Courtney Act Spills The Tea On Drag Race Down Under Casting

On the latest episode of Courtney Act and Vanity Fair’s podcast Brenda Call Me, Courtney revealed some of the closely-guarded secrets from the upcoming season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, set to air on Stan in the coming months. The cast was announced last Saturday at Mardi Gras with 10 Aussie and New Zealand queens fighting for the crown.

According to Courtney, there was a bit of confusion when it came to casting. Unlike other editions, the Drag Race Down Under team didn’t put out an open call to people to audition for the show. They instead opted to have the casting producers send messages from their personal accounts. 

“One of the casting producers just sent messages, but the thing is it wasn’t from an official account. She had an Instagram account that exclusively had photos of those hairless sphinx cats! So all of these Drag queens around Australia and New Zealand keep getting messages in their DM’s – in the ‘Other’ folder on their Instagram accounts – from some seemingly crazy cat lady saying ‘Oh, uh, can you please send me an email. I have an important opportunity,” said Act.

Courtney also revealed that the guest judge for each week would be sitting next to Ru, Michelle and Rhys virtually, which means that neither distance nor COIVD restrictions will be an obstacle when sourcing celebrities. Rumours are swirling that we could be seeing both the Minogue sisters on the panel, although this is yet to be confirmed. 

“We’re so thankful and so grateful that Australia finally has a platform because Drag in Australia used to be known as some of the best drag in the world,” Vanity Faire said. “But now I’m really excited that this may elevate Australian Drag to be what it was.” 

“I’m really excited to see how Drag Race Down Under affects the drag scene.” Courtney added, saying that the financial incentive that comes with Drag Race and a higher public profile for queens will shake things up.

Judges Michelle Visage and Rhys Nicholson revealed the Drag race Down Under Cast at the Mardi Gras parade on March 6, 2021.

😍 Here they are! Meet the queens of @StanAustralia Original Series RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under! 👑 #StanOriginals #DragRaceDownUnder pic.twitter.com/B9J7T88StL

— Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (@sydneymardigras) March 6, 2021

The 10 Drag queens who will be part of the first season are  First Nations drag queen JoJo Zaho, Karen From Finance, Coco Jumbo, non-binary drag artist, Etecetera Etcetera, Maxi Shield, Art Simone, Scarlet Adams and New Zealand queens Elektra Shock, Anita Wigl’it and Kita Mean.