Unicorns: Jason Patel names all the Drag Race queens who helped inspire new character
Exclusive: One queen Jason looked to for the performance was "Bianca Del Rio for the sassiness, cattiness and ‘I can do it’ attitude"
Jason Patel has named the RuPaul’s Drag Race stars who inspired his drag queen character in new film Unicorns.
The actor appears opposite Ben Hardy in the new “cross-cultural romance” movie, out now.
In it, Jason plays “a South-Asian closeted drag queen” named Aysha; Ben plays single dad Luke, from Essex, who catches Aysha’s eye.
“Bianca Del Rio for the sassiness, cattiness and ‘I can do it’ attitude” – Jason Patel
“I love Drag Race,” said Jason in an interview with Attitude last week. “It was an amalgamation of different queens. Bianca Del Rio for the sassiness, cattiness and ‘I can do it’ attitude.
“I think I remember seeing Priyanka, who’s just a trailblazer. Valentina. Plastique Tiara. All these different queens. I found a lot of their special quality and put it all into one person.”
The star – who sat next to Tia Kofi at last week’s PEUGEOT Attitude Pride Awards – also revealed that Drag Race veteran has given Aysha the drag queen two thumbs up.
“She loved it!” Jason said. “She’s actually seeing it next week, so I’m really excited.
“I love Tia. She actually let me open for her headline show last year, which was awesome.”
Elsewhere in our interview, while discussing the characters in Unicorns questioning their sexualities and gender identities, Jason said: “I think they’re on very separate journeys together, of identity. I think I personally would agree that they’re questioning. I don’t think they resolve that. They’re just at the beginning of that. They’re going through it.
“But they’ve found someone. They’ve found each other in that process. And they’ve obviously been a catalyst for each other in that process, too.”
Unicorns is in UK cinemas now.