Hollywood Jade is ready for reality TV
Hollywood Jade is ready for reality TV superstardom as Canada’s Drag Race’s choreographer
The world is watching Drag Race Canada, in last week’s episode we met choreographer Hollywood Jade, some for the first time. For comparison’s sake, Jade is the Jamal Sims/Todrick Hall of the show and he’s about to experience reality show stardom.
Jade has been in the spotlight many times before, working on projects like the movie-musical Hairspray (where he first met Jamal Sims), and dancing in music videos for Kelis, Jully Black and more. Now he’s ready for the world to see him as a mentor.
Drag Race fans have seen the various teaching approaches of the show’s famed choreographers. Todrick Hall psyches the queens out and Jamal Sims is warm, but Jade has his own method. “I’m definitely more of a stern father figure. I wanna see everybody win, but I also wanna challenge you and push you to execute as effectively as possible. Some queens I had to push beyond where they were comfortable, but I definitely don’t believe I came off as a raging bitch. I hope not!” he says.
The contestants of Canada’s Drag Race represent different parts of the country and styles of drag, but Jade says choreographing for them was manageable. “Everybody has different skill sets. Trying to streamline choreography to tailor to everybody can be somewhat challenging but everybody understood what was expected of them, and everybody showed up and put their best foot forward,” Jade says.
Two episodes in, it’s clear this is a special group of queens. Jade believes diversity is part of what makes this cast so strong. “There’s such a wide variety of ethnicities and body types. With everything that’s going on with the black lives revolution and the #metoo movement and everybody being so divided, I’m really hoping this show helps unify people,” he says.
Jade is excited to be part of the story of Drag Race Canada and about the track of his choreography career. “I just wanna take the opportunity to thank everybody for all the love and all the support and the kind words and the affirmation that I am where I belong and I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” he says.
Last week’s episode teased this week’s challenge, a girl group face-off with a stage show choreographed by Jade. Can the queens keep up? Canada’s Drag Race airs Thursday nights at 8:00 pm EST on Crave, WOW Presents Plus and BBC3.