Contestant Hershii LiqCour-Jeté sits down with EW's Joey Nolfi to preview 'RuPaul's Drag Race Season 16'.
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00:00 the Mistress Isabel delusion.
00:02 - Drag delusion vaccine, yes.
00:04 - I think I'd give it to Plain Jane and Niffy.
00:08 Plain Jane in particular.
00:10 That girl is, hmm, that's probably, that, hmm.
00:14 - That's an answer in itself, great.
00:17 (gentle music)
00:20 Hello, I'm Joey Nolte with Entertainment Weekly
00:23 here today with the cast of "RuPaul's Drag Race" season 16,
00:26 and there's no one who exemplifies the spirit
00:28 of a truly sweet 16 better than the queen
00:31 I am sitting with today.
00:32 Her name might kindle warm thoughts
00:34 of your favorite candy treat,
00:35 but the level of talent she serves on stage
00:37 is a full course meal of drag excellence every time.
00:40 Please welcome the lovely Hershey Liquor Jeté.
00:44 - That was the best intro I've ever had in my life.
00:46 Thank you.
00:47 (laughing)
00:47 - That means a lot.
00:48 I always, that I'm doing my job well.
00:49 You're clearly doing your job well.
00:51 I mean, look at this.
00:52 Isn't that color amazing on her?
00:53 - This is just to go to bed.
00:55 - Yeah, just to, oh, we're putting you to sleep today.
00:58 We're just gonna, let's do 15 minutes
00:59 of an ASMR sleep video.
01:01 Yes, lovely.
01:03 But I just have, I truly, I just have a sense.
01:05 Something is telling me that the fans
01:06 are gonna have so much fun with you.
01:08 Like, it's just, in going through
01:10 and looking at all of the stuff
01:11 that you have done in the past,
01:12 like, I'm just like, fans are gonna eat this one up for sure.
01:15 - Thank you, thank you.
01:16 - You are just giving it at all times.
01:19 Now, I learned that your first experience in drag
01:21 was in St. Louis, correct?
01:22 - Yes.
01:23 - So, and that's where you're from?
01:24 - Yes, St. Louis, Missouri.
01:25 - And you were inspired by Tyler Perry's "Madea"?
01:28 That's your first taste of drag culture?
01:30 - I tell everybody, the very first drag queen
01:32 I ever saw was Tyler Perry.
01:34 And I used to put on very terrible wigs
01:37 and like, set up my mama camera
01:38 and I used to try to write plays
01:40 and like, bully the kids in my neighborhood
01:42 to like, jump on camera with me
01:43 and then we would make movies all day.
01:45 - Bullied the children?
01:45 - I still have the VHS tapes.
01:46 We were all children, oh my God, we were all children.
01:49 (laughing)
01:51 I would set up the little camera
01:52 and we would do movies and stuff about nothing all day, yeah.
01:56 - So you also, you built up a YouTube following
01:59 early in your career, correct?
02:01 - Yes.
02:01 - I love, there's nothing that I love more
02:03 than like, an early 2000s like, YouTuber vibe.
02:06 It is so great.
02:07 So what was like, the typical drag aesthetic back then
02:09 in those videos and what kind of YouTube clips
02:11 were you doing?
02:12 - It was drag before I knew I was a drag queen.
02:15 This was like, YouTube with a thousand followers
02:17 and like, a lot.
02:17 Like, ooh, a thousand people are watching me.
02:20 It really wasn't a drag aesthetic.
02:21 I was just more so like, putting on a wig
02:23 and making parodies all day and all night for no reason.
02:26 My parents were very concerned about me.
02:28 (laughing)
02:28 I literally would wake up in the morning,
02:30 I would go to Party City,
02:32 I would buy three or four ratty wigs,
02:33 I would go downstairs and I wouldn't come back up
02:35 until the video was finished and posted.
02:37 - Hours?
02:38 - Hours, literally all day.
02:39 My mom was like, you sure you don't wanna like,
02:41 - Go outside?
02:41 - Go outside, maybe eat, take a shower, you know.
02:44 (laughing)
02:46 - So what were some of the videos that you would do?
