm finally bad bit a while. Well, you're a movie star.
(00:27):
You've been making a movie and I've been talking about
it the entire time. You haven't been here. Oh, I've
missed you, guys. But we're gonna talk about that. But
I've been making stuff up. I was like, Lonnie Love
is in a new Star Wars film. She's playing a
new black android, you know, called what you talk about Willis.
We're gonna get into that a little bit later. I'm
(00:49):
happy for you just just to let the squirrel Friends
now because we're like so transparent, we're doing so many
different projects. And has a new one too. But before
we get into all of how is your Thanksgiving? My
Thanksgiving was great. I had people over who didn't have
any place to go, so, you know, I called friends
and I was like, what are you doing? And if
(01:09):
they said I got nothing, they came over to my
place and I cooked all day and I had about
nine people over. It was super super I'm not a
big Turkey fan because I think turkey, what's the point if? Like,
the best thing is the sides, right. So we did
a brine chicken, a gigantic brine chicken. We brined it
for a couple of days, so it was moist and
(01:31):
tender and juicy and then crispy on the outside. I
did lobster mac and cheese. I did a butter sage
stuffing with sour dough bread that was all cut up.
I did the green bean castrole because everybody likes green beans.
That's always the best. Camels, mushroom soup. I can cook.
You can cook, Yeah, but I didn't cook. You didn't cook.
(01:53):
What'd you do? I was so tired. I was like,
I'm not gonna cook Christmas Eve. I think I'm gonna
order Chinese food and just you think so well, you
know that's a way to go. I went to Vegas.
I decided to go to Vegas and to spend some time.
You know, my boyfriend and I, James, I had a
good time and get married. No, of course, not Elvis impersonator,
(02:14):
one of those chapter did that twenty years ago. They
were happy it again, I'm staying at the wind and
I wanted to see Michael Jackson one so that's Circus
l A. So I saw that, and then I surprised
because everybody knows I'm on this show Magic with the Stars,
so I've never seen Chris Angels Magic live mat. I've
(02:37):
never seen him perform, so I want to know, was
it amazing. Well, I decided to surprise him. Yeah. I
was like, well, first of all, I tell the people.
I said, don't tell him I'm coming to the show,
because he's been saying to the show. So I came
into the side door and his assistant put me into
the audience because he said, you know, the way to
surprise him is there as a part of the audience
(02:58):
where he picks like four ladies to come up on
a stage for this little club thing. And I was
like okay. And I had like on a mask and
I had like my glasses I had to make up on.
I was like, I didn't think I was gonna be
part of the show, but okay, I'll do it right.
And so that part came and he picked me and
(03:19):
he can't recognize me because I put out like stuff
all in my hair and I'm just like walking upon
hoodie on or something, or I had like this hook,
I had a mask, I had the glass. He just right.
And so once we sit down, he was like, so
I have these ladies. What's your name? And I took
off all the stuff and it was like Alex, it
(03:41):
was like he didn't know who I was for, like,
my god, he find he said, oh my goodness, it's
my sins. Oh and he has this part wait wait
wait back it up. How long did it take for
him to rack? And it took him because I didn't
okay to be honest, because I have makeup on, so
(04:01):
you don't have your lashes, honor. I think he was
kind of like, who is this lady? Right? It's like
I had lashes, I had lipstick, just k like whatever,
And so he was kind of like, you don't try
to figure out like st her is it? But once
he figured it out, what was even funnier was that
he got discombobulated with his He was like, I just
(04:22):
think I can't believe she came and didn't tell me.
She was kind and so we kind of laughed about it,
and that was a time for me to kind of
grab the mind, thank him, and tell everybody about So
it turned out wonderful and his act is really like
if you haven't going to see him, he plays at
Planet Hot every night and it's a wonderful magic show
(04:45):
where he's like levitator, he's got fired. It's like he's
that rock star type of magician. So it was what
was the heart stopping trick. Did he do like a
David Blaine thing where he made the whole statue of
liberty disappear? Or he I love the levitation. He levitates
a woman and then he levitates himself and then he
(05:06):
goes out in the audience and you don't it's like
there's no strings, there's no so, I don't know how
he's doing it. It's literally I have never seen somebody
the audience. No, he levitates someone in the show on stage.
So and then he levitates himself and then he goes out.
But the thing is his theater is like it's like
(05:29):
it's not just like a plane stays like, well, we're
you know what I mean, it's got all the electronics.
It's designed for him. Oh yeah, it's totally totally designed
for him. So I just had a great time and
I'm glad that I did it, you know, and I
made James drive perfect. You know, I was kind of
scared because, you know, because I usually like to drive.
I'm a driver, because you know, I'm a road comic.
(05:51):
You're a control freak, so you got to be But
you know what, I honestly enjoyed him driving. I mean
the first it was kind of nervous. I love being
driven around. I don't need to drive. Oh my, you
should have told me how I love it. It was great.
It was great. I thought when you told me you
were going to Chris Angel show and they brought you
in through a side door, I thought the next part
of the story was gonna be. And then I walked
(06:12):
up a set of steps and I popped out of
a hat like you were in the show. So did
you eat? That's next? Tid you eat it the Wind
for Thanksgiving? Because I love the food there. Yes, they
have a wonderful steakhouse that I went to. It's called
s W And what I love about the Wind of
course it's very first first, but every twenty minutes, and
(06:38):
we were sitting outside they have like this beautiful patio
area at the Wind. Every twenty minutes they have this,
I would say the water show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's
not so much water because it's like this huge screen
and it's different like videos or presentations and things like that.
So it was just nice to just chill out. And
(06:58):
I love those statues of the naked people coming up
out of the water. Oh my goodness, you would like that.
But it was a great Thanksgiving. Now and listen, believe
it or not, this is a podcast about drag Race
and all things drag Race. Um. If you're a returning visitor,
welcome and thank you. And if you're for the first time,
(07:21):
welcome and thank you. We talked about all things drag Race.
We've interviewed so many people on the show that we
had a Thanksgiving episode whereas a compilation of a Lissa
Edwards and Rajah and Eureka and all the wonderful people
that have been on the show. Was so impressed. We
were so impressed by that. But when we come back,
we're gonna catch up, okay, you know, with our lives,
(07:43):
but also we got to catch up on the drag
Race because you know, drag Races International's right, I know
you've watched it. You gotta tell me everything that's going on,
everything right back, right back, and we're back Glodie Love.
So let's talk about Drag International. Well listen, because you
(08:07):
know what, I follow it on Twitter. I do follow
it on Twitter and it's so exciting. Now this Drag
Race UK season four, tell me about it. I watched NonStop.
It's interesting watching see after. You know, while the regular
Drag Race here in the United States finishes up, there
are other franchises that keep going, so you can basically
(08:28):
watch drag Race all year round, which is what I enjoy.
So I watched UK and the difference between UK and
the US is I think that on UK, like here
in the US, we have all the girls can dance,
all the girls can sing, all the girls can twirl.
There's there's a lot of stunt queens, a lot of
queens who will do the spinning kicks and the splits
(08:50):
and everything, and there's less of an emphasis than that
in the UK and more on being an all around entertainer.
So there's a lot of girls there who have their
own cabin reacts where they sing and dance, so they're
all really good at the comedy challenges. There was one
black queen who I've been writing on the Instagram I'm
obsessed with her black pepper p E P p A.
(09:13):
And she is from the Caribbean. She was born in
the Caribbean, immigrated to London and is just all of
her looks were just incredible and she made it so
there were there was a top four and she made
it to the top four and I was so happy,
and she had she had made it to the top
four after lip sinking four times. And the other top
four queens were John Burrs Blonde, who is this Irish
(09:36):
queen who works as a stylist in the UK and
on fashion shoes, so all of her looks were amazing.
There was another one named Cheddar Gorgeous who was like
an amazing makeup artist in the in the vein of
like you know who's amazing, like Kim ch or Raven,
Like her makeup was just lawless and she was very
posh and very dry. And then the one who won
(09:59):
spoiler alert was a bearded queen named Danny Beard. Danny
Beard was like the funniest I think the show is
really about has become about being the best entertainer, and
Danny Beard was the best entertainer. So much fun so funny,
and the looks are incredible and had a beard, had
a beard, you you enjoyed. The looks were incredible. If
(10:22):
you go on Google and google Danny Beard, you will
see the looks. I think that also what Danny Beard
got that the other queens didn't is that the pole
point of the show is make ru laugh, and she did.
She cracked her up the entire time and just went
further and further and further. There was one there was
one look that she did where it was I forget
(10:43):
what the theme was, but she came out in a
little Shop of Horrors dress, so her whole body was
like a green mermaid dress, and on top of her
head she had a puppet of the Audrey to the
giant plant that moved and and had a mouth, and
it was just kind of like, okay, we're we're doing
next level ship now. So it was really really incredible.
