Drag Race heads to the big screen this month, when RuPaul’s Stop! That! Train! invades movie theaters with its drag queen-filled cast.
While drag movies like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Kinky Boots, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar all scored theatrical releases, Stop! That! Train! is one of the rare cases where the core cast is made up of actual queer, drag queens and not cis-men in makeup.
The movie plays out like a Drag Race acting challenge on steroids, stupid in all the best ways possible. Directed by Hairspray director Adam Shankman and taking clear inspiration from Airplane!, the disaster comedy finds a number of queens in peril after the train they work on as stewardesses heads straight into a deadly “stormaganza.”
RuPaul stars as the President of the United States, while big names including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lisa Rinna, Nicole Richie, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Charo all make ridiculous cameos. At the center of the action, however, are Drag Race royalty Ginger Minj and Jujubee, who star as a pair of stewardesses who face off against a trio of Glamazonian Express mean girls, played to prissy perfection by Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone and Marcia Marcia Marcia.
Speaking with SO.GAY about their experience making the film, the mean girl trio revealed how it feels having the movie drop during Pride month, what the audition process was like and the reaction from Ru girls who didn’t make the cast, how Sarah Michelle Gellar surprised them on set, and why they consider it a badge of honor to have RuPaul forget your name.
Read the full interview below. “Stop! That! Train!” speeds into theaters Friday, June 12.
SO.GAY: I can’t think of a better way to kick off Pride month than speaking with you three today. What does it mean to be starring in a film, in drag, that has a theatrical release dropping at this time of year?
Brooke Lynn Hytes: It feels magical. And the fact that it’s coming out in Pride month is even more special. What we’ve been saying all day and all week is the feeling that we all feel is proud. We are just proud of this movie. Proud of what it represents, which is queer joy and queer representation. That’s how I’m feeling.
Symone: I echo everything she said. Just proud of the work we did, proud of everything we accomplished, proud that people are gonna see it. I’m from Arkansas, so I know what this type of art and queer media means. And for people to be able to go see it in the South, in tinier towns, I think it’s really special and important. And how amazing that we get to be a part of that, at the forefront of that, during this specific time. It’s just joy and fun and people need to see it and people need to be uplifted, inspired by it. Just proud, excited, all the things.
Marcia Marcia Marcia: Not only is it great for the public, in general, I think it’s really great just for drag queens. We’re at a new level in the mainstream now. It’s so exciting to be part of that step.
SO.GAY: Ru had a lot of queens to choose from when casting this movie. The main series of Drag Race, alone, has more than 240 alums at this point. Did you know a lot of Ru girls who auditioned for the movie …. and how sure were you that you would land a role?
Symone: I knew the net was cast wide, maybe not who necessarily was asked to do it. I knew there were a lot of us. To get asked, first of all, was amazing. And then to get the call from Adam [Shankman] that he wanted me to be a part of it was really cool, and a dream come true. Just the fact we were asked, and we got the part, and we’re doing this major thing, it’s just amazing. It’s cool, exciting, and dream-fulfilling. It’s a big pool to be chosen from, honey, and we got it!
Marcia Marcia Marcia: As it is with Drag Race as well, they were very, “This is confidential, don’t tell anyone that you’re doing this.” So we all kind of kept our mouths shut during the process. But it was very, very exciting to be approached about it.
Brooke Lynn Hytes: It was very cool. I didn’t think anything of it. They were like, “Do you want to audition for this movie?” And I was like, “Sure!” I think I made my tape in 10 minutes. I sent it in and forgot about it. They were like, “You got it” and I was like, “Cool!”
I thought it was just gonna be like a streaming World of Wonder movie, which is great, but I didn’t realize we were doing a theatrical release. I think I auditioned during Pride month last year. I was so busy, already, like, “Let’s do it, great.” And then I found out I got it, and it was amazing. Then I found out so many other people auditioned and didn’t get it and I was like, “Aww.” [Sarcastic frown]
SO.GAY: Has anyone been salty about it since, or is it all love?
Brooke Lynn Hytes: I know a couple people who are like, “Oh, you got that.” I was like, “Sure did!” [Sticks out tongue]
Symone: I will say, there have been an equal amount of girls who have been so happy for us, and congratulated us. I think, if you are of the general notion, you should know that us being a part of it, it shines the sun on all of us. So us being able to make this film only opens the door for further opportunities for other girls. We may have been the first—and we’re gonna keep being in there, don’t get it twisted—but, that means it’s an opportunity for everyone else as well. You maybe didn’t get this time, but there’s more things coming.