02:48 Like, what's like, the most popular video
02:50 you did back then?
02:51 - Jesus, I can't say the name of the video,
02:53 it's inappropriate for television,
02:54 but I'm most famous for rapping this song
02:59 about this man who needs to pay me.
03:01 (laughing)
03:03 He owes me money because we have a child together
03:05 and he needs to pay me.
03:07 So I'm most famous for that song in particular.
03:09 I will say "Itty Bitty."
03:10 If you look up "Itty Bitty" and put Hershey LaCour,
03:13 then I'm pretty sure it'll pop up.
03:14 - Okay, yes, you all have homework to do now, yes.
03:16 Go look at this video, but not the children.
03:18 Apparently it's inappropriate.
03:19 - No, I'm an adult.
03:20 (laughing)
03:21 (upbeat music)
03:24 - You said in the past that you were also raised
03:28 in a religious household, which, I mean,
03:31 it made things, I'm assuming, a little bit harder for you.
03:33 And then you had a difficult experience
03:35 at a St. Louis competition that led to some tears.
03:38 And you said that you quit drag before moving to Atlanta,
03:42 where Hershey was eventually born.
03:44 So can you tell me about that experience
03:45 at that first St. Louis show?
03:47 - Yes, so being there, I knew nothing about drag at the time.
03:52 I just knew I was throwing on my wig
03:54 and I was making people laugh.
03:55 So I thought that's all I needed.
03:57 There was a club that we had at the time
03:59 called Novax in St. Louis,
04:01 and they were holding an open drag competition.
04:03 And all my friends were always telling me,
04:05 "Oh, girl, you're gonna be a drag queen one day."
04:06 So I was like, "Oh, I'll do that real quick.
04:08 "What's the prize?
04:09 "$500, come with a dress, do a good talent, be cute."
04:14 I can do that.
04:15 - Those three things, it's simple.
04:16 - So I stole my sister's prom dress
04:18 and went to the thrift shop
04:21 and got some shoes that didn't match it.
04:23 It was like, the prom dress was like this really powder blue
04:26 and I got like the deepest black shoe that I could find
04:30 and then invited like 30 people.
04:32 I'm, (beep) you not.
04:33 - To watch the show.
04:34 - To watch it.
04:35 Come on down.
04:36 This was before like cell phones were like cell phones
04:38 the way cell phones are cell phones now.
04:39 Invited all these people.
04:41 I got me a dollar store palette of eyeshadow.
04:44 Just that, no foundation, no lashes, no contacts,
04:47 no just this dress, my eyeshadow
04:50 and I thought that was all I needed.
04:52 I go into the room.
04:53 I go into the room and it's all these queens
04:57 and there's assistants, there's wigs falling off,
05:01 the powder all over the place.
05:02 And I just like, me and my little like dress
05:04 and this eyeshadow palette all gone.
05:06 - Dollar palette.
05:07 (laughing)
05:09 - So I like run to the bathroom and I start crying
05:12 'cause like I feel stuck.
05:13 I invited 30 people now.
05:15 I can't call all 30 of these people to tell them,
05:17 no, you know what, nevermind.
05:18 So I'm like, do I leave and just let them show up?
05:20 So I'm just like in the bathroom like.
05:22 (laughing)
05:24 And one of the queens came in behind me 'cause she saw me
05:26 and she walks into the room and she looks at me up and down
05:29 and goes, oh honey, what's wrong?
05:32 And I said, I just got this dress and this eyeshadow palette
05:36 and all of you guys are so beautiful and I don't know.
05:38 She said, just stop, just stop.
05:41 Come on.
05:42 So she walks me back into the room
05:44 and literally like each queen in the competition,
05:47 like without even being asked,
05:49 handed me something to wear.
05:50 One of them did my makeup.
05:51 Somebody gave me some earrings.
05:52 Somebody gave me a dress.
05:54 My introduction to drag was full of love
05:57 and they like supported me all the way through it.
06:00 Even the ones that I beat.
06:01 (laughing)
06:02 - The ones that you beat.
06:04 That's a beautiful story.