(11:04):
So well, the Gay Time says that it's not just
about gay men and dresses and it shouldn't be. Drag
is about being anything you want to be our new
Drag Race UK champion everybody. Danny Yes, I see the
looks and I see that she covers at times Yeah,
beautiful face beautiful Yeah, and then she doesn't, does ya yai?
(11:29):
And just and I like the queens over there and
you can tell that it's The show has also made
RuPaul and even bigger star in the United Kingdom and
the yuck the only fly in the ointment. The only
thing wrong with the show is it's on the BBC,
so they can't give away cash prizes. Seriously, seriously, you
get each week, if you win a challenge, you get
(11:49):
a badge and the grand prize is an all expense
paid trip to work on your own television show. With
World of Wonder. You don't get any money. It turns
into well, it's BBC, so it's a government run thing,
so it's like it's like our version of BBS. Like
because it's all contributions from you know, taxes or people,
(12:10):
you can't get any money. So what happens is all
the girls do leave the show and then go on tour.
There's tours all over Europe, tours all over the United Kingdom,
like they're touring right now. So even though they don't
get paid while the thing, if you can wait a year,
it'll turn into bookings a year later. Okay, I also
want to talk because during this season of UK Drag Race,
(12:31):
there was something that was never done. Mama Ru couldn't
be in one of the right right and so Michelle
Basades stepped in and did through. And I was watching
and people loved it. They loved having Michelle step in
for Mama Ru. So I thought that that was that
was interesting. Yeah, and you know what, this is the
(12:54):
thing too, with the way Michelle and RuPaul worked together.
She's ready for she knows the show by heart. She's
you know, she's been on so many seasons. One show
that they're not on is Canada. The Canada franchise of
Drag Race, which is now Canada versus the World, is
hosted by Brooklyn Heights, who some of y'all remember Squirl
(13:15):
friends who remember from her season and she was on
Secret Celebrity Drag Race. She was one of the girls
on that. And this season they're doing their version of
All Stars where they had four Canadian queens, a New
Zealand queen and a British queen and the American queens
are Silky Nutmeg, Ganosh and Rajah O'Hara and they came
(13:38):
they're not playing, they came out swinging really yeah, silky
like they're they came in like I have the experience
of the U S thing and working on All Stars.
I'm not playing around and they played the game right away.
And now how can like, like for squirrel friends that
don't know, how can we watch these other episodes? I
mean you can watch Canada Versus the World on Crave
(14:02):
in Canada and Wild Presents Plus everywhere else. Oh and
you could also watch UK Drag Race on Wild Presents Plus.
Also playing on Wild Presents Plus is my personal favorite,
The Philippines one UK Philippines, which pretty spectacular. You can
binge the whole season. But Hanada Versus the World is
only on their second episode and they've already eliminated to
(14:23):
Canadian queens. The first queen to leave was Kendall Gender,
who was one of the top board another season. Another
was a Filipino girl and she got eliminated on the
last episode. And so like the Canadian girls are dropping
like flies. There's only two left. I really yeah, I mean,
how could it be Canada Versus the World if there's
no more Canadians on it? I mean, it's just gonna
(14:44):
be the world. Wow. And you know, you know what
was interesting, I'm hearing that they've had guests for Canada
versus the world, like justin Trude. That's huge. Yeah, yeah,
it would be like if Joe Biden had guest starret
on Rupe drag Race. They've got AOC and Nancy Pelosi. Yeah.
Well the closest we got was Nasty Pelosi. Yeah, came
(15:07):
on and that that was huge too because that you know,
I think that that's that's perfect. What about any of
the guest judges for the UK. The UK has had
a lot of people who are famous in England, and
it's a lot of recording stars that I don't know
because because they have their own brand of europop over there.
(15:27):
Like like even on the other franchises like drag Race
It tali A, drag Race Spain or drag Race France,
they do know that they had Hannah Winnie him from
ted Lasso and from She's So Beautiful and and He's Beautiful,
so on all the other drag Race franchises, even Holland.
(15:48):
To a certain extent, they're playing their version of europop,
which is like you know, stuff that's been on euro
Version or stuff that dance music that we haven't heard
here yet, and oftentimes the pop star who sings that
song will be the guest start. Wow, Okay, well, I
mean that's so great, and I'm glad that you watch
all of it, all of it. You know, we will
(16:09):
be getting back into the US drag race, so we'll
be Yeah, I can't wait for that. Can't wait. Like
you said, go on Wold Presents. Plus you can catch
all these wonderful episodes and support all our brothers and
sisters internationally. That's right. But you know, since we have
to catch up, I mean, okay, I walked right. Well,
(16:31):
you know we're going to go first. Okay, Well this
mind's mind's not not mind's not as big a deal
as yours because I'm just well, okay, I'm back on
my Disney Channel show Villains and Valley View, where I
play the nosy neighbor Mr. Tennyson, who's also the high
school principal, and we are back in our second season.
There's another actress on the show who I love, named
(16:53):
Patricia Belcher. Do you know her? Black actress? Hilarious, Like
if you ever saw the movie Jeepers, Creepers, She's the
black woman who predicts what's going to happen to Justin
Long in that movie She's been on. Good Luck Charlie.
It's just a great, great cast and it films right
near me, Lonnie, like literally less than two miles, so
I can get up ten minutes before my call. So
(17:14):
I'm at this place called Andrita Studios, which used to
be the studio for the Playboy channel, really really, and
so I I shoot there and it's it's a lot
of fun. So what was your movie? I was texting
you while you were shooting. Yeah, and the last time
I spoke to you, you were like, how do I
memorize all these lines? So what happened? Okay, First of all,
(17:38):
it was my first lead in a movie. Everybody knows
that we're talking about that, right, And it was a
lot of words. So I asked Alec because I was like, well,
he's used to this, and he was like, bitch, I
don't know, absolutely no help at all. I've been on
this myself. So then when I did one, I broke
(18:00):
the script down into sections and I learned each thing
by the section. And so once I learned the script,
my part and I read it and everything, I started
making flash cards. And then when I get on set
and then this is when I text you, I got
on set and they changed the whole damn script. That's
(18:21):
happened to me. Yeah yeah, but you know, at least
I had the basis, and I also understood the character
because I had to do a character development for my
character and she's a crazy lady, and it was my
first time playing this type of character, so I really
(18:42):
wanted to get it right and I and I really
worked hard at it. And this is the thing, Alex.
Once it's like learning a song. I had to calm
myself down because I was like getting like you always
had the small part. I I always had, like you know,
a scene here, you know, or you know how when
(19:03):
we do sitcoms you do like you have like two
things and you know you're not the lead or whatever.
But this is something different, like I had like whole
monologues that you know it had. But once you learn
the words. It's in the words of famous Madonna. Once
you know the words to sing, you can sing almost anything.
That kept going into my mind. If I learned the words,
(19:27):
then it won't be so overwhelmed me and she the
mother Madonna was right because you were focused on learning
the words instead of your own nerves or something. So
it's like it sounds like it was an outside focus
that helped you do man on what you needed to
do exactly. So once I got to set, even though
they had changed the script, because I had the basis
(19:48):
of it, it was so easy and it was like
riding a bike, so I was able to pick up
And honestly, you know, I was the only person that
kind of like new life. Okay, yeah, I can see that. Yeah,
But who also was in it? You don't have to
say who didn't know their lines? But who were you
acting opposite? It was some young kids and it's just
(20:09):
so great. It's it's going to be a very funny,
dark horror movie that way. It's really good. So you
know what I mean. Is it gory? Yes? Yeah. I
saw a really great movie on HBO during the break.
I was called Barbarian and it starts justin long and
it is so it's the scariest movie I've seen all year.
(20:32):
It's so good about it. It's about a girl. It's
played by this black British actress who was on Black
Mirror and she rents an airbnb and she shows up
for the actor who plays it is there saying that
he got there first, and he was like, you know,
we should just split it, and then they end up
splitting a bottle of wine and hitting it off, and
(20:53):
he's like, I'm not that scary. Just you have the bedroom,
you could lock the door. I'm gonna sleep out in
the living room. So she sides to stay the night
because there's nowhere else to go. And in the middle
of the night, this is not spoiling anything, she wakes
up and her door is open, of course, after she's
locked it, and she looks through the door and she
(21:14):
can see stelling scars guard to sleep on the couch.
And then you see in the back of the house
the basement doors open. And that's all I'm gonna say.
The movie takes off of you know what. I cannot
wait for you to see what I've done, because do
you get to run and screen? Do you are you
the last the last girl standing? Are you the last righting?
