RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Mia Starr spilled some strong tea about Jennifer Lopez, saying she had the “worst experience” of her career while working with her.
The drag performer, who has danced for stars like Britney Spears and Rihanna, declared that she would never go back to J.Lo for round two.
“She hates me,” Mia said as she narrated the bitter experience.
Highlights
- RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Mia Starr shared her experience working with Jennifer Lopez in the past.
- The performer said J.Lo humiliated her in front of other dancers on the second day of rehersals.
- Mia vowed never to work with Jennifer again after having the “worst experience” with her.
- “She hates me,” the dancer said.
RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Mia Starr spilled some strong tea about Jennifer Lopez
Image credits: theofficialmiastarr
Mia Starr was ecstatic when she was offered a spot to dance with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira for their Super Bowl LIV halftime show in 2020.
Already an experienced dancer, Mia said she was offered the job without an audition. So she quit her job on The Voice casting team to be Jennifer’s backup dancer.
But things went downhill on the second day of rehearsals.
Mia was called to be one of the backup dancers for their Super Bowl LIV halftime show in 2020
Image credits: NFL
The pop diva asked Mia to take her shirt off and humiliated her in front of the other dancers, Mia said.
Jennifer “looks at me, comes up next to me, and is like, ‘Hey, can you take off your shirt?’” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I did it, and the look of disgust she gave me... now, people are looking.”
The Let’s Get Loud singer then gave a “huge speech,” where she kept telling the dancers, “Guys, I need you to elevate yourself. You're dancing for me!” Mia recalled.
She said Jennifer asked them to go to the gym and “take care” of themselves.
Image credits: jlo
“I get it, but I was like, b*tch, this is literally day 2, and we have three months, and I know my body. I'm going to snatch it back if we're going to be dancing 60 hours a week,’” she continued. “We have three more months, give me a break!”
The reality TV star said Jennifer then asked all the boys to take their shirts off and dance for the next few hours of rehearsals, which Mia said “was so uncomfortable” for her.
“As I'm dancing, I'm jiggling the f*** out of the entire nine hours. It was, like, a hazing. I was like why am I here? Why am I doing this to myself?” she recently said on fellow Drag Race star Mistress Isabelle Brooks’s YouTube series.
Jennifer humiliated the drag performer in front of other dancers on the second day of rehearsals
Image credits: Mistress Isabelle Brooks
Mia believes that “to a normal person,” she “wasn't huge.” But the singer “made it very clear that she was not pleased with [her] image.”
“The way she gave that look of disgust. I was like, oh, this is embarrassing,” she told Entertainment Weekly.
The drag performer said she eventually did get in better shape.
But “it just felt like an icky feeling… as a dancer, obviously, you are getting paid to look good. But I was coming straight from office casting work. This job came out of left field, and I was grateful for it,” she said.
“Clearly, at this point, I was like, she hates me,” Mia said
Image credits: theofficialmiastarr
The day after the humiliating experience, Mia said a catering truck with ice cream showed up outside their rehearsal space. And she was among the first to get in line.
“I said, ‘Thank you’ [to Lopez],” Mia said. “She gave that speech again; she was like, ‘Guys, I need you to elevate yourself.’”
“Clearly, at this point, I was like, she hates me,” she continued. “I'm so petty. If I know you don't like me, I'm going to do everything in my power to make you really not like me. I'm going to give you a reason to not like me.”
Image credits: Mistress Isabelle Brooks
As rehearsals progressed, Mia said she and the other dancers would spend eight hours rehearsing, only for Jennifer to waltz in during the last two hours and express her disapproval.
“She'd just be like, ‘I hate it,’ and give this big spiel,’” before making changes to the set, Mia added.
Up until the performance, “it felt like hell.” But her issues with Jennifer went even beyond the show.
The Drag Race alum claimed she wasn’t even paid to appear in Jennifer’s 2022 Netflix documentary Halftime
Image credits: Focus on Sport/Getty Images
The dancer said she wasn’t aware of the Unstoppable actress’s 2022 Netflix documentary Halftime.
She claimed she found out about it “last minute,” when she and other dancers were allegedly asked to sign releases to appear in it without pay.
“I was like, no, you didn't put me through all of that to not pay me. I didn't sign the paper. There were a few of us that didn't sign,” she said.
Somehow, Jennifer’s team allegedly found a loophole and still put her in the film, Mia said.
Image credits: jlo
After the dancer’s team looked into the situation, she said Jennifer’s team tried to compensate her with “a $20 check.”
“It was so insulting,” she said. “I told my agent, ‘You know what, actually, you can just please send this back, they clearly need it more than I do.’ I sent it back, because it's super insulting. I just had to laugh at that point, I was like, this is unreal.”
Mia vowed never to work with Jennifer ever again after having the “worst experience” with her
While speaking on Mistress Isabelle Brooks's YouTube series, Mia said she found the Atlas actress “gorgeous.”
But “would I work with her again? No,” she declared.
“[It was] the worst experience that I've ever had,” she added.
The Drag Race alum said Jennifer’s team once asked to join as a dancer for another “one-off” event in Los Angeles, but she turned it down.
After years of dancing, Mia was further thrust into the spotlight when she joined the cast of Drag Race season 18. She finished in ninth place.
Some netizens sided with Mia after her story, while others were Team J.Lo
