RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18 drag-testant Mia Starr detailed her “uncomfortable” gig as a backup dancer for Jennifer Lopez during the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Mia clarified her statements from Mistress Isabelle Brooks’ YouTube show with Entertainment Weekly.
Body shamed:
ICYMI, Mia Starr worked on stage with industry legends like Britney Spears, Rihanna, and JLo. She took the job with Jennifer after the halftime show’s choreographer reached out to her and offered her a spot without an audition.
On the second day of rehearsals, the I’m Real singer showed up to evaluate the dancers, and that’s when things got awkward for her. “She looks at me, comes up next to me, and is like, ‘Hey, can you take off your shirt?'”
“I did it, and the look of disgust she gave me. Now, people are looking.”
Mia says a “huge speech” followed, with the drag superstar remembering JLo telling the dancers, “Guys, I need you to elevate yourself. You’re dancing for me!” after looking at Mia’s body.
“I get it, but I was like, bitch, 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. We have three more months, give me a break!” Mia added that Jenny from the block asked “all the boys” to take their shirts off for the next few hours of rehearsals, which she described as “so uncomfortable.”
“It just felt like an icky feeling. But, 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.”
“To a normal person, I wasn’t huge.” But Jennifer made it very clear that she was not pleased with my image, the way she gave that look of disgust. I was like, oh, this is embarrassing.”
Mia had the last laugh:
The next day, a catering truck with ice cream arrived outside of the rehearsal space. Mia made sure she “was one of the first people in line” to get a snack.
“I said, ‘Thank you,'” to her boss. Then, Jennifer “gave that speech again. She was like, ‘Guys, I need you to elevate yourself.’ Clearly, at this point, I was like, she hates me. 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.”
According to Mia, JLo “always come in rehearsals maybe the last two hours after we’d rehearsed eight hours of a 10-hour day, and she’d just be like, ‘I hate it,’ and give this big spiel.”
My love hard work don’t cost a thing:
After all the drama, JLo didn’t pay her dancers for the documentary Netflix-produced about the Halftime Show. “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 who didn’t sign. They somehow found a loophole to still put me in it.” After her team looked into the matter, the “team” that made the documentary sent Mia “a $20 check” as compensation.
“It was so insulting. 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.”
