Every season of Drag Race needs an antihero, a bad bitch who knows exactly what she's there to do — and "play nice" is not on the to-do list. Canada's Drag Race Season 5 has more than a few of those queens (which is what's made this season a standout of the entire franchise), but there's only one queen in all of the cast who came, saw, and slayed the way Xana did. I mean, come on, her Instagram handle is @xanasrevenge. She's not messing around.
From the instant Xana entered the Werk Room, she was making TV moments by throwing shade and serving looks. But as the weeks went on, Xana got to experience the kind of character arc that you'd see on a well-written drama series. We clocked the backstory, we learned her history, we saw her tears, failures, and triumphs. And through it all, Xana never lost Faith in her own power. I italicized and capitalized Faith because I'm comparing Xana to a fictional character with that name. Did you get that? Am I being too on the nose? Am I beating an undead horse?
Following the end of her run as the bad girl of Season 5, I got the chance to chat with Xana about her time on Canada's Drag Race, starting with the most important topic of all...
Brett White: I've been looking forward to this because your Buffy the Vampire Slayer look was iconic. I was getting so angry that everyone kept calling it a Courtney Love look. Let's talk about the Buffy of it all. I'm so glad she was celebrated.
Xana: Yeah, Sarah Michelle Gellar deserves that, honestly. She's a big inspiration to me, and being able to bring that to the runway was really important to me and my story.
That look especially, because she dies in that look and is born again, resurrected.
Oh, fully, yeah. That look, in so many ways, encompasses my journey. I really relate to that Slayer prophecy where there's only one girl in the world — and that's always kind of been me — who has the power to defeat the forces of bad drag. So that's something that I really wanted to bring to the main stage. And I actually had someone reach out to me that said that they work with David Boreanaz and Charisma Carpenter, and she showed them that and they enjoyed it. So I can't complain.
it meant so much to all the gays when Sarah Michelle Gellar was a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race last season. Like I was get
She is one of those people that, I actually want to hear her perspective on things. I want to know what she's thinking. A lot of us were able to identify with her character and, I guess, her throughout her story.
And now you get to live the rest of your Ru Girl career with Buffy as part of your Drag Race canon. The leather jacket and prom dress look is yours.
Oh, it's gonna be my meet and greet look for most of the shows.
I imagine it's probably a little bit more comfortable than other things.
Yes, yes.
Let's talk about the looks that you brought, because they were all so elevated.
Thank you.
When you get that big list of looks required for the season, what thought goes into what you're going to craft?
I've been preparing for this for a while. Every year that I didn't get onto Drag Race, I set a little bit more money aside. I'm like, "Okay, next year I'm going to have this much, it's going to be great." And I've always been saving things, saving inspirations, pulling all those things together. So when I got my package, I was like, "Okay, cool. This is something that I can bring to [the show]. '90s Glamour and Grunge was easy. Done. It was one of the first looks that I made, which was obviously the Buffy reference. And then seeing all of the other creative ideas that were the runway prompts, I was able to really lean into it during the getting ready process. It was so easy to have my designs ready to go and then have them crafted by others, and be able to be like, "This is what I want. This is how we're going to do it."
I loved your Snatch Game performance as Bettie Page because we got to see you excel in something that — I don't even know if you thought you could do that well in a comedy challenge.
I go into every challenge confident, regardless if it came across that way. I went in knowing that I was gonna eat this.
So I'm from Tennessee, and Bettie Page is from Tennessee, and my friend actually spent the last couple years getting her hometown to erect a historical marker in honor of her — and he succeeded. I love that you brought someone from queer history who younger gays may not know.
Totally, and that's something that, like, aesthetically Bettie Page and I have a lot in common. I saw a few people tweet, "But she just looked like Xana" and I'm like, "Well, I've always been kind of looking like Bettie Page, so, yeah." I have Bettie Page tattooed on my arm. I have Tom of Finland on the other side, so I have inspirations from the fetish communities on either side. We couldn't see the tattoos on the show because of copyright issues. Her story, her history, is so interesting and she lived such an extreme life from the beginning to the end. And we didn't really get to explore that too much on Snatch Game — like, the end of her life, being super religious. It was definitely part of the things that I brought to prepare for and we went into a different direction with it. But being able to introduce someone like that to people who may only have seen her image and not even known that it was Bettie Page. So it was something that I get to enlighten and make people curious about. Obviously the voice was not hers, but I got to play with that, because no one really knew what she sounded like.
I talked to Uma Gahd and she still insists that Snatch Game wasn't as bad as it looked. What was your take on the Snatch Game? Do you think that it was presented fairly in the edit?
