Week after week, Lana Ja’Rae presented “something unique” for her. Well, that was the joke that the show played on her as in nearly every confessional, the New York drag star could be seen saying as such about her runways. As the drag daughter of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15’s Luxx Noir London, Lana had immense pressure on herself to present and perform at a certain standard and level. And yet, Lana pushed through, landing herself in the Top Six of Season 17. As Lana said, “It was easy for me to give up in the competition, but I never did. I never allowed the negativity or my placements to get the best of me. I always stay focused on the end goal and try to make sure I made it there. So I’m very proud of myself for that.”
As nearly every queen has mentioned her legs, the statuesque dancer found out that she’s more than just a runway model. She can actually be funny! Despite leaving sooner than she would have wished, Lana’s time on RuPaul’s Drag Race will be attached to her mystifying lip syncs, earning the moniker of the Lip Sync Assassin of the season.
Lana Ja’Rae Never Gave Up on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’

COLLIDER:  The lip sync assassin got assassinated. It’s New York’s pride and joy, Lana Ja’Rae. How are you?
LANA JA’RAE: I’m doing so good. How are you doing, my love?
COLLIDER: I’m doing great. Congratulations on a fantastic run on Drag Race. I am so proud of you. As I’ve told you multiple times, I saw you at C’mon Everybody. And from that moment, I knew you were going to be a star.
LANA: Oh, thank you, baby. That means so much to me.
COLLIDER: If you could describe your Drag Race journey in three words, what would they be?
LANA: Don’t. Give. Up. I feel like that is the best way to describe it, cause it was, it was very hard. I will say. It’s a lot harder than I thought. I was very scared to watch the season back just to see myself go through the things I went through there, just because it was very hard mentally. I was going through a lot before I left for Drag Race and emotions were high and feelings were high, but I never wanted to give up this opportunity because you only get it once, so I wanted to make the most of it. And so, I think just like resilience, I pushed through so much. It was easy for me to give up in the competition, but I never did. I never allowed the negativity or my placements to get the best of me. I always stay focused on the end goal and try to make sure I made it there. So I’m very proud of myself for that.
COLLIDER: Absolutely. You should be. You are a competitor. You are professional. I feel like for you, success is equated to winning. We did see you struggle when you weren’t necessarily connecting with the judges, being safe multiple times. How much of a toll did that take on you?
LANA: It took a big toll. I was fine being safe. I loved being safe, but I felt like not hearing from the judges either, the first week, or just anything. I just wanted to hear something. Because being safe, the thing that frustrated me the most is that I know I’m doing good, but I’m not doing the best. I can always do better. And not getting any critique or any sense of like, “Hey, you should do this, you should do that,” didn’t help at all. And also, having the girls give their unsolicited opinions made me base my performance off of what they thought, which f– up me in the end, because that made me get into my head and base what I was doing off of what they said instead of what the judges were saying. So, it’s just very hard not hearing from them because I was there for them, to please them. And not knowing if I was doing a good enough job for them was very frustrating.
COLLIDER: Did you feel the added pressure being compared to Luxx and her success on the show?
LANA: Oh, yes. That was like the biggest frustrating thing ever. Which I love Luxx so much. And I talked about this earlier on an Instagram Live or whatever, but we’re not, me and Luxx are two completely different people. She carries herself in such a beautiful way with her confidence. I never grew up in a place where I could have that confidence. I never felt like I was ever allowed to feel like I was the best of the room. I always felt like I was the worst in the room, which caused me to push myself to go even further. So when they’d be like, “Oh, have this confidence, have this confidence,” I didn’t know how to have that confidence because I never had access to it. So, I didn’t know how to channel that or put that into my drag because to me, that just didn’t, it didn’t exist. I was never the best. I always told myself I was never the best. Which now, I’m in a different mindset. Now, I know that I can be the best of the room by going through the process of Drag Race. I have to keep going because I’m not the best. And they’re like, “Be the best, be the best,” I’m like, “I don’t know how to do that.”

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Episode 2 is about to get juicy.

