Nina West returned to “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9” after a sensation run in “Hairspray” and immediately showed why she is one of the most beloved queens to emerge from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” franchise.
Delivering each and every runway leading with her heart, West remains consistently the queen that makes it her mission to show the queens and viewers alike, that “drag is magic.” I caught up with Nina to chat about her “All Stars 9” run, the local queen that she rallies for consistently, and what her life has been like since she made a splash on the “Drag Race” runway.
Your return to “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9” is such a monumental treat for the fans who got to fall in love with you since Season 11. What does it feel like for you to return?
It’s surreal. I think that I left Season 11 thinking that I didn’t have any unfinished business and that I had done everything that I had gone there to do. I have had a really successful career since Season 11, but they got me with that charity angle. They asked if I would come back for charity and I said, “Yeah that makes sense!” It gives me the opportunity to play for an organization that I really love and I am back on television for better or for worse; I mean, you saw that sewing challenge (laughs)!
From the outside perspective, it consistently feels like if a queen is not confident in their sewing abilities they are trying to not just make their own garments for the runway and make them well, but they are comparing their work to their fellow competitors. Do you think that’s fair to say?
It’s definitely that and especially when I am not confident in that area (laughs)!
What was it about being able to support The Trevor Project that really captured your attention not just for “All Stars,” but for other projects you have worked on with this organization?
You know, it goes back to the story that I shared on Season 11. I was harassed and bullied as a young gay man in college, and it goes back to my own feelings of being alone and isolated and not having anyone to turn to when I was coming out, prior to that when I was in high school. This is a really divisive time and I wanted to play for an organization that was doing work saving queer lives when so many people were telling young LGBTQ people that they didn’t matter, that they didn’t have worth that they had no future to hope for.
You can’t even read a story about yourself in the library, this is how little we think of you. You shouldn’t have access to mental healthcare or therapy sessions to talk about your gender identity. I wanted to play for an organization that I know saves lives and I have seen that. Especially in a time period where so many queer people are being told that they don’t matter.
The news can be terribly disheartening, and especially for LGBTQ people, we continue to see things like book bans that are happening nationwide, that we never thought we would see in our lifetime.
It’s amazing that we have come so far, but it’s amazing to me how much we’ve lost and how far we’ve come. That is staggering and terrifying to me. Our rights are up for debate and the rights that we do have are on the chopping block. We have a responsibility to be engaged in this process as queer people, to ensure that. Not only is democracy on the line, but our lives are on the line. As queer people, I think that we have a responsibility to stand in that truth and to face that ugly reality so that we have something to look forward to and that we are working towards. If we are not doing that, we are doing a massive disservice to not only our community, but to ourselves.
The cast of “All Stars 9” is arguably one of the strongest casts that we have seen in quite some time. Particularly, seeing you and Shannel connect on your drag and your lives has been truly amazing. What has it been like working with queens you have worked with in the past, and also getting to develop relationships with queens you may not have connected with in the past?
It’s remarkable. I met Shannel many years ago, we connected on a touring gig. Then we reconnected on the Season 11 promo, she did my makeup for the promo actually. She and I are very similar, we are just big drag. Mine is camp, hers is classic drag. We both love Disney, we both love Christmas. We are very similar and I feel like the show brought a soul friend into my life again. We connected in a way that is really powerful and I think that is really powerful for the young viewers. So many of the viewers of the show are really young and they are getting to see what the future of drag is, which is Plastique Tiara.
I think Platique is the future of drag, what drag is going to be is what Plastique has been doing. I think Plastique brings this elegance and this fever … I love this and I wish I could do that, I love what she brings. Ten there are people like myself, Roxxxy (Andrews) and Shannel and you get to see three very different queens be very old school. I think I represent a big dude in a dress, which is so many gay men around the world. Roxxxy represents that old pageant drag, and Shannel is just that big grand diva. With Gottmik, Plastique and Jorgeous, we are getting to see this youth and I think that is this wonderful sweet little love note of all of the things that drag is and that drag should be; the only thing that it is missing is a drag king. I think that those are important stories that we need to tell as well.
Do you think that eventually we are going to see drag kings represented on “RuPaul’s Drag Race?”
Yeah I think so. I think that the art form is so vast and so big and it’s so incredible. All of it is valid and all of it should be celebrated. Landon Cider is one of the most exciting entertainers working today. They have been doing it fearlessly forever. Southern California is so lucky to have them. I hope people are exposed to that because that art form, the art form of drag that has inspired all of these kids all over the world to do it is open to everybody and everybody. It doesn’t just belong to one person or one type of person. I think that is what is exciting about “Drag Race,” we get to tell these stories and connect to people all over the world. They get to feel validated and be seen and operate their lives in a more truthful, honest and beautiful way.
What has life been like since you walked out of the werkroom during Season 11?
I have been very lucky to be able to spread my wings because of “Drag Race” and RuPaul. They opened me up to a world, they showed me off. I have been working at this … When I was on Season 11 it was 18 years and it’s now 23 years. I have been pounding the pavement, I am a workhorse. I believe in working towards a goal and a queen. If I was a Disney princess I would be Tiana, a lot of hard work and a little bit of pixie dust (laughs)! I am just very grateful that the show put a spotlight on me and it gave me an opportunity to work with The Muppets, to write a children’s book, to release music, to befriend all of these amazing people who have informed who I am as an artist, a person and as a human being.
It gave me Edna Turnbald. It changed my life in ways that I will never ever be able to vocalize, verbalize, or speak to. I am sitting in gratitude every single day. There is a lot that comes with this. I try to be responsible with the platform that I have been given and I try to be very meticulous with how I care so deeply about the people that support me and love me and I care so deeply about this world at large. I just want to do the best that I can do. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I don’t. Jim Henson, Walt Disney and Mark Twain, all of these wonderful people have said this: “I just want to leave the world a little bit better than the way that I found it.”
You have brought drag to children in a way that I think is both palpable and necessary. It is weaving drag into our next generation in a responsible and gorgeous fashion. How do you plan to continue bringing it to the next generation?
My intent is to not slow down. Its difficult to say that, especially since the pandemic. Drag is Magic came out right at my elimination in 2019. The children’s book came from that and the book deal came before the pandemic. During the pandemic, I was doing story times, then I was doxxed and people were showing up at my house. Then the Proud Boys protests, madness and library banning and “Don’t Say Gay” and all of that since then. There are so many people who have their thumb on you right now.
There is a drag artist in Salt Lake City who does story times named Tara Lipsyncki who had to sell her house because she is being threatened. That to me, is what people are not talking about. I want that entertainer, who has not been given the privilege of having the platform that I have and who is doing the work every single day … I spoke to them a couple days ago on Instagram and they still are tying to look on the brighter side of this. We have got to do better by our community and my only hope is that I can do that, my hope would be to support Tara; how do I do that? Not only by doing what I’m doing, but by making sure that she has the ability to do what she’s doing. Our local queens are the ones who are doing the hardest damn work.
I am able to sit here and talk to you, but my God what these queens are facing, these queens are doing the hard work. My only hope would be to continue to do the work that I love so very much, continue to work with brands and partners that absolutely understand the vitality and importance of the work that I do, but then make absolutely sure that I am absolutely speaking names into rooms that are not getting said. It is absolutely important that these queens who are doing the awful hard work for so many of us, they just need some support.