“RuPaul's Drag Race” Stars Didn't Know Their Film Debut “Stop! That! Train!” Would Be in Theaters: 'Oh, Party!' (Exclusive)
“RuPaul's Drag Race” Stars Didn't Know Their Film Debut “Stop! That! Train!” Would Be in Theaters: 'Oh, Party!' (Exclusive)
Jack Smart, Nigel SmithFri, May 29, 2026 at 1:36 PM UTC
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Marcia Marcia Marcia, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone, Ginger Minj, and Jujubee attend a preview screening of Stop! That! Train! at People Inc.
Credit: Astrid Stawiarz
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Drag queen stars from Stop! That! Train! and director Adam Shankman join a screening event hosted by OUTspoken at People Inc. on May 27
The cast members, all alumni from RuPaul's Drag Race, open up about making their feature film debuts in the disaster comedy
“I don't think any of us knew it was gonna be in theaters when they asked us to do it,” says Brooke Lynn Hytes
When theRuPaul's Drag Racealumni who leadStop! That! Train!joined the campy disaster comedy, they had no idea they were boarding a one-way track to cinemas everywhere.
“I don't think any of us knew it was gonna be in theaters when they asked us to do it,” says Canada's Drag Race host Brooke Lynn Hytes in a May 27 panel conversation at People Inc. in New York City, hosted by OUTspoken. Thinking the feature film (in theaters June 12) would be for Drag Race production company World of Wonder's streaming platform, Brooke auditioned, she recalls, thinking, “Okay, sure, cool. Why not?”
Arriving at director Adam Shankman's Stop! That! Train! set, adds the queen with a laugh, “I was like, ‘Oh, it's a real set.' Cool. And they're like, ‘Oh, it's gonna be in a theater.' So I was like, ‘Oh, party.'”
Director Adam Shankman, Ginger Minj, Jujubee, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone Marcia Marcia Marcia and Nigel Smith
Credit: Astrid Stawiarz
Moderated by PEOPLE's Senior Movies News Editor Nigel Smith, the post-screening panel also included Shankman and his lead actors, who all previously competed on RuPaul's Emmy-winning drag competition: Brooke, Ginger Minj, Jujubee, Symone and Marcia Marcia Marcia.
“As I started talking with Adam and Jujubee and we were building this world that we were going to live in, I was like, oh s---, this is legit,” recalls Ginger. “This is big. It's going to be a lot bigger than any of us thought.”
Stop! That! Train! is the first-ever theatrical film from the Drag Race universe. “I don't know what took them so long,” quips Shankman, 61, noting he's known RuPaul, 65, since 1994. “Christina Freel and Connor Wright wrote a really, really funny script,” he says when asked about the project's origins.
“We also shot it in 19 days,” reveals the Hairspray director. “Almost all the cameos were shot in half a day. I think each musical number, I shot for maybe two hours. So this is some funky DIY s---.”
Symone, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Adam Shankman and Marcia Marcia Marcia
Credit: Astrid Stawiarz
The film stars Ginger and Jujubee as Tess and DeeDee, respectively, attendants on the Glamazonian Express, facing a chaotic “Stormaganza,” per an official synopsis, which “threatens to derail the high-speed train and crash it into Los Angeles.” Brooke, Symone and Marcia play the train's first-class attendants, while RuPaul plays U.S. President Judy Gagwell. An all-star cast of cameos includes Latrice Royale, Monét X Change, Rachel Bloom, Matt Rogers, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Michelle Visage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Raven-Symoné, Chris Parnell, Charo, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Natasha Leggero, Lisa Rinna and Joel McHale.
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“I'm really proud of us,” notes Jujubee. Stop! That! Train!, says the queen, is “going to send a lot of love into the world. And even for the people who are scared of us, maybe they'll fall in love.” And, she jokes, “go see our second movie, Start That Train!”
Jujubee, Brooke Lynn Hytes and Symone
Credit: Astrid Stawiarz
“It's really important for that representation right now, especially in such a fun and silly and funny way,” agrees Ginger. “All of the tropes of this movie are so comfortable for people… But there's that undercurrent of drag that runs through it and I think that's gonna open up a lot of minds.”
"And seeing it finished was just the coolest thing in the world," adds Marcia. "I'm a big movie person, AMC A-Lister right here. I watch movies a lot, so it was just this kind of surreal moment of like, oh my gosh, I'm in the thing that I love to consume and that was really, really special."
Adam Shankman and Ginger Minj
Credit: Astrid Stawiarz
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"I was sitting there like, look at us, we just made a movie, child," Symone recalls of seeing the movie for the first time at the world premiere in Los Angeles. "I felt more proud than anything. I was like, we really did that in 19 days. We came together, we made a movie, we leaned on each other, we depended on each other and we, uh, made a ... Can I cuss? We made a f---ing great film."
Daniel Fontanez, Marcia Marcia Marcia, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone, Ginger Minj, Jujubee and Nigel Smith
Credit: Astrid Stawiarz
Shankman says he's proud of his “heroic” cast, noting the “additional layer” of shooting a film in extra glam and makeup. “I've been in drag — it hurts,” he quips. “To watch them transform and just so elegantly and effortlessly glide into this, in a period, where they are being attacked on the daily, their places of work are being shut down right and left, being othered in new and horrendous ways… These guys are just out here putting joy out into the world and making people laugh.”
Stop! That! Train! is in theaters June 12.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
