Q&A: Maddy Morphosis talks Jasmine Kennedie, wearing blush and feminine energy

'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 14

Maddy Morphosis

Eliminated: Feb. 11

Photo: facebook.com/maddymorphosis

Maddy Morphosis had a rough go of it on "RuPaul's Drag Race," landing twice in the bottom for design challenges and getting into backstage catfight with another queen. But Maddie still made history as the show's first cisgender straight male contestant.

The Arkansas performer had a quirky approach to drag that could have served him well with a bit more polish and confidence. But amid so much fierce competition, Maddy ultimately couldn't keep up. He was done in by a lip sync to a Beyoncé song and became the fifth queen to sashay away.

We spoke about it all, including RuPaul's "cat in heat" commentary.

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You and Jasmine Kennedie got into it backstage. Break it down.

I think honestly the drama didn't really affect me so much. The lip sync that I went out there and did, I still had the same mindset from when I lip synced against June, which was focus on myself, pretend the other person's not there, do it like you would do a show at a bar and do it the best you can given the fact that you're wearing an outfit that can fall apart at any moment. My goal was not to destroy Jasmine and win this lip sync. My goal is to give a good performance, hope they like it and that it's enough to keep me in the competition.

Obviously, the stress of the competition is huge factor in these catfights.

Every week that you make it in the competition, it gets more and more mentally and psychologically draining. There's so much pressure on you. Then you're in the bottom and you've come so far, there's that added pressure. I think there was just a lot of misunderstanding between us, what we were saying, how we were feeling about each other in that moment. And then even what we were arguing about was just devolving into other things. It just turned into a mess.

Let's talk about the patchwork dress you created.

I know that I'm not a super high fashon queen. That's never been the focus of my drag. I knew that I could not make the best "Project Runway" type fashion moment. But maybe I could make something that was ugly in a good way, just something fun that the judges would like for different reasons. I wanted to make sure I was telling a story and hope it reads to the judges and everyone at home. And it wasn't enough.

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What's your biggest takeaway from the show?

I think honestly it's seeing so many other different styles of drag, different viewpoints, different takes. Coming from the middle of nowhere, Arkansas, my viewpoint of drag is very limited to what I'm exposed to. I've definitely taken a lot of tips home with me. I think a lot of people can already see on my Instagram how some of my looks and my makeup have changed and evolved. I'm not a fully realized performer, and I don't think I ever will be. I think it's always a continuing process of growth.

What's something specific you took from the other queens?

Definitely wearing my blush. That's something that was said to me a couple times.

You were surprised at all the reaction when you were announced as part of the case. What's it like now that the show is airing?

There was a lot of people that had a lot of opinions. And there was definitely a lot of negativity at first. I think a lot of it was gut reactions. If people hear of a cisgender straight man in the drag space, they get all these ideas in their head of what that looks like and what that person is like. Once the season actually aired and people got to see me and see how I am and interact, how I carry myself, I think they understood that you can exist in this space respectfully. Not every cisgender straight guy around the drag scene is gonna bethatkind of person. The positivity way outweighs the negativity.

RuPaul said you were missing that ... eeehhhuuuuoooowww during the ball challenge? Did you understand what she meant?

I thought he was gonna be like, "Oh, your outfit's good but I would love a longer hem." But instead he sounded like a cat in heat. Ikindaunderstood in that moment. I was trying to decide was he telling me in a roundabout way to "light a fire under your ass" or was he really telling me to, like, really embrace the really confident, feminine energy that comes with drag. A lot of what I did in drag prior to that was just acting dumb, camp, comedy. My home bar is not like a big runway. It's a small stage. You're not going out strutting, throwing your hips. It's something that I think was lacking, probably from just being a stiff, 27-year-old straight man. I don't have a lot of experience with really feeling my feminine oats like that. I'm really trying to take that critique in, process it and really trying to add it to really elevate my drag.

  • Joey Guerra
    Joey Guerra

    乔伊Guerra是休斯顿Ch的音乐评论家ronicle. He also covers various aspects of pop culture. He has reviewed hundreds of concerts and interviewed hundreds of celebrities, from Justin Bieber to Dolly Parton to Beyonce. He's appeared as a regular correspondent on Fox26 and was head judge and director of the Pride Superstar singing competition for a decade. He has been named journalist of the year multiple times by both OutSmart Magazine and the FACE Awards. He also covers various aspects of pop culture, including the local drag scene and "RuPaul's Drag Race."