06:05 I love it 'cause it starts like, you know,
06:06 it's like you get nervous even just hearing that story
06:08 at the beginning, but then the way it ends, it's so sweet.
06:11 I love that like everybody came together
06:12 to help the little baby queen.
06:13 - The little baby queen didn't know what she was doing.
06:15 Now after that, I did say, no, this is lashes, wig,
06:18 like all of this too.
06:19 I'm not doing none of this again.
06:20 This is, no.
06:22 - But then the journey to Atlanta is when Hershey was born.
06:25 A lot of legendary queens come from Atlanta.
06:28 So when you were there, did you have any direct experience
06:31 with the Ru Girls in that city?
06:32 - No, it was the same story all over again.
06:34 I got a Ragney dress for open competition.
06:37 - A $2 palette.
06:38 - A bad wig.
06:39 No, three, it was three, it was on sale.
06:42 And I went and it just felt different that time.
06:46 Like I went in, in the same situation,
06:48 like a queen saw me and was like,
06:49 "Ooh girl, you look bad, but we'll see.
06:51 We'll see what you can do."
06:52 Her name was Monica Van Pelt.
06:54 She's not with us anymore, but she said,
06:56 "Oh girl, we'll put you on stage
06:57 and we'll see what you can do."
06:59 And she like enjoyed the performance and said,
07:01 "You need to, I don't know what this is,
07:03 but you need to figure this out
07:04 because the performance part, you got that,
07:06 but you look ugly, honey.
07:07 You look awful.
07:08 So we're going to have to fix that."
07:11 But I'm grateful for that type of advice that they gave me.
07:13 Atlanta was very like hard on me.
07:15 It made me look at myself very differently.
07:18 And I've not, I can not think of a weekend
07:20 I haven't been off stage since that day.
07:23 - Yeah.
07:24 (upbeat music)
07:26 You went through your formative drag years in Atlanta,
07:31 then you moved to Los Angeles.
07:33 You said in an interview with Voyage LA that you got,
07:37 and I'm going to quote, "On people's bad side
07:39 because I was not willing to just sit aside
07:41 and be treated any old type of way
07:43 due to pay inequity and racism
07:45 on the circuit in Los Angeles."
07:46 - Yes.
07:47 - So I'm just curious, you know,
07:48 I think it's an important topic to talk about
07:50 in the drag community today.
07:51 Like, what did you mean by that?
07:52 And what was your early experience in the drag scene
07:55 in LA that prompted you to say that?
07:56 - When I started drag, I was getting paid
07:59 and it was little stuff like $25 a year.
08:01 Here, we'll give you a drink ticket here and there,
08:03 but we were getting compensated for our work.
08:07 And when I moved out to LA,
08:08 I was running into a lot of situations
08:10 where they wanted you to come to the club
08:12 and they wanted you to perform, asking me,
08:14 but they didn't want to pay me.
08:15 They had attitudes with me for even suggesting
08:17 that I was worth getting paid.
08:19 - Yeah.
08:20 - And that became a conversation,
08:21 it's still a conversation to this day,
08:22 like how dare you be new
08:25 and ask to be compensated for your work?
08:28 But they want your drag to be on 10,
08:30 they want your looks to be on 10,
08:32 they want your wigs to be nice,
08:33 they want you to have jewelry, nice nipples,
08:34 but they don't want to give you money for it.
08:36 And that just simply did not make sense to me.
08:39 And I got on a lot of, I would say, older queens' bad side
08:43 because I had the nerves to say,
08:44 "No, girl, this don't make sense."
08:46 - So it was like the older generations that were--
08:48 - I would say it was the generation prior to mine
08:52 of drag queens who were used to,
08:54 it probably did work that way when they were younger,
08:57 and that's not shade,
08:58 but when they were younger,
09:00 they probably did have to work a different way,
09:02 but we're making way more money now,
09:03 and it's way more opportunities.
09:06 It's a whole, especially in LA,
09:08 there's so many bars that are willing to host shows
09:11 and give us money for shows.
