Why Naysha Lopez voted for Monica on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 8

Face-cracking RuPaul's Drag Race gags can send fissures deeper than some sisterly bonds, as longtime friends Naysha Lopez and Monica Beverly Hillz found out on All Stars 8.

Amid Monica becoming the first queen to sashay away from the AS8 competition, Naysha reveals why she voted for her pal to get the chop on Friday's two-part premiere, which saw the legendary Roscoe's viewing party host eliminated herself one episode later for her performance in the Saturday Night Live-themed RDR Live sketch challenge.

"I knew where everyone was going with their votes, and if I wouldn't have voted for Monica, it would've put a target on my back," Naysha tells EW's Quick Drag podcast (above). "Because then I wasn't playing the track record game that everyone else is playing."

Read on for Naysha's full Q&A, in which she elaborates on her vote for Monica, her approach to strategizing with alliance-focused queens on AS8, and a bold take on making her case to become the winner of the Fame Games side competition for all of this season's eliminated queens.

Naysha Lopez on 'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 8'. Paramount+

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We're so sorry to see you go, but happy that you were back on TV for the first two episodes — and, apparently, so was the internet, because they quickly labeled you the thirst trap of the season. How did that feel?

NAYSHA LOPEZ: To get that kind of attention is new to me, it's refreshing. I told Kandy Muse, she was like, "God, another article about your thirst traps?" And she's like, "How about your drag, girl?" and I'm like, "I'm not in drag every day, and you are — as you should be!" It's fun to get this attention, especially knowing the other girls are not. [Laughs]

On episode 1, you told Kandy you couldn't vote for Monica because you knew her for so long outside the show. I just spoke to her for her exit interview, and she said you told her that you didn't vote for her. Please explain.

Not once did I ever say, like, "Girl, I didn't vote for you." I told her, and she knows. I don't know why she's got the amnesia all of a sudden. I told her that I will always be completely honest, and if she f---s it up, I'm going to tell her she f---ed it up. I totally voted for her.

I know Monica very well, we're family, and when I put in that lipstick, I said, "Step your p---y up, girl." If she was still going to be there, I wanted her to know that I was going to keep it real with her and if she needs to go home, I'll send her ass home. But, at the same time, for a little while I was like, should I have done that? I knew where everyone was going with their votes, and if I wouldn't have voted for Monica, it would've put a target on my back because then I wasn't playing the track record game that everyone else is playing.

She said she's not quite over it yet, but she'll get there. Where does that relationship stand?

Girl, it's perfectly fine. She's over it. She's acting a fool because she's completely over it. You want to know how I know she's over it…. She was like, "Bitch, you voted for me," and I was like, "Yeah, I told you that I would. I told you that if you f--- up, I totally would." And she goes, "Yeah, that's why your ass went home next!" [Laughs] That's how I knew she's totally over it.

You told her during deliberations that you'd vote for her?

No, nobody ever says to anyone, "I'm going to vote for you." The way I put it was, "If you f--- up," and if someone f---s up, I'm going to vote for that person, no matter who it is. I also said that I would vote with my heart, if I really feel that someone needed to be saved, then I would. The other thing is that I disagreed with the judges. I don't think that Darienne should've been in the bottom, and that had to do with one of the reasons that I voted for Monica. To me, the worst performing one on this challenge was Jaymes Mansfield, and Jaymes was not in the bottom. The next one after that, in my opinion, was Monica. I felt like she didn't want to be there, she felt defeated, she wasn't really having fun, and then Darienne, who was in my group, I experienced personally, and [she had] not one complaint, she kept up with our group, she learned the choreography.

I have to ask about Kandy, because she and Jimbo strategized right away and formed an alliance with Heidi, who then formed another side alliance with Lala. Were you aware of this? Were they trying to hide it?

