Season 18 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” could have been called “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Florida vs. The World” with so many performers from the Sunshine State battling it out for the crown. Juicy Love Dion is not just part of a famed legacy family like The Dion’s of South Florida, but rose to the top of the pack on Season 18 as the winner of the Lip Sync LaLaPaRuZa!
I sat down with Juicy to chat about her “Drag Race” experience, what it takes to be a successful queen in South Florida, and why perseverance is a crucial trait to have throughout your drag career.
The Dion family certainly had a spectacular showing on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 18! From being in the Top Four to winning the Lip Sync LaLaPaRuZa, how do you feel right now?
I would say that the key word is perseverance. I had to persevere through a lot of challenges going into the show. There were a lot of challenges that I knew that I would either struggle with or it would be my first time doing it and I would be judged on them. There was a lot of pressure that I had on myself going in. Through it all, I persevered. I had to teach myself along the way as much as the other girls taught me and gave me advice. I think throughout the entire experience it was a rollercoaster, but at the end I came out of it so much stronger, so much more sure of myself. You get asked and you face a lot of questions that make you think “Who are you”? When RuPaul asks you that herself, it is something that you have to walk to and not away from. It is what ultimately has made me a stronger person today. Drag Race is a boot camp in not just drag, but in life. It was a wonderful experience.
During the “Drag Race” Season 18 experience, the fans saw the evolution of Juicy Love Dion, but did you feel yourself shifting into a different performer and person as the process went on?
I wouldn’t say performer per se…in Mykonos, I can feel myself shifting as a performer because I am performing every day. I am working every single day with no days off and there is a lot of practice in performing, it is like muscle memory at that point. Drag Race is like a test in a way, there are new things around every corner and they want to catch you by surprise. You’ll have the challenge, you have two hours to prepare for that challenge that you have to get ready and perform it. It teaches you to think on your feet, to stick to what you know, to stick to what is comfortable for you.
Like during the Karen challenge, when Darlene (Mitchell) told me to bring out the “Latina side” it clicked in my head, like “I know this character like the back of my hand”. The reason these characters work for these girls is because they know them, they know these people, they know them from their heart. It’s what they grew up with. One of my biggest takeaways is that you have to stick to your guns, you have to stick to what makes you laugh, to your childhood fantasies, the things that are true to you. That is what RuPaul means when she says “Who are you?”; they have to come from a place of experience, not just imagination.
You need to do a full public service announcement on why taking sewing classes before coming to “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is so important. Is it still shocking to you that so many that people enter the Drag Race Werk Room and not have any sewing experience at all?
When I wanted to get on Season 17, it was the same time that I was auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance. I had to pick one and I chose So You Think You Can Dance first. After everything happened with Season 17, I said to myself “I am going to start preparing for the show from right now”. A year in advance, I was taking sewing classes, I took sewing classes the summer before.
I was taking classes for two months, then I had a knee injury and a surgery, then the auditions came up for “Drag Race.” So I had already done it about six to eight months prior. It was just very new and fresh to me, and rusty! So when I first got there in the first episode, I fumbled a little bit and I had to have the girls refresh my memory, but listen-it’s not that hard. You know how Lydia B. Kollins said last year to just read the directions on the machine? It’s literally almost that simple; just read the instructions, keep a steady hand, follow the lines. It’s a great superpower! I am not like Utica whipping up a couture gown out of a sleeping bag, but…(laughs)!
That sleeping bag gown that Utica crafted arguably remains one of the best garments to go down the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” runway wouldn’t you say?
Oh trust me, it lives in my brain!
What was it like going through the competition and truly shining as a lip sync performer throughout the competition? I mean, winning the Lip Sync LaLaPaRuZa is a massive accomplishment!
Oh My God, those lip syncs, especially the “Total Eclipse” one, or even the one with Athena (Dion), I don’t even know how to explain the feeling that I was feeling on my body. I just had to let the other side of me take over and kind of go into autopilot there and just let it all out. You are kind of beat down, beaten up, even if it's not by the judges but by myself by my own brain. i would beat myself up and call myself the worst thing in the world. In some ways though, that fuels me and gives me the fire to go out on that stage and perform and let it all out.
Sometimes I wouldn’t say that I am the greatest performer in the world because the adrenaline and the nerves, everything gets to me and I have choked before. It happens, it happens to everybody. The reason I didn’t get on So You Think You Can Dance was because I choked in the audition round, the choreography round. Sometimes the pressure can be so much…I just have to remember to have fun. In a lot of those lip syncs, I think I was very either nervous or just fighting. When it came down to the “Total Eclipse of the Heart” one, it came down to the fact that I just had to feel it. To feel the song, the emotions, and what I’m feeling right now. Also, having an audience really helps the girls were screaming at the top of their lungs in the back so it really felt like home.
What you’re saying echoes what Athena said about the lip sync that the two of you did against each other.
Yeah! Especially the one with Athena, what a lot of people don’t know is that I didn’t know what name RuPaul was going to call. I didn’t do a single split, kick, jump, nothing in that lip sync because I wasn’t going to do that to Athena. I love her too much to try and really fight to get her out of the competition, that’s not the fight that I want, you know what I mean? When RuPaul said my name, i was ready for him to say Athena as well. I didn’t know how it was going to go. You love someone so much you never want them to lose their dreams.
This past season, the cast was stacked with so many people from the Sunshine State. How do you truly make yourself stand out in the state of Florida in the drag community?
Luckily I have had the joy of when I started in the scene, I started as an assistant to the girls. I did drag once i think Morphine (Love Dion) had put me in drag, but I had started working and collecting the coins for the girls. The first thing I learned was respect, and the second thing I learned and what I had the privilege of having was a front row seat to all of the queens shows. All the legends that walked through R House, all the people that Athena would book, and Athena herself. I would pick up all of their coins and would be right next to them or just watching them from a very close distance.
I could see every inflection in their movement, their eyes, and how they would lip sync and interact with the crowd. That ultimately ended up being a school or boot camp in how I would mold my performing and my crowd work and everything. Once I started, it ended up sticking. I would also perform as an assistant out of drag all of the time, so I got a lot of practice. The key to being a performer in South Florida is being that, a performer! You have to give them a little one two, a little dancing, or you give them full glamour and serve them a fantasy or a show. People in South Florida like to be entertained!
Follow Juicy Love Dion on Instagram @thejuicylove