Without even giving it away stuff, I'm just it was no,
(21:38):
I'm no, you gotta see it. You you you have
to see it because it's something that you've never seen
me do. But I love the fact that I was
able to add the comedy and that's so exciting, and
I just, you know, I just think that in life,
when you are presented with the challenge, I think that
(21:58):
you should take the challenge because you never know. Yeah,
and you were not going to spoil it. And you
were number one on the call sheet. Oh my, you know,
number one on the call sheet? Okay, seeing people? What
that is. What a call sheet is is a list
that you're given at the end of each workday on
a set and it has your call time and then
(22:19):
has all the departments makeup, hair, and it says when
they're when they're what they're call is, when they're needed,
and then you're listed. The actors are listed on the
call sheet. In if you're the star, you're the number
one person on the call sheet, right or yeah, Yeah,
I've been. I've been number one in the call sheet
twice in my life. Yes, yes, and they were both
(22:41):
for comedy specials that I was shooting. So I was
the only one on the call sheet, but I was
number one. But it's a special feeling. It's a special feeling.
It's also a responsibility. I will say that, because when
you are the first person, it's I learned a lot one.
It's like when you see the time to start, Like,
(23:03):
people don't understand if I came late, that would make
everything else, Like he thinks six people waiting, right, Or
if I don't know my lines, then I gotta learn
my lines, which extends production. So when you have the
number one, number two, number three, the top three people,
they should you know, because I've been on some some sets,
(23:24):
you're also setting the tone for everybody else. Yeah, you
set the tone. It's a leadership position, whether you like
it or not, because it's a responsibility and it's like
and it's just because sometimes they can pad the time,
like can pad the time and you're like, wait, wait, wait, no,
what we're not gonna do. We're already getting up early.
We're not gonna pad it with two because you think
you don't know that if I'm on time person or not,
(23:47):
that's no. I'm an on time person. And then you
know everybody else follows behind, right, So if I'm on time,
I expect everybody else to be on time. I mean
I've been on some sets where you've had two people
that were the top two. They would not get on
set until the other person. I mean, they played these
Petty Games. I was on the same movie that we
(24:09):
would always be waiting for the last two actresses because
the last one there everybody's waiting on. So there was
this whole thing of like they were watching each other,
like who's going to set first? And I was like, oh,
come on. But you know the leadership position of that,
especially when you're working with young people, they're looking to
you to kind of like how to act. And if
(24:30):
you're going in and you're late and you're shitty to everybody,
that's like a virus that spreads. And that's why I
made sure that I had my coffee before I went
to blocking, and we would have blocking as seven thirty
every day, and I established I said, I don't care
if they're not here. I'm gonna be here seventh thirty
(24:51):
and we're not waiting. We're not gonna wait on anybody.
We're going to do the blocking, will have whoever stand in.
And one day it happened where somebody was like, we
we don't know, I'm here number one on the call
sheet because and the only reason why I was like
that too is because it was limited and we had
(25:12):
a limited time on this set. Every day, how many
days did you feel like a thousand that were you
in every scene or you and everything? I was like,
I ain't getting the day off. It ain't admit it.
So but but I just want people because you know,
this is the thing too, squirrel friends, we are giving
you the behind the scenes of not only drag Race,
(25:33):
but of the Hollywood scene. I had a great time.
It reignited my love for movies. Yeah, and that's It's like,
that's what I really want to get you. We're going
to get a tough of some of this stuff like that,
and so it is really really great. So thank you
for letting me catch up. Wait wait, wait, did you
(25:53):
have any moment on set This is my question where
you look at the call sheet saw that you were
number one, or you're in the middle of a take
and you're like, I'm Lonnie Love from the Bridget Projects,
and I'm in the movie every day, every day, and
I took it with responsibility because I'm like, you know,
this is a big responsibility because you have to realize
that it is millions of dollars on the line. You
(26:16):
have people's jobs on the line. I mean, actually, one
of the producers came to me and was like thank
you for doing this movie and for being this great
leader because this helps everybody. And it's those type of
things that when I will say this and we're close
with this is those type of things that after you
see the movie and it comes out any movie, you
(26:38):
see why a person may be emotional if they get
criticized about it, because you don't know the work that
was putting in to make the movie happen. It just
doesn't happen, and so sometimes you have to give grace
if you see um, I can remember. I'm thinking about
Viola Davis and when she did this. It was a
(26:59):
Showtime a limited series and it was called First Ladies,
And on Twitter, they took a ten second clip of
her playing Michelle Obama and she was I knew what
she was doing. She made an acting decision, you know,
do the Michelle Obama like Michelle has these this this
way with her mouth. And people took that ten seconds
(27:22):
and they tried to clown like right, And I told people,
I said, why don't you watch the whole series instead
of taking ten seconds, because you don't know what Viola
and her husband with their production company had to do
to make this project happen that's how we asked. We
asked for people to give grace. Yeah, you can clown,
(27:44):
you can do whatever. But also you know, you understand
that the work that people put in to make this
stuff happen, just like with drag Race. That's why we
say be kind to the queens. I know all the work,
and it's just you don't see all that behind the
scenes of of what they're doing. And you know, you
have injuries, you have all kind of things. I know.
(28:04):
That's why I love talking to all the queens on
the show, like Alyssa Edwards and Rajah and and the
people that we've interviewed and Eureka telling us about their journey.
You know what I mean. It's like I was sixteen
years old and I was manning the spotlight at a
bar and then I started messing around with makeup and
then my drag mother put me on stage. It's like
(28:25):
there's a whole year's journey that takes place before they
even get to drag racing. You don't know what they've
been on or what they've gone through to be on
the show. I mean, and that's why we ask people
to you don't have grace, so we're gonna take grace
and we're gonna take a break right back, because we've
got to talk about what's happening. Yeah, yeah, Culture going
(28:46):
to give an update. We'll be right back. We'll be
right back, and we're back, Lonnie. This was like on
my mind while you were away. This happened while you
were gone. I'm talking about the shooting at Club Q.
(29:08):
It was on Trans Remembrance Day, which girlfriends, as you know,
is where we commemorate trans people who have died in
you know, hate crimes or murders or just kind of
remembering the trans people who have passed that year. And
during this time, somebody did come into a Colorado club
during a drag show and shot some people up. Five
(29:30):
people died, and so the shooter was incapacitated by a
man named Richard M. Fierro, who is an Army veteran.
And he said that he went straight into battle mode
and that all of a sudden, he goes, I have
to protect my family. And this is the thing that
gives me chills that he said. And I looked around
and everybody in the club with my family mm hmm. Yeah.
(29:52):
And so while he was punching this guy out, and
I saw the I saw the mug shot this guy.
They fucked this guy up. Some people helped out stop
the shooter. One of them was Thomas James, who is
a Navy sailor and a trans woman why don't have
her name here, also helped stop the shooter by standing
on his neck with her hell jemy. Yeah, I mean,
(30:15):
it's just like, uh, you know, it's so awful. I
was doing a movie in Houston right after the Orlando
shooting and I was with a bunch of people and
we read a drag bar and it was so unfortunate.
We walked in and we all looked at each other
and they say, Okay, what's our emergency plan? Where the exits?
What happens? Where do we need to go if ship
goes sideways? And it's like, what's awful is is a
(30:37):
queer person. Those are supposed to be our safe spaces.
It's kind of like if you don't want to see
me on the street, well I'm gonna go into this
bar where the doors closed and you won't even see me.
So the fact that somebody went into this place that's
supposed to be a safe space and then gunned down
people who are just who are already segregating themselves from
the rest of Colorado Springs. You know, it's just it's terrible.
(31:00):
So the responses came out immediately after. Lauren Bobert was saying,
hearts and uh, thoughts and prayers are going out, and
people answered her, going, you've been the one who has
been campaigning on this, You've been and they and they
posted all the tweets that he's she's been saying against
trans people and all the homophobic tweets, and you can
draw a direct line between the rhetoric that she's been
(31:23):
using and the rhetoric that the Santis has been using
to this violence. Definitely, and you know, we want to
identify the five victims, Raymond Green Vance he him, Kelly
Loving she Her, Daniel Ashton, he him, Derek rump he him,
and Ashley paw she her, and you know, some of
(31:46):
the victims worked at club que others were enjoying the festivities.
I think what was disturbing was that the shooter's dad,
they interviewed him, and you could definitely tell there was
something going on with him, But the mentality of the
(32:07):
shooters dad, you could see why we as a community,
we have to push for laws of equality, for laws
of safety for marginalized groups, because if we don't, we
have people that are out there that have these thought
(32:29):
processes and these stereotypes about us. And I took that
away from this tragic, tragic, tragic situation. But I'm also
so proud of people standing up for themselves and fighting backs.
And it just shows the love because you know, especially
(32:50):
in Colorado there you like you said, there aren't a
lot of safe spaces in Colorado Springs. So for this
to be the safe space and this is, how dare you,
as a person, I know, come into this safe space?
This this space nobody is you know? It just that
angered me. Yeah. And I saw the interview with the
dad that you're talking about, and he was like saying, oh,
(33:12):
I heard that he was in a gay bar, and
for a second I thought he was gay, and I
was like, sho, okay, he's not gay. It's like you
were more relieved to find out that your son wasn't
gay than horrified that your son just murdered five people. Yeah,
so that makes you gives you an idea of this
man's mentality. But it's just kind of like it's what
it's brought home to me is that these these kind
(33:34):
of words, when you open your mouth, your words have consequences.
