“Stop! That! Train!” brings RuPaul and a lineup of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” queens to theaters June 12—while the cast reveals how the filmmaking process stretched them, surprised them, and kept them playing opposite the Queen of drag.
When Brooke Lynn Hytes walked onto the set of “Stop! That! Train!” she expected the usual drag routine—hours of layering foundation, eyeshadow, and blush until the look felt like hers. Instead, it was jarring, she says, to be put in the chair while makeup artists were paid to put her in drag.
“We did none of that,” Hytes said about doing her hair and makeup on the set of the comedy. “We got to sit in the chair and get pampered.” Then came the part that made her a little uneasy: director Adam Shankman’s approach to her face.
“Adam had a very specific vision for the makeup. as in he didn’t want a lot of it. because we were supposed to be women. ” Hytes said. “That was a jarring experience when it first happened. because as drag queens. we are self-made beings. and we have created our own personas. so to be put into this environment where they were telling us what to do and how to do it. and sometimes were actually doing it for us. was hard.”.
Hytes didn’t stay quiet for long. “I definitely went back into my trailer and put on just a little more after [the makeup artists] were done,” she said. “And apparently [the producers] were too scared of me to say anything.”
The film—RuPaul’s first feature from the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” universe—centers on Glamazonian Hyper Speed Rail. where a trio of snobbish train attendants tries to keep everything moving until a superstorm (or “stormaganza”) threatens to derail the train. Hytes plays Amber, a glamorous train stewardess. Symone. Season 13’s winner. and Marcia Marcia Marcia—credited in the film by her real name Marty Lauter—play a trio of attendants. Lauter’s casting came after she argued her case with the producers.
“I was bugging [the producers],” Lauter said, speaking on the morning of the film’s New York premiere at NewFest. “I was in ‘Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club’ on Broadway at the time. and I could see that we were gonna close soon. So I was like. ‘Am I doing this?’ I am one of the only queens that’s an actor. so I was like. ‘I think I could handle this.’”.
The other two attendants weren’t always set. Due to two last-minute callouts, Tess—“All Stars 10” winner Ginger Minj— and DeeDee—Season 2’s Jujubee—ended up taking shifts on Glamazonian as well.
Jujubee said she auditioned in a way that made the process feel personal from the start. “I had to audition twice. ” she said. joking that her first audition was so good that “they wanted to see it again.” She was asked to audition for both her role of DeeDee and Hytes’ role. Amber. Then she met with Adam.
“I had a FaceTime meeting with Adam,” Jujubee said. “and I looked at him and said. ‘I don’t know why you’re having me read for Amber. because I am DeeDee. That is my role.’ Adam said, ‘Oh, you think so?’ and I said, ‘No, I know so. I just need you to approve this.’ Sometimes you have to show up for yourself and tell them what you need.”.
For Ginger Minj, the offer came without audition. She had previously worked with Shankman on “Hocus Pocus 2,” and when she said yes, she didn’t even realize the stakes. She later discovered she was signing up for a theatrical release.
Minj described how she didn’t learn Shankman was directing until months after accepting the part. “So I talked to the producers again. I was like. ‘I know I’ve already agreed to do this. but can you explain a little bit more?’ They’re like. ‘It’s a theatrical release.’ I went. ‘Oh. sh*t. I’m glad I said yes.’”.
The cast also remembers a time when their “Drag Race” roles were just brief sparks in other projects. While drag queens have popped up briefly in films like “A Star Is Born,” “Happiest Season,” and “Dumplin’,” “Stop! That! Train!” is the first wide release from the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” universe.
Hytes pointed to the broader moment too. “The movie itself, without us saying a word about it, is a form of protest,” she said. “It’s a queer-led, drag queen-led mainstream, hopefully blockbuster movie that’s going to be in theaters. It says, ‘We are here, we are queer, and we are funny, talented artists.’”.
