Drag Race Philippines star Jiggly Caliente has revealed the warning Michelle Visage gave her about becoming a judge, as well as the key advice she shared.
After making her debut on RuPaul’s Drag Race in season four, Jiggly went on to take part in the sixth season of All Stars last year, which was eventually won by Kylie Sonique Love.
The Pose star is now at the forefront of a brand new addition to the globally-beloved franchise, joining the judging panel alongside TV personality KaladKaren, while Paolo Ballesteros hosts the proceedings as head judge.
Metro.co.uk recently caught up with Jiggly to hear how she handled the new role, going from being a contestant to having the power to decide the fate of those taking part in the competition.
The 41-year-old revealed that Drag Race judge Michelle was the first person she called about taking on the role… who quickly warned her about how hard it was going to be, and advised her not to be ‘biased’ towards any of the queens.
‘I thought it was gonna be easy. Nobody told me how difficult this job was gonna be. Like, even Michelle, when I told Michelle, I was like, “Hey, I think I’m gonna be doing this now”,’ the drag performer recalled.
‘And Michelle goes, “Good luck. It’s not easy Jigs.” And I was like, “Okay, yeah, right.”
‘Then I stepped into it. I’m going, “Oh, s**t it is.” It’s hard, because I know what it’s like to be in their position. And to have to judge people and tell them your opinion on their drag is… because drag is subjective, it’s art.
‘It’s hard to tell somebody about their baby.’
Michelle, who’s been a part of Drag Race since season three in 2011, gave Jiggly some tips before she began.
‘She told me to follow my heart and to do right by the job,’ she shared.
‘She said don’t be biased, even if you have any preconceived notions of anyone, don’t let that run your judgement. Judge what you see and what you know of, not what [you know] from the outside.’
Jiggly was previously aware of several of the queens in the inaugural cast of Drag Race Philippines, having been heavily ‘invested’ in queens performing online during the pandemic.
However, she felt that she was ‘very fair’ with her judgements, adding: ‘I felt like I really lead with my heart and with my mind.’
The judge light-heartedly expressed her hope that fans will be ‘pleasantly surprised’ with her ‘knowledge of drag’, joking: ‘You know the saying: if you can’t do, teach!’
Nonetheless, she admitted that she felt ‘triggered’ during the design challenge, having landed in the bottom two of the first episode of season four when tasked with creating an outfit, before winning the deciding lip sync.
Jiggly expressed how excited she feels that ‘the Philippines is gonna get their moment’ with the new spin-off, introducing viewers to an entire cast of talented Filipino queens.
‘Jaremi [Phi Phi O’Hara] and I were the only ones in our season. Manila [Luzon] was the only one in her season. It’s different when you’re just one,’ she said.
‘Now it’s the whole group of girls – you’ll see the variety and all the different kinds of drag that the Philippines encompasses.
‘It’s great that they’ll get to see so much more Filipino drag that isn’t just me and Manila and Ongina.’
Teasing the ‘drama’ that’s going to come in the season, as well as in Untucked – as the first spin-off to also feature the behind-the-scenes sister show – Jiggly also celebrated the programme being the first in the Drag Race franchise to feature two openly trans women on the judges’ panel.
Jiggly came out publicly as trans in 2016, while fellow judge KaladKaren is also a trans woman.
The actress emphasised how emotional of an experience filming Drag Race Philippines was for her, having not realised beforehand how ‘invested’ she’d feel towards the stars in the line-up.
‘You fall in love with their stories, you fall in love with their art. And it’s hard to just be like, “Oh man, she’s gotta go home.” You know, that part sucks,’ she said.
‘Now I realise what Michelle was talking about ,how it’s not as easy as you think to put people at the bottom.’
Drag Race Philippines is available to watch in the UK on Wow Presents Plus, with new episodes released on Wednesdays and new episodes of Untucked out on Fridays.
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