And if you're opening out saying gay people are groomers
and drag queens are predators and trans women are out
to erase you, then you're inflaming the hostilities of people
who may not be mentally all there do you know?
(33:55):
And this person who came in and also this is
we don't even have to go to a bar. I
mean all of jan you very six was people being
told a lie. Yes, definitely, I mean all the way,
you know. And the thing is is that from this,
you know, we need this thing to stop. But also
what were some of the other lessons and some of
(34:16):
the lessons in it is that when crimes happen to
our community like this, we have to be careful with
certain things. So, like advocates were saying that law enforcement
or media miss gender a crime victim. When they do that,
it can add trauma and pain. So the Colorado Springs
Police said that they made an effort not to miss
(34:38):
gender the club Q victims. So it's like it's little
things like that, because you know, it can add the
trauma and add pain to a community that's already grieving,
but it also perpetuates violence against l g b t
Q plus people and reinforced the belief that trans people's
identities are not legitimate. So it's it's still even when
(35:00):
stuff like this happens, there are corrections that we as
a country need to make to make sure that our
l g b t Q plus brothers and sisters are
properly handled and recognized and recognized and respected, how their
identities respected. It's like this. You know, I my my
(35:21):
immediate household is black and queer. So it's kind of
like we go about our lives and I'm sure you're
like this too. You can't go through your life thinking,
oh my god, there's so much hate out there. You
just have to go through your life kind of doing
the best you can, and when stuff comes up like this,
it's like, oh wow, the fight continues, the fight and
this is why we and we'll move on to lighter news.
(35:44):
But this is the reason why you have to be
politically involved in this country. And when I say politically involved,
it could be something as simple as making sure you're
registered to vote, because you need to vote in your interests.
And that's why I always say, you know, the best
fight is your vote, because we have to encourage our
(36:06):
leaders that hate is not what we're doing. And because
you don't agree with someone's lifestyle, that's none of your
business anyway. But let's but let's put in laws to
protect us. So, speaking of laws the US, and it
has passed the Respect for Marriage Act sixty six. Twelve
(36:28):
Republicans joined the Democrats. Now tell us what the Respect
for Marriage Act is? Okay, since Rovie Wade was overturned.
This is an attempt to codify, meaning make it into
law that same sex marriages into racial marriages that are
still respected, that it's still legitimate. It's basically the short
(36:49):
story is, this will make same sex marriage a law,
so that my marriage is an up for debate or
or a vote every four inner should have never been. Yeah,
but it's like slavery, like we gotta we have doing amendment.
So if you take the amendment out, because I can
tell you right now, I ain't gonna nobody says you're safe.
(37:12):
You get it, I get it for you. What are
you talking about? Take care of your baby. But here's
an interesting thing. Mitch McConnell voted against it and there's
a provision in the in the respect for Mary Jack
for interracial marriages and in an interracial marriage. So he
didn't even vote to protect his own marriage. It's like,
(37:34):
what is going on? So, I mean, come on, do
you think he's still to get in some anyway? All right,
it passed in the Senate, it still has to go
through the House. There's some fine print in the bill.
The bill does not require states to allow same sex marriage.
So if the Supreme Court overturns the old burgha Fell
(37:55):
versus Hodges decision, which requires all states to recognize same
sex riage, it will be up to the individual states
to allow or band same sex marriage. It also has
religious freedom exceptions, meaning it protects nonprofit and religious organizations
that don't support same sex marriage. And even with that,
(38:15):
it's a positive step forward that it's also a reminder
there's more work to do, and we're still fighting for
our rights every day, you know. We this is the
reason why, you know, we have to push inclusion. And
that's one of the reasons why I became an entertainer
Alec because the reason why I did a talk show
with all types of women from all types of races,
(38:39):
because I wanted to. In my mind, I thought we
could show Middle America that maybe doesn't have a black
friend or Asian or Hispanic friend, what it's like to,
you know, have someone of color every day come on television.
That was the real reason, you know that I did
(39:01):
the show for so long. And that's the thing is
that when you have a show just like Drag Race,
you do it because you want people that never see
something like this realize, wow, there are people. They're just
they're just They're just people. That's it. And more than that,
if you're a queer kid out in the middle of
(39:21):
nowhere and you don't come up against any queer people,
or if it's not safe for you to be out
where you live, something like drag Race is is like watching,
you know, people have the fantasy life or live a
life that is not within your reach immediately. That's why
one of my favorite parts of Drag Race every time
(39:42):
is in the finale where RuPaul shows their pictures as kids,
and what would you say to your five year old self?
You know, because there's like kids out there who are
growing up who are exposed to the kind of hate
that they experienced in Colorado Springs. But the thing that
I loved about. It also is out of a conservative
(40:04):
area like Colorado Springs, there's still people who love their
queer family. And the more I read about this club,
Q Place, it was a safe place for everybody. Everybody
was welcome, everybody just love being. And that's the thing
about this country. I think you just have a small
majority of people, but it seems like their voice is
very loud. It's like you ever, like you notice if
(40:26):
you put a comment on social media and you've got
a hundred great comments, but that hundred and one comment
that's bad that you know, Yeah, it gets to you.
I think that's how I see it, and I and
I don't want That's why I don't give up on
our country. I don't give up on the people. And
that's what I'm saying is that you have people out
(40:47):
there that are in these little small towns. They know
what's right and they know what's wrong. I know that
people should love the way they want to love, but
sometimes their influence or sometimes they could be And I'm
not making an excuse. I'm just saying that, especially because
I've been deep down soft in the red, you know,
doing stand up, you know, and I'm standing on this
stage and I can look out and I can see
(41:10):
the faces and I'm like, wow, you know, yeah, you know,
this is different. It's different, but it's wrote, I know.
But that's our opportunity. Also, like when you go out
to those spaces, is like, what do we have in common?
You know? And I think that's that's what we have
(41:30):
to to find moving forward, what do we have in common?
And I also want to do a quick shout out
to my man Hakim Jeffreys. He has been picked the
first black person to lead Congress for the House Democrats.
So congratulations. That's a big deal. That's a big deal,
(41:50):
and it's changing. It's definitely definitely changing. So we're gonna
keep up the fight. We want our squirrel friends to
keep up the fight. But I gotta take a break
because you know, out of here I am. I know.
It's like back right back. Oh, and we're back, Lonnie.
(42:15):
I didn't I didn't know we would go that deep
with this episode, but it's you know, we always a
little further. But this is our passion. This is you know,
I think we you and I both have this great passion.
We've been in this business for a long time. We've
seen what can happen when we all work together. So
you know, if we get a little deep Squirrel Friends,
you know, because we love y'all, it happens, it happens.
(42:38):
And also, you know, right before the break, we're talking
about safe spaces, you know, for queer people, this is
a safe space. The Squirrel Friends podcast is a safe
space for you to listen, you know, hang out with us.
And if you're someplace isolated where it's not cool for
you to be, you, we love you. So we're we're
sending you love right now, so don't forget. If you
(43:01):
have any questions or hot takes for us, for the
queens on the show, you can tweet us or message us.
You can actually tweet just Lonnie love because Lonnie. I've
left Twitter. I couldn't take the whole Elon Musk thing anymore.
I just all of the misinformation and everything. I just
didn't want to be a part of it anymore. So
I I left. I left, but Lonnie's still there. It's shocking,
(43:27):
isn't it. It's it's shocking. I feel like I've cut
off a limb. Like sometimes I feel myself during the
day wanting to check on Twitter, and I don't you
know me. I'm a fighter, Alex. I'm like, I'm staying.
But also, every time I was on Twitter, it was
like a doom scroll. I was just all bad news.
It just bummed me out the whole time. But it's
(43:49):
still a way, it's still away. You can still use
Twitter for good. And if you want to send Lonnie
Love a message, you can find her at comic Lonnie
Love on Instagram him or at Lonnie Love on Twitter.
I want you out a d m at Alec Mapa
on Instagram and tell me get back on Twitter. Don't
don't I have a year. I have a year to
(44:11):
reboot my account, it says, but I don't want to
give you loonbusk my money. I don't want to. I
earned my blue check mark. I whatever. I don't know, Okay,
we'll see, we'll see. Do you think I'm gonna come
crawling back? You think I'm gonna I'm out? I just
say it. At least it's acting for a year. Let's
see what happened, alright, you know what I mean? You
(44:32):
can listen to Squirlfriends, the official RuPaul's Drag Race podcast
on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get
your podcasts. If you like this episode, make sure to
rate us in review US five stars please, and tell
a friend, yes, tell everybody you've ever met. You can
catch up on past episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race and
All Stars on Paramount Plus. We can also watch everything
(44:53):
on Wild Presents Plus. So we'll see you soon, See
you soon,
Hello, Hello, Hello, and welcome back to another episode of
Squirrel Friends, the official Ruf Paul's Drag Race Podcast. I'm
Alec Mapa and it is my privilege and pleasure to
introduce America's sister, the Queen of show Business, Bonnie Love. Oh,
I'm finally bad bit a while. Well, you're a movie star.
