“Drag Race” spooky queen Lydia B Kollins' dark, gory drag helps her process 'traumatic events into something beautiful'
Lydia, who once punctured herself "through my throat and out my ass" in a nod to "Cannibal Holocaust," tells EW that "horror is the best way to view many horrors of the real world."
Gazing upon the spooky, ooky, kooky, and creepy elegance of someone like RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 star Lydia B Kollins, we’d normally say something like, “eat your heart out,” though it sounds like the horror buff will gladly eat it out of your chest for you.
“Do you know Cannibal Holocaust?” Lydia asks Entertainment Weekly, setting up a reference to one of her most disturbing past outfits based on the Ruggero Deodato-directed 1980 horror classic, which joins an already dazzlingly disturbing lineup of past offerings that range from a sexy E.T. and a look where her throat is violently slashed, to another with a fake bone protruding from her jawline. “I did a look where I was punctured through my throat and out my ass… but I really like that one because it’s like jarring to look at, you know?”
She says all of this while innocently perched on a chair, her head wrapped in a twisted contraption of barbed wire and chrome that frames her face in a bone-like cage. “I do my own thing most of the time, but I’m really inspired by Saw. I love a Saw trap,” she says. Well, duh.
Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection; Entertainment Weekly
Shawnee Smith in 'Saw' and Lydia B KollinsAs dangerous as her drag is on the surface, the true plot twist goes beyond Lydia’s flesh: the self-proclaimed "final girl" of drag is actually sweet as pie.
“Darkness and horror is the best way to view many horrors of the real world, it’s a way you can filter absolutely traumatic events into something beautiful,” the trained filmmaker (with a penchant for horror and stop-motion animation) says of her drag essence. “It’s a really protective barrier, but a really c--ty one…. If you’re as scary as you possibly can be, then nothing can scare you.”
In the end, it’s not all serious — as evidenced by her aforementioned sexy E.T. look, Lydia knows how to balance doom-and-gloom with pure silliness. Her middle initial, after all, stands for “Butthole.” No, really.
Lydia makes it a point to showcase that side of her on stage in Pittsburgh, where she promises “you’re gonna get rose-tinted curtains, big production, one-stop shop, a puppet, maybe a live birth” from her in the spotlight.
She also confirms that she might’ve stolen the show in another context on Drag Race, a program that’s definitely had its fair share of spooky girls in the past, but perhaps none pushing the envelope as far as Lydia.
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“I don’t know if it’s possible to completely blur out a look for profane imagery, but I think I might have done that,” Lydia teases. “I didn’t ask for permission; I asked for forgiveness, and by the time I was on the runway, it was too late, you know?”
No, we don’t. But, we’re waiting with anticipation on pins, needles, and every other sharp object imaginable.
RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on MTV. Watch EW's full interview with Lydia at the top of this post.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
