RuPaul Charles in Auckland ahead of NZ filming of new Drag Race series

Friday, 8 January 2021

RuPaul has touched down in Auckland to film the ‘down under’ edition of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Drag queen RuPaul Charles and his sequin-clad clan will soon be sashaying onto the streets of Auckland – once their time in managed isolation is over.

The flamboyant troupe are in New Zealand to film the ‘down under' edition of the reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race.

It sees drag queens compete in weekly challenges to win the title of the “next drag superstar”.

Each week, the bottom two drag queens must compete in a “lip sync for your life” to save themselves from elimination.

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Sir David Attenborough will star in a new BBC documentary, but will not be part of the crew travelling to New Zealand. (File photo)

A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spokesman confirmed Immigration New Zealand recently approved a request for 16 workers, including the cast and crew, to come through managed isolation to film the show.

The requests were approved under the ‘other critical worker’ border exception criteria.

Workers have been granted border exemptions to film sequels to the Avatar movie.

Of the team, seven have touched down on New Zealand soil already, including drag luminary Charles, the spokesman said.

It is believed the producers moved the filming from Sydney, Australia to the City of Sails due to Covid-related reasons, with the New South Wales outbreak causing concern.

It’s likely the show will put a number of local drag queens on the world stage, given reports that the ‘down under’ edition will feature talent from both New Zealand and Australia.

The show is not the first to be given border exemptions to film in New Zealand.

The Government has given 88 international workers an exemption to shoot the Netflix show Cowboy Bebop.

Three members of a British film crew, working on a BBC documentary starring Sir David Attenborough, have also had a border exemption request approved.

At least six others have been allowed to bring cast and crew into the country: James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, Jane Campion’s Power of the Dog, the Lord of the Rings television series, film Greatest Beer Run Ever, the Power Rangers Beast Morphers series, and post-apocalyptic TV film Sweet Tooth.

Inception and The Trial of the Chicago 7 actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt has also recently decamped to New Zealand, where he is understood to be working on a new Apple TV production.

Several of those projects shifted to New Zealand when Covid-19 shut down production in other parts of the world.

Former economic development minister Phil Twyford claimed they would employ thousands of Kiwis and bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy.

Screen Industry Guild Aotearoa NZ vice president Sioux MacDonald earlier said denying production crews entry to the country would jeopardise local jobs.

“If we were not to let in some of those really essential crews, those jobs are jeopardised, and they wouldn’t come here, and they’d go to Canada, the UK or the United States instead, and we don't want to risk that.”