(00:27):
You've been making a movie and I've been talking about
it the entire time. You haven't been here. Oh, I've
missed you, guys. But we're gonna talk about that. But
I've been making stuff up. I was like, Lonnie Love
is in a new Star Wars film. She's playing a
new black android, you know, called what you talk about Willis.
We're gonna get into that a little bit later. I'm
(00:49):
happy for you just just to let the squirrel Friends
now because we're like so transparent, we're doing so many
different projects. And has a new one too. But before
we get into all of how is your Thanksgiving? My
Thanksgiving was great. I had people over who didn't have
any place to go, so, you know, I called friends
and I was like, what are you doing? And if
(01:09):
they said I got nothing, they came over to my
place and I cooked all day and I had about
nine people over. It was super super I'm not a
big Turkey fan because I think turkey, what's the point if? Like,
the best thing is the sides, right. So we did
a brine chicken, a gigantic brine chicken. We brined it
for a couple of days, so it was moist and
(01:31):
tender and juicy and then crispy on the outside. I
did lobster mac and cheese. I did a butter sage
stuffing with sour dough bread that was all cut up.
I did the green bean castrole because everybody likes green beans.
That's always the best. Camels, mushroom soup. I can cook.
You can cook, Yeah, but I didn't cook. You didn't cook.
(01:53):
What'd you do? I was so tired. I was like,
I'm not gonna cook Christmas Eve. I think I'm gonna
order Chinese food and just you think so well, you
know that's a way to go. I went to Vegas.
I decided to go to Vegas and to spend some time.
You know, my boyfriend and I, James, I had a
good time and get married. No, of course, not Elvis impersonator,
(02:14):
one of those chapter did that twenty years ago. They
were happy it again, I'm staying at the wind and
I wanted to see Michael Jackson one so that's Circus
l A. So I saw that, and then I surprised
because everybody knows I'm on this show Magic with the Stars,
so I've never seen Chris Angels Magic live mat. I've
(02:37):
never seen him perform, so I want to know, was
it amazing. Well, I decided to surprise him. Yeah. I
was like, well, first of all, I tell the people.
I said, don't tell him I'm coming to the show,
because he's been saying to the show. So I came
into the side door and his assistant put me into
the audience because he said, you know, the way to
surprise him is there as a part of the audience
(02:58):
where he picks like four ladies to come up on
a stage for this little club thing. And I was
like okay. And I had like on a mask and
I had like my glasses I had to make up on.
I was like, I didn't think I was gonna be
part of the show, but okay, I'll do it right.
And so that part came and he picked me and
(03:19):
he can't recognize me because I put out like stuff
all in my hair and I'm just like walking upon
hoodie on or something, or I had like this hook,
I had a mask, I had the glass. He just right.
And so once we sit down, he was like, so
I have these ladies. What's your name? And I took
off all the stuff and it was like Alex, it
(03:41):
was like he didn't know who I was for, like,
my god, he find he said, oh my goodness, it's
my sins. Oh and he has this part wait wait
wait back it up. How long did it take for
him to rack? And it took him because I didn't
okay to be honest, because I have makeup on, so
(04:01):
you don't have your lashes, honor. I think he was
kind of like, who is this lady? Right? It's like
I had lashes, I had lipstick, just k like whatever,
And so he was kind of like, you don't try
to figure out like st her is it? But once
he figured it out, what was even funnier was that
he got discombobulated with his He was like, I just
(04:22):
think I can't believe she came and didn't tell me.
She was kind and so we kind of laughed about it,
and that was a time for me to kind of
grab the mind, thank him, and tell everybody about So
it turned out wonderful and his act is really like
if you haven't going to see him, he plays at
Planet Hot every night and it's a wonderful magic show
(04:45):
where he's like levitator, he's got fired. It's like he's
that rock star type of magician. So it was what
was the heart stopping trick. Did he do like a
David Blaine thing where he made the whole statue of
liberty disappear? Or he I love the levitation. He levitates
a woman and then he levitates himself and then he
(05:06):
goes out in the audience and you don't it's like
there's no strings, there's no so, I don't know how
he's doing it. It's literally I have never seen somebody
the audience. No, he levitates someone in the show on stage.
So and then he levitates himself and then he goes out.
But the thing is his theater is like it's like
(05:29):
it's not just like a plane stays like, well, we're
you know what I mean, it's got all the electronics.
It's designed for him. Oh yeah, it's totally totally designed
for him. So I just had a great time and
I'm glad that I did it, you know, and I
made James drive perfect. You know, I was kind of
scared because, you know, because I usually like to drive.
I'm a driver, because you know, I'm a road comic.
(05:51):
You're a control freak, so you got to be But
you know what, I honestly enjoyed him driving. I mean
the first it was kind of nervous. I love being
driven around. I don't need to drive. Oh my, you
should have told me how I love it. It was great.
It was great. I thought when you told me you
were going to Chris Angel show and they brought you
in through a side door, I thought the next part
of the story was gonna be. And then I walked
(06:12):
up a set of steps and I popped out of
a hat like you were in the show. So did
you eat? That's next? Tid you eat it the Wind
for Thanksgiving? Because I love the food there. Yes, they
have a wonderful steakhouse that I went to. It's called
s W And what I love about the Wind of
course it's very first first, but every twenty minutes, and
(06:38):
we were sitting outside they have like this beautiful patio
area at the Wind. Every twenty minutes they have this,
I would say the water show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's
not so much water because it's like this huge screen
and it's different like videos or presentations and things like that.
So it was just nice to just chill out. And
(06:58):
I love those statues of the naked people coming up
out of the water. Oh my goodness, you would like that.
But it was a great Thanksgiving. Now and listen, believe
it or not, this is a podcast about drag Race
and all things drag Race. Um. If you're a returning visitor,
welcome and thank you. And if you're for the first time,
(07:21):
welcome and thank you. We talked about all things drag Race.
We've interviewed so many people on the show that we
had a Thanksgiving episode whereas a compilation of a Lissa
Edwards and Rajah and Eureka and all the wonderful people
that have been on the show. Was so impressed. We
were so impressed by that. But when we come back,
we're gonna catch up, okay, you know, with our lives,
(07:43):
but also we got to catch up on the drag
Race because you know, drag Races International's right, I know
you've watched it. You gotta tell me everything that's going on,
everything right back, right back, and we're back Glodie Love.
So let's talk about Drag International. Well listen, because you
(08:07):
know what, I follow it on Twitter. I do follow
it on Twitter and it's so exciting. Now this Drag
Race UK season four, tell me about it. I watched NonStop.
It's interesting watching see after. You know, while the regular
Drag Race here in the United States finishes up, there
are other franchises that keep going, so you can basically
(08:28):
watch drag Race all year round, which is what I enjoy.
So I watched UK and the difference between UK and
the US is I think that on UK, like here
in the US, we have all the girls can dance,
all the girls can sing, all the girls can twirl.
There's there's a lot of stunt queens, a lot of
queens who will do the spinning kicks and the splits
(08:50):
and everything, and there's less of an emphasis than that
in the UK and more on being an all around entertainer.
So there's a lot of girls there who have their
own cabin reacts where they sing and dance, so they're
all really good at the comedy challenges. There was one
black queen who I've been writing on the Instagram I'm
obsessed with her black pepper p E P p A.
(09:13):
And she is from the Caribbean. She was born in
the Caribbean, immigrated to London and is just all of
her looks were just incredible and she made it so
there were there was a top four and she made
it to the top four and I was so happy,
and she had she had made it to the top
four after lip sinking four times. And the other top
four queens were John Burrs Blonde, who is this Irish
(09:36):
queen who works as a stylist in the UK and
on fashion shoes, so all of her looks were amazing.
There was another one named Cheddar Gorgeous who was like
an amazing makeup artist in the in the vein of
like you know who's amazing, like Kim ch or Raven,
Like her makeup was just lawless and she was very
posh and very dry. And then the one who won
(09:59):
spoiler alert was a bearded queen named Danny Beard. Danny
Beard was like the funniest I think the show is
really about has become about being the best entertainer, and
Danny Beard was the best entertainer. So much fun so funny,
and the looks are incredible and had a beard, had
a beard, you you enjoyed. The looks were incredible. If
(10:22):
you go on Google and google Danny Beard, you will
see the looks. I think that also what Danny Beard
got that the other queens didn't is that the pole
point of the show is make ru laugh, and she did.
She cracked her up the entire time and just went
further and further and further. There was one there was
one look that she did where it was I forget
(10:43):
what the theme was, but she came out in a
little Shop of Horrors dress, so her whole body was
like a green mermaid dress, and on top of her
head she had a puppet of the Audrey to the
giant plant that moved and and had a mouth, and
it was just kind of like, okay, we're we're doing
next level ship now. So it was really really incredible.
