Jinkx Monsoon Breaks Down RuPaul's Drag Race Fame, Coming Out as Trans & 'Doctor Who'

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Jinkx Monsoon looks back on the moments that shaped her career and reflects on her journey to finding her place in the industry. From becoming a legend after her iconic Judy Garland 'Snatch Game' impersonation and making history with 'Doctor Who,' Jinkx breaks down some of the most memorable highlights from her life.   Director: Yanise Cabrera Director of Photography: Mar Alfonso Editor: LJ D'Arpa Talent: Jinkx Monsoon Creative Producer: Tyrice Hester Production Manager: Peter Brunette Talent Booker: Keaton Bell Camera Operator: Meicen Meng Audio Engineer: Lily Van Leuwen Production Assistant: Kalia Simms Stylist: Roberto Johnson Hair &amp; Make-Up: Davey Matthews; Mollie Gloss; Michael Brooks Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds

Transcript

00:00My friend's in pain, and she's also being f***ing obnoxious.

00:04Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

00:07Hi, I'm Jinx Monsoon, and today we'll be looking back on some moments

00:14that have shaped my career and my identity.

00:17This is becoming Jinx Monsoon.

00:22Woooo!

00:24This is me and my music partner, Major Scales,

00:27and we're performing at the Baligan Theatre in a basement under a cupcake shop.

00:33And this was like our first gig right out of college.

00:37We had been working on these characters in like nightlife and cabaret gigs and stuff.

00:44And so this was like the first iteration of what would later become a show of the same title,

00:50but you know, really just the type version of that show,

00:54which we ran for four months at the Laurie Beechman Theatre off Broadway in New York.

00:59Ha ha ha ha ha!

01:01So the idea for this show evolved out of something we just used to do to make ourselves laugh.

01:07We came up with the idea of how to play young people from the 1920s but today.

01:15And the idea was through a Coke-fueled Antarctic mishap.

01:22They were frozen alive.

01:23Oh, they're absolutely queer-coded.

01:25What's playing underneath is that he's a repressed homosexual

01:29and she's a very, very independent woman who is being repressed by her husband.

01:36And then eventually she gets fed up and she leaves him.

01:40And then they kind of realize that they love each other anyway

01:44and that they really do like what they do together and they come back together.

01:48And this is all over-the-top, schmackting, stupid, like vaudeville.

01:52Like, oh, you came back to me, kitty!

01:59Oh, gosh.

02:01Oh, gosh! Oh, gosh! Oh, gosh!

02:05It was a really, really hard time.

02:09Overnight notoriety is hard to trust.

02:14Five years before this, I was already working up to this.

02:18But at the time, it just felt like it was all happening overnight, all of a sudden.

02:24And then my friend's in pain and she's also being fucking obnoxious.

02:32But I fucking love her for it.

02:34I actually loved her so much for doing that

02:37because it took all the attention off of me for a little bit.

02:41And I was, like, really grateful for it at that moment.

02:44And I was just like, I don't know what's going on.

02:46Boop-a-doop-a-doop.

02:49Sometimes I look at that moment and I'm like, bitch, you know?

02:54And she's actually, we've talked a lot about this moment.

02:58She actually reached out to be like, I'm so sorry I did this the night we found out you won.

03:04And I'm like, I thought it was a hilarious one

03:07because earlier in the day, she basically told me she was coming.

03:10She told me earlier in the day that she's like,

03:14Jinx, I love you, but I'm a really sore loser.

03:18So when you win tonight, I'm going to throw a temper tantrum.

03:23But it has nothing to do with you.

03:25So I knew it was coming. I wasn't surprised.

03:28And later, she's storming around the courtyard of this hotel

03:33and everyone's kind of following her around and trying to calm her down.

03:38And she screams for the door of her hotel room to be open.

03:42And I'm standing right next to it, and I'm like, oh shit.

03:46And she walks past me, and right before she enters her room,

03:50she looks at me and goes...

03:54And then she goes, and then the door shuts.

03:56So this moment is a lot, it's a lot of things.

03:59She's one of my best friends. She was one of my best friends in that moment.

04:02She was one of my best friends during.

04:04Roxy's one of my best friends today, during, after, before.

04:09The three of us went through something that only the three of us went through with each other.

04:16Let's watch more clips.

04:18Did you really think I wasn't going to be able to track my own ship?

04:22It was just such a cool thing. It felt like such a moment of community.

04:28Rebecca meets me, and somewhere in the day tells me that they basically knew

04:34my love of the show and my interest in voice acting for them from day one.

04:40Rebecca essentially said that the thought had come years before the invitation

04:48just to keep it secret and special.

04:51And they were waiting for a character for me to voice.

04:55So I already felt very welcomed and very trusted.

05:00Rebecca told me there are no bad gems, just gems that haven't learned how to be good yet.

05:07Oh my God, I can't start crying again.

05:09That stayed with me.

05:12Okay.

05:15My journey getting to this point was a lot of thinking about it.

05:20And for me, it involved therapy and psychiatry, and I had a close inner circle

05:29who were still there with me, you know, even after the harder years.

05:35And they weren't even telling me, we think you should quit drinking.

05:39Things were going pretty all right.

05:41There was just a thought in my head where I was like, you got things going well again.

05:46I had a great new show with Major.

05:48I had a great new show with Bentelecrem, the holiday show which still exists.

05:53And it was like, if you want to get serious, let's remove the obstacles and get serious.

06:00And this was a big obstacle.

06:02My deal with myself was I wasn't going to post about it until I had hit a year.