SO.GAY: You three play a trio of mean girls in this film. Do you have a favorite movie or TV mean girl you loved growing up, or possibly even turned to for inspiration?
Brooke Lynn Hytes: Marcia, who’s yours?
Marcia Marcia Marcia: Karen Smith [Amanda Seyfried’s character from Mean Girls] was definitely in there. She’s not even technically a mean girl, she’s just a little ignorant I guess. I also love Cher in Clueless. I think she can kind of be a mean girl, by accident, which I feel like I also pulled from for Alli.
Brooke Lynn Hytes: Mine is Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada, and probably Cruella de Vil.
Symone: There’s definitely some Cruella in there, for sure.
Brooke Lynn Hytes: Just for the fashion alone, she was such a fashion icon. Those are my two.
Symone: We know those tropes, so I knew what was expected of us. I’m gay, I watch those films.
Brooke Lynn Hytes: You’re gay?!?
Symone: Yes, bitch, you didn’t know?! This is my coming out. Breaking news: Symone’s gay [laughs]. I knew what the assignment called for.
SO.GAY: For me, Sarah Michelle Gellar in “Cruel Intentions” is the mean girl gold standard … and you all got a pretty fun moment with her in this movie. What’s something SMG fans would love to hear about working with her on a project like this?
Marcia Marcia Marcia: Just that she was so lovely to work with. She was so kind and grounded. Eating lunch with her and hearing, like, “Oh, I send my kids to school next year.”
Symone: Talking about her husband, her family life, she was just so personable, and treated us just like everyone else in the movie. People think, “Of course she did,” but sometimes people see a drag queen on set and they don’t necessarily give us the respect we deserve, shocking. But she was completely the opposite of that and so lovely, worked with us, warm, so great, loved her.
Brooke Lynn Hytes: I think that’s the interesting thing about everybody on this movie, all our cameo guest stars: They were all excited to be there and be a part of it. The three of us have all been in the entertainment industry for a while now and we’ve all been around famous people, but it still strikes me when you meet people who were famous when you were little and grew up watching. And then you meet them in real life and you’re like, “You’re a person,” like, normal.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, she’s like, “I’m Sarah, how are you?” just sitting there. I’m like, “Why aren’t you floating on a golden cloud?” They’re just like normal people on a movie set and it’s so weird when you see famous people that you’ve known forever and seen on your TV screen and you’re just sitting there with them doing what they do, what you’ve watched them do for years, and you’re like, “You’re just like a person. Weird!”
SO.GAY: Throughout this press tour, there have been a couple viral moments of Ru seemingly forgetting Adam Shankman’s name at the premiere, or that Ginger was on “All Stars.” Is it a badge of honor to have Ru kind of forget your name or who you are, and has it happened to you, that you know of?
Brooke Lynn Hytes: I think it is. I think it’s iconic. I will say, which is sickening, when we were at the TODAY show, he walked in and Marcia was out in the lobby. He goes, “Hey, Marcia.”
Marcia Marcia Marcia: I was like, “Good morning, RuPaul.” I was honestly gagged that she knew me. She knew me!
Brooke Lynn Hytes: I think it’s hysterical.
Symone: It’s funny. It’s funny! Like, mother, there’s 5,000 of us at this point. You’ve given us this opportunity, if she doesn’t remember your name in the moment, whatever, she’s our mother. She knows us when it counts. She can do whatever she wants.
Brooke Lynn Hytes: At the end of the day, RuPaul owes us absolutely nothing. With the opportunities she has provided to us, the platform she has given to us and the visibility she has given the community, she owes us absolutely nothing. So, please do forget my name and I will accept it with grace.
Last question: Is there a disaster movie out there you wish you could go back and be part of? Something like Twister, Titanic, Armageddon.
Brooke Lynn Hytes: I think Marcia said it earlier, Jurassic Park. I don’t know if that counts.
Symone: I really enjoy Independence Day. I don’t know if that’s also like one that’s considered [a disaster movie]. I think that one for me. Or Mars Attacks would be fun.
Marcia Marcia Marcia: I remember being particularly scarred by The Day After Tomorrow. It stayed with me, so why not?
SO.GAY: And you get to hang with Jake Gyllenhaal, so, not bad.
Symone: Not a bad day or a few couple months, honey!
