One of the charms of Los Angeles is that you never know what\u2019s going on inside of the anonymous-looking soundstages that dot the city like walled fiefdoms. These extend from the heart of Hollywood out into the kind of desert that began to make me nervous as my Uber ride started ticking up from a typical L.A. 30 minutes into 45 minutes and then nearly an hour. \u201cAm I about to face some kind of endurance challenge?,\u201d I thought. \u201cCrawl through a pit of scorpions? Get buried alive and have to claw out, then find my way to set with nothing but a compass and the angle of the sun?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Such a thing would not be out of the question when visiting the set of The Boulet Brothers\u2019 Dragula, which distinguishes itself from other drag competition series by\u2014among other things\u2014challenging contestants to prove their commitment in Fear Factor-style \u201cexterminations\u201d that influence the judges\u2019 decision about who to send home. In the season premiere of Titans (the show\u2019s all-star variant), those who scored low in the main \u201cHalloween House Party\u201d challenge were charged with hiking five miles up the side of a mountain, then bungee jumping into a ravine.<\/p>\n
In the end, however, no such trial was necessary to observe the taping of Titans\u2018 season-two reunion episode (which dropped December 2 on Shudder and AMC+)\u2014although the afternoon would end up becoming a trial of sorts (more on that later). Instead, we eventually took a dusty exit into a sparsely populated desert town, passing street vendors selling cups of fruit to seemingly no one before stopping at the gates of a massive complex full of gigantic white buildings. After wandering around for a while, I spotted a publicist standing outside of a door waving with both arms and stepped into an alternate dimension of drag monsters and glamour ghouls.<\/p>\n
One thing you learn when you\u2019ve been to a few sets is that the proportions are always different in real life. Dragula\u2019s main events take place inside of a black void, which makes it difficult to expect much in terms of size. Still, this was one of the rare cases where the room looked bigger in person than it does on TV. Part stage and part judge\u2019s chamber, it sat at the center of a mazelike network of production offices, editing suites, and storage spaces for the immense volume of costumes and accessories each contestant brought to the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I asked a producer how many checked bags each out-of-town Titan gets when flying out to L.A.; she said 10, but most of them have to ship larger pieces separately as well. With that in mind, it shouldn\u2019t be too surprising to learn that the \u201clab\u201d\u2014the relatively small, empty space where contestants prepare their looks and apply makeup on camera\u2014was mostly just for show. The majority of the transformations took place in the hangar-like \u201cready room\u201d next door, another maze of clothing racks and vanity mirrors where piles of discarded pantyhose littered the floor and wigs sat haphazardly on styrofoam heads. A dusty pink dildo stuck out of one box, like a worm poking its head out of the dirt after a summer rain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another thing you learn on set visits is that there\u2019s a lot of time to kill. By the time I arrived at 4 p.m. the top three contestants of Titans season two had already been on set for five hours and were sitting in folding chairs in full drag (minus the more painful elements, of course), talking shit to pass the time. We stopped to chat for a while, and the conversation soon turned to the extreme methods that are necessary to keep prosthetics in place under hot studio lights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[Industrial adhesive] E6000, wood glue, WD-40, I use it all,\u201d Abhora said, picking at the dirt underneath their long acrylic toenails. Jay Kay and Evah Destruction nodded, sipping water out of plastic bottles with a straw. (Essential to avoid smearing one\u2019s lipstick, straws are a drag must-have, along with setting spray and strong air conditioning.) All three described shifting their weight from foot to foot to avoid passing out during judgments and taking quick \u201cdissociation naps\u201d backstage to focus before the \u201cfloor show.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also agreed that, despite the \u201cpads, tights, piss, and cum\u201d of the everyday drag routine, they were less nervous returning for Titans. Time management is easier when you\u2019ve done this before: One secret is to start doing your makeup at the hotel or on the plane, then finish it when you get to set. And the more relaxed atmosphere allowed them to see their competitors in \u201ca more human light,\u201d as Evah put it. \u201cI was more excited and less stressed to see my friends looking incredible,\u201d she added. Still, all this togetherness is only a positive thing if you actually like your comrades in drag.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For hosts Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet, the process was \u201cenlightening,\u201d as Swan puts it in a Zoom interview a few months after my initial visit. \u201cAn interesting thing about this experience, and Titans in general, is that we revisit seasons that we may have not looked at for a couple of years,\u201d Swanthula says. \u201cAnd when these characters return and show us who they are for a second time, I can see instances where I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my god, all of this stuff that I thought was someone else [on your season], it was you. You were part of the problem. The drama follows you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Drac is more explicit: \u201cSeason three did not sit right with us, and everybody knows it. And this experience was eye-opening about that season in a way that we didn\u2019t expect,\u201d Dracmorda says. \u201cThere was a lot of stuff [between] the crew and the cast that happened in season three, and we thought it was one person that was behind it. Filming this season of Titans, that person was not there. But someone else from season three was, and the same energy was there. The cast figured it out, too. Three people from season three\u2026the other two people are like, \u2018Wait a minute. The same thing\u2019s happening again.\u2019 And that\u2019s the common denominator.\u201d<\/p>\n