(11:04):
So well, the Gay Time says that it's not just
about gay men and dresses and it shouldn't be. Drag
is about being anything you want to be our new
Drag Race UK champion everybody. Danny Yes, I see the
looks and I see that she covers at times Yeah,
beautiful face beautiful Yeah, and then she doesn't, does ya yai?
(11:29):
And just and I like the queens over there and
you can tell that it's The show has also made
RuPaul and even bigger star in the United Kingdom and
the yuck the only fly in the ointment. The only
thing wrong with the show is it's on the BBC,
so they can't give away cash prizes. Seriously, seriously, you
get each week, if you win a challenge, you get
(11:49):
a badge and the grand prize is an all expense
paid trip to work on your own television show. With
World of Wonder. You don't get any money. It turns
into well, it's BBC, so it's a government run thing,
so it's like it's like our version of BBS. Like
because it's all contributions from you know, taxes or people,
(12:10):
you can't get any money. So what happens is all
the girls do leave the show and then go on tour.
There's tours all over Europe, tours all over the United Kingdom,
like they're touring right now. So even though they don't
get paid while the thing, if you can wait a year,
it'll turn into bookings a year later. Okay, I also
want to talk because during this season of UK Drag Race,
(12:31):
there was something that was never done. Mama Ru couldn't
be in one of the right right and so Michelle
Basades stepped in and did through. And I was watching
and people loved it. They loved having Michelle step in
for Mama Ru. So I thought that that was that
was interesting. Yeah, and you know what, this is the
(12:54):
thing too, with the way Michelle and RuPaul worked together.
She's ready for she knows the show by heart. She's
you know, she's been on so many seasons. One show
that they're not on is Canada. The Canada franchise of
Drag Race, which is now Canada versus the World, is
hosted by Brooklyn Heights, who some of y'all remember Squirl
(13:15):
friends who remember from her season and she was on
Secret Celebrity Drag Race. She was one of the girls
on that. And this season they're doing their version of
All Stars where they had four Canadian queens, a New
Zealand queen and a British queen and the American queens
are Silky Nutmeg, Ganosh and Rajah O'Hara and they came
(13:38):
they're not playing, they came out swinging really yeah, silky
like they're they came in like I have the experience
of the U S thing and working on All Stars.
I'm not playing around and they played the game right away.
And now how can like, like for squirrel friends that
don't know, how can we watch these other episodes? I
mean you can watch Canada Versus the World on Crave
(14:02):
in Canada and Wild Presents Plus everywhere else. Oh and
you could also watch UK Drag Race on Wild Presents Plus.
Also playing on Wild Presents Plus is my personal favorite,
The Philippines one UK Philippines, which pretty spectacular. You can
binge the whole season. But Hanada Versus the World is
only on their second episode and they've already eliminated to
(14:23):
Canadian queens. The first queen to leave was Kendall Gender,
who was one of the top board another season. Another
was a Filipino girl and she got eliminated on the
last episode. And so like the Canadian girls are dropping
like flies. There's only two left. I really yeah, I mean,
how could it be Canada Versus the World if there's
no more Canadians on it? I mean, it's just gonna
(14:44):
be the world. Wow. And you know, you know what
was interesting, I'm hearing that they've had guests for Canada
versus the world, like justin Trude. That's huge. Yeah, yeah,
it would be like if Joe Biden had guest starret
on Rupe drag Race. They've got AOC and Nancy Pelosi. Yeah.
Well the closest we got was Nasty Pelosi. Yeah, came
(15:07):
on and that that was huge too because that you know,
I think that that's that's perfect. What about any of
the guest judges for the UK. The UK has had
a lot of people who are famous in England, and
it's a lot of recording stars that I don't know
because because they have their own brand of europop over there.
(15:27):
Like like even on the other franchises like drag Race
It tali A, drag Race Spain or drag Race France,
they do know that they had Hannah Winnie him from
ted Lasso and from She's So Beautiful and and He's Beautiful,
so on all the other drag Race franchises, even Holland.
(15:48):
To a certain extent, they're playing their version of europop,
which is like you know, stuff that's been on euro
Version or stuff that dance music that we haven't heard
here yet, and oftentimes the pop star who sings that
song will be the guest start. Wow, Okay, well, I
mean that's so great, and I'm glad that you watch
all of it, all of it. You know, we will
(16:09):
be getting back into the US drag race, so we'll
be Yeah, I can't wait for that. Can't wait. Like
you said, go on Wold Presents. Plus you can catch
all these wonderful episodes and support all our brothers and
sisters internationally. That's right. But you know, since we have
to catch up, I mean, okay, I walked right. Well,
(16:31):
you know we're going to go first. Okay, Well this
mind's mind's not not mind's not as big a deal
as yours because I'm just well, okay, I'm back on
my Disney Channel show Villains and Valley View, where I
play the nosy neighbor Mr. Tennyson, who's also the high
school principal, and we are back in our second season.
There's another actress on the show who I love, named
(16:53):
Patricia Belcher. Do you know her? Black actress? Hilarious, Like
if you ever saw the movie Jeepers, Creepers, She's the
black woman who predicts what's going to happen to Justin
Long in that movie She's been on. Good Luck Charlie.
It's just a great, great cast and it films right
near me, Lonnie, like literally less than two miles, so
I can get up ten minutes before my call. So
(17:14):
I'm at this place called Andrita Studios, which used to
be the studio for the Playboy channel, really really, and
so I I shoot there and it's it's a lot
of fun. So what was your movie? I was texting
you while you were shooting. Yeah, and the last time
I spoke to you, you were like, how do I
memorize all these lines? So what happened? Okay, First of all,
(17:38):
it was my first lead in a movie. Everybody knows
that we're talking about that, right, And it was a
lot of words. So I asked Alec because I was like, well,
he's used to this, and he was like, bitch, I
don't know, absolutely no help at all. I've been on
this myself. So then when I did one, I broke
(18:00):
the script down into sections and I learned each thing
by the section. And so once I learned the script,
my part and I read it and everything, I started
making flash cards. And then when I get on set
and then this is when I text you, I got
on set and they changed the whole damn script. That's
(18:21):
happened to me. Yeah yeah, but you know, at least
I had the basis, and I also understood the character
because I had to do a character development for my
character and she's a crazy lady, and it was my
first time playing this type of character, so I really
(18:42):
wanted to get it right and I and I really
worked hard at it. And this is the thing, Alex.
Once it's like learning a song. I had to calm
myself down because I was like getting like you always
had the small part. I I always had, like you know,
a scene here, you know, or you know how when
(19:03):
we do sitcoms you do like you have like two
things and you know you're not the lead or whatever.
But this is something different, like I had like whole
monologues that you know it had. But once you learn
the words. It's in the words of famous Madonna. Once
you know the words to sing, you can sing almost anything.
That kept going into my mind. If I learned the words,
(19:27):
then it won't be so overwhelmed me and she the
mother Madonna was right because you were focused on learning
the words instead of your own nerves or something. So
it's like it sounds like it was an outside focus
that helped you do man on what you needed to
do exactly. So once I got to set, even though
they had changed the script, because I had the basis
(19:48):
of it, it was so easy and it was like
riding a bike, so I was able to pick up
And honestly, you know, I was the only person that
kind of like new life. Okay, yeah, I can see that. Yeah,
But who also was in it? You don't have to
say who didn't know their lines? But who were you
acting opposite? It was some young kids and it's just
(20:09):
so great. It's it's going to be a very funny,
dark horror movie that way. It's really good. So you
know what I mean. Is it gory? Yes? Yeah. I
saw a really great movie on HBO during the break.
I was called Barbarian and it starts justin long and
it is so it's the scariest movie I've seen all year.
(20:32):
It's so good about it. It's about a girl. It's
played by this black British actress who was on Black
Mirror and she rents an airbnb and she shows up
for the actor who plays it is there saying that
he got there first, and he was like, you know,
we should just split it, and then they end up
splitting a bottle of wine and hitting it off, and
(20:53):
he's like, I'm not that scary. Just you have the bedroom,
you could lock the door. I'm gonna sleep out in
the living room. So she sides to stay the night
because there's nowhere else to go. And in the middle
of the night, this is not spoiling anything, she wakes
up and her door is open, of course, after she's
locked it, and she looks through the door and she
(21:14):
can see stelling scars guard to sleep on the couch.
And then you see in the back of the house
the basement doors open. And that's all I'm gonna say.
The movie takes off of you know what. I cannot
wait for you to see what I've done, because do
you get to run and screen? Do you are you
the last the last girl standing? Are you the last righting?