06:08Because I had tried a couple times before, and I just knew when I quit this time

06:14that this was the time.

06:15The app was such a helpful tool.

06:18The app is called I Am Sober, and it's just been keeping track for me.

06:24It's been so helpful because it's like building up points in a video game.

06:30If I have a drink, I lose all my points.

06:35And I like my points.

06:39Let's move on down to Judy Garland.

06:41Chris Hemsworth.

06:42Chris Hemsworth.

06:43His blank is bigger.

06:44We're looking for Hammer.

06:45Broom.

06:46I don't know if I'm...

06:49That was me doing Judy Garland on the Snatch Game.

06:52My hugest thank you goes to Thirsty Burlington in Provincetown.

06:58I wouldn't say that we do the same Judy Garland, but she taught me what was cool

07:04about a Judy Garland impression.

07:06She showed me what would be fun to do about Judy.

07:10And from that moment on, I was developing a Judy impersonation for years,

07:16just kind of by myself in the dressing room with friends,

07:20and by myself with friends.

07:22I knew that it was going to be good, right?

07:25I didn't know people were going to respond to it the way they did.

07:28On the day, on set, I was feeling like, this is going really well, right?

07:33And I used my, just in case it's going well, I'm going to do these jokes, jokes.

07:38So I was feeling good about it, but you never know with anything, really.

07:43Tips for impersonating someone is zero in on what you love about that person

07:50and what you can see other people love about that person,

07:53and that's what we want to see in your impersonation.

07:55It's like, yes, we want it to be funny, but that has to start with what's authentic.

08:01There's nothing I could say that you couldn't probably guess.

08:05I'm playing Mama Morton in Chicago on Broadway.

08:09It's not only that I get to be in Chicago on Broadway,

08:16which is a show that I love, doing something I always wanted to do,

08:21but I get to play Mama Morton, who is definitely queer-coded.

08:25And it was like, from the audition on,

08:29I knew I wanted to bring queer-coding to my performance of her.

08:34I don't often feel like leaving an audition where I'm like,

08:39but that was one of those auditions.

08:41I really, I left there feeling like, this might happen.

08:45And I auditioned with that character.

08:48It's a developed and, you know,

08:51I auditioned with that character.

08:53It's a developed and informed version of what I auditioned with,

08:58but that's essentially what I auditioned with.

09:04I mean, it took me how long?

09:07I probably knew I wanted to transition my whole life.

09:10I think I knew my whole life.

09:12It just took until I felt ready and until I knew the way I was going to do it.

09:18And once I knew, then I was like, okay, let's do this.

09:21I feel so fortunate that it's been a positive experience.

09:25It's like something that everyone close to me

09:29has just always known about me.

09:32I've been very slow and methodical

09:34about how I want to go about pursuing my truth.

09:41Now in retrospect, some of it's like,

09:44I had the most supportive family.

09:46I grew up in a place where it was possible to transition from an early age.

09:52It takes a while to figure out how to arrive where you always saw yourself.

09:59And so it's taken this long to really know exactly what to do to be me.

10:06And I feel really lucky that it's happening at a point in my life

10:10where I feel really grounded and like I'm taking good care of myself.

10:14I'm fully aware that I am a very, very lucky, fortunate person.

10:20But I hear from people every day that being outspoken

10:25about who I am and how I arrived here

10:29helps them because they just know there's a path to take,

10:34there's a route to take.

10:39Even though I haven't talked about it as much

10:42because it wasn't like the first,

10:45but it's very much a full circle moment with Little Shop of Horrors as well.

10:50It's like the musical everyone in my family loves.

10:53And now I'm playing Audrey in this really, really incredible production of it.

10:59It's at the West Side Theatre on 43rd.

11:03I'm sure it's still running whenever you're watching this.

11:06Even if I'm not in it, go see it.

11:08It's just the best. It feels amazing.

11:10Because I'm playing a female lead.

11:13And I never thought a big production would ever call me

11:20and offer me the female lead in anything,

11:22let alone one of my favorite shows.

11:24So it's been very fun.

11:27This is me as Maestro in Doctor Who.

11:31Russell T. Davis had this character conceived already,

11:35then came to see me in my show Together Again Again,

11:39which is a show I do with major scales.

11:41All these years later, we still put on shows together.

11:45Russell came to see us on our UK tour in Manchester

11:50and saw me portraying myself in my 80s

11:54and said, I think there's something about Jinx in this maestro character.

12:01And then from that point on was imagining me playing this role.

12:06Again, on set with these incredible people

12:11in this wonderful production,

12:12I knew we were creating something really special

12:15and something really magical.

12:16I love the show Doctor Who.

12:18I don't know if I'm contractually allowed to say this,

12:21but yes, this is the queerest season of Doctor Who.

12:25I've watched many seasons.

12:26I'm such a fan of Russell.

12:28I'm such a fan of Shruti, Millie.

12:32They were so wonderful to work with.

12:34Ben, the director.

12:35I'm such a fan of the show Chicago.

12:37I'm such a fan of the show Little Shop of Horrors.

12:39I love these things.

12:41So I feel responsible to do a good job by them.

12:45I always feel responsible to do a good job by my audience,

12:51because it's absolutely my connection with my audience

12:56that is why I'm here right now.

12:58I started being very honest and very open,

13:01and in return, my audience shows up

13:03and are excited when I get things like this.

13:07Thank you so much for hanging out with me

13:09and taking a little walk down memory lane,

13:12watching me cry a little.

13:14This has been Becoming Jinkx Monsoon.

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