Symone said it hit close to home. “I love TV. Growing up, that was my escape, the way out of my surroundings,” she said. “I’m just so happy that whoever is queer like me has an opportunity to see themselves and know you can do whatever you want.”
The logistics behind making that mainstream statement were intense. Producers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato described a shoot that moved fast even by film standards.
The whole film was shot in only 19 days. and Bailey said the schedule forced the cast and crew into long hours to deliver something worthy of “the fans.” Barbato called it focused work. “It was incredibly intense and focused work,” he said. “because normally a film of this size would take twice the amount of time we had to shoot. It was like a military operation, and Adam ran a tight ship and a smart ship, getting all the coverage.”.
Minj compared it to her experience on “Hocus Pocus 2,” where she had two weeks to film one line. “Whereas here, we had 19 days to film the whole thing,” she said.
Bailey also emphasized what filled the gaps. “It’s not like there’s a lot of money,” he added, “but there’s a lot of camaraderie and heart.”
Even with that grind, the cast said the day-to-day experience on set was a step above the usual drag-show scramble. Lauter described the difference in how they were cared for during filming. “You get treated like a princess in film,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Do you need anything?. Are you comfortable?. Do you want food from the crafty table?’”.
She contrasted it with quick-change realities from a different kind of night life: “quick changes in the back closet of a Hell’s Kitchen gay bar and snatching soggy dollar bills while lip syncing to Whitney Houston at 1 a.m.”
Beyond the film’s production, the cast’s friendships carried their own momentum. Minj credited Jujubee with pulling her from gay bar obscurity and onto a national stage. The two met over a decade ago on a rainy night in Hoboken, performing at a charity event in a church.
“She was a very big cheerleader for me,” Minj said. Jujubee replied immediately: “Big?”
That encouragement turned into action. Jujubee told Minj to audition for “Drag Race” and personally sent her tape to casting.
Now the pair are headlining “Stop! That! Train!”—and also rejoining fans in other ways this year. They’re taking part in a “Hocus Pocus” Live tour this fall, and in the summer they’ll star in a “Wicked” parody residency titled “Licked: For Gay,” in Atlanta and Provincetown.
For all the behind-the-scenes talk, one thing kept coming up: acting opposite RuPaul. In “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the queen often sits at the judges’ desk, and the interactions aren’t always close. On the film set, Hytes said, it was a different universe.
“Usually when we see RuPaul, she’s at the desk far away and sitting down,” Hytes said. “[Filming ‘Stop!. That!. Train!’], I was three feet from her face; she was in drag and just staring at me. It was such a surreal out-of-body experience.” She even noted that she gets fake-slapped by RuPaul in the movie.
Jujubee called the thought “terrifying,” and Minj said she was “intimidated,” before the atmosphere turned fun.
“RuPaul is just a big nerd, and I don’t think people realize that,” Jujubee said.
Ginger Minj added, “She’s such a pop culture junkie. She just wants to sit and talk about sh*t that happened 30 years ago, like ‘Did you see this Diane Sawyer interview from 1983?’ I’m like, ‘No, but I’ll go look it up tonight.’”
Their favorite day on set came during filming in the train’s cockpit. Minj remembered it like a bit that wouldn’t stop. “We were in there all day. and Adam was just like. ‘All right. now we’re underwater. now we’re this. Just play,’” she said. “So Jujubee starts making whale noises. so then I start making whale noises. and then the curtain behind us opens. and RuPaul comes out making whale noises.”.
Cameras weren’t rolling for their whale noise symphony, which made it extra special for Minj. “That makes it more special,” she said. “Because that means she was just playing to play.”
“Stop! That! Train!” opens from Bleecker Street starting Friday, June 12.
Stop! That! Train! RuPaul RuPaul’s Drag Race Brooke Lynn Hytes Adam Shankman Symone Marcia Marcia Marcia Marty Lauter Ginger Minj Jujubee Fenton Bailey Randy Barbato Bleecker Street NewFest movie premiere drag queens theatrical release