In the world of “Stop! That! Train!” (released June 12), RuPaul is Madame President, and like any world leader, she cares about her approval ratings. The president is put to the test when a high-speed train called the Gra-Amazonian Express is struck by lightning and hurtles toward disaster, or the threatening “stoma ganza.”
Best friends Tess (Ginger Minge) and Dee Dee (Jujubee) play train stewardesses who trade their boring stints on the Stank Rail for the glamorous Gra-Amazonian Express. However, they run into the “A-Squad,” the Gra-Amazonian Express version of “Mean Girls,” led by Aishly (Simone), Ali (Marcia Marcia), and Amber (Brook Lynn Heights). It’s a comedy disaster movie romp reminiscent of Mel Brooks’ “Airplane” and other works.
Variety visited the Los Angeles set last November and found the film to be unabashedly silly and fun.
“Hairspray” director Adam Shankman was filming a scene in which Joel McHale plays a passenger wearing a leather harness. The scene required multiple takes, each one causing a ripple of laughter through the Video Village, along with World of Wonder co-founders and producers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, and producer Tom Campbell.
They then showed a scene in which the A-Squad helps the passengers, especially Sarah Michelle Gellar, slide down an inflatable slide, which turned out to be a post-credits scene.
The Graamazonian Express is a set built by production designer Alessandro Marvelli. The first class cabin oozes luxury and serves as the main set for the film. While everyone was having lunch, Shankman sat down for an interview. He’s no stranger to the world of “Drag Race,” having appeared as a guest judge on season 16 of the main show as well as seasons 8 and 10 of “Drag Race: All Stars.”
He was approached to direct this film, and when he read the script, he thought it was “really interesting.” However, the original story was set on an airplane. “I said, ‘Guys, that’s really funny, but this is Airplane, and some of the characters are drag queens.'” Shankman suggested changing the location to a train. He said, “Everything that happens on a plane can be exploited, including the jokes.” One thing he knew was that he didn’t want to make another version of “Airplane.”
So the idea was born to fill the film with fun cameos, including Jerry O’Connell, Lisa Rinna, Raven-Symoné, Michelle Visage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and June Diane Raphael.
The film was shot in just 19 days. Shankman says the script made the challenge easier to overcome. he says: “It was a joke and it was just a joke, so we were able to build the joke, tell the joke, and move on, which made it a lot easier,” he continued, adding, “It’s very old Zucker Brothers style, where somebody says something, and you cut to another part of the train, and a weird joke happens, and then you cut.”
Filming within a 19-day window meant that the continuity of character placement was intentional and added a comedic tone to the film. “In the end, the train looks bigger because you don’t know where people are sitting.”
Shankman also gave advice to the queens before filming began. It wasn’t about “huge acting.” He advised them, “You have to make everything happen. The stakes are real for you. Movies only work if you play everything as if it’s serious. And they understood that.”
Shankman teases that the film will revive a beloved and nostalgic comedy genre and be a “silly action comedy with a new twist from an extraordinarily talented cast.”
Introduction of the characters
Simone
Simone, winner of Season 13’s “Drag Race,” will play Aish League, a member of A-Squad who works in the first class of the Gra Amazon Express. On playing the character, Simone says, “I found her to be a really nice, sassy character. Throughout the movie, I feel like her personality is derived from drugs. So I play her monotonously, ebb and flow wherever the script calls for it.” To prepare for the role, she did some research on flight attendants and conductors to “understand that part of the job.” “I also looked at what people look like when they’re on an upper and when they’re on a downer. That’s really important,” she laughed.
brook lyn heights
Brooke Lynn Heights, who has appeared on both RuPaul’s Drag Race and Canada’s Drag Race, will play the role of head stewardess Amber. Heitz describes Amber as “the chief bitch in charge of the Graamazonia Railway.” “They always think I’m this cold bitch, and I think it’s because my face doesn’t move,” she laughed.
Heights said she auditioned for the roles of Tess and Dee Dee in the film, but ultimately won the role of Amber. She described the film as a “chaotic masterpiece” and added, “It’s really a very sharp and clever script.” She credited Shankman with bringing that out of the cast, noting that “there’s a lot of nuance, a lot of jokes that don’t stand out.”
Ginger Minge as Tess and Jujubee as Dee Dee
ginger minji
“RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars” Season 10 winner Ginger Minge plays the loveable stewardess Tess. Minji describes her as a wide-eyed and very optimistic person. She joked, “It’s typecasting. I really enjoyed playing someone who sees every bad thing that happens to them as an opportunity to grow and be better.”
Minji thinks there is something to be said about her character’s outlook on life. “It was done in a very stupid way. It’s a good life lesson. It took me years to learn that bad things are actually just stepping stones to bigger and better things.”
Jujube
Jujubee plays Dee Dee, a trained hostess working at Stank Rail. Unlike her best friend Tess, Dee Dee is a glass-half-empty kind of girl. “It’s great for her because her friend is not the glass half full,” Juju said of giving her character a little backstory. “She’s a little depressed, but she’s able to laugh through it.”
Despite all the hardships, Jujubee hopes his character will “meet someone on the train and fall in love.” One of her favorite moments in the film is a touching scene between Tess and Dee Dee, where she recalls Shankman’s reaction. “We shot it, we shot it from every angle, and he finished it and said, ‘That was awesome.'”
marcia marcia marcia
The season 15 “Drag Race” contestant plays Ali, the conniving top valet who rounds out the A-Team. She said, “The A-Squad is awesome.” She added: “The first thing I did when I took the job was ask who the other two people were.”
She describes Ali as “the Karen equivalent of the group. She’s not very bright, but we try to find a way to portray that realistically. She has her moments. I would say she has more sublime moments.”
And yes, Ali has a backstory. “I think mean girls are always like that. She’s a girl with a lot of money, and she and her two friends have been best friends since school. They’re at the peak of that part of their lives. I think the A-Squad have been friends since they were babies, and they’re all still working together at the same job. They haven’t changed.”
