Interview: Pandora Boxx Opens Up on Her "RuPaul's Drag Race" Elimination Controversy

Who else was shocked that Pandora Boxx was eliminated on last week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race?

It’s not just that Pandora had been a pretty consistent performer thus far, even if she hadn’t won any of the challenges – RuPaul himself called her the “Susan Lucci of this competition,” after the soap opera star most famous for losing the Emmy.

RuPaul’s stated reason for last week’s elimination, that Pandora's drag mother “outshone” her, didn’t make any sense given that the whole routine had been put together by Pandora — and making your mother look good was, of course, the point of the challenge.

Pandora's fans definitely didn’t take the elimination sitting down. Sirius OutQ radio's Derek and Romaine were furious, Alec Mapa said he was robbed, and Entertainment Weekly called her America’s Next Drag Superstar, regardless of what RuPaul thought.

Was there another reason for the elimination, something we didn’t see?

We decided to check in with the queen herself (who is the creation of 37-year-old Michael Steck) not just on the controversy over her elimination, but also her thoughts on being Kathy Griffin, her Snatch Game triumph, and, yes, the Raven/Tatiana conflict.

On whether there was another reason she was eliminated: No, there wasn’t anything that wasn’t seen. The elimination is a full day of shooting. We get full critiques from all the judges. To me, they said they loved everything. On TV, I saw that they said that [my drag mother] outshined me or whatever. I actually was really shocked that I was even in the bottom two, because I did exactly what the challenge asked.

I’ve seen the episode now, and I think I did a good job, and I don’t understand it. Maybe it was just to stir the pot. I’m not a producer, I’m not RuPaul, so I don’t know what it was. That’s fine.

I think I might be getting more attention for getting kicked off than I might’ve if I’d won.

Pandora Boxx and her drag mother, Litter

On the resulting media brouhaha: It’s completely overwhelming. I knew [my elimination] was coming – I shot the show, so I know I’m getting eliminated. And I feel bad because a lot of people were excited for me, thought I was at least going to get top three, but I know that I’m not.

I knew it was going to be a painful moment for me, to actually relive it. Because I was mad. I was mad, I was upset, I was exhausted, because it’s an exhausting shoot schedule.

I was hoping that people would care that I got eliminated, but I really had absolutely no idea that this was going to be the response. I’ve gotten so many emails and Facebook pages and pages of people who were just angry. People have been writing to RuPaul’s fanpage, to Logo.

I’m just overwhelmed. It’s been this whole backlash, and I’m really, really happy for it. I’m happy that people care, and people are that upset and people like me that much to be that mad.

When Entertainment Weekly said that I was their America’s next drag superstar, regardless of what RuPaul said, you can’t really get any better than that, I think.

Next Page: Is RuPaul biased against drag-comedy?