In the world of “Stop That Train,” (opening in theaters on June 12) RuPaul is Madame President, and like any world leader, she worries about her approval ratings. When a high-speed train called the Glamazonian Express is struck by lightning and hurtles toward disaster – a threatening “stormaganza” – the president is put to the test.
Best friends Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee) play train stewardesses who trade their dreary shifts on the Stank Rail for the glitzy Glamazonian Express. Except they encounter the A-Squad, the Glamazonian Express version of “Mean Girls” led by Ayshleiygh (Symone), Alli (Marcia Marcia Marcia) and Amber (Brook Lynn Hytes). It’s a romp of a comedy-disaster movie harkening back to the likes of “Airplane” and anything by Mel Brooks.
Variety visited the Los Angeles film set last November, and discovered how unabashedly silly and fun the film is.
“Hairspray” director Adam Shankman was shooting a scene featuring Joel McHale as a passenger dressed in a leather harness. The scene required numerous takes, and each time, ripples of laughter erupted in the video village with World of Wonder co-founders and producers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, as well as producer Tom Campbell.
They later go over scenes, which turn out to be the post-credits, of the A-Squad helping passengers -specifically Sarah Michelle Gellar, down the inflatable slide.
The Glamazonian Express is a set built by production designer Alessandro Marvelli; the first-class cabin oozes opulence and serves as the film’s main set. Shankman sat down for an interview as everyone broke for lunch. He is no stranger to the world of “Drag Race,” having appeared as a guest judge during the main show’s season 16, as well as on “Drag Race: All Stars” seasons 8 and 10.
He had been approached to direct the film, and when he read the script, he found it to be “really funny.” However, the original story was set on an airplane. “I said, ‘Guys, it’s very funny. But it’s “Airplane,” and some of the characters are drag queens.’” Shankman suggested changing the location to a train. He said, “We can use all the stakes of what happens on an airplane and even the jokes.” One thing he knew was that he didn’t want to make a different version of “Airplane.”
Then came the idea to fill the movie with fun cameos — Jerry O’Connell, Lisa Rinna, Raven-Symoné, Michelle Visage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, June Diane Raphael and more.
The production was shot in just 19 days. Shankman says, the script made it easier to navigate that challenge. He says, “It’s just joke to joke to joke, so that made it easier because I was able to set up the joke, tell the joke, and move on.” He continues, “This is truly in that old Zucker brothers style, where somebody says something, and you cut away to a different part of the train, and a weird joke happens, and then you cut back.”
Shooting within a 19-day window meant the continuity of character placement was deliberate and added to the film’s comedic tone. “It ultimately makes the train seem bigger because you never know where anybody is sitting.”
Before shooting started, Shankman also gave advice to the queens. It wasn’t about “giant acting.” He advised them that, “Everything has to be delivered; the stakes are real for you. The movie only works if you’re playing everything as if it’s dead serious, and they got it.”
Shankman teases that the film brings back the genre of comedy that people love and miss and is “a silly action comedy twisted into a new point of view with an extraordinary cast of extraordinarily talented people.”
Meet the Characters
Symone
Season 13 “Drag Race” winner Symone plays Ayshleiygh, a member of the A-Squad who works in first class on the Glamazonian Express. On playing the character, Symone says, “I figured out that she is this stunning and sassy character. I feel like she gets her personality from pills throughout the film, so I play her monotone and go up and down wherever the script calls for.” In preparing for the role, she did some research, looking at flight attendants and train conductors “to understand that part of the job.” She laughs, “I also looked up what people are like when they’re on uppers and downers. Very important.”
Brooke Lynn Hytes
Brooke Lynn Hytes, who appeared on both “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Canada’s Drag Race,” plays Amber, the head stewardess. Hytes describes Amber as the “head bitch in charge of the Glamazonian railway.” She laughs, “They always get me as this stone-cold bitch. I think it’s because my face doesn’t move.”
In auditioning for the film, Hytes says she also tried out for the parts of Tess and DeeDee but eventually landed the role of Amber. She describes the film as “a chaotic masterpiece,” adding, “It really is a very sharp, clever script.” She credits Shankman for pulling that out of the cast, noting, “It’s a lot of nuance and under-the-radar jokes.”
Ginger Minj as Tess and Jujubee as DeeDee
Ginger Minj
“RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars” Season 10 winner Ginger Minj plays the lovable stewardess Tess. Minj describes her as someone who is wide-eyed and very optimistic. She jokes, “It’s typecasting. It’s been really fun to play somebody who views every bad thing that happens to her as an opportunity for growth and to be better.”
Minj thinks there’s something to be said about her character’s outlook on life. “It’s done in such a silly way. It’s a good life lesson. It took me years to learn that bad things are really just stepping stones to something bigger and better.”
Jujubee
Jujubee plays DeeDee, a trained hostess who works for Stank Rail. Unlike her best friend Tess, DeeDee is a glass-half-empty kind of girl. “It’s wonderful for her because her friend is glass-half-full.” Juju said she gave her character a little bit of a backstory: “She’s a little depressed, but she can laugh through it.”
Despite all her struggles, Jujubee hopes her character will “meet somebody on the train and fall in love.” One of her favorite moments in the film is a touching scene between Tess and DeeDee, and she recalls Shankman’s response. “We filmed that, and we got all our angles, and he finished it off by saying, ‘That was fucking brilliant.’”
Marcia Marcia Marcia
The Season 15 “Drag Race” contestant plays Alli, a snooty first-class attendant who rounds out the A-Squad. She says, “The A-Squad is a blast.” She adds, “The first thing I did when I got this job was ask who the other two were.”
She describes Alli as “the equivalent of the Karen of the group. She’s not very bright, but we try to find ways to make it realistic. She has her moments. We’ll say that she has her loftier moments.”
And yes, Alli does have a backstory. “I think it’s kind of always what a mean girl is. It’s a girl who comes from a lot of money, and she and her two friends have been best friends since school. They’re at a peak in that part of their life. I think the A-Squad has been friends since they were babies, and now they all are still working together at the same job, and they haven’t changed.”
Leave a Reply