She’s loud, she’s proud, and she’s taking the Big Easy by storm. Suzie Toot, Drag Race season 17’s breakout drag darling with a megawatt smile and talent to match, is proving she’s more than just a nightlife sensation, she’s a full-on screen queen. In the campy comedy Big Easy Queens, currently streaming on Hulu, Suzie stars alongside a glittering cast of drag royalty in a story that’s equal parts mystery, mischief, and Mardi Gras.
Set against the backdrop of New Orleans, Big Easy Queens follows a crew of performers caught up in a scandal that threatens to dethrone everything they hold dear. Drag queen Minnie Bouvèé (played by Miss Bouvèé) faces a mysterious stalker after ordering her rival’s crew killed. Between voodoo, zombies, and musical numbers, she must uncover if her nemesis Poodles or her sister Mimi, played by Suzie, is the one seeking revenge. The film also stars the iconic Varla Jean Merman, playing two roles.
We sat down with Suzie to talk all things movie magic, what it means to represent drag on screen, and her post-Drag Race projects and aspirations.
How did you get involved with Big Easy Queens?
Being a super baby drag queen and trying to get any kind of gig in Fort Lauderdale, I had reached out to Miss Bouvèé because I was interested in being a singing musical theater drag queen. I reached out to her and told her, I think you’re fabulous and I would love to do a show sometime. She was the sweetest ever and immediately said, “Come on down. I have a show at Matty’s”, which is now closed – rest in peace – and she let me do three songs and that’s how we got to know each other.
And then months and months later, she was doing a table read for Big Easy Queens, it was just sort of like proof of concept, it wasn’t casting. This was not an audition at all, but she was like, there’s this character of Mimi. It needs to be a drag queen who is an actor. I was still in school studying theater, so Ms. Bouvèé was like, “Do you want to come and just read it? No strings, no whatever.” They liked me a lot after that table read and I was offered the part – again, months and months later.
Your character in Big Easy Queens, how much of Suzie is in that part?
Ooh…something I love about the movie is that the three of us, I think, each got to really imbue the characters with our own style and our own thing. I think of Mimi as her own person, but there is definitely a call to the vintage. There are the thin eyebrows. There’s the look of her, I think is very Suzie-fied, which I was so happy to get to do.
it looks like it was a very fun set to work on. Did you have the opportunity to ad lib or was it very scripted?
Yes. Oh my gosh. I mean, it was such a small group and we filmed the whole thing in less than two weeks, so a lot of it was on the fly. There were locations we had to change and that energy bred a very fun set, and we were having a blast. There’s tons (of ad libbing), especially in the whole voodoo/creating the zombie scene. It was us having a blast and they were able to make something really fun out of it.
You got to work with Varla Jean Merman on this movie and I know she’s been one of your big influences. What was that experience like working with her on the film?
It was so incredible and it was really the first time that I had touched anywhere near to like an idol or someone that I respected so much and had such an influence on my queer upbringing. The one thing that that really stood out to me about her is that she is a professional. She is so hilarious when she needs to be and calm and chill, chilled out and sitting in the back waiting for her turn when she needed to be. She just could not have been a better player for the entire team, and that was just so amazing to me to get to watch.
What was the most part what most fun part of filming?
Ooh, that is tough. I really love being on a set. I love getting to talk to everybody from the lights, the sound, the PAs and the people running stuff – whoever happened to be nearby. The project was so small and so dear to everybody that I think the camaraderie on set was just such a blast. I’d love to go back now.
I know the movie was filmed around Fort Lauderdale. What was it like working in Florida, especially in this current climate?
During the filming of Big Easy Queens was when Florida was really having its moment as far as drag not being allowed to be performed outside because it could be seen by children and just baseless attacks from the right, from, you know, I’m not going to say his name, but the governor. It definitely felt like a taking back because maybe we can’t perform out on the street, but we can film a movie because this hasn’t been taken away. And Florida’s still dangerous. There are a lot of trans rights that have been absolutely stripped away. Horrible things are happening, but through it all, drag queens are going to persevere. Queer people are going to persevere because we’ve always been here. That has not and will not change.
Are you surprised about the reception of the film so far?
It’s hard when you work on something, and especially this is not even two years of doing drag. My drag was very proto and so I look back on some of it and I find it a little hard to watch, but I know that that’s my own personal thing. So, whenever people or outlets who really love it, or I see Drag Race fans who found it and really love it, I’m like, oh wait. Oh, it is a good movie. Oh, I like it. I’m surprised by it but I shouldn’t be because I think it’s so fabulous.
You are credited as Benjamin in the movie. Are you planning on doing other projects out of drag?
At the time Suzie Toot wasn’t a big enough project to feel like I should, and I was Benjamin playing Mimi. But right now, and I never, ever say never, but right now my heart really is in acting and theater through the lens of Suzie Toot and through the lens of drag. I look forward to a lot more roles that, like Mimi, that have this Suzie Toot-ism and that live in the Suzie Toot universe. But at the end of the day, I love to perform and I will do it any way, any shape, anyhow.
Well, I was going to ask you if you were going to pull a Jinkx and go to Broadway…
I mean, speaking of Jinkx, Oh, Mary! The creative team at Oh, Mary!, if you’re reading this, if there’s a national tour, I’ll do that. I’ll do anything to be Mary Todd Lincoln. Oh, it would be so gorgeous.
I would love to see you play that part. I think that would be amazing.
Thank you. I just saw it recently and it blew my mind. It’s the funniest thing in the world. And that’s the exact kind of like weirdo queer theater that my heart is completely around.
What was it like for you to be a theater kid and like to achieve all of this? Did you ever think when you were performing Fiddler on the Roof that you were going to be doing this right now?
No, it’s insane. I love to say I predicted it all and this is all part of a master plan, but I do truly feel so lucky to get to be a part of any of this. I mean, Drag Race is so insane, but everything that’s come adjacent to Drag Race… I just finished my Provincetown run of my one woman show “If You Knew Suzie”, and it went so well, and I can’t believe that I was performing in the same venue as Varla Jean Merman, right across the way. Really, every single step of the way has been such a blessing and I cannot believe I get to do it.
Are you going to take that show on the road? Do you have any plans for that?
There are plans, there are things in the works. But I am fortunate in that there’s a lot of things going on the road right now, and they all have to fit together somehow without killing me or driving me into the ground.
I know you’re going on the road with Kori King and Lydia B Collins. What can we expect from that tour?
Oh, insanity. There are many facets of Suzie Toot. The one-woman show is so sit-down cabaret theater, but ButtTootKing in October is going to be a Rocky Horror rock concert with the fans in clown makeup, it’s going to be incredible, and I have some really, really cool ideas, stuff we’re putting together right now for it. I’m so thrilled for that show.
Check out Big Easy Queens on Hulu and peep behind-the-scenes photos and more on Instagram. Get tickets to the ButtTootKing Tour here. Keep up with Suzie on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
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