Alaska the Questions!

Continuing our series of interviews with some of the biggest stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race, this week Jason Reid chats to Season 5 runner-up Alaska Thunderfuck about Facebook’s absurd policy towards drag performers, how drugs affected her career, and of course Drag Race…

by Jason Reid 

 


Hiiieee Alaska, I want to start by asking you what you make of this Facebook debacle that’s going on right now, whereby drag queens are being pressured into either providing formal identification of their stage name or change their profile to their birth name?

Yeah, I went through all of this a year ago with my personal profile. Even though I’d replaced the u in the ‘fuck’ of Thunderfuck to a v so that I could get round any profanity issue, it made no difference; I went to log in one day only to see my profile had been disabled. I was told I couldn’t sign back in unless I sent them some identification with Alaska Thunderfuck on it, which I obviously don’t have. So without any warning I lost five years’ worth of photos, friends and contacts.

It seems very unfair and petty that drag queens, specifically, are being targeted, especially as there are obvious fake profiles and pages that exist…

It’s not fair and it’s not cool, but you know what? Facebook isn’t cool.  And they’ll end up having to pay the price because what they are doing is targeting the tastemakers of this generation. That’s what the drag community is.

And they’re not a community you wanna piss off?

Well no, of course not. Facebook will eventually go the same way as MySpace; it will be a rough transition, but I’ll see you all on Instagram.

What do you think the solution is?

The solution is to go and use Twitter and Instagram instead.

A Facebook boycott?

No, it’s not necessarily a boycott, Facebook will die out by itself. They’re being too strict about content and are refusing to move with the times. People are over that. Facebook is a total dinosaur.

Absolutely! Moving on slightly, but staying on the topic of identity, where did your name originate from?

[Laughs] It came from marijuana. I was in college, smoking a LOT of weed at the time. On this one occasion my friends were talking about different types they’d tried, one of which was from Amsterdam and was called ‘Alaska Thunderfuck’. I thought those were the coolest sounding group of words I’d ever heard (I was totally stoned) so it instantly became my drag name.

Brilliant. It’s so interesting how there’s always a story behind every drag name. Now, onto RuPaul’s Drag Race. What were the positives about being Season 5 runner-up?

That’s a good question. In retrospect I’m really grateful that things worked out the way they did. I think if I’d have won the cash prize I would’ve more than likely drank it and put it up my nose, which is really scary. But at the time that was the reality and whole focus of my life. Winning would have only prolonged my party lifestyle and that wouldn’t have been at all good for me. Being the runner-up kinda put me on the path of having to do things the hard way.

So that was a really crazy period for you?

Yeah, especially right after the show aired. I mean, you’re practically treated like The Beatles when they landed in America. Everyone is saying yes to you. They want to see you get really drunk, so you do, then after a while you can only function if you’re taking cocaine, which is easy to get because, like I said, everyone is just giving you whatever you want. It was all getting too crazy. I’d say I’m working way harder now, simply because I’m not partying as hard.

Would you say you have an addictive personality?

Uhhhhm, yeah. Plus I’m a Pisces so we like feeling altered. It doesn’t really matter what the substance is. My main vice right now is caffeine, especially Red Bull, so not quite as crazy as before.

That’s good; so I’m guessing you saw Season 6, what did you think?

I loooooved Season 6. I couldn’t believe all the talent they’d managed to gather together.

Who did you like?

Obviously Gia Gunn, Laganja Estranja, Adore Delano as well as Courtney Act. I mean, I’ve met all of them and they’re all really sweet. The more the merrier I say. Welcome to the family.

Finally, a corny question to finish, what’s the future for Alaska?

I guess the short answer is: the play, the movie, the book.

 

• Alaska Thunderfuck will be judging G-A-Y Porn Idol at Heaven (under the Arches, Villiers Street, Charing Cross, WC2N 6NG) on Thursday 9th October.  

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