Plane Jane soared her way to the grand finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16, which aired on MTV on Friday night, as one of the top three queens in the competition alongside Nymphia Wind and Sapphira Cristál. At MTV’s official Drag Race viewing party at The Edge in New York, Plane Jane spoke exclusively with The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann about her time on the Emmy-winning reality series, making it to the final, having her words memeifyed, her mother’s support, what she wants to put out into the world with her drag, and her spellbinding look for the event, wearing a house designed and constructed by Lucia Briones and Beck Jones, with prosthetic makeup by Nina Carelli.
James Kleinmann, The Queer Review: tell me about this incredible look, which is really a work of art.
Plane Jane: “Thank you. Well, I commissioned some architects to build me a house as you can see. I needed a new home, mine was foreclosed. So that’s how this look came about and I’ve been telling the girls; I have cable in here, there’s wifi. The lights are on, baby! Honey, I’ve got electricity. It’s fierce in here.”
What has it been like watching your Drag Race experience play out on MTV each week?
“It has been so surreal. I feel like this is the case for a lot of girls—that a lot of us experience an immediate glow-up after being on the show—and that’s definitely happened to me, but I’m so nitpicky and I’m so self-critical, it was bound to happen. Filming the show was a dream come true and I did so amazing, so watching myself has been iconic.”
What was your proudest moment?
“I would say all the challenges that I won, my four challenge wins. Every single time I astounded myself, truly, with my own excellence and talent. Even with challenges that I didn’t win, I feel like I did amazing. I don’t think I had a single flop week in the competition, not a single one. Even the weeks that I was in the bottom—allegedly—they weren’t bad weeks for me. In the competition as a whole, I proved to myself that I can really do anything, the world is my oyster, and I’m beyond c*nt.”
How much has Drag Race itself been the inspiration for you to get involved in drag?
“Oh, it was a huge inspiration. I’m part of the generation of queens who started drag because of Drag Race. Without Drag Race, I would have had to wait until I was allowed into the gay clubs, honey, it would have taken a lot longer for my self-discovery to occur. So I would credit a lot of that to Drag Race and the amazing queens that have been on the show before me, and Mama Ru, whose message is so powerful and inspiring.”
How surprised were you that your response to Q—’mama, kudos for saying that, for spilling’—became the meme of the season?
“Oh my gosh, so surprised. I didn’t know people would find my lack of compassion and sympathy and social skills so amusing and iconic. I obviously had no idea, the editors had no idea. It seemed like such a passing, non-moment but it ended up being a whole thing which is the magic of Drag Race. You never know what’s gonna get memeifyed, honey! It’s what you expect the least sometimes.”
Have you now got people asking you to that on Cameo?
“Oh, absolutely, honey. On Cameo, at meet and greets, they want me to respond to every single thing they say with that, which makes my life easier. I’m not the best speaker, so narrowing it down to just a phrase is perfect: ‘Mama. Kudos for saying that, for spilling’. That’s all I need to say for the rest of my life, I’m telling you!”
Speaking of mamas, there was a beautiful tribute to mothers in the Drag Race season 16 finale episode and your own mother was there for the show. What did it mean to have her there on that night?
‘Oh, mother, mother, mother, mother, my poor mother, who came to the finale and was exposed to so much drag for the first time in her life! It meant a lot to me, it was really, really special having my mom there. For the longest time, I tried to hide my identity from my mother and seeing her in the audience and being so supportive in such a special moment for me was really, really magical and special. I think it made our bond stronger. It was amazing.”
What did making it to this top three, with Sephora and Nymphia, mean to you?
“It meant the world to me. This was a dream come true. Being up there in the top three with two of the other most sickening queens in the competition—with the rest of the bitches, well, I guess in their case they were invited back, but for most of the season, honey, they were at home—was really special. Having competed for the entire time was very special. It was just beyond anything that I could have possibly imagined, but at the same time it made all the sense, baby.”
During the grand finale episode, RuPaul encouraged people to contribute to the ACLU’s Drag Defense Fund. At a time when a lot of people would like drag queens to disappear or to put restrictions on drag, what do you want to put out there in the world with your own particular brand of drag?
“Well, baby, what I present outwardly with my drag is exactly what I would like to put out in the world. As you can see: excellence, Glamour, youth, beauty, and irreverence and fearlessness, baby. Go out there and live your fantasy, honey!”
By James Kleinmann
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