Rocky Horror Picture Show star Patricia Quinn has said she was “disgusted” by her portrayal on RuPaul’s Drag Race after being impersonated by a contestant.
Drag queen Aiden Zhane was eliminated from the show following her performance in celebrity impersonation challenge “Snatch Game”, coming under fire from the judges for portraying Quinn, 75, as forgetful and failing to do her British accent.
While Zhane claimed to have based her performance on a meeting she had with Quinn, the actor – who is best known for playing Magenta in cult classic musical Rocky Horror – hit back and said that she was horrified by the performance.
“I am disgusted beyond belief at how I was portrayed on RuPaul’s Drag Race," she said.
"I was flattered that a young person wanted to portray me on a popular TV show but unfortunately this is where the flattery ends,” she wrote in a statement via her management..
“I did not respect being described as a ‘old cookie woman’ or being depicted as a washed-up actress who has taken too many drugs... I wish Aiden had given me the common courtesy of a “heads up” and maybe I could have given him a few lines etc, to say on the show.”
The actor also attacked Zhane’s fellow contestant Sherry Pie for using a tremor to impersonate the late Katharine Hepburn.
“From my portrayal to making fun of Katherine Hepburn’s neurological disorder, I found the show tasteless,” she wrote.
Pie, real name Joey Gugliemelli, was disqualified from the show after multiple men claimed he tricked them into submitting “disturbing” audition tapes by “catfishing”.
Season 12 of RuPaul’s Drag Race has continued to air as planned, but Pie will not appear in the final and the show has matched each of her cash prizes with a donation to LGBT suicide helpline The Trevor Project.
