Yahoo Lifestyle “Drag Race” star Crystal Envy reveals Jasmine Kennedie didn't initially want to be her drag sister: 'Absolutely not!'
Crystal tells EW she and the season 14 alum are now good friends after, as Jasmine hilariously confirms, she used to be "a c--t" to her Haus of Mandell sister.
You definitely remember the great Barbenheimer showdown that waged throughout 2023, but strap on your heels and combat boots for round two, as the battle of “New Jersey’s Barbie and Ken Doll” is about to play out all across RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 queen Crystal Envy’s body-ody-ody.
In essence, Drag Race found itself a girl that can do both, as the undeniable mug of season 17 is also, judging by many of her sisters’ votes in EW’s superlatives poll, the trade of the season out of drag.
“I do identify as a gay man, so I live my life as that. When I come into this [drag] personality, I just feel it so much more. I do feel like I’m a Barbie doll and I’m a Ken Doll, and I can dress them up exactly how I want,” Crystal tells Entertainment Weekly. “Chris, as a person, has a day job. I’m a makeup artist, I have my own business, I’m a brand as Chris, and I'm also a brand as Crystal. For me, they’re separate, but also still in [me] — it depends on which one I want to pull out.”
While she's not related to season 11 and All Stars 6 queen Scarlet Envy, she is the sister of the uber-confident season 14 alum Jasmine Kennedie. On the Main Stage, the New Jersey queen is definitely polishing up her big old Crystal energy for the judges. The professional makeup artist even goes as far as to call herself one of the “Muggiana Dupree Supremes” of Drag Race who’s here to defy expectations when it comes to look queens.
“You’re getting a production,” Crystal promises of her stage presence. “I’m going to do the most. I’m someone who thinks [of] the saying, ‘less is more’ — no, baby, more is more, and less is less. That’s how that works. I like to give you the most you can give, whether that be an extreme reveal that’s going to come out of my hair or my costume has a reveal you weren’t expecting, or I’m doing an extra stunt that’s going to gag the girls.”
She was so extra, she recalls, that Jasmine might’ve felt a bit intimidated upon Crystal’s induction into Mancie Mandell's Haus of Mandell drag collective alongside her: “She said, ‘I do not want her to be my sister.' She said, ‘Absolutely not. Not her. Not that one,'” Crystal remembers. (Jasmine comically confirms to EW that she was a "c--t” to Crystal at first).
ew; Denise Truscello/Getty
Crystal Envy and drag sister Jasmine Kennedie“Slowly but surely,” Crystal continues, “we became really good friends. I just had to prove my worth to her! Once I proved my worth after like, a year, she was like, 'Okay, you're sickening!'"
Continues Crystal: "When you're in a drag family, that's what it's about. They push you harder, they want you to do better, but they are doing it because they love you."
Now that she has a lifelong sister in Jasmine, Crystal brushes away the past commotion like water off a duck’s back — and says that practicing self-love in the face of adversity is key to her success, both as Chris and Crystal, in tandem.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
“We forget about who’s actually inside. I make it a point to love both myself and Crystal,” she explains. “If you can’t love your out-of-drag self, how can you love your in-drag self?”
Amen to that!
RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on MTV. Watch EW's full interview with Crystal at the top of this post.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
