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I’ve been a Jinkx Monsoon fan from her win on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 5 in 2012, to her win on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 7 in 2022. She’s funny, quirky, has a vintage fashion sense I adore, and brings her impeccable acting chops to anything she does. And lately, she’s been doing a lot. So it’s been a delight to watch things come together for Miss Monsoon, who’s seeing two lifelong dreams come true this year: being taken seriously as an actress, and transitioning into the woman she always knew she was. Happy Pride, y’all!
Broadway baby: “As soon as I could form sentences, I said I wanted to be an actor. … And the whole time, I knew I wanted to play the female roles.” This past year, she made her dreams a reality: bringing pathos to the wacky but wounded Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors” off-Broadway, and delighting audiences as the villainous Maestro on “Doctor Who.” To cap off Pride Month, she returns to Broadway’s “Chicago” on June 27 for a short second run as Matron “Mama” Morton, after breaking box-office records at New York’s Ambassador Theatre early last year. “The box-office success is lovely because that means more producers will take chances on other drag artists and marginalized performers,” Monsoon says. “It proved that audiences are hungry to see these roles interpreted by different perspectives.”
Life after winning Drag Race season 5 in 2012: She walked away a winner, baby. But for years after, most of the projects she was offered were reality TV. As a drag performer, many casting directors refused to see her as a legitimate actress and she struggled to get her foot through the door for auditions. “That was something I dealt with constantly,” recalls Monsoon, who was determined to prove her acting chops when she signed on to Season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” in 2022. She triumphed once again, becoming the first two-time winner in the franchise’s history. But a decade of being told no did a number on her self-confidence: “The first time I performed in ‘Chicago,’ I thought, ‘OK, you’ve been telling people for 10 years you’ve got the goods and you’re not just blowing smoke,’” she says.
On a recent incident where someone was hurling transphobic vitriol at her: “There were a bunch of people and no one said a thing,” Monsoon recalls. “I don’t know what the experience is for other marginalized communities: If someone were to be shouting slurs at them, would someone step in? Because I know as a trans person, no one does. Rarely has anyone said, ‘Stop doing that.’ It’s so normalized to be queerphobic. I’m getting all these wonderful opportunities as a trans actress that I never thought in my lifetime I’d see someone getting, let alone me,” she continues. “At the same time, I walk down the street and deal with that.”
Hi Barbie: “The most unexpected thing is just realizing how I’ve known this about myself my whole damn life. I’ve known for a while that I wanted to transition, and I kept talking myself out of it and coming up with excuses.” She tears up as she remembers paging through an old photo album, where at 2 years old, she was pictured holding her favorite ginger-haired Barbie doll. “I’m not a natural redhead, but I knew in my heart I was going to age into a redheaded lady someday,” Monsoon says with a smile. Now, “I feel like I’m stepping into who I was always supposed to be, who I always saw myself being: that redheaded Barbie.”
Oh Jinkxy, same girl, same on knowing about aging into a redheaded lady someday. Kids know who they are, before the rest of the world gets in the way. I appreciate Jinkx’s candor here about her struggles after her first win on Drag Race. That being said, I hope she can recognize and take pride in the fact that it is no accident she is the only two-time winner in RuPaul’s Drag Race herstory. Jinkx is positively bursting with talent. I remember rooting for her in season 5 when she killed it as Little Edie in Snatch Game. (And the other queens that year were such mean girls to her that it felt doubly satisfying to see her take the crown.) Then when she returned for All Stars 7, the all winners season, her Judy Garland impression in Snatch Game was something awe-inspiring to behold. As judge Ross Matthews noted at the time, watching that performance was like having all your chakras cleansed. Hip hip hooray, Jinkx Monsoon, for now inhabiting the most radical role of all: being yourself.
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