09:13 There's budgets out there for us,
09:14 so I just don't think it makes sense anymore
09:17 to think that we're supposed to accept crumbs
09:20 because we're just getting started
09:21 and we're not where you think I'm supposed to be.
09:24 'Cause there's a lot of queens that started way ahead of me
09:27 that I'm looking at like, "Girl, what are you doing?"
09:30 - And I mean, you always hear people talking
09:32 more and more now about there needing to be
09:33 some sort of drag union specifically for things like that.
09:37 I mean, that's a whole separate conversation,
09:38 but I do think hearing your story like that,
09:40 it's always important to talk about.
09:42 Then eventually you were brought into
09:44 Kornbread's drag family, correct?
09:46 - So Kornbread drug me into our mother's drag family.
09:51 - House of Jete.
09:53 - House of Jete.
09:54 Our drag mother's name is Calypso Jete.
09:56 So we say Calypso's the mother,
09:59 but Kornbread's the business.
10:01 So Calypso is the face.
10:04 She started all of us, but Kornbread,
10:07 we can't have drag children without Kornbread,
10:09 say so first.
10:10 We can't try a new makeup style
10:12 without Kornbread, say so first.
10:13 What show are you doing over there?
10:14 Are they gonna embarrass me?
10:16 I don't like the nails.
10:17 I don't like that.
10:18 Try this one over here.
10:19 Yeah, Kornbread is the manager.
10:21 - So how did Kornbread,
10:22 like did Kornbread actually like brought you into this?
10:25 Like, or was it sort of you just,
10:27 your story sort of coincided with?
10:29 - So I happened to meet the House of Jete
10:32 before we were the House of Jete all at the same night.
10:35 It's Calypso's the mother,
10:37 Kyra's the oldest, Kornbread then there's me.
10:38 Me and Kyra were doing a competition one night
10:40 and me and her made it to the finals.
10:42 I had beat Kyra.
10:43 So we were doing the final two
10:46 and I was running to the back to change
10:48 into my full like gown for the last nothing ass moment.
10:51 And I hear Kornbread calling me from high hirsch.
10:54 And I go, who are you?
10:55 She said, don't worry about that.
10:56 Do you need help changing your dress?
10:58 And I said, no.
11:00 She said, okay.
11:00 She left me alone.
11:02 Walk back out, I went in the car,
11:03 I didn't win, I'm sorry, I lied.
11:05 Well, I get runner up.
11:07 I walk back out and the queen that won happened to tell me,
11:10 oh, you're giving us a little Calypso Jete tonight.
11:12 And I'm like, who is that?
11:13 So Calypso just happens to be right behind me.
11:16 So I turn around, she taps my shoulder.
11:18 I turn around, she goes, oh honey, that's me.
11:20 And then like, whisper way into the club.
11:22 Didn't see her for another six months after that.
11:25 By that time, Kornbread had just started drag seriously.
11:27 And I was with another drag house
11:30 that should remain nameless.
11:31 And they were making me anyway, look bad.
11:33 Kornbread out of nowhere calls me up again.
11:36 And she goes, Hershey, what you doing over there?
11:38 And I'm like, you know, they my friends on it.
11:40 She said, yeah, friends is cute and all,
11:42 but you need to be with a house that make you look good.
11:43 You look too good for all of this.
11:44 You need to be a Jete.
11:45 I said, I mean, if Calypso likes me, sure.
11:48 She said, okay, one minute.
11:49 A week later, she hung up.
11:51 A week later, Calypso says,
11:52 oh, okay, you're in the house of Jete now.
11:54 - Easy as that.
11:55 - And that's literally how the house was formed.
11:56 - Easy as that.
11:56 - Yeah, so besides protecting your ankles at all costs,
11:59 what was Kornbread's advice for you on drag race?
12:02 - Protecting my ankles at all costs?
12:04 - That was the advice.
12:06 - No, she told me to go in there and just have a good time.
12:10 Just, it's literally like a very long,
12:12 but stressful vacation.
12:14 A long show.
12:15 Have a very good time for as long as you can.
12:18 - Given some of the things you said in that prior answer,
12:21 I'm not sure how this next question is gonna go.
