Drag Race Down Under star Art Simone addressed the fan theory that RuPaul didn’t film the new series in person and recorded scenes on a green screen. (World of Wonder)
Drag Race star Art Simone has dispelled the rumour that RuPaul never actually stepped foot onto the Down Under set.
Views of the latest iteration of Drag Race have been sharing the wild theory online that RuPaul didn’t actually film Drag Race Down Under in person and instead recorded scene remotely on a green screen. One person on Reddit said “weird camera angles” made them question if Ru was physically there. Another person on Twitter said Ru looked “a bit green screen” when he talked to the queens in the werkroom.
But recently eliminated queen Art Simone, who is the second contestant to be eliminated on Drag Race Down Under, addressed the bizarre rumours. She wrote in a tweet on Tuesday (11 May) that she was here to “quash the rumours that RuPaul was green-screened onto the set”.
“There’s no way we would have the budget after we splurged on those beautiful cement cherubs,” Art Simone wrote.
Just here to quash the rumours that RuPaul was green-screened onto set. There’s no way we would have the budget after we splurged on those beautiful cement cherubs 👼
— Art Simone (@ArtSimone) May 11, 2021
One person joked that the plethora of cement cherubs explained the “awful sound quality and dodgy camera angles”.
That explains the awful sound quality and dodgy camera angles. Too many cement cherubs.
— Brittani Churchill (@BChurchill05) May 11, 2021
Other people on Reddit cited that the pandemic and social distancing regulations would explain why RuPaul seemed distant from queens during walkthroughs. Another person joked that they were “living for this RuAnon conspiracy”.
One Drag Race fan added the conspiracy theory even spread to TikTok.
New favourite tiktok conspiracy is that rupaul wasn’t in Australia or New Zealand filming with the queens and its all just a green screen and clever editing
— rory (@ucdsisweb) May 11, 2021
Art Simone, who was a frontrunner in the series, opened up to Metro about her emotional exit interview on Drag Race Down Under. The queen cried after being told to sashay away, admitting she had “thousands of fans that are expecting a certain level from me”. But she said she “clearly didn’t deliver it” despite being the “strongest one here”.
A producer replied: “But you were here.”
“That means nothing,” Art responded.
Art told Metro it was “refreshing to see raw, real emotions” on Drag Race. She explained that drag is her “entire life”, and the show was “so important to me that losing meant too much to me”.
“I’m actually glad it got captured,” Art Simone said. “It shows that we are real people with real lives and real goals, and when they get taken away from you, it hurts.”