Michelle Visage has revealed she previously turned down the US version of Strictly Come Dancing in the hope of landing a spot on the UK series.
The American RuPaul’s Drag Race judge is a self-confessed Anglophile, and has told of how she prefers the original BBC show as she believes it is more authentic.
Speaking to HuffPost UK and other journalists at the show’s press launch, Michelle said: “This is the first time I’ve been asked to do Strictly. I’ve been asked to do Dancing With The Stars, but I kept saying no, hoping for Strictly to come through.”
“I prefer it,” she continued. “It’s more true to what ballroom really is and I’ve been obsessed with ballroom for years – just watching it, never trying it.
“I’ve had friends who did Dancing With The Stars so I got into it, but [Strictly] is just more what I think it is. I don’t like the freedoms and the craziness – I like technique.”
Many Strictly and Drag Race fans have already anticipated a clash between Michelle and Craig Revel Horwood as she goes from judging to being judged herself, but she was also quick to downplay this suggestion.
Revealing she actually can’t wait to be on the receiving end of critiques for a change, she said: “The reason I judge people is to help them and if they listen to my critique, they’ll come back better next week. So I will come back better with any critique I’m given because I know how to give it and I know how to take it.
“A lot of people will think there’ll be a clash with me and Craig, but no actually – I want that [criticism], I will hear you and I will work on that next week and show you that I heard you. That’s the whole point of judges.”
However, Michelle said she will still be keeping an eye for detail on the Strictly costumes, just as she’s famed for on Drag Race.
“I have given them about 30 to 40 pictures of what I like and what I want and how it should look, so absolutely,” she laughed.
“I was in a fitting today and was like, ‘that needs to be a little higher’. I know my body after all these years.”
Along with costume advice, she has also submitted requests to dance to several Madonna tracks on the show, meaning there’s a chance she’ll get to do some voguing – moves that actually originated from New York drag ball culture, which Michelle was involved in back in the 1990s.
Asked if she would therefore have to teach her dance partner how to vogue properly, she said with a wry smile: “I would probably have to, for it to be done right!”
RuPaul will also be tuning in to see how she gets on, with Michelle revealing her friend was “so so excited” when she told him she would be taking part.
She revealed: “But he said, ‘Why do you want to work that hard?!’.”
Offering an explanation, she continued: “But I’ve got a new body, I’m 50 and I want to show my kids nothing should stop you. If you want to do something, meet your challenge and do it.”
Over the last 12 months, Michelle has filmed the upcoming first series of Drag Race UK, as well as the 12th season of the original version and a fifth All Stars edition. She’s also made a new documentary, filming for which prevented her from appearing at the red carpet launch for Strictly last week.
As a result, Michelle had little training prior to recording Saturday’s big launch show.
“So [the other contestants] have had two weeks, I’ve had an hour,” she said. “So we’ll see how that goes.
“I’m filming a documentary back home that was planned for a year, so when I was offered Strictly, I still had to do that, so that’s why I had to miss the red carpet. So I had an hour last night after I got off the plane, that’s all.”
Strictly Come Dancing launches on Saturday at 7.10pm on BBC One.