Without even giving it away stuff, I'm just it was no,
(21:38):
I'm no, you gotta see it. You you you have
to see it because it's something that you've never seen
me do. But I love the fact that I was
able to add the comedy and that's so exciting, and
I just, you know, I just think that in life,
when you are presented with the challenge, I think that
(21:58):
you should take the challenge because you never know. Yeah,
and you were not going to spoil it. And you
were number one on the call sheet. Oh my, you know,
number one on the call sheet? Okay, seeing people? What
that is. What a call sheet is is a list
that you're given at the end of each workday on
a set and it has your call time and then
(22:19):
has all the departments makeup, hair, and it says when
they're when they're what they're call is, when they're needed,
and then you're listed. The actors are listed on the
call sheet. In if you're the star, you're the number
one person on the call sheet, right or yeah, Yeah,
I've been. I've been number one in the call sheet
twice in my life. Yes, yes, and they were both
(22:41):
for comedy specials that I was shooting. So I was
the only one on the call sheet, but I was
number one. But it's a special feeling. It's a special feeling.
It's also a responsibility. I will say that, because when
you are the first person, it's I learned a lot one.
It's like when you see the time to start, Like,
(23:03):
people don't understand if I came late, that would make
everything else, Like he thinks six people waiting, right, Or
if I don't know my lines, then I gotta learn
my lines, which extends production. So when you have the
number one, number two, number three, the top three people,
they should you know, because I've been on some some sets,
(23:24):
you're also setting the tone for everybody else. Yeah, you
set the tone. It's a leadership position, whether you like
it or not, because it's a responsibility and it's like
and it's just because sometimes they can pad the time,
like can pad the time and you're like, wait, wait, wait, no,
what we're not gonna do. We're already getting up early.
We're not gonna pad it with two because you think
you don't know that if I'm on time person or not,
(23:47):
that's no. I'm an on time person. And then you
know everybody else follows behind, right, So if I'm on time,
I expect everybody else to be on time. I mean
I've been on some sets where you've had two people
that were the top two. They would not get on
set until the other person. I mean, they played these
Petty Games. I was on the same movie that we
(24:09):
would always be waiting for the last two actresses because
the last one there everybody's waiting on. So there was
this whole thing of like they were watching each other,
like who's going to set first? And I was like, oh,
come on. But you know the leadership position of that,
especially when you're working with young people, they're looking to
you to kind of like how to act. And if
(24:30):
you're going in and you're late and you're shitty to everybody,
that's like a virus that spreads. And that's why I
made sure that I had my coffee before I went
to blocking, and we would have blocking as seven thirty
every day, and I established I said, I don't care
if they're not here. I'm gonna be here seventh thirty
(24:51):
and we're not waiting. We're not gonna wait on anybody.
We're going to do the blocking, will have whoever stand in.
And one day it happened where somebody was like, we
we don't know, I'm here number one on the call
sheet because and the only reason why I was like
that too is because it was limited and we had
(25:12):
a limited time on this set. Every day, how many
days did you feel like a thousand that were you
in every scene or you and everything? I was like,
I ain't getting the day off. It ain't admit it.
So but but I just want people because you know,
this is the thing too, squirrel friends, we are giving
you the behind the scenes of not only drag Race,
(25:33):
but of the Hollywood scene. I had a great time.
It reignited my love for movies. Yeah, and that's It's like,
that's what I really want to get you. We're going
to get a tough of some of this stuff like that,
and so it is really really great. So thank you
for letting me catch up. Wait wait, wait, did you
(25:53):
have any moment on set This is my question where
you look at the call sheet saw that you were
number one, or you're in the middle of a take
and you're like, I'm Lonnie Love from the Bridget Projects,
and I'm in the movie every day, every day, and
I took it with responsibility because I'm like, you know,
this is a big responsibility because you have to realize
that it is millions of dollars on the line. You
(26:16):
have people's jobs on the line. I mean, actually, one
of the producers came to me and was like thank
you for doing this movie and for being this great
leader because this helps everybody. And it's those type of
things that when I will say this and we're close
with this is those type of things that after you
see the movie and it comes out any movie, you
(26:38):
see why a person may be emotional if they get
criticized about it, because you don't know the work that
was putting in to make the movie happen. It just
doesn't happen, and so sometimes you have to give grace
if you see um, I can remember. I'm thinking about
Viola Davis and when she did this. It was a
(26:59):
Showtime a limited series and it was called First Ladies,
And on Twitter, they took a ten second clip of
her playing Michelle Obama and she was I knew what
she was doing. She made an acting decision, you know,
do the Michelle Obama like Michelle has these this this
way with her mouth. And people took that ten seconds
(27:22):
and they tried to clown like right, And I told people,
I said, why don't you watch the whole series instead
of taking ten seconds, because you don't know what Viola
and her husband with their production company had to do
to make this project happen that's how we asked. We
asked for people to give grace. Yeah, you can clown,
(27:44):
you can do whatever. But also you know, you understand
that the work that people put in to make this
stuff happen, just like with drag Race. That's why we
say be kind to the queens. I know all the work,
and it's just you don't see all that behind the
scenes of of what they're doing. And you know, you
have injuries, you have all kind of things. I know.
(28:04):
That's why I love talking to all the queens on
the show, like Alyssa Edwards and Rajah and and the
people that we've interviewed and Eureka telling us about their journey.
You know what I mean. It's like I was sixteen
years old and I was manning the spotlight at a
bar and then I started messing around with makeup and
then my drag mother put me on stage. It's like
(28:25):
there's a whole year's journey that takes place before they
even get to drag racing. You don't know what they've
been on or what they've gone through to be on
the show. I mean, and that's why we ask people
to you don't have grace, so we're gonna take grace
and we're gonna take a break right back, because we've
got to talk about what's happening. Yeah, yeah, Culture going
(28:46):
to give an update. We'll be right back. We'll be
right back, and we're back, Lonnie. This was like on
my mind while you were away. This happened while you
were gone. I'm talking about the shooting at Club Q.
(29:08):
It was on Trans Remembrance Day, which girlfriends, as you know,
is where we commemorate trans people who have died in
you know, hate crimes or murders or just kind of
remembering the trans people who have passed that year. And
during this time, somebody did come into a Colorado club
during a drag show and shot some people up. Five
(29:30):
people died, and so the shooter was incapacitated by a
man named Richard M. Fierro, who is an Army veteran.
And he said that he went straight into battle mode
and that all of a sudden, he goes, I have
to protect my family. And this is the thing that
gives me chills that he said. And I looked around
and everybody in the club with my family mm hmm. Yeah.
(29:52):
And so while he was punching this guy out, and
I saw the I saw the mug shot this guy.
They fucked this guy up. Some people helped out stop
the shooter. One of them was Thomas James, who is
a Navy sailor and a trans woman why don't have
her name here, also helped stop the shooter by standing
on his neck with her hell jemy. Yeah, I mean,
(30:15):
it's just like, uh, you know, it's so awful. I
was doing a movie in Houston right after the Orlando
shooting and I was with a bunch of people and
we read a drag bar and it was so unfortunate.
We walked in and we all looked at each other
and they say, Okay, what's our emergency plan? Where the exits?
What happens? Where do we need to go if ship
goes sideways? And it's like, what's awful is is a
(30:37):
queer person. Those are supposed to be our safe spaces.
It's kind of like if you don't want to see
me on the street, well I'm gonna go into this
bar where the doors closed and you won't even see me.
So the fact that somebody went into this place that's
supposed to be a safe space and then gunned down
people who are just who are already segregating themselves from
the rest of Colorado Springs. You know, it's just it's terrible.
(31:00):
So the responses came out immediately after. Lauren Bobert was saying,
hearts and uh, thoughts and prayers are going out, and
people answered her, going, you've been the one who has
been campaigning on this, You've been and they and they
posted all the tweets that he's she's been saying against
trans people and all the homophobic tweets, and you can
draw a direct line between the rhetoric that she's been
(31:23):
using and the rhetoric that the Santis has been using
to this violence. Definitely, and you know, we want to
identify the five victims, Raymond Green Vance he him, Kelly
Loving she Her, Daniel Ashton, he him, Derek rump he him,
and Ashley paw she her, and you know, some of
(31:46):
the victims worked at club que others were enjoying the festivities.
I think what was disturbing was that the shooter's dad,
they interviewed him, and you could definitely tell there was
something going on with him, But the mentality of the
(32:07):
shooters dad, you could see why we as a community,
we have to push for laws of equality, for laws
of safety for marginalized groups, because if we don't, we
have people that are out there that have these thought
(32:29):
processes and these stereotypes about us. And I took that
away from this tragic, tragic, tragic situation. But I'm also
so proud of people standing up for themselves and fighting backs.
And it just shows the love because you know, especially
(32:50):
in Colorado there you like you said, there aren't a
lot of safe spaces in Colorado Springs. So for this
to be the safe space and this is, how dare you,
as a person, I know, come into this safe space?
This this space nobody is you know? It just that
angered me. Yeah. And I saw the interview with the
dad that you're talking about, and he was like saying, oh,
(33:12):
I heard that he was in a gay bar, and
for a second I thought he was gay, and I
was like, sho, okay, he's not gay. It's like you
were more relieved to find out that your son wasn't
gay than horrified that your son just murdered five people. Yeah,
so that makes you gives you an idea of this
man's mentality. But it's just kind of like it's what
it's brought home to me is that these these kind
(33:34):
of words, when you open your mouth, your words have consequences.