A bit of math: Three alumni from Dragula season three returned for season two of Titans. One of them, Priscilla Chambers, was beloved by all. Another, Evah Destruction, caught some heat from her fellow competitors as a \u201cheavy hitter\u201d in the competition but stayed out of interpersonal drama for the most part. That would make the chaos agent in question Dollya Black, who quickly became a villain in the edit of Titans season two. She was a villain backstage when I visited the set as well, prompting far more discussion than the two contestants who were disqualified<\/a> from returning in the \u201cHellbound Showdown\u201d for eliminated Titans.\u00a0<\/p>\n With reality TV, there\u2019s always the question of whether what you\u2019re seeing is \u201creal\u201d in the sense that you never quite know if someone is saying what they actually mean or setting up a moment for the cameras. Dragula has on-set producers like any other reality competition series. And they perform a similar function, observing the dynamics between the contestants and relaying those observations to each other and to the show\u2019s hosts to set up those exact moments that blur the line between real animosity and a produced story. \u201cThey love to tell you shit, too,\u201d Swan jokes. \u201cSometimes I wish they wouldn\u2019t tell us as much as they do.\u201d<\/p>\n But few of them have made a career out of reality TV\u2014most of them work in scripted television in the off season\u2014 and their investment in the series feels earnest and emotional. Swan credits this to \u201can accepting sort of family fun vibe\u201d that leads to \u201cvisceral reactions to somebody talking shit or an outburst or whatever it might be.\u201d Drac adds,\u201cEven the quietest camera person, they\u2019re watching everything for months. They\u2019re invested, and they form their own opinions and get protective of certain cast members or protective of us or the show.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And the crew was very invested in confronting Dollya at the reunion, reacting to her on-camera statements with grumbling and audible gasps. Many of them, from Drac and Swan down to the story producers, had something to say to her, and emotions were running high. Dollya had been a problem since the beginning of the season, they said, alternating between coming to them to complain about the other Titans\u2014alleging substance abuse, mostly, in a way that didn\u2019t sit right with the other contestants\u2014and berating crew members when the cameras were off. (I reached out to Dollya Black\u2019s management for comment on these claims.)\u00a0<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/p>\n Drac, who\u2019s called out contestants for \u201cunprofessional\u201d behavior before, calls this \u201cstupid.\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re the one who\u2019s going to tell your story to the world, and what do you think they\u2019re going to do if you act nasty to them?\u201d Drac adds, \u201cThe stuff with Dollya was hard to watch because I think she\u2019s a fascinating character. I don\u2019t want to pass judgment on what her deal is, but I [saw] her tell two different stories [back to back] without flinching, and I don\u2019t have a lot of experience with people like that. It was shocking to see in person.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Drac and Swan\u2019s presence on the Dragula set is godlike, and they serve as producers, directors, and mentors as well as executioners when the time comes. They stay out of sight until they\u2019re camera-ready, waiting in another wing of the building until the floor show is set to begin. (They do this with the press, too: I\u2019ve spoken to them several times and still don\u2019t know what they look like out of drag.) \u201cSometimes I\u2019ll put on the headset and listen to what\u2019s happening all over the set: cast, crew, everything. I\u2019ll be at lunch just listening in on what everybody\u2019s saying, like a weirdo. But that\u2019s what you have to do when you\u2019re producing,\u201d Drac says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, somehow they manage to already know what\u2019s going on when they do appear on-set. It makes the contestants a little nervous: \u201cThey\u2019re always five steps ahead,\u201d Jay Kay told me with awe. Swan says that her and Drac\u2019s involvement as producers has grown significantly since early seasons of the show, and realizing that their backstage behavior did indeed affect their placement in the competition left some Titans, well, shook. But that\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing when you\u2019re trying to get into character as the demanding queens of Hell.\u00a0<\/p>\n At first, they \u201c[didn\u2019t] understand how much influence we have and how connected we are, listening in on the conversations. There\u2019s no escape, literally,\u201d Swan says. \u201cThat manifest[ed] in the reunion, because there\u2019s stuff that happened off camera that we absolutely included,\u201d Drac adds. \u201cYou tell them up front, \u2018We\u2019re going to film you at all times.\u2019 But they misinterpret that as, \u2018When I see these six cameras in front of me, I\u2019m on.