Lana Discusses Her ‘Historic’ Snatch Game

COLLIDER: What else have you learned about yourself from this experience?
LANA: I’ve learned that I’m very funny. I always knew I was funny because I have like personal conversations with my friends, and they laugh all the time. Drag is not as serious as I tend to make it. I tend to take it very seriously because it’s so personal to me. But I’m also like, drag is supposed to make people smile, make people happy, and there’s so many ways to do that besides like, being pretty, and looking good, and performing well. You can be silly, goofy, unserious, fall, be unperfect. People love that. That’s what draws people to people, and I feel like this experience has taught to find perfection in the imperfections, and I love that.
COLLIDER: What has it been like having “something I normally don’t do” become a meme? Did you realize how often you use that line?
LANA: You know, what’s funny? I don’t remember saying it that much, but I do know that before Drag Race, I only wore bra and panties, and Fashion Nova bodysuits. So, quite literally, everything I wore on the runway was something unique and different for me. And I know I went into Drag Race trying my best to make a runway package that was unique and showed versatility. So it is very funny that people are laughing with it, because I think it’s very silly. I just don’t remember saying it that much. I can’t explain why I said it as much as I did.
COLLIDER: Let’s touch on Snatch Game for a minute. Historic. Rosa Parks. What had happened?
LANA: You know, I don’t know. I don’t know. I think RuPaul was saying that joke. Can I promise you, you could ask any of the other girls. I was walking around the Werk Room so confident for Snatch Game. I was like, “Oh, y’all can’t tell me nothing. Rosa Parks is gonna hit. I’m gonna ask RuPaul, ‘Is the bus still running?’ And then from there, it’s gonna be ki.” When I get on set, it’s also so scary. Snatch Game is so much scarier than you think. It’s very daunting because it’s just people staring at you. And it’s like, so many girls who know their characters so well. And then that throws you off. And then, there’s a lot going into it. And when RuPaul said it, I was like, “Oh my god. Oh my God, girl, I don’t know what to do.” And I just panicked. And I was like, “Let me just give it a day. I’ll accept my bottom placement. We’ll get through this.”
COLLIDER: This week was a very interesting challenge. The Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent Monologues. At first, what was your reaction when you learned that not only did you have to write and tap into a memory, but you also had to do an interpretive dance?
LANA: Well, I honestly was excited because to me, I was like, okay, this is a chance to show my vulnerable side to the judges because they never had seen that before. And then when it was dancing, I was like, “Oh my God, I’m so excited because I always wanted to dance.” I wanted to be a dancer. So I was like this is the perfect challenge for me. But I think I just like misunderstood what they were looking for. As I always did in the competition. So I was excited for it. It was very scary because for me, I knew this was my make-or-break challenge. I was like, this challenge is either going to push me to the finale, or it chop me, and unfortunately, it chopped me.
COLLIDER: Now, Drag Race is inherently camp. Was there an inkling in your mind that maybe, yeah, we should go in a campier direction?
LANA: I mean, yes, there was a moment where I was like, “Okay, maybe I should make this funny.” But also, I was very conflicted this week because I was sharing a story about my finding drag as my light and that being like the thing that saved me. I didn’t want to make fun of that. I felt I just wanted to be as authentic to the story as possible. And I think that was my mistake going into it, not camping it up, because drag is a comedy show at the end of the day. And I think I just took it too seriously, which is my mistake. I take drag too seriously. I should have more fun with it.
COLLIDER: You worked with Sam Star this week. Now, she tells us that she really wanted to work with Lexi Love. Nothing against you, but she wanted to work with Lexi. How was it working with Sam?
LANA: It was honestly really great. I feel like that was the first time I actually got to sit down and talk with Sam really in the competition. Because our relationship kind of grew out throughout the competition because, before I was like, “I hate pageant queens.” I would never ever trust a pageant queen. They’re just too serious. But Sam showed a different side of herself with the later half of the competition. I don’t think a lot of the girls got to see she was very sweet. She was such a huge rock for me. When cameras were down, she would be someone that, one of the only girls that really, spoke into me and poured into me. It was like, “Lana, like, you’re here for a reason, RuPaul loves you, keep pushing yourself. Don’t give up. I see how much of a star you are. Girl, I’m scared of you, please don’t give up. Cause like I see you getting defeated.” And that was prior to this challenge. And so, having the ability to work with her now, I was so honored to just be able to pick her brain and actually have a moment with her before the end of the season, because she’s a very beautiful person and has such a great heart.
Lana Breaks Down Her Final ‘Untucked’ Feud

