Marina Summers on making it to ‘Drag Race: UK vs. The World’: ‘I knew I’d go international’

“Born in an island and raised by the seas, gold in my skin, I’m the Filipina queen!”

Marina Summers, the lone Filipina and Asian representative in the second season of “Drag Race: UK vs. The World” said she had set her sight to join the international competition as early as the pre-filming of “Drag Race Philippines” (DRPH) Season 1.

In celebrity photographer BJ Pascual’s latest vlog, the 27-year-old drag queen said the teaser of “Drag Race: UK vs. The World” Season 1 came out a few days before she entered the lock-in taping for DRPH’s pilot season. 

“I told myself, ‘Yan! ‘Yan ang sasalihan ko!” Marina said, pertaining to “Drag Race: UK vs. The World.”

“So coming to DRPH, I knew it wouldn’t be the last competition I’d join,” she added. “I knew I’d go international.”

According to Marina, all the decisions she made in DRPH were meant to prepare her for the international stage.

“What I post on my social media, even the language that I spoke, everything!” she said. 

“I had to make sure that I wasn’t only capturing the Philippine audience but also the international audience,” she added.

Marina is currently the front runner in "Drag Race: UK vs. The World," having won three Ru Badges in the first six episodes that's been aired. 

In the Rusical episode, where Marina won her second Ru Badge, the Filipina made “herstory” by getting RuPaul to clap and say “wow” with her runway performance, which Mama Ru rarely does in the show.

Said Marina, her greatest weapon in the international competition is being a Filipina.

“‘Yung pagiging Filipina, ‘yun yung biggest weapon ko, so I had to use that and ‘yun ‘yung bagay na alam ko, so hindi ako lalayo,” she said.

“And it’s the first time a Filipina is representing the Philippines in front of RuPaul, in front of the international audience,” she added.

Marina proudly represented the Philippines since the first episode when she made an unforgettable entrance on the show with a stunning Filipiniana look.

— Hermes Joy Tunac/LA, GMA Integrated News