Drag Race's Crystal Methyd Wants More Mullet Representation

By Christopher Rudolph


Crystal Methyd may not be America’s next drag superstar, yet she was certainly crowned the kookiest queen of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12.


The Missouri girl wowed Ru and the judges with her imaginative runway looks; somehow, she transformed Freddy Kreuger into a style icon. However Ru was also obsessed with her look out of drag, specifically her luscious mullet, which served major El DeBarge realness. Crystal cruised by means of the competition, never winning a maxi challenge — that is, up until the one-queen show, any time if she seductively slayed the audience as male exotic dancer Phenomenal Phil.


in the event you could plan on Crystal for one thing, it’s thinking outdoor the box; just look at her “I’m Like a Bird” number from the Season 12 finale, where she craftily transformed into a pair of eye catching birds and regurgitated into her own mouth. MTV News talked with Crystal about making it to the finale, if she’s sick of the mullet comparisons, and how Chromatica makes her cry.


MTV News: Hi, Crystal, where are you right now?


Crystal Methyd: I am in my residence in fabulous Springfield, Missouri.


MTV News: And how's it going there?


Crystal: So far, so good. It has been raining a lot. Ever since “Rain On Me” dropped, it rains pretty much every day.


MTV News: Well, I guess we have to talk about it. Have you listened to Chromatica?


Crystal: I did. I listened to it twice the night it came out, and I am excited to listen to it several more times.


MTV News: It's so good, right?


Crystal: I really love it. That Elton John song — I began crying. I don't know what was happening, nevertheless I just began crying uncontrollably. It was so fun.


MTV News: What was the toughest part about filming this remote finale?


Crystal: There were so several elements that piled up with each other that made it so tricky and interesting. It was sad that we weren't going to do it in person, although I thought the reunion came with each other pretty pretty. It was so much fun and have the ability to see indoors everyone's homes and each person still looked so astonishing and had their own moment. I just feel like Drag Race is such a magical show. It's been so magical to watch it in quarantine. And for so several people, this is how they keep track of once it's Friday.


MTV News: I loved your piñata look.


Crystal: Well, my entrance line was, "Who's willing to party and play?" So what's a party without a piñata?


MTV News: Where do the ideas for your looks come from?


Crystal: I smoke a lot of pot and the ideas just sort of come. And then a lot of the stuff that I did on the show I made myself, yet I did work with a very young designer, a drag king friend that I know. And I just discussed through how we wanted to do it. Yet a lot of the other stuff, it was just like, "What can I get at the thrift store that is going to meet this theme?" Because women spend a lot of cash to create for the show. I spent far less than $4,000 on everything to get ready, yet that felt like a lot of cash to me. I've habitually been sort of a thrifty person. That's just been my way of life of finding that bargain.


MTV News: Are there good thrift stores in Springfield?


Crystal: I'm obsessed with Goodwill. That's my preferred one. Just because everything is priced the same. Like, all jeans are $4, all dresses are $5, all T-shirts are $3. And that's where I get a lot of my jewelry too.


MTV News: And was your drag habitually kooky, or did it begin off more aesthetics pageant and then transformed?


Crystal: In the starting, I attempted to be more “female illusion,” I guess. I wouldn't mention I looked like a woman, yet that's what I was attempting to do. However then I began to have fun just doing out of the box, club kid looks, painting my face the same pattern because the shirt I was wearing or little things like that. And every time I did my makeup, even before the show, I routinely fancied to do it differently every time. And that's sort of how I got to my signature base. It took me four years to calculate that's how I admired to look. So that's why, as soon as initially the judges were thrown off by the big makeup, it worried me at first. Nevertheless I love switching it up, so I just went back to my room and re-sketched out faces for all of it. That was also why, as soon as we only had 30 minutes to change and I was like, "I'm just going to paint myself blue right now It was routinely really stressful and hard, yet I feel like it paid off in the end.


