“Drag Race” star Joella has a message for anyone doubting her connection to Katy Perry: 'Bitch, f--- you'

Of the myriad titles instant RuPaul's Drag Race legend Joella has held across her short time on season 17 (sobbing Katy Perry stan, clocker of Acacia Forgot's lip-sync skills, talent show feedback queen, a local L.A. icon "literally known" for her "opulent" looks back home), the next phase in the queen's evolution into the the J-O-E (don't forget the "ella") era is one that no one saw coming: A human quilt walking down the runway.

Joella brought that fantasy into reality on Friday night's episode, after she gave a solid performance amid a crowded commercial shoot, but stitched herself into the Drag Race patchwork of iconically bad looks when she sashayed down the Main Stage in her elimination eleganza in the form of a giant quilt with RuPaul's face airbrushed on the back.

Though Joella was eliminated after a lip-sync against Kori King, fans know that the spirit of queens with looks this horrible (Monét X Change's sponge dress, Lala Ri's bag look) remain with us for years to come, and this queen's warm quilt cements that, while she might be gone, we'll always remember J-O-E — and never forget the "ella," either.

Related: Lucky Starzzz says Drag Race exit felt like 'panic attack' in front of RuPaul, clarifies relationship to Nina Bo’Nina Brown

Read on for EW's full elimination interview with Joella, in which she addresses critics claiming she's not actually that close to Perry, the spelling of her name in her talent show song, and making great TV with her dramatic clapbacks.

RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 continues Fridays at 8 p.m. on MTV.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: In a short amount of time, you’ve made quite a splash among the fandom.

JOELLA: These bitches can’t take me, okay? They can only take me in a small dose because I was about to take over the whole season.

They had to get rid of you so you didn’t steamroll the rest of the season. Particularly, you generated conversation for your talent show and subsequent criticism of the other girls’ talents — looking back, were you admittedly a bit delusional about your talent show, or were you producing yourself to make good TV with your feedback to the other queens?

I feel like I was never delusional. I never gave my thoughts on my own talent show. Of course I’d rank my talent show even lower than Acacia’s. But, not lower than Hormona’s. I don’t think I placed among the top. I don’t think I was the best. They were all better than me, but my task was to rate a queen, and I rated a queen. When people I respect ask me for my opinion, I’m going to give them the full, honest truth.

In your talent show, you famously sing “J-O-E, but don’t forget the Ella” — so, is your name officially spelled J-O-E–E-L-L-A?

[Laughs] I’ve thought about this ever since the song was written. When you write a song, sometimes it doesn’t turn out grammatically correct in that way. It fits the song. But, also, “Ella” could also be “L-L-A,” so it’s “J-O-E,” don’t forget the “lla.”

You also had people talking last week in Untucked when you cried and said you are known in Los Angeles for your looks and called yourself a local icon — have people told you that in L.A.?

Yes! I can’t even count on my hands and toes how many people have come up to me and told me how much of an icon and inspiration I am, and how much I mean to them and to Asian people in L.A. These are real things people have told me. People have told me, “When I see you in WeHo, I’m scared to go up to you because you look like a goddess, like a rich lady.” I’m not lying. This is a big reality check for me, because now I’m seeing some of these people run my name through the comments. To my face, you’re saying all this, now that I’m on the show saying this, you want to claim it’s a different story…. When I said “local icon,” I didn’t mean L.A. period, I meant local drag in Los Angeles. Something they can never take away from me is that I was a booked-ass bitch. I’m one of the most-booked queens in Southern California. All those queens in Squirrel Games? I knew them all, because I am that working diva in Southern California.

Naomi Smalls was recently on The Pit Stop and said she felt that Kim Chi was actually the slaysian diva of L.A. What do you think?

There are a lot of slaysian divas in L.A. I’m not talking about these RuGirls on Drag Race for years who are of course way above me. There are Asian girls who paved the way for me to be successful in L.A., but I feel like I’m the slaysian diva because the way I present my drag is very cutthroat and slay, I’m gonna read a bitch, c--ty, that kind of vibe. I’m not like, the Asian girl, I’m just the slaysian diva. Kim Chi is another Asian bitch that’s slaying.

During our group interview, you all reacted so strongly to the question about Katy Perry. Are you still a Katy fan after filming?

I am still a massive Katy Perry fan…. In that moment, I’d been asked about Katy Perry in every interview, and I had to give the same answer, because I can’t say what’s going to happen on the show. There are so many people who want to say that I don’t actually know her. It was already a conversation. Even now, people are like, this is all fake, Katy doesn’t actually know her. To those people, what I want to say is: Bitch, f--- you. I’ve met her so many times. I don’t think Katy would pretend to know someone on national TV. Scorpios don’t lie. If she didn’t care about me as a fan, she wouldn’t have given me my two cents. She knows I’m a respectful fan. I’m not going to go to her house and stalk her, I’m going to go to her show.

Let’s move to this week. This quilt look is instantly one of the funniest things I have ever seen on the runway. I loved it so much. Please tell me how you got this idea and how this thing was constructed.

This runway look was commissioned at the start of the period we had to begin packing for the show, and it got to me literally the day I left for the show, at 11 a.m. I don’t want to put the designer on blast…. Basically, the back of the quilt was definitely not supposed to be airbrushed. I commissioned the person to do airbrushing, but airbrushed like it was a quilt. I wanted the back to be sewn like a quilt, with each part a solid color to make it look like Ru’s face, but quilted. A quilt made to look like Ru’s face.

Related: RuPaul's Drag Race season 17's Kori King thinks sister Plane Jane 'wasn't that mean' on show: 'She's meaner in real life'

This look transcends “deserving” to be in the bottom. It will go down like Monét’s sponge dress or Lala’s bag look. Pardon the pun, it’s now in the patchwork of the show’s legacy.

When I was getting ready, the girls were like, why are you padding? Why are you putting that [lip-syncing] outfit under it? Why are you wearing hair? You don’t need to. Your video was so good, you’ll probably be in the top. I was like, I don’t know, even though I feel I’m going to be safe, I think I need a backup plan.

What do you have coming up? Where should people look out for you?

Follow me on Instagram for all the updates, and come to my shows! Buy a Cameo! Ask me a question!

Will there be quilt merch?

Quilt merch is not in the works yet. It’s a lot of logistics, but we’re going to try to make that happen.

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