‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Choreographer, Casting Director, and Season 16 Breakout Talk about How They Find the Perfect Cast

When Philadelphia-based queen Sapphira Cristál stepped foot into the Werk Room during the Season 16 premiere of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” it was immediately obvious to viewers at home that the seasoned, confident queen — with her comedy chops, impeccable lipsyncing skills, and ability to serve a flawless look — would be one of the main frontrunners to win. So it was a shock to many viewers that Sapphira — who ultimately came in second place on the season after narrowly losing the finale lipsync to fellow competitor Nymphia Wind — had previously auditioned 11 times across the show’s distinguished herstory.

As casting director Goloka Bolte describes it, Sapphira was a queen that has been strongly considered for the program many times, but just narrowly missed the cut. “She was 100 percent on my radar, I have definitely been a fan,” Bolte said during an IndieWire Consider This panel. “It’s like alchemy, putting together an ensemble cast, and there are a lot of applicants. One of the really incredible results of this show becoming a global phenomenon is we have so many auditions and we kind of want the cast to feel a little bit different every year. And sometimes somebody is just this far away from being on the show.”

“We always want to strike a balance of skills, of backgrounds, we want to be a diverse show, we want to make sure people watching are really seeing themselves represented,” Bolte continued. “Some years, somebody who might have auditioned once or twice in the past, just bumped themselves over the edge with their take that year. It really makes all the difference.”

Bolte and Sapphira were joined by “Drag Race” choreographer Jamal Sims for a conversation with IndieWire Awards Editor Marcus Jones. Season 16 of the perennial Emmys favorite received eight nominations this year, with Bolte being nominated for Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program, while Sims received a nomination for Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality TV Programming. The three discussed the process of bringing the show — which started as a cheap, little-publicized Logo series before gradually evolving into a global phenomenon that has popularized drag across the world — to the screen, and working with the diverse queens of Season 16 to create one of the show’s most memorable recent casts.

Bolte said that Sapphira was chosen this year after several rejections because her audition tape for the season featured noticeably improved comedy from the Opera-trained performer, which pushed her into must-get territory for casting. Discussing her history of navigating the casting process for the show, Sapphira said she felt she came to the series at the right time, noting that had she gotten on it at the first opportunity, she would have been an inexperienced younger queen competing against one of the most stacked casts (Season 5’s Jinkx, Alaska, Roxxxy, Detox, Alyssa Edwards, and more) in the series’ history.

“I kind of used it as an inventory for where I was in my career and where I was in my craft in that moment,” Sapphira said. “I said a long time ago ‘I want to get on Drag Race, but I only want to get on when I’m ready to win and be a top contender.’ And, here we are. But I don’t know that would have happened four years ago. If I had gotten on when I first auditioned I would have been on with Roxxxy, and Alaska, and Detox, and all those heavy hitters, and I was just a baby queen. Everything happens at the right time. Maybe not your time, but at the right time.”

Once the Queens get onto the show, Sims meets them during an early episode, during the seasonal Girl Group episode where the girls are split into teams to learn a dance and lipsync number. Sims does not interact with the cast until this episode and said that for a queen to succeed in the challenge, they need to be open to direction and to feedback.

“This is a competition, so everybody is so uptight. Usually, when I come on, a couple of people have been voted off, and so everybody’s like ‘Maybe it’s me this week,” Sims said. “So I always look for the people that are like ‘Okay, whatever you can help me with, I’m open to.'”

Watch the full interview with Sims, Bolte, and Sapphira above.

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