Despite previous mandates that judges not fraternize in any way with the queens, Bowyer-Chapman found himself objectified and pushed into a caricature of Black gay masculinity against his will.
“I realized there were different expectations being put on me that were not being placed on the rest of the cast, and nobody was going to protect me,” he said.
In response, Bowyer-Chapman intentionally played up his campy, queer side on camera and affected a signature eye-glitter look, but that same showrunner later informed him his role was to be the panel’s “sassy” judge, Bowyer Chapman said. “And being told that from a white person, ever, as a Black person, it’s like a dog whistle,” he explained.
At one point, he says, a producer had him read a list of negative comments into a microphone, which he hoped meant they had given him “the bubblegum edit,” a term in reality TV used to denote an edit that generally shows someone being kind and uplifting. Bowyer-Chapman says producers had “endless footage” of him being nice, so he interpreted the request as an attempt to get some different options on tape.
But when Canada’s Drag Race premiered, Bowyer-Chapman realized that he had been edited into a Simon Cowell-esque mean girl, and the online nightmare began.
Thankfully, Bowyer-Chapman found support and comfort during his ordeal from both RuPaul and Todrick Hall, who he says gave him the strength to set hard boundaries between himself and the cyberbullies and to eventually delete his Twitter page.
“Sometimes you have to put up walls to protect yourself from being exposed to negative energy,” he told THR.
Both Crave and Blue Ant Media, the platform and production company, respectively, that distribute Canada’s Drag Race, responded to Bowyer-Chapman’s recounting of his time on the show. The former told THR that they have “put measures in place to mitigate [bullying] for future seasons” and a representative the latter said the company has “worked hard to ensure Jeffrey was heard and the show is a positive experience for everyone.”
But it’s no surprise that Bowyer-Chapman is moving on. He won’t be returning for the second season of Canada’s Drag Race, which premieres next month. (Nor will the unnamed showrunner who allegedly told the actor to be “sassy.”) Bowyer-Chapman will, however, return to the U.S. incarnation of RuPaul’s Drag Race as a guest judge.
And playing a hunky gay doctor on a Disney show is a pretty good résumé line, too.
Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. is streaming now on Disney+.
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