12:24 Because before this interview,
12:26 I did consult a reliable source close to you for questions
12:29 that might give us a better idea about your past.
12:32 - I'm scared.
12:33 - This reliable source said to please ask
12:36 about the house of melanin
12:37 as it relates to your drag history.
12:39 (both laughing)
12:42 - Next question.
12:44 (upbeat music)
12:51 - I'm also told that you have a few drag kids.
12:55 So she's a mother, like Betty Jane, Serena,
12:58 Romy and Classy.
12:59 - Yes.
13:00 - But the source.
13:02 - I'm scared.
13:03 - The source who I know you already know is Kornbread.
13:05 - Yes.
13:06 - Wants to know, and I quote,
13:07 and I have no idea what this means.
13:09 What about currency?
13:10 (both laughing)
13:13 - So do you want the story about currency?
13:16 - Kornbread said it would lead to a good answer, so yes.
13:18 - So here's what happened with currency.
13:21 I didn't want to be a drag mother, but currency begged me.
13:24 She said, "Please, can you be my drag mama?"
13:27 And I said, "Girl, I don't know."
13:28 She said, "No, give me the advice.
13:31 "You perform like I wanna perform.
13:32 "You look like I wanna look, be my mama."
13:35 I said, "Yes."
13:36 No more than a week and a half,
13:38 and I remember to this day, a week and a half later,
13:41 she went on stage without any lashes.
13:43 I messaged her and said,
13:44 "Currency, don't do that again, baby.
13:46 "That's not gonna work."
13:48 That baby cussed me clean out.
13:51 Like, let me have it.
13:53 - Oh no. - Over lashes.
13:55 - Oh God.
13:56 - I said, "Oh, oh!
13:57 (both laughing)
13:58 "Oh, you stupid this, you dumb that."
14:02 And that's what the other girls are doing.
14:03 I don't know what other girls she was talking about,
14:05 but that's what the other girls are doing.
14:06 And in the '80s came up for some reason.
14:09 In the '80s, they weren't wearing lashes.
14:10 I don't know how true that is.
14:11 I wasn't there. - Okay.
14:12 - But apparently in the '80s, they weren't wearing lashes.
14:15 - Well, Simone didn't wear lashes
14:16 to the season 13 finale by mistake, just so you know.
14:19 - But it was a mistake.
14:20 - It was a mistake, yes, it was a mistake.
14:22 - I left her a nice message.
14:23 I said, "You know what?
14:24 "This has been fun, but you're officially,
14:27 "you don't have to worry about being a little corny no more.
14:29 "Clearly, this is too much for you and me.
14:32 "So we don't gotta do this."
14:34 - Great, thank you, Cornbread.
14:35 - Oh my gosh, that was a very entertaining story.
14:39 - Hey, huh?
14:40 - Well, in addition to drag kids, though,
14:43 I think looking through your TikTok,
14:44 it appears that you and your partner
14:45 also have children, correct?
14:47 - Yes. - I loved that.
14:48 - A baby boy and a girl.
14:49 - I loved that.
14:50 It was so nice to see you interacting with them.
14:52 It seems like you have a very nice family dynamic
14:54 going on with them.
14:55 So what has that been like being a drag performer
14:58 with children in today's climate?
14:59 Because I know, you know, I saw you responding
15:02 to a few comments on TikTok where people were like
15:04 questioning a drag artist's ability to be a parent.
15:06 - I've become more accustomed to how people address me now
15:11 when it comes to being a parent.
15:14 It was very hard starting out because we do nightlife.
15:18 I'm mostly a night queen and my kids wake up early.
15:23 Without fail, 6.30 every morning, they up talking,
15:26 "Bye-bye, cheerios."
15:30 So that was hard adjusting to it,
15:32 but that didn't harm me mentally as much as
15:36 how mean people can get online.
15:38 And what are you teaching your son?
15:39 Why does he need to see you like that?
15:43 Are you sure that you're capable of doing this?
15:45 And on top of me judging myself
15:49 and like critiquing myself very hard,
15:51 'cause I'm a drag queen,
15:52 but like on top of me critiquing myself
15:54 and being concerned about like,
15:56 what am I teaching my children?
