Actress, wowlebrity, and trans icon Candis Cayne stars in the slasher flick Crazy Bitches directed by Jane Clark (and available on VOD), about a group of grown-up sorority sisters taking a vacation for a friend’s birthday party who are picked off one by one by a serial killer. She’s also back on RuPaul’s Drag Race this season (YAY), as well as guest starring on the CBS smash Elementary.
Edge Magazine sat down with her to discuss her increasingly hectic life.
EDGE: How long ago did you shoot Crazy Bitches?
Candis Cayne: It was like a year and a half ago.
EDGE: You had the Drew Barrymore part, didn’t you?
Candis Cayne: I did. When Jane called and said, ‘I want you to be the opening death scene,’ I was so excited. That’s every girl’s dream to die in the opening scene because it’s the most dramatic, memorable part. I was super excited about that.
EDGE: There’s no mention that the opening girl is a trans woman at all, so was that important to you?
Candis Cayne: It was important to me personally. I don’t know how often that’s happened, to be honest with you. Once the industry knows there’s a trans woman involved, they want to publicize that. So Jane said, ‘No, it has nothing to do with that. It’s just the opening scene.’ She made a point of not working that angle which was important to me because acting is acting. It’s not about that. It’s about being a good actor and doing the part and playing the role.
EDGE: You’re famous enough now that when you go on auditions, do the casting directors already know it’s Candis Cayne coming in? So that they only call you in for things they’re prepared to see you for, or do you get to try out for everything?
Candis Cayne: That’s just my lot in life of being one of the first trans actresses to be well known in the industry. I’m called in for parts, but it all depends. It all depends on the right people around you, like Jane or I have a new manager that’s calling up casting agencies pitching me because they have to pitch me as just an actress. It’s going well. It’s the industry and being somebody in the forefront of my industry as a trans woman, I have to take the good with the bad and just accept the things that are there and try to push forward.
EDGE: Are you still on Drag Race?
Candis Cayne: I am. I filmed the last season, I choreographed it.
EDGE: How is Drag Race taking it to the next level this season?
Candis Cayne: I don’t know how they are, but for me personally I realized it’s a drag competition so I have to get out of myself just flipping hair and being super glamorous. This year, I went in full drag makeup and full drag look. It was fun for me to get back to my roots. It was a lot of fun for me this year so it’ll be a good experience, I think for me and for everybody watching it.
EDGE: What exactly does that entail when you go in drag?
Candis Cayne: I always went in downplayed choreographer mode, but this time I was like, ‘I’m going to go in drag mode.’ So it’s like a full piece with an amazing outfit and my hair snatched in this top bun. It was very ’80s gorgeous, ’80s realness. So it was fun.
EDGE: So we’re going to get to see a much more flamboyant Candis Cayne?
Candis Cayne: Exactly. Well, I think so. In my mind, I think it’s more flamboyant. Maybe for all the drag queens on it, they’re like, ‘You’re just normal.’ But for me personally it was very flamboyant.
EDGE: What did RuPaul think of it?
Candis Cayne: Well, RuPaul always lives for what I do and I live for her. She and I go way back and so she’s very supportive of me. She always brings me back so it’s really nice of her.
EDGE: As the seasons go on, do the contestants get better and better at performing choreography? Do you have to keep topping the previous year?
Candis Cayne: I think that drag, a lot of times, is dismissed as a fickle industry, but there are stars that come along every season that are really charismatic. That doesn’t change from season to season. They’re stars and they know how to work it. They know how to work their look. They know how to do what they have to do to get ahead and be noticed. So I think that doesn’t change every year. I think there’s a girl or two every year that really makes a splash.
Read the complete interview here. (Photo: Pacific Coast News)
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