\u2019 But then you see the GoPros, and you\u2019re still hooked up to audio [off the set]. I think showing them that we\u2019re using that footage changes the game for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Filming this week\u2019s reunion episode started smoothly enough. Although they make jokes and affectionately tease each other between takes, the Boulets are extremely efficient on-camera; self-described perfectionists, they tore through taping interstitial bits for the installment. The only chink in their armor\u2014and drag is a form of armor\u2014came when one of Drac\u2019s lashes came loose, prompting everyone to hold for an eyelash check. \u201cWe are also the executive producers, so our head\u2019s always on the clock,\u201d Drac says. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to feel overly scripted, so we don\u2019t take a lot of takes. We spend the least time with the cameras on us as possible, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n Then the eliminated contestants arrived. Up to that point, the Titans who had been exterminated were kept separate from the top three, lest any juicy confrontations happen before the cameras were ready to roll. The tension was palpable, but not oppressive, as the larger group shuffled onto the stage, adjusting their outfits and getting as comfortable as possible. At first, everyone was chatty and relatively relaxed, cracking jokes and holding out glasses for crew members to refill. When the time came for Dollya Black to answer some questions, however, the energy shifted. The room got so quiet, I could hear the squeaking of latex and the clinking of ice as the Titans shifted in their seats.<\/p>\n Drac came prepared to confront Dollya, saying she was using \u201cweaponized therapy speak\u201d to avoid accountability for her behavior. \u201cWe got more personally involved in that than anything before,\u201d Drac says. \u201cIt\u2019s weird, because you\u2019re the host of the reunion, and the reunion is about them and their relationships. So you have to keep your personal opinions to yourself and try not to get involved.\u201d However, \u201cwe knew the whole story, but the cast didn\u2019t. They didn\u2019t know all that other stuff that happened off-camera with her because they weren\u2019t there. So I felt like she was trying to gaslight the cast there at the end, and we had to say, \u2018That\u2019s not what happened.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Boulets\u2019 dialogue with Dollya prompted her fellow competitors to air their grievances with her as well. This is where the conversation started getting testy, and the differentiation between produced storyline and real resentment disappeared. Although the cast of Titans season two took the Boulets\u2019 \u201cclaws out\u201d mandate seriously throughout,\u00a0 Drac says, \u201cIt got really heated between people that I didn\u2019t expect. I didn\u2019t expect Evah and Sigourney to get as hot as they did. That was shocking to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Even more unexpected, Swan snapped back at Dollya\u2019s comment that reality TV \u201cwasn\u2019t for her.\u201d \u201cI couldn\u2019t hold my tongue, and it wasn\u2019t planned. It was very much in the moment,\u201d Swan says. After a while, the arguments started going in circles, and the director finally called for a dinner break. The Boulets looked at each other and nodded in agreement. It took a few seconds for someone to notice that Dollya had taken off her mic pack and was walking in the opposite direction of everybody else and toward the exit. Then a crew member began talking into their headset, and the energy shifted again. \u201cIs anyone filming this?\u201d the director yelled out, and a handful of people, one of them carrying a camera, ran after Dollya.\u00a0<\/p>\n Everyone else scattered, whispering to each other and stepping out for smoke breaks to talk more privately outside. I was grabbed by a producer and the unit publicist and led into a side room with a pair of tables covered in Costco-sized boxes of bagged snacks. Then they left. Figuring I might as well, I grabbed a fun-sized bag of Cheez-Its and stepped into the hallway to see what was happening.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dollya\u2019s exit was clearly not part of the plan. The journalist there to observe the day\u2019s filming had been forgotten, and the producers strode around the set quickly and with purpose, their eyes darting as they went. In one corner of the office, the Boulets, still in their reunion drag, were huddled together. I was too far away to hear their conversation, but assumed they were trying to figure out what to do next. The Boulets\u2019 primary assistant ran past me, pointed at me and said, simply, \u201cEmbargo!\u201d Everyone looked stressed, but privately, I was pleased to be there on such an eventful day.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eventually, things calmed down. Dollya did not change her mind, everyone else went to dinner, and taping for the reunion episode continued without Black. Since then, footage of the hot-mic moment<\/a> that prompted Drac to confront Dollya at the reunion has appeared on season two, as has some of Dollya apologizing to the crew<\/a>. In true Dragula fashion, everything is out there in all its messy glory.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that the edit doesn\u2019t tell the whole story, as Dollya\u2019s defenders\u2014many of whom know her outside of the show\u2014argue online. But in those panicked moments after Dollya left, what I saw on the set of Dragula: Titans season two was way too elaborate to have been put on for my benefit. I\u2019m no Truman Show narcissist, so I\u2019m inclined to think that it, if nothing else, was all real.<\/p>\n Dollya Black did not respond to The A.V. Club\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n Katie Rife is a contributor to The A.V. Club.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n