15:57 Like not just with doing drag,
15:59 but being a parent in general,
16:00 like how are they learning from me?
16:02 Like what can I teach them as a parent?
16:05 When we have to talk to them about being adopted,
16:08 what is that conversation gonna be like?
16:10 It's like already a lot.
16:11 So having to get online, being that I'm online
16:14 really heavy already,
16:15 it got really difficult having to read those comments
16:18 every time, like you're gonna mess your kids up.
16:21 That's not gonna be good for them.
16:23 I don't even know how to explain my work to them
16:26 all the time.
16:27 And they know it's work.
16:28 Like they'll check me.
16:30 Like my son will say like, "Bye-bye, going to work?"
16:33 Like, "You're going to work?"
16:33 And I'll be like, "Yeah."
16:34 He'll be like, "Okay."
16:35 And then he's done with it.
16:37 But in my mind, I'm like, "Ooh, should he see me in makeup?
16:40 Like what does that mean for him?"
16:42 And it gets to be a lot.
16:43 It gets to be a lot.
16:45 I've learned, they taught me,
16:47 that the only people that have questions
16:49 are the adults that are confused
16:50 because the kids never had a problem with it.
16:52 - It's all taught.
16:53 It's all learned.
16:54 It's all this weird pushback to this stuff.
16:56 It's all taught by other adults
16:58 who were made uncomfortable by it
16:59 for whatever reason in their upbringing.
17:01 And it's just, but it's just,
17:02 I encourage everybody to go
17:04 and look at this family dynamic
17:05 and see the love that you clearly have for these kids
17:08 'cause it's very adorable.
17:09 There's a lot of really adorable videos
17:10 on your social media.
17:11 - I remember the first time my daughter looked at me
17:13 and I was like, "Okay, this is right."
17:14 She was like looking behind,
17:16 like peering behind the mirror like,
17:18 "Ah, I said, oh, she's been so beautiful."
17:22 - Yeah, yeah.
17:23 (laughs)
17:23 It's great.
17:24 It really is great.
17:25 I've been asking a few questions to everybody on this cast.
17:28 And I'll ask you next
17:29 'cause I've been getting some interesting answers
17:31 about the twists and the turns that are coming this season.
17:33 So, oh, that's the answer right there.
17:36 So, what can you tease about what we're gonna see
17:39 coming up on season 16
17:40 and how it steps it up from past seasons?
17:42 - I feel like the way they like shook us to the left
17:45 and then shook us back to the right
17:47 and then dropped us.
17:49 Everybody's looking for like,
17:52 what is Drag Race gonna do new?
17:53 How are we gonna like switch it up?
17:55 I feel like that's the main comment
17:57 over the past 16 seasons.
17:59 Like what new is gonna happen?
18:01 The new twists are gonna make y'all go,
18:02 "Oh, okay.
18:06 Fine."
18:07 (laughs)
18:07 - Okay.
18:08 All right, that's a good teaser.
18:09 - Yeah.
18:10 - So, also if you had a dose of the Mistress Isabel Brooks
18:13 Drag Delusion vaccine in your hand,
18:15 who among this cast,
18:17 who are you giving it to?
18:18 - The Mistress Isabel Delusion.
18:21 - Drag Delusion vaccine, yes.
18:23 - I think I'd give it to Plain Jane and Niffy.
18:27 - Everybody has said Plain Jane.
18:29 - Plain Jane in particular.
18:31 - Oh, why?
18:31 Why?
18:33 - Listen, that girl is,
18:35 that's why I like,
18:38 that girl,
18:38 (laughs)
18:40 - That's an answer in itself.
18:42 Great, great.
18:43 Well, Hershey, really,
18:44 this was, it was really, really a fun interview.
18:47 Thank you so much for being here.
18:48 I can, I really can't wait to see what you do on the season.
18:50 I think it's gonna be great.
18:52 Everybody stay tuned for more with the cast
18:54 of "RuPaul's Drag Race" season 16.
18:56 (whooshing)
18:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]