MTV News: Your Freddy Krueger look was just so astonishing. Are you a horror movie fan?


Crystal: I am. And that's one of my preferred things I've ever made. Yet it's very interesting to wear because it's a sweater. It's very warm, although then all the safety pins are cold as ice, and some days you get poked every right now and then.


MTV News: We have to talk about the mullet. Have mullet lovers been coming out of the woodwork? Have you been contacted by mullet enthusiasts?


Crystal: It's quarantine people can't go and get their haircuts and I feel like each person is beginning to grow their own mullet. Nevertheless I can't take full credit for that because Joe Exotic also created mullet representation for a whole different sort of viewer.


MTV News: Are you going to keep growing even soon after quarantine is over?


Crystal: I think so. My plan with my mullet is that I want it to grow to my butt — just a mane of hair — and then I'd like to dye it all kinds of fun colors. And then I'm going to just buzz my head. I know that Once I do that, Ru will cry.


MTV News: Are you sick of “Rhythm of the Night” or have you embraced it?


Crystal: I don't think I might ever be sick of it. I feel honored that I was given a theme song. I love it any time fans send me videos of themselves just rocking out in the vehicle to El DeBarge.


MTV News: Was there one challenge that was especially challenging for you?


Crystal: Especially tough for me was of course Snatch Game. I was having a hard time with that one. It's the challenge that you all know is coming, and I don't think that I worked on myself enough. Whichever you bring, all three options or whichever, they should all be good no matter what. That way you could habitually fall back on something. And you're in your mind, because you know the fans have really high expectations of it. You should have the ability to joke with Ru, and the other contestants, yet everyone's different characters and maybe you don't know who they are. I feel like I made myself a robot and what Ru worried would happen to Gigi [Goode] happened to me. I got really in my head and wasn't able to create jokes. It was also hard because Ru didn't know who Poppy was.


MTV News: How did doing Drag Race change your drag?


Crystal: I feel like Crystal is really what made me confident and I was completely ready to be confident, yet I think my nerves began hitting me the second I got to the airport. You're like, "The survival pack that I packed, did I get everything? And did I forget something? What's going on?" And then you meet each person. I certainly was comparing myself to the other females, which is ridiculous because we were all brought to give the aesthetic that we presented in our tapes. Any time there really are a lot of ladies there you're like, "Oh my gosh, one slip-up and I may go house The idea of going house and going residence early is such a scary, scary thing to think about. I was psyching myself out and wish I might just go back and be like, "Snap out of it. What's going on with you? Just have fun and have confidence in what you're wearing."


MTV News: It almost felt like watching a All Stars season, because all of the women were so good.


Crystal: Oh yeah. For sure. Which was another reason why I was like, "What's going on? Am I okay to be here?" And then, as females kept going residence and I just was still there, I was like, "Wait, am I a legend? Am I one of the big drag queens that's ever lived?" So I'm just super incredible now.


MTV News: I thought you had the best choice for Enlightened Madonna in the Rusical, however what is your preference Madonna album or era?


Crystal: I really like “Hung Up.” That's any time If I figured out who Madonna was, because I didn't really listen to a lot of music. The opening music video I ever saw was “Hey Ya.”


MTV News: Since no one's going out on tour anytime soon, what's coming up next for you? 


Crystal: I have my show. It used to be a monthly show called “Get Dusted” that I do with my house; we call ourselves “Just to Get Dusted Girls.” Nevertheless we've been creating movies of drag performances. We try and make it sort of as real as a show would be. It's been fun because right now we're able to get special visitors that we maybe normally wouldn't have been able to fly in or afford. I'm looking forward to creating more of these just seeing how digital drag keeps it up and continues to evolve. I've loved watching it. I haven't been able to get as involved as I'd like to because I have really high expectations of the kinds of content that I put out. And it also takes me forever to edit these things with each other. Nevertheless I really enjoyed the fact that you're able to portray a story in a way different way than what you would do on stage.