Drag Race's Shangela and Willam in A Star is Born

Condragulations, Willam and Shangela!
Photo: Getty Images

in A Star Is Born, Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper), the country rock star who will drink it all, meets the supremely talented but undiscovered Ally (Lady Gaga) at a gay bar called Blue Blue just outside of Los Angeles. The concept of starting the film in a drag bar came from long conversations Cooper and his co-scriptwriter Eric Roth had with Lady Gaga. "I would just ask [Gaga] tones of questions and listen back to it and try to take things How can we mold this? And we really loved the drag bar idea, and I really wanted her to sing 'Life in Pink,' "Cooper told Vulture earlier during a round-table interview at the Toronto Film Festival.

It was the casting call heard round drag queen dressing room everywhere, but in the end it was two alums from RuPaul's Drag Race – Shangela, the people's queen, who appeared on multiple seasons, but most recently as the runner-up All Stars 3, and the dry and deadpan Willam from the season – who made the cut. At first, AT Star Is Born was looking for a half-dead Marilyn Monroe impersonator; originally, Shangela, did not even go in for the audition, because Marilyn was not exactly in her wheelhouse. "Later I got an email from Lady Gaga's camp and they were like, 'LG heard you did not come in for the audition. She really wants you to audition. She wanted to see you for this role, "said Shangela. "I was like, 'LG … Lady Gaga? Oh my God, so I was really thrilled. Honey, I went and found me a blonde wig, I found myself a white Marilyn Monroe dress and I went in and sang 'I Wanna Be Loved By You' for the role. I was black Marilyn. "

Ultimately, Cooper dropped the Monroe idea – and the idea of ​​a Barbra Streisand impersonator – and instead had Shangela play at the bar. Willam plays Emerald, a Dolly Parton impersonator with an appropriate breastplate fitting for the real-life country queen. They shot their opening scenes in Virgil in Los Angeles, where much of the dialogue was unscripted and ad-libbed. "Once I put [Willam and Shangela] on set, the possibilities became endless of what we could do in this space. It was so exciting, "said Cooper. "Willam and Shangela just blew my mind."

As drag queens are wont to do, Willam and Shangela created many of their own looks. Willam's Dolly-in-white cam look together at the last minute. "The night before [the production department] said, 'Can you do Dolly?' I said, 'I got the tits for it, sure,' "said Willam. "They were like, 'Bradley wants you in white.' I said, 'Okay. Well I have a white dress at home, that's perfect My husband's literally went to my production space where I keep it all my drag, picked up the dress and brought it to the set. It was a perfect '80s Dolly look that randomly I just had it around and it was white. Then I took their wig and then stacked up, "the closer to God."

The scenes in the dressing room and the drag bar were similarly ad-libbed. "Bradley just said," Go off and do your thing, "said Willam. One of those things: the moment when Emerald asks Jackson Maine to sign her breast plate. "[Cooper] told us, 'Jackson's gonna come into the dressing room, and just act like [it’s] a normal drag dressing room. 'I was like,' Well, I'm going to be a cheeseball because this guy is one of the most famous rock stars in the world, and I'm a Dolly Parton guitar-playing drag queen, so What would I do if Willie Nelson came into the bar? I would like, sign my tits, dude. '"

So that's what Willam did. "Somebody gives me a Sharpie." I think of myself as a PA handed to me in Sharpie, and I went in, and he signed them. Then I was like, Please let this wipe off between takesbecause I knew it was going to be a few times, and it wiped it right off. I was like, Jesus loves me. The titles are upstairs right now. "(An extant" J "remains on the breastplate.)

As far as gay icons go, Willam and Shangela report that Lady Gaga was everything they wanted her to be. For one, when she performed "The Life in Pink" in Edith Piaf drag, the mic was on and was singing live. "It was so good because she's in her element. She's an entertainer. She's a performer. Trust me, before I'm a co-star I'm a fan first. I've been to every Lady Gaga concert, "said Shangela. "We were like, we're at the Gaga concert, the gays we're freaking out like at concert. They're like, 'The rose fell, we're going to do it again.' Do it again, lovely, do it again."

It was the same in between takes. "She was hanging out with us the whole time. She was never in her trailer. She was cool as hell, "said Willam. "I'm shameful," said Shangela. "You know they could not keep my mouth shut. When they said, 'We're going to switch cameras around. You guys have a moment, 'she could have left. She did not. She stayed right in that seat and was like, 'So Shan, what's going on?' And I'm like, 'Let's do it.' "

Lady Gaga has been handing out long-stemmed white roses to everyone. "She had gotten a bouquet of white ones and she was going around the set," said Shangela. "I have a petal of the rose that I kept in my journal Oh my God, Lady Gaga gave me a gift. "

Both believe the relationship between Ally and her family of drag queens reflects the world that they lived in. "When I call [Ally] my baby drag, it's true, because there are so many places, drag bars where not only gay boys and transgender people, "said Shangela. "You're like my family and that's what this scene is all about. It's establishing where she comes from. We are here, but we are here, but here we are, Girl, go out there and get your number, get your roses and come off. French fish, come on, give it to us. "