Drag Race UK’s Asttina Mandella reveals why she was so emotional after the judges critiques | PopBuzz Meets
1 February 2021, 12:04
Drag Race UK’s Asttina Mandella Spills The Tea On Her Elimination And ASOS-Gate | Drag Race Yearbook
RUDE!
Another week, another shocking elimination on Drag Race UK. This time it was the turn of ASOS queen Asttina Mandella to sashay away after losing the lip sync against Tia Kofi.
Asttina, from East London, took the coveted RuPeter Badge for winning the first episode of the second season, where the queens were tasked with pulling together a UK gay icon look, and a queen of your home town look. Despite being called out by A'Whora for wearing an ASOS jacket, Asttina took the win, while Joe Black was eliminated from the competition after a lip sync against Bimini Bon Boulash.
This week, Asttina's Anime-inspired look for the sewing challenge failed to impress the judges, landing her in the bottom two with Tia Kofi. In a shock to everyone, including Tia from the look on her face after the decision was announced, Asttina lost the lip sync and was booted out of the competition.
READ MORE: The best memes from Drag Race UK season 2
The episode was a tearjerker, with several of the queens getting emotional in the confessionals and on the runway, including Asttina, who teared up following the critiques from the judges. We caught up with Asttina the morning after her elimination and asked her how she felt watching the emotional moment back.
"What I remember, and what I remember feeling was...I'm not here for it," she said. "I wasn't happy with myself, I wasn't happy with my outfit, I wasn't happy with the day, I wasn't happy with everything. But at the end of the day you've still got to put 150 million percent into it, so I just did what I did."
She continued: "On the runway, I was just balling my eyes out because everything I was feeling was just not what I wanted to be going through at the time. So to see it, you relive it."
READ MORE: Drag Race UK's Cherry Valentine reacts to the judges critiques after elimination
But now, Asttina says she's very proud of the variety she brought to the show. "I showed myself in so many different lights. I've showed my shady side, my slay side, my comedy side, being a twit. And also then me crying my eyes out, breaking down. You've seen the whole frickin' puzzle of who I am, and people warmed to that so I'm very happy with my journey on the show."
Elsewhere in the interview, we asked Asttina for her thoughts on the queen’s sewing challenge looks, what the reaction was like to her conversation with Tayce about representation, and, of course, ASOS-gate. That, and Asttina will be nominating her fellow queens in the spicy Drag Race Yearbook categories.
Watch the full interview by hitting play on the video at the top of this page or head over to our YouTube channel.
