Fifteen years ago, Michelle Visage made the career change of a lifetime. Up to that point, she had been topping the charts as a part of many vocal groups, most prominently Seduction. But, in 2011, her good friend RuPaul had an opening for a permanent judge on the then-little-known reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race. The rest is “herstory.” Visage has served as Ru’s right-hand woman ever since Season 3, one of the biggest constants during the show’s meteoric rise to fame. She’s even filled in for the Emmy winner at some points as host, taking the reins of Australia’s version of Drag Race starting in 2024. So, when Parade got the chance to speak with Visage while she was doing promotion for Ru’s new film, Stop! That! Train! (now in theaters), in true Drag Race fashion, we had to ask her: Given what she knows now, what would she tell the Michelle of 15 years ago?
🎬SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 “Oh, there’s probably a few things I would say,” the 57-year-old quips. “Drag comes in all shapes and colors. I think that Michelle tried really hard to stand out, but also at the same time, fit in. Not that anything was ever inauthentic, it was just extra. And now I try to bring that extra to myself into my love of this art form and share that, so that same person is still there.”“Back then, it was a very certain one-note thing that I knew about drag growing up in New York City,” she continues. “And being able to see drag around the world and throughout the country has opened my mind in many ways that I didn’t expect it to be open. All that extraness that I think I did in the beginning was because of the ballroom scene that I grew up in, and the way that I saw drag, and the way that I saw the queer community in New York City, which changed my life. But it’s been a gift to be able to see it throughout the world, and specifically in the States, the way they do it regionally, that’s just different.”Indeed, over the past decade and a half, Visage has judged almost 300 queens as they compete for the title of “Next Drag Superstar.” They’ve come from all sorts of aesthetics, backgrounds and even countries. But, despite their diversity, she does note there’s one thing that many of them fall victim to their first time on the show.
“I think a common mistake is when the queens try to edit themselves,” she reveals. “I think, having been a contestant on reality TV, I know that when I go into it, I think of what everybody’s going to think about me, and try to figure out what that looks like. But the reality is, the minute you drop that is when people fall in love. The minute you let that go and let people see the kind of tender underbelly is when people can relate to you. The biggest mistake on any TV show is to think that you can produce yourself to make everybody love you. People are going to love you for who you are more than anything you think you could produce.”Related: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Star Reveals Medical Emergency That Landed Her in the Hospital
“The persona is awesome,” she clarifies. “It’s very cool to have that kind of ‘Sasha Fierce,’ that kind of alter ego that you use when you’re performing, and you can slip in and out of that. It’s when you take it to method acting level, where you’re like that off the camera, it becomes a little bit much. And you’ve seen me say it over the years, it’s like, ‘I don’t know who you are.’ Because you have spent so much time in the shell of this character, we don’t know who lies beneath. And some people don’t want us to know the lies beneath, or they can’t handle allowing us in, and I love and respect that. But I can tell you right now that the more we see of that, the more we fall in love. And I have to heed that for myself when I do these things.”Outside of a small role in Stop! That! Train! and her current work on Season 11 of Drag Race All-Stars, Visage will next be seen leading the highly-anticipated all-star season Drag Race Down Under vs. the World. People who go see the new film will get a free three-month subscription to WOW Presents Plus, which houses all of the international Drag Race content. It will be Visage’s second season as a host, which, despite her work on the franchise for all these years, comes with quite the transition.“Being the host versus being a judge is different,” she explains. “It’s a different set of rules that you have for yourself of what you can and cannot do, and how you should and should not be. And I’ve only done it to myself, just to be clear; it’s me and the way I hold myself. “I hold myself responsible to be accessible and be there for these queens, and I try to be as real as I can be and as authentic as I can be. And as a judge, I do the same, but I don’t have the same connection when I’m a judge. On RuPaul’s Drag Race, it’s Mama Ru, and that’s her show. And I do my job as the judge, and I take it very seriously. But it’s different when you get to have the one-on-one times with them, and you get to walk through the ‘Werk Room’ and do stuff like that.”Ru leaves big heels to fill (quite literally). But, showcasing the professionalism and skills she’s honed over 15 years, it’s safe to say Michelle Visage is ready to bring it to the runway.
Related: “Shantay, You Stay!” All About RuPaul’s Decades-Spanning Romance With Husband Georges LeBar
This story was originally published by Parade on Jun 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the TV section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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