COLLIDER: So you brought back Kandy Muse’s pocket dress. Two weeks before, you were able to roast her really well. What is the relationship you have with Kandy?
LANA: I love Kandy so much. And I didn’t think that she would ever give me the time of day just because she’s such a star and such an icon and such a legend in the Drag Race world. I’m really close with her drag daughter Janelle. And so that’s how I met her originally. Ever since then, Kandy gave me great advice for Drag Race. She gave me a great look for Drag Race. She’s very nice, very sweet. She’s kinda scary. I’m still scared of her to this day just because she’s such a big personality. But she’s also taught me to just not take life seriously, to have fun, and to remember to, at the end of the day, what people say doesn’t matter. Keep working, keep your head up, because it’s the end goal that matters.
COLLIDER: You had some spicy moments in Untucked. This week, it was Suzie Toot who pushed you to the brink. What was it about Suzie and her unsolicited opinions that got you heated?
LANA: I think it was just the fact that, well, me and Suzie had a good relationship and competition, which I think is where my frustration came from, because we were like makeup partners. We got ready next to each other for the majority of the season. I feel like everybody in the room knew where I was mentally in that moment, and how low I was feeling. And I think Suzie took that moment of me feeling low to just like make herself feel better, which I don’t like when people do that. That’s my biggest pet peeve is when someone takes advantage of someone else. Be like, “Hey, I’m going to dog on you to make it look like I’m doing better, to make myself feel better because that’s what I need to do.” I just don’t like that. And for me, that was frustrating. I also hate, hate, hate when people count me out. I hate it. I hate it so much. It’s not over until RuPaul says “Sasha away.” Don’t do that for RuPaul because you’re not RuPaul. And that was the thing that was frustrating me the most. Sadly, the only person that’s allowed to tell me what I’m doing in this competition are the judges. And you’re not a judge, you’re still a competitor. And from what I remember, you didn’t do as well in the challenge either. So, that was the part that frustrated me. And I was like, be a sister as everyone else was. You don’t see anybody else kicking me while I’m down. It’s very clear who the bottom two were or who the bottom half were. You don’t have to hammer it into our heads, you know? If I want to be hopeful, let me be hopeful. Like, why try to crush that for me? Because obviously everybody knew it was my last day on set. Everybody knew that feeling. So like, let me just enjoy my delusion for a little bit longer while I’m still there.

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COLLIDER: We’re gonna play a quick round of Tea Time. I’m gonna give you the name of one of your season 17 sisters, and you’re gonna give me the first word or phrase that comes to mind. Are you ready to play?
LANA: Oh, I’m so ready.
COLLIDER: Lucky Starzzz.
LANA: Lemonade.
COLLIDER: Hormona Lisa.
LANA: Bob.
COLLIDER: Joella.
LANA: Delusion.
COLLIDER: Acacia Forgot.
LANA: Country Music.
COLLIDER: Crystal Envy.
LANA: Ooh. Tumbleweed.
COLLIDER: Arrietty.
LANA: Villain.
COLLIDER: Kori King.
LANA: Man.
COLLIDER: Lydia B Kollins.
LANA: Oh, Star.
COLLIDER: Jewel Sparkles.
LANA: Bestie.
COLLIDER: Lexi Love.
LANA: Grandma.
COLLIDER: Sam Star.
LANA: Horny.
COLLIDER: Suzie Toot.
LANA: Musical theater.
COLLIDER: Onya Nurve.
LANA: The one.
COLLIDER: And finally, Lana’s Ja’Rae.
LANA: Oh, oh, that is…just one word? I’ll say, I’ll say, I’ll say heart.
COLLIDER: Absolutely. You really were the heart of the season. Congratulations on an incredible run. I am super proud of you.
LANA: Thank you, baby. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.