I knew going into this that you had three people who were on tour together: Jimbo, Kandy, and Heidi. They'd be idiots not to form some kind of alliance. I knew there would be something with them. They're both coming into this literally spending every day with each other, to now spending every day with each other in a competition. I knew there would be some kind of alliance there. I pointed it out to Kandy. Kandy, Kahanna, and I had a little chat, I wouldn't say it was an alliance, but we were like, "Okay, if it's us and someone else, we're going to vote someone else out." I think Kandy was kind of forming those alliances with them, but also had her thing with people who she's actually friends with and actually really likes.

Preparing for this week's SNL-inspired sketch challenge, you and Heidi wanted the same role, and you seemed to volunteer pretty quickly that you'd do Dr. Blackwell, but in a confessional, you said you were pissed about not getting the role. Was there more to that?

[Laughs] Okay, how do I put this. This gets challenging, because I'm a contestant but, I'm also…

… the Roscoe's host?

My Roscoe's answer would be: Naysha, don't show that you're really pissed off…. Just do what you're going to do, and do it well, whichever role it is. Just do it. That was my thought process. What happens when you fight, you do it wrong, and you're in the bottom and go home? I'm not going to give that…. was I upset? Totally. I wanted that role. It's one of those things, you get caught up with playing the game and what you really want or need.

In the challenge I didn't think you were that bad, but, how did you feel getting the critiques from the judges — especially when they said they couldn't understand you?

One of the critiques that I got was, "You're talking too slow, you need to speed it up." I guess I sped it up too much. Listen, I'm not an idiot, I know comedic timing, I thought I was doing it perfect, and then all of a sudden, I was told I was doing it too slow, and that I needed to speed it up. Then the critique I got was you spoke too fast, we couldn't understand you. How convenient! At that point, it's whatever. This is a hypothetical situation: If Michelle tells you, "You look great in purple! You should wear that purple," and then you wear the purple, and then RuPaul tells you, "You know that purple is just not the way to go for you," and you're like, "f--- my entire life." That's how I felt.

When your lipstick was revealed, what did you feel in the immediate aftermath, when it was revealed that you were going home based on group vote.

I knew it. Everyone spoke as to how they were going to vote [based on] track record or personal feelings. There was only one person, Jessica Wild, who said, "I'm going to vote how I'm feeling." Everyone else was like, track record. I was put in the bottom with someone who won the previous challenge. Once that happened, I knew I was going home. I wasn't like, devastated that my name is on there. When they named who was in the bottom with me, you could've let me go to the Werk Room to start packing…. I did express my frustration in Untucked, because I knew what was going to happen.

We're not used to seeing you that vulnerable. Were those emotions overwhelming?

Definitely. I was so overwhelmed with emotion. You sit there and you watch this game happen right in front of you and you always talk about what you could, should, and would do, you critique other people on how they approach certain things, and here I am doing it myself. I feel like I failed. The overwhelming part is that so many people were hoping and rooting and in my corner. I just disappointed all of these people…. Everyone was like, "Oh my God, Naysha is going to kill this because she knows this game," and for it to go down like this was just ridiculously overwhelming for me.

I don't think you disappointed anybody, and you're not out of the running, we still have the Fame Games twist. What can you tease about your runways coming up?

Everyone who gets eliminated is going to sit here and say, "Hey, vote for me so that I can be your Fame Games winner," and I'm going to take a completely different approach to this. I don't want you to vote for me [unless] you think I deserve it. If you don't like me, if my drag isn't for you, that's perfectly fine, if you like camp and I'm not camp and I'm just not for you, that's perfectly fine. If your favorite is, hypothetically speaking, Lala Ri or Kandy Muse or Jimbo, that's perfectly fine, but this isn't a popularity contest, it's whoever serves it on the runway. I can confidently say that my runways are better than every single girl on this season, and that comes from them. They've seen my runways, and every single one of them said, "We're glad you're gone," because I do have the most consistent [package]. One girl might have a fierce runway and the next week it's the most hideous thing you've seen on that runway. No one is as consistent as I am on that runway. Vote for me because you see the consistency and you think I deserve it, not because I'm pleading with you for it. Because I'm not.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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