RuPaul's Drag Race UK star Sum Ting Wong wants 'more heart' in upcoming series
RuPaul's Drag Race UK star Sum Ting Wong wants to see "the joy and the fun in drag" in the upcoming seventh series of the hit BBC Three show because she feels the programme has been lacking that in recent seasons.
RuPaul's Drag Race UK star Sum Ting Wong wants to see "more heart" and "lightness" in the upcoming series of the hit BBC Three show.
The 36-year-old drag queen - real name Bo Zeng - appeared on the programme's first British season in 2019, and she thinks the show has recently lacked "the joy and the fun in drag".
Asked what she would like to see in the seventh series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK - which comes out in the autumn - Sum exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I want to see more heart. I want to see the lightness. I want to see the joy and the fun in drag.
"I miss that, and I want to see some more of that."
Sum - who finished in seventh place after losing a lip-sync battle against Crystal (Colin Seymour) to the Spice Girls' 1997 hit track Spice Up Your Life - believes the case of people becoming drag queens to protect the LGBTQ+ community has been lost.
Asked why she wants to see "more heart" in the seventh series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, Sum explained: "When I started doing drag, I was always very much like, 'We're the figureheads. We're the spearhead of a like movement and protecting our community.'
"That's just the mantle you take upon when you become a drag queen.
"And I feel like that's not so much the case anymore, or few people feel that isn't the case."
However, Sum continues to perform so that members of the LGBTQ+ community can "feel safe".
She said: "I'm out here in a wig and heels to protect you.
"I'm here being unabashed and unapologetically myself, in this role, so you can feel safe.
"And I think like the seriousness of that mixed with, 'But we all love each other,' and the lightness that comes through our UK drag kind of mellows it out.
"Otherwise, it's just too intense."
Sum is taking part in Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale - where fan-favourite queens from previous seasons of Drag Race Philippines take on Asian queens from across the global franchise in a battle for the crown.
And the star feels like she can be more of herself on Slaysian Royale in comparison to when Sum did RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
Sum - who has ADHD and autism - explained: "I think [on RuPaul's Drag Race UK] I was really timid, really quite shy.
"I didn't really understand a lot of my neurodivergences.
"So going back on this time, I'm like, ‘Oh, this was the reason I was like this the first time, this was the reason I was like this.’
"I can actually be a proper version of myself on TV rather than the version that I portrayed the first time."
She added: "I try to be as authentically real as myself as possible, because it's too hard being someone else.
"I was very it's part of my autism and ADHD, whenever I was I was stressed [on RuPaul's Drag Race UK], I would revert back to a very subservient, very not trying to rustle any feathers, like version of myself, just to get through situations.
"But this time round, I'm very much the person that you will have seen if you've seen me in real life, but this is the version of myself that my friends are going to watch and be like, ‘Oh my God, it's Sum. There she is.’"
Catch brand new Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale every Wednesday from August 13 on WOW Presents Plus.