And if you're opening out saying gay people are groomers
and drag queens are predators and trans women are out
to erase you, then you're inflaming the hostilities of people
who may not be mentally all there do you know?
(33:55):
And this person who came in and also this is
we don't even have to go to a bar. I
mean all of jan you very six was people being
told a lie. Yes, definitely, I mean all the way,
you know. And the thing is is that from this,
you know, we need this thing to stop. But also
what were some of the other lessons and some of
(34:16):
the lessons in it is that when crimes happen to
our community like this, we have to be careful with
certain things. So, like advocates were saying that law enforcement
or media miss gender a crime victim. When they do that,
it can add trauma and pain. So the Colorado Springs
Police said that they made an effort not to miss
(34:38):
gender the club Q victims. So it's like it's little
things like that, because you know, it can add the
trauma and add pain to a community that's already grieving,
but it also perpetuates violence against l g b t
Q plus people and reinforced the belief that trans people's
identities are not legitimate. So it's it's still even when
(35:00):
stuff like this happens, there are corrections that we as
a country need to make to make sure that our
l g b t Q plus brothers and sisters are
properly handled and recognized and recognized and respected, how their
identities respected. It's like this. You know, I my my
(35:21):
immediate household is black and queer. So it's kind of
like we go about our lives and I'm sure you're
like this too. You can't go through your life thinking,
oh my god, there's so much hate out there. You
just have to go through your life kind of doing
the best you can, and when stuff comes up like this,
it's like, oh wow, the fight continues, the fight and
this is why we and we'll move on to lighter news.
(35:44):
But this is the reason why you have to be
politically involved in this country. And when I say politically involved,
it could be something as simple as making sure you're
registered to vote, because you need to vote in your interests.
And that's why I always say, you know, the best
fight is your vote, because we have to encourage our
(36:06):
leaders that hate is not what we're doing. And because
you don't agree with someone's lifestyle, that's none of your
business anyway. But let's but let's put in laws to
protect us. So, speaking of laws the US, and it
has passed the Respect for Marriage Act sixty six. Twelve
(36:28):
Republicans joined the Democrats. Now tell us what the Respect
for Marriage Act is? Okay, since Rovie Wade was overturned.
This is an attempt to codify, meaning make it into
law that same sex marriages into racial marriages that are
still respected, that it's still legitimate. It's basically the short
(36:49):
story is, this will make same sex marriage a law,
so that my marriage is an up for debate or
or a vote every four inner should have never been. Yeah,
but it's like slavery, like we gotta we have doing amendment.
So if you take the amendment out, because I can
tell you right now, I ain't gonna nobody says you're safe.
(37:12):
You get it, I get it for you. What are
you talking about? Take care of your baby. But here's
an interesting thing. Mitch McConnell voted against it and there's
a provision in the in the respect for Mary Jack
for interracial marriages and in an interracial marriage. So he
didn't even vote to protect his own marriage. It's like,
(37:34):
what is going on? So, I mean, come on, do
you think he's still to get in some anyway? All right,
it passed in the Senate, it still has to go
through the House. There's some fine print in the bill.
The bill does not require states to allow same sex marriage.
So if the Supreme Court overturns the old burgha Fell
(37:55):
versus Hodges decision, which requires all states to recognize same
sex riage, it will be up to the individual states
to allow or band same sex marriage. It also has
religious freedom exceptions, meaning it protects nonprofit and religious organizations
that don't support same sex marriage. And even with that,
(38:15):
it's a positive step forward that it's also a reminder
there's more work to do, and we're still fighting for
our rights every day, you know. We this is the
reason why, you know, we have to push inclusion. And
that's one of the reasons why I became an entertainer
Alec because the reason why I did a talk show
with all types of women from all types of races,
(38:39):
because I wanted to. In my mind, I thought we
could show Middle America that maybe doesn't have a black
friend or Asian or Hispanic friend, what it's like to,
you know, have someone of color every day come on television.
That was the real reason, you know that I did
(39:01):
the show for so long. And that's the thing is
that when you have a show just like Drag Race,
you do it because you want people that never see
something like this realize, wow, there are people. They're just
they're just They're just people. That's it. And more than that,
if you're a queer kid out in the middle of
(39:21):
nowhere and you don't come up against any queer people,
or if it's not safe for you to be out
where you live, something like drag Race is is like watching,
you know, people have the fantasy life or live a
life that is not within your reach immediately. That's why
one of my favorite parts of Drag Race every time
(39:42):
is in the finale where RuPaul shows their pictures as kids,
and what would you say to your five year old self?
You know, because there's like kids out there who are
growing up who are exposed to the kind of hate
that they experienced in Colorado Springs. But the thing that
I loved about. It also is out of a conservative
(40:04):
area like Colorado Springs, there's still people who love their
queer family. And the more I read about this club,
Q Place, it was a safe place for everybody. Everybody
was welcome, everybody just love being. And that's the thing
about this country. I think you just have a small
majority of people, but it seems like their voice is
very loud. It's like you ever, like you notice if
(40:26):
you put a comment on social media and you've got
a hundred great comments, but that hundred and one comment
that's bad that you know, Yeah, it gets to you.
I think that's how I see it, and I and
I don't want That's why I don't give up on
our country. I don't give up on the people. And
that's what I'm saying is that you have people out
(40:47):
there that are in these little small towns. They know
what's right and they know what's wrong. I know that
people should love the way they want to love, but
sometimes their influence or sometimes they could be And I'm
not making an excuse. I'm just saying that, especially because
I've been deep down soft in the red, you know,
doing stand up, you know, and I'm standing on this
stage and I can look out and I can see
(41:10):
the faces and I'm like, wow, you know, yeah, you know,
this is different. It's different, but it's wrote, I know.
But that's our opportunity. Also, like when you go out
to those spaces, is like, what do we have in common?
You know? And I think that's that's what we have
(41:30):
to to find moving forward, what do we have in common?
And I also want to do a quick shout out
to my man Hakim Jeffreys. He has been picked the
first black person to lead Congress for the House Democrats.
So congratulations. That's a big deal. That's a big deal,
(41:50):
and it's changing. It's definitely definitely changing. So we're gonna
keep up the fight. We want our squirrel friends to
keep up the fight. But I gotta take a break
because you know, out of here I am. I know.
It's like back right back. Oh, and we're back, Lonnie.
(42:15):
I didn't I didn't know we would go that deep
with this episode, but it's you know, we always a
little further. But this is our passion. This is you know,
I think we you and I both have this great passion.
We've been in this business for a long time. We've
seen what can happen when we all work together. So
you know, if we get a little deep Squirrel Friends,
you know, because we love y'all, it happens, it happens.
(42:38):
And also, you know, right before the break, we're talking
about safe spaces, you know, for queer people, this is
a safe space. The Squirrel Friends podcast is a safe
space for you to listen, you know, hang out with us.
And if you're someplace isolated where it's not cool for
you to be, you, we love you. So we're we're
sending you love right now, so don't forget. If you
(43:01):
have any questions or hot takes for us, for the
queens on the show, you can tweet us or message us.
You can actually tweet just Lonnie love because Lonnie. I've
left Twitter. I couldn't take the whole Elon Musk thing anymore.
I just all of the misinformation and everything. I just
didn't want to be a part of it anymore. So
I I left. I left, but Lonnie's still there. It's shocking,
(43:27):
isn't it. It's it's shocking. I feel like I've cut
off a limb. Like sometimes I feel myself during the
day wanting to check on Twitter, and I don't you
know me. I'm a fighter, Alex. I'm like, I'm staying.
But also, every time I was on Twitter, it was
like a doom scroll. I was just all bad news.
It just bummed me out the whole time. But it's
(43:49):
still a way, it's still away. You can still use
Twitter for good. And if you want to send Lonnie
Love a message, you can find her at comic Lonnie
Love on Instagram him or at Lonnie Love on Twitter.
I want you out a d m at Alec Mapa
on Instagram and tell me get back on Twitter. Don't
don't I have a year. I have a year to
(44:11):
reboot my account, it says, but I don't want to
give you loonbusk my money. I don't want to. I
earned my blue check mark. I whatever. I don't know, Okay,
we'll see, we'll see. Do you think I'm gonna come
crawling back? You think I'm gonna I'm out? I just
say it. At least it's acting for a year. Let's
see what happened, alright, you know what I mean? You
(44:32):
can listen to Squirlfriends, the official RuPaul's Drag Race podcast
on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get
your podcasts. If you like this episode, make sure to
rate us in review US five stars please, and tell
a friend, yes, tell everybody you've ever met. You can
catch up on past episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race and
All Stars on Paramount Plus. We can also watch everything
(44:53):
on Wild Presents Plus. So we'll see you soon, See
you soon,
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.