Leading up to her elimination in episode 7 of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16, Megami managed to leave a big impact on this series… even if that isn’t immediately clear to some fans at this exact moment.
Megami’s “Protect Queer Art” sign — which was memeified by people with both good and bad intentions — is destined to make more sense later this year as we see people that we consider to be our “allies” suddenly dropping their allyship as they cast their votes in the next presidential election. After a few seasons of “RuPaul’s Best Friends Race,” fans had also been starving for the shadiness pulled off by certain queens in season 16… but that wasn’t necessarily the M.O. that queens like Megami were bringing to the table.
After being critiqued for her Rusical performance in “The Sound of Rusic” and being challenged to lip sync against Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige to Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” — now a Grammy Award-winning song! — Megami was told to sashay away. In her exit interview with Out, however, Megami had nothing but life lessons to share about her Drag Race experience. She also explained how she approached this competitive environment, and why she has so much more respect and understanding for queens who competed in past seasons of the franchise.
Keep scrolling to read Out’s exit interview with Megami, who you can follow on Instagram, X/Twitter, and TikTok. You can also support Megami by buying her merch on MyBestJudy and/or subscribing to her page on Twitch!
Out: Looking back at your run throughout season 16, how would you describe your Drag Race journey?
Megami: The one word that comes to mind always is just rollercoaster. There were very high highs and very low lows. It was just a very intense experience all around. It truly was just a rollercoaster. But as someone who loves rollercoasters and who's literally going to Universal [Studios in Los Angeles] in an hour, I'm like, 'It really was the time of my life.' I loved it.
You were open about doing cosplay and considering yourself a 'geeky' queen. Now that you've gone through this competition, do you feel like your background in cosplaying and your knowledge of various pop culture references helped you on the show?
Yeah! I made almost 90% of my package by myself because I didn't have a deep well of designer friends or people I could ask to help me. I had to rely on my ingenuity and my creativity as a cosplayer who was used to going to conventions and making all my costumes… and who had to get it done in the short amount of time that we had.
I'm insanely proud of myself for pulling it off. Whether or not people like my looks, I love everything that I created and got to wear. I am so proud that I can say that pretty much 100% came from me. The only real look that I had someone else make was [for the] Cher [runway category]. Everything else was me.
Some viewers are under the impression that you were actually helping a bunch of queens throughout the competition. Only a few of those situations came up in the episodes, like you when you helped Nymphia Wind with her verse, and then she helped the entire girl group with the choreography. I think this sisterhood energy is really sweet, particularly when it doesn't come off as a huge deal. What was your take on that?
That's just who I am as a person. I love to kiki and [throw] shade and just have fun with my friends in a drag queen kind of way… But at the end of the day, I went into this show with the understanding that I'm not competing against 13 other drag queens. I'm competing for RuPaul. At the end of the day, Ru is the one who chooses who stays and who goes home. Ru is the one who will like or dislike our performances and runways.
I never went into it with the intent of, 'Oh, I need to take other people out.' [Another queen] doing well doesn't diminish my shine. Anytime anyone ever needed help with anything, I was like, 'Absolutely.' I was always available to help people or give an educated opinion that someone else needed. I think, overall, that is just who I am as a human being. Even at home, I always help people whenever I can in a non-selfish way.
I love drag and I love the queer community. Obviously, that doesn't always translate well to television, but that's just who I am as a person. Me helping out [the queens] on that girl-group challenge wasn't even a second thought. It was just like, 'We need to get this done and I need to help you out.' And I did.
What were some of your biggest challenges while filming Drag Race that, going into the show, perhaps you didn't even expect were going to be such big obstacles?
I think people don't understand how intense and how fast it all goes, especially when you're completely cut off from your friends, family, and support group. You're just banging out episode after episode after episode. It's an incredibly intense experience.
When I got back and [watched] older seasons of Drag Race, it completely altered my perspective on those seasons. I was like, 'Damn, I can tell that she's going through it right now.' It just gave me so much more kindness in my heart to what these girls in older seasons were probably going through, now having been through it myself. People don't understand how truly intense it is. I mean, it's also amazing and fulfilling and one of the best experiences of my life… but yeah, it's a lot.
It is a race! Your answer reminds me of a moment from Bob the Drag Queen on season 8 saying, 'I'll never read another queen again for not doing their makeup on time,' or something along those lines. And speaking of Bob, you talked on social media about loving queens from past seasons and feeling anxious to hear them talk about your drag. Now that your journey is coming to an end, have you gotten more used to it? Are you still anxious when someone is talking about you on the show?
I wouldn't say that I've gotten more used to it, but I've been getting better at tuning it out. Some people, especially past queens on their podcasts and YouTube channels, they're doing it more for the clicks and will say more outlandish things than they normally might say. I've just been like… I'm not trying to pay too much attention to any of that and not take it personally.
I love and respect so many of these queens, and it doesn't feel great when people you admire don't reciprocate the emotion. I think I've gotten a lot better at tuning out what [their] reactions [are] for the fans [versus] the queens who have personally reached out to me and been so incredibly supportive and loving. Yeah, it's a weird experience.
Because we're running out of time, my last question is: what's next for Megami?
I'm going to be flying all around, doing gigs everywhere, so follow me and come out to say hi! I love, love, love meeting people. I am an annoying nerd who just loves to talk, so if you want to talk about video games… come and meet me! I've also started Twitch streaming because I'm a huge gamer, so you can catch me on Twitch at MegamiNYC and come play video games with me.
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 airs every Friday on MTV.
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