Sasha Velour on ‘causing controversy’ in ‘heartwarming’ We’re Here season four

RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sasha Velour has spoken exclusively to PinkNews about what it was like to film the fourth season of We’re Here. 

The HBO show follows drag stars as they seek to understand what life is like for LGBTQ+ people in towns where anti-queer sentiment is rife, and try to stage a drag show to bring a small town’s community together.

The trailer for the new season dropped on Tuesday (9 April) and features Drag Race winners Priyanka, Velour, and Jaida Essence Hall, plus fan-favourite Latrice Royale, as they head to the southern US states of Tennessee and Oklahoma.

Velour described filming as “an amazing experience” and “really heartwarming”.

Speaking to PinkNews, she explained: “It really helps people, a drag transformation gives you a boost of confidence, a sense of possibility, feelings of your own beauty that are sometimes revolutionary for people.”  

Velour, who lives in the New York borough of Brooklyn, said the show took the drag stars to some places where their arrival “caused controversy”, but the little negatives were always balanced by joy – something the world needs a lot of right now, she said. 

Despite being in rural America, where there are stories of discrimination against queer people, the stars were able to offer one another a sisterhood that made them feel safe. 

“I basically lived in Tennessee and Oklahoma for a month, each. That really helped me to understand what it’s like to be there,” Velour said. 

There are “tonnes of queer people out there, who should have the same kinds of rights and freedoms that people have in bigger cities”, she added.

Meanwhile Sasha Velour’s We’re Here co-star recently opened up to PinkNews about a “scary” incident that unfolded during filming of the new season.

We’re Here season four is due to begin on HBO on 26 April in the US, and will stream on Sky Go and NOW in the UK.