Interview With Down Under’s Anita Wigl’it
Anita Wigl’it chats about Art Simone’s shock return to the competition, her dry snatch, the mystery surrounding Ru actually being in New Zealand, and more.
Auckland queen Anita Wigl’it, known for her comedy, her beats and her melody started off Drag Race: Down Under as a front runner, winning audiences over with her kooky personality, her iconic snatch game impersonation of, Queen Elizabeth II and her hilarious verse in the annoyingly catchy ‘Queen’s Down Under.’ But this week, Wiggles leaves the competition – the first New Zealand queen to sashay away and the fourth queen overall to get the chop.
Episode four of Down Under started off with Mama Ru revealing that Art – who had previously sashayed away on episode two – would be re-entering the competition (#RiggaMorris, amiright) and Anita admits she was in two minds about the whole ordeal. On the one hand, she was absolutely overjoyed to see her friend, who is an amazing drag queen, but on the other hand, she was in shock, feeling like, “oh no! one of the biggest threats is back again.”
Anita states that Art re-joining the competition was “unfair in so many ways… but also, fair because it’s reality TV and there’s no rules.” She speculates on why she thinks Art was brought back to the competition, over Jojo Zaho and Coco Jumbo, saying, “honestly, Art has such a huge following in the world. She has so much ability. Not saying that Coco and JoJo Don’t – they absolutely do – but I think that because of that, people want to see her on the show. I wouldn’t be surprised now that she’s back… she could get the crown, she’s that good.”
In other news, the word on the street is that that Mama Ru has been filming separately from the contestants and is being added into the werkroom scenes in post-production. Anita addresses these rumours, joking that “she absolutely wasn’t there.” All jokes aside, Ru was, in fact, on set, with Anita claiming she kept a covid safe distance, stating, “I didn’t get to touch her, which is probably good because she would have caught something from me.”
The queen who describes her time on the show as Incredible, Hilarious and Stupid professes that she had hoped she would have made it further, declaring, “after episode three, I was technically winning the competition at that point, which was crazy. So, I guess in some ways I was really hoping I’d get to the end.” The Snatch Game winner concedes, saying, “everything happens for a reason. As such a firm believer of that, I think that every week it doesn’t matter where you place, it can either be the top or the bottom. Every week is a new opportunity to reset the clock, and to start again.”
The Auckland cabaret owner admits she didn’t think she would be the first NZ queen to be eliminated, saying “to be completely honest, I thought Elektra would be the first one to go home. She was in the bottom twice.”
Upon finding out that this week’s challenge would be a design one, Anita was worried but also excited, stating, “Even though design is not necessarily my forte, I love to do it, and I love to put things together. I actually really enjoyed the process.”
“Although, I kind of bit off a bit too much with all the details I had on my dress,” She jokingly explains, “I knew that the design challenge would probably be my weakest challenge. Design and Dad. The two D’s. Ironically, I’m usually good with D’s, but not those ones.”
And with Mama Ru dishing out such harsh critiques this week (she scolded Anita for doing something that’s been seen on drag race in the past… and better), Anita says, “I didn’t think was fair,” but concedes that the look has been done better before.
Along with meeting Ru, Michelle, Rhys and the queens, Anita confesses that her favourite part of the show was definitely winning the snatch game, which she described as surreal. She says she was so stunned that she just walked around with her signature eccentric and scary smile, “for the rest of the day.” As for her least favourite moment, she says she had a major case of FOMO after leaving the competition, stating, “knowing that there were still four more weeks to go, where they’ll be having fun on these challenges and thanking ‘damn, four more opportunities to shine, that I don’t get to do’”
Fellow contestant Etecetera Etecetera, who impersonated Lindy Chamberlain during her Snatch Game performance was met with a torrent of animosity after the shows airing. Anita, however, did not catch any flack for her comments about Prince Andrew, to which she says, “probably because it’s all true,” before elaborating that, “sometimes, it’s about pushing the envelope, the line and then the jokes. I’ve got a terrible sense of humour. I find inappropriate things Hilarious. That’s why I was so inappropriate.”
Though she was sad to leave Kita Mean, she’s proud of her partner in crime and is remaining hopeful that Kita wins the whole competition. She proclaims, “I really hope she wins… I want a loan as well if she does, or maybe like a free Louis Vuitton handbag or something.”
The hilarious Anita promises that she’ll be saying “YES” to all new opportunities and promises that this won’t be the last we see of her. Her one-woman comedy drag show ‘Anita Wigl’it: The Life of A Funny Girl’ will be heading to a venue near you.
As for Anita’s DAP (dry ass pussy), she says “my pussy is so dry, it’s almost like a granola. If I were to queef, it would be dust. It’s been a long time since it’s been used, and it probably does have cobwebs down there.”
