RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 is nearly at an end, but the top four queens are still thinking about some of the critiques they got during their time on the show.
Ahead of the Friday, April 18, season finale, Jewels Sparkles, Lexi Love, Onya Nurve and Sam Star exclusively shared what advice they took with them since filming wrapped. (The season’s winner will be crowned during Friday’s episode.)
“One of the critiques I got a lot on the show was my runway walk being very fast,” Jewels told Us Weekly. “And something RuPaul always told me was to ground myself a little bit more.”
While that might sound like a note that only applies on the main stage, Jewels noted that she’s still thinking about it both in and out of drag.
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“I’ve taken that with me into my everyday life, like grounding myself in all moments and reminding myself that there’s power in just existing,” she explained. “Like, you don’t always have to do the most, you don’t have to be all over the place. There is just power in your existence and your presence.”
Lexi, meanwhile, said that silencing her “inner saboteur” is the lesson that’s stuck with her the most.
“That’s obviously something that I really, really focused on while I was there, and that’s something that I took from it,” she told Us. “It’s something that I think resonated with a lot of people. So that’s something that I’m just grateful and very thankful for continuously.”
Onya and Sam have also been incorporating Ru’s advice about the importance of showing vulnerability behind the glitter.
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“For me, I think it is realizing that I can let my guard down and be myself at all times,” Onya explained to Us. “I don’t really have to keep a wall up. It kind of stops people from enjoying who you are. Leaving Drag Race, I’ve just learned to just spread joy because it’s so contagious and to be open to developing relationships with people at all angles.”
Sam shared a similar sentiment, noting that Ru and the other judges often advised her to “be more vulnerable and show the silly Sam” behind the perfect pageant queen.
“It’s been so liberating for me ’cause now I just get to have fun and I’ll just say what I wanna say,” she said. “And I like to make people laugh. I love to make these girls laugh. It makes me warm inside, ’cause it is a tough room! Sometimes they’re hard to make laugh, but when you get it good, it’s fierce.”
It sounds like Sam and Onya had plenty of laughs together, as they were paired for “recreational time” during filming and hung out a lot at the hotel pool.
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“Onya and I spent lots of time together, and I’m so proud that the pool girls made it all the way to the end,” Sam said, with Onya adding, “Full circle moment!”
The duo went on to joke that their first post-show collaboration will be a line of inflatable pools.
“We’re gonna sell them at Target and Walmart. All your superstores, honey!” Sam quipped. “They’ll be there on the endcap because we paid the big money.”
Alas, Pool Girls Pools will not really be coming to a store near you (at least not yet), but Onya does hope to work with her fellow season 17 queens again.
“We do shows together every now and then, but I would love to do a podcast with one of my sisters — do any type of project,” Onya told Us. “These are such a talented group of motherf***ers.”
The season 17 finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race airs on MTV Friday, April 18, at 8 p.m. ET.
