Michelle Visage on Hopes of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Reclaiming Emmys Dominance and Why the RuPaul Biopic “Needs to Happen”

With 18 mainstay seasons, the release of the 11th All Stars installment and the franchise’s first feature film on the way, there’s never been a busier time in the RuPaul’s Drag Race universe. 

RuPaul’s Drag Race wrapped its 18th season in April, where Myki Meeks was crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar. It didn’t take much longer (three weeks, to be exact) before Paramount+ premiered the first two episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars, where 18 queens from the show’s past returned for a second shot at the crown. 

To add to the franchise’s plate, World of Wonder, the Emmy-winning production company behind all things Drag Race, and Bleecker Street are gearing up for the June 12 release of Stop! That! Train!, the first film to hail from the show’s universe. The movie is led by RuPaul (of course) along with a pool of Drag Race alums. 

But to celebrate the mainstay series’ 18th season, as Emmy voting is about to kick off, The Hollywood Reporter attended an FYC event hosted Sunday on the set of the series. As buzz around Stop! That! Train! continues to grow, THR asked Michelle Visage and RuPaul’s makeup artist David Petruschin (aka Drag Race season two runner-up Raven) about one film that’s bound to be made eventually: the RuPaul Charles biopic. 

“Oh, I think that’s destiny. It needs to happen,” Visage, who serves as a judge and executive producer of RuPaul’s Drag Race, told THR. “We’ve talked about it for the past 30 years. It needs to happen.”

When asked when the potential project could come out, Petruschin says, “I think it’s already been in the works. But as far as curating it and getting together, I don’t know. But yeah, that should happen.”

Visage and Petruschin are shoe-ins to be featured in the film, as the Drag Race Down Under host has been a dear friend and collaborator of RuPaul’s since the ‘80s and the former Drag Race contestant became his makeup artist in 2017. 

So who should play them in the biopic? Petruschin isn’t so sure yet, but knows “they’d have to have a fierce tan.” As for Visage, she’d like to portray herself, but if that’s not an option, she offers a few leading women as potential options.

“I think about that a lot, and I feel like Reneé Rapp would be a good person to play me. Julia Garner could be a good me, even Miley Cyrus,” Visage says. “Depends on what age we’re going for here, kids.” 

The “tougher cast,” Visage notes, will be pinpointing a performer to portray the Queen of Drag. Both Visage and Petruschin agree that either an actor or drag queen could take on the part of RuPaul, but the role should end up going to “whoever is good at the job.” 

“I can’t remember who he said wanted to play her,” Petruschin teases. 

The original RuPaul’s Drag Race series has long been a powerhouse at the Emmys, with a whopping 29 awards (and 79 noms) under its belt. The show was the resident reality competition program winner in recent years, before The Traitors began its dominance in 2024. 

Visage says Drag Race snatching back that title with the upcoming Emmys cycle would be “a statement without saying it’s a statement.” 

“I think it would be a championship in a way that voices are being heard without saying things. It’s a statement without saying it’s a statement, do you know what I mean?” Visage said of the show reclaiming its reality competition Emmys win. “Especially with what’s going on in the political climate. But, we are grateful just being in that class of people that we’re in; being nominated, being included, being thought of is truly an honor. We spread the love. We’re still celebratory, but if we did [win], it’s definitely a ‘We’re not going anywhere’ type of statement.” 

The Traitors is RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s key competitor at the Emmys — RuPaul won the reality host award for eight consecutive years before Alan Cumming won the title in 2024, as did the main show in the reality competition category from 2018-2023 (with a one year break in 2022 when Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls won).

Visage is very busy judging the main and All Stars iterations of Drag Race, also serving as a judge on the UK vs. the World spinoff and serving as host of Drag Race Down Under (and its upcoming spinoff Down Under vs The World). 

But that doesn’t mean she’s entirely written off appearing on RuPaul’s Drag Race’s biggest awards competition. 

“Would I ever do The Traitors? I would love to be a Traitor,” Visage says when asked if she’d partake in the Peacock show. “But I fear that, if I did, people would automatically assume that I was a Traitor. But then, I said, Lisa Rinna was a Traitor. Bob the Drag Queen was a Traitor. Boston Rob was a Traitor — and if they didn’t think he was a Traitor, then, um, you never know!”