Whatever Happened to Mathu Andersen!? Rupaul’s Dragrace

So anyone who knows me, KNOWS I am a huge fan of RuPauls Drag Race!!

First of all its just an excellent show, number two its helping to bring drag (a typically Gay past time) to a much wider demographic. Which in my eyes can only be a good thing!

I feel like it’s encouraging to people of all generations to be creative. Whether that be with Makeup, costumes, altering your own clothes etc. You see people from all different walks of life on the show making gowns or customizing corsets! Get out your sewing machines girls!

I for one am hooked! I just adore seeing the costumes and makeup looks these girls create. I also find myself gagging in anticipation to see what look Rupaul is going to be serving down the runway each episode. A lot of you will know this by but pretty much all of Ru’s outfits are custom made. His hair and makeup have been styled and applied by the one and only Mathu Andersen for over 30 years.. (until recently).

This leads me nicely onto why I find myself writing this blog! “Whatever Happened to Mathu Andersen!?”

So here’s the tea.. Mathu has been a creative producer on the show since I believe series 2. He also was responsible for Ru’s Hair and Makeup from series 2 to series 8. HOWEVER.. he has not returned for season 9! (Nooooooo! •gasp• •gasp*)

My sources have told me that he was all lined up to return and take part in the newest season, then suddenly just days before the first filming day he pulled out due to a disagreement with Ru! Mathu had been on a troubled road in the lead up to the show. Deleting ALL his social media outlets claiming to be bored with the constant trolls.

Now as you can imagine this left the show in some dilemma.. let alone Ru! Who the hell is going to be painting the mother of all drag?

Filming had to continue as planned – so ep 1 was shot. BUT with one major change. RU PAUL WAS NOT IN DRAG!! I hear it was seen as the safest options as there was no time to test run any new makeup artists. So the ep was reconstructed to suit the situation. Luckily with Lady GaGa there to steal the lime light – it almost balanced out.

Now, while Rupaul inc went to business about finding a replacement makeup designer filming had to continue – so Ru took it upon himself to do his own makeup. Now I imagine he hasn’t applied his own makeup in at least 10 years. This is a big deal! Makeup has changed and so has the application! Contouring! Baking! Highlight! Strobing! These weren’t such a big thing in the 90’s – plus HD and 4K shooting didn’t exist! You could hide a lot more.

Drag makeup is very different to straight glam or TV ready makeup. It takes experience to know how to paint drag. So it would take some time (and many Camera tests) to select a suitable candidate to fit with Ru. Its big boots to fill after Mathu – Ru and Mr Andersen had worked together for over 30 years! That’s some serious time to perfect a look!

Now Ep 2 Aired – well I imagine most people were pleased to see Ru back in drag. But it was very clear something was very different! He just didn’t look as “finished”… plus there was some seriously heavy filtering going on over Ru’s face (VERY EXPENSIVE PROCESS ON MOVING IMAGE) plus… very few if any close ups!

So a friend who is in with the close circle of the Drag Race team informed me that Ru wasn’t happy with his look so had demanded NO CLOSE UPS, and as much beauty blur as they could apply.. and boy they definitely did apply it! But never the less he did it, got through it, another ep down! On another note.. worst outfit I think I have ever seen Ru in… to Quote Michelle Visage .. It was just very “Pedestrian”.

Back to the story, while the show must go on the team were contacting makeup artists to come in and do camera tests. I am not sure how many were approached but I imagine it was a select few! One of which was our own season 2 contestant “Raven”… Yes Raven! Who is a very successful Makeup Artist. He had even fairly recently done a “How to Achieve the Rupaul Makeup Look” Tutorial on Youtube . So he seemed a natural candidate.

Long story short he was hired! So Raven was so stepping in to fill the shoes of Mathu for makeup(I am yet to find out who has taken over on hair).

Supposedly its been known for some time now in the drag community that Raven had taken on this role. But no one had confirmed this officially – I believe its something they wished to keep under wraps!

After ep 2 of Season 9 aired. There was a lot of shade about Ru’s makeup – a lot of people were questioning whether this was Raven’s work – now obviously Raven doesn’t want his fans to believe he was behind this so on his facebook page posted a link to the video of Shaggy’s song “It Wasn’t Me” to subtly inform people that he had NO involvement in that look.

Then episode 3 aired and obviously there was suddenly a vast improvement from the last week, but also quite a dramatic change to the overall look… it was a move away from the typical Andersen paint job. It instantly had the look of a Raven face. To confirm his involvement while the episode aired he put a status on his fan page again of three paint palette emoji’s . I’m not sure why it needs to be such a secret, but it is.. he is also either not being credited or going under another name in the credits! (Odd)

I think its an exciting change. Don’t get me wrong I am and always will be a fan of Mathu’s work – I fell in love with his instagram page(sad its now gone). Just seeing his Art was so inspiring. It does however leave me wondering what the hell happened to make Mathu leave the Show!? Where is he now… what he is doing? In other words.. Whatever Happened to Mathu Andersen!?

But on a closing note I feel change is a good thing! It keeps things Fresh. I look forward to seeing how the looks develop over the series! Go Raven Hunty… you got this!!

images below;

1 - Rupaul with a Mathu Andersen Makeup job

2 - Rupaul and Lady Gaga Season 9 episode 1 - NO DRAG

3 - Rupaul Season 9 Ep 2 - Painted his own Face

4- Rupaul Season 9 Ep 3 - Raven Hunty paint job

5 - Raven - you can see trademark Raven techniques have been used on Rupaul from looking at classic shots of Raven.