Well, as the winner of Snatch Game, I only answered one question. Uma's characterization of the sponge lady was spot on. She did a really good job with that. Was it funny? I don't think so. I was right next to her and I was trying to tap her on the leg, being like, "Girl, move on. Let's do something else!" But I think Helena Poison was incredible. I thought Minhi Wang was incredible, and Perla did a really good job as well. I think that the four of us were funny. What they needed to show for the Snatch Game to make it make sense — I don't think everything could make it in. To say that it wasn't fair, it's hard to say that. I didn't edit it. I showed up and did what I needed to do. But I think for Virgo and Makayla and Uma, those performances in the Snatch Game, the landing of that episode was justified. It makes sense for what we experienced in the room and what y'all got to see on the TV.
There was the unexpected mini feud between you and Uma. I don't think any viewers would have predicted that at first.
I was pushing her buttons all season. I was waiting for her to get evil. I was like, "I'm gonna keep pushing you until you get there."
Who did you think you were going up against when you chose "Heads Will Roll" in the Slayoffs?
I thought it was going against Perla. I thought she would choose that one. To hear Uma's conversation on that day, watching it, how she was wanting "San Francisco" and Jaylene didn't budge — I also wanted "San Francisco." I just didn't bother saying it, because I was like, there's no point. And I also chose the song that I wanted to perform outside of the show, because I've already performed "Heads Will Roll" before, and I was like, "Well, I get the opportunity now to take that wherever." And I don't think anybody else really wanted to perform the other songs outside. I was thinking in two minds. I was going into that challenge knowing that no matter who I go up against, I will want to beat them. And I think wanting to win is everything. Winning isn't everything. And I think that really showed on that challenge. Like, I lost, but I still gave it my best. There was a conversation that we had that I gave 99% and [Uma] gave 100%. I was just saying that to say that. I truly I gave my all.
Anything you say, any moment on Drag Race is now part of your canon. It will follow you forever. You took all the opportunities to make those kind of moments.
I was very intentional going into this show. I didn't do anything off-the-cuff. I was like, "This is what I want to do. This is how I'm going to present it." And I went into the show being like, "I'm confident in what I'm doing here. It's why I'm here." So being able to execute that plan is very much a success for me.
Then there are moments that you can't plan for, like the moment with Jaylene Tyme talking about your Indigenous heritage. Did you expect for that to become what it what it became?
It was always the thought in the back of my mind that Jaylene and I would have a moment together on this show. Especially being from Vancouver, both being Indigenous there, it had to happen, and I'm so thankful that it did in that way. It reached so many different communities, because it doesn't just reach Indigenous people. It reached anybody who may be of of two races, biracial, that have felt that way and have not felt completely holistically a part of their culture, because everybody comes from different backgrounds, and most people aren't part of their cultures. They've moved to Canada, they've moved to America, they've moved to another country, and they aren't fully tied to it. It expands past Drag Race at that point. It expands past all of that, and it brings us all together, and unites us all in that way.
It was such a beautiful moment. It's one of the few Drag Race moments that just made me cry.
I'm still seeing comments come through on that video, because we're tagged in it, and it's like, "I'm crying at work. I just watched this." It's incredible. It's not stopping.
In your last episode, you got the gag of having to design a look for Brooke Lynn Hytes to wear.
Yeah, that was wild. I was excited. As soon as I heard that, I was like, "Good job, whoever created this. Y'all knew what you were doing. This is incredible." I was excited to do that for Brooke Lynn. It was such an innovative idea. And I I did what I did, but it was such a cool opportunity to do something like that. Watching Brooke Lynn walk down the runway, I was like, "Girl, I've never walked a day in my life watching this woman walk down this runway right now." It was crazy.
And then in Untucked, it was wild seeing that moment between you and Makayla, where she was reacting to your critiques of her garment. What was that moment like?
I let it happen. I let it roll out. Who am I to stop Makayla from feeling her emotions? All of us, in some ways, have had our emotions suppressed, whether it was family members, whether it was at school, whether it was friends just being like, "Oh, don't feel that way." Feel your emotions. You should be upset. You should be sad, you should be angry, you should be happy. I've experienced many, many stories, many journeys from many different people. One of my best friends was my roommate. She's trans, and I experienced her journey from start to where she is right now, and you essentially are creating a whole new person genetically with hormone replacement and coming into your own. And that takes you to places. That brings you into new places all the time and outbursts happen. You shouldn't suppress your emotions. And that's what I didn't want to have happen with Makayla. She's angry. She should be angry. Let her feel it. And that's me sitting there. I was like, "Say what you need to say, baby, let's get through this together." And she turned out, came back in, said more of course. And then sitting there, I'm like, " ... this is going to be great. They're going to eat this up. The audience is going to live for this." So it was something that I'm glad that we got to experience and we got to experience that together. We did a viewing party together, and we got to giggle through the whole scene.
Follow Xana on Instagram at @xanasrevenge. New episodes of Canada's Drag Race Season 5 premiere on Thursdays on WOW Presents Plus.
