For Ginger Minj, the fourth time on RuPaul’s Drag Race was the charm.
After making her debut in 2015 on the seventh season of the RuPaul Charles-led drag show, the Florida native nearly won the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar, but came up short. Then, she returned a year later to compete in the second season of the All Stars spinoff. And again for All Stars season six, where similarly to her run on season seven, she made it to the finale but did not win the show.
It came as a surprise to some viewers when Ginger was announced as part of the cast of All Stars season 10, considering she’d already competed a total of three times before and almost won on two separate occasions. Despite disdain from Drag Race’s fandom (which is known to be rather toxic), the drag artist tells The Hollywood Reporter that her homecoming resembles that of the drag pageant world.
“It’s kind of nice that Drag Race is catching up to actual in-person, real-life drag by throwing back to old school drag pageantry where you do go as many times as it takes,” she says, a sentiment that executive producer Tom Campbell echoed to THR ahead of the show’s premiere.
Plus, Ginger says landing in the hospital before she got the call to return to the competition influenced her decision to say yes to battle for the crown for a fourth time.
“I was at my worst mental and physical health. … I didn’t know if I was going to really pull through, and I felt like, what is there to live for?” she says. “And then once I pulled myself out of that and started to take my life back, it made me go, you know what? If you’re ever gonna do anything, why don’t you take this opportunity to go back and show yourself how much you can grow?”
To commemorate her win, Ginger chatted with THR about the mixed fan reception to her taking home the crown, why she thought All Stars 10 would end in a double crowning between herself and Jorgeous, and what advice her season seven sister Trixie Mattel gave her for navigating her reign.
***
Congratulations on your win, Ginger. It’s only been a few days since you were officially crowned, but has it sunk in that you won All Stars season 10?
To be honest with you, no. There are still moments where I glance over at the crown and scepter just sitting there on the shelf, and I’m like, “Oh, wow, it really happened. It finally happened,” and I get that wave of every emotion that you could imagine all over again.
What has the reception to your win felt like so far?
It’s felt really good, simply because I am an artist, and when you create [art], it is something that’s so subjective, so whether it’s good or bad, it’s evoking some kind of massive emotion amongst the entire fan base around the world, and I feel that that is really kind of a testament to how much hard work that I’ve put in to create something very special.
Why do you think that right now, with All Stars 10 and it being your fourth time coming back on Drag Race, was the right time for you to win?
Listen, I would not have appreciated this nearly as much if I had won any of my previous seasons, because I just wasn’t in the right headspace to receive anything positive. I was at my worst mental and physical health, and it wasn’t until right before I even got the call to come back to All Stars 10, I was in the hospital. I didn’t know if I was going to really pull through, and I felt like, what is there to live for? It sounds so morbid and so awful, especially looking back on it. And then once I pulled myself out of that and started to take my life back, it made me go, you know what? If you’re ever gonna do anything, why don’t you take this opportunity to go back and show yourself how much you can change and how much you can grow and how much better you can be? So I did this for myself for the first time. Out of all of my seasons of Drag Race, I did [All Stars 10] solely for me and to really solidify the fact that I can trust myself, and I did, and that’s how I played the game this time. Instead of worrying about what all the other girls were doing, I just lived in every moment and tried to do the best with what was given to me. And I think that’s why I was successful, and why I can sit back and appreciate it so much.
Your weight loss was highlighted on the show, but I didn’t know that you were experiencing health issues prior to All Stars 10. When you were announced as part of the cast, there was some controversy with that, and with every winner, there’s always backlash, but do you think that if more of your personal health journey would have been highlighted on the show, as opposed to just noting that you had lost weight, that viewers would have better understood your journey on All Stars 10?
I think it’s a double-edged sword. I think that the people who want to know more about me personally are invested enough to find out that information outside of the competition. But I also feel like I did the competition to kind of prove some things to myself. So I don’t know that I would have really wanted my health journey to overshadow the artistic journey that I took on the season.
Some fans argued that you and Jorgeous shouldn’t have been on the season because you’ve already done All Stars, but you were the top two [queens] of the season. What do you think that says about returning All Stars coming back for another shot at the competition? Do you think it’s fair?
I come from the pageant world in drag, that’s where I kind of got my footing and learned about being a competitor and what turned me into the queen that I am. It gave me a name and some fame before I even competed on Drag Race [season seven]. And even [season 15 winner] Sasha Colby, she competed half a dozen times at Miss Continental before she won that title. It’s kind of nice that Drag Race is catching up to actual in-person, real life drag by throwing back to old school drag pageantry where you do go as many times as it takes, because you learn something new that you can apply, and by the time you win, you really are the best version of yourself that you’ve ever been. I think that’s why a lot of people have really resonated with my win, because you don’t typically succeed the first or second time you try something big. You have to learn, and you have to get knocked down, and you have to grow before you can really become that best version that is deserving of the reward.
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ season 10.
Paramount/WOW
Do you think that your win is going to open the door for other past All Stars competitors to want to come back again? Now they see there is a path where you can really come back and [win] no matter how many times you take.
I hope it does. I hope so. And it’s like any other competition show, we’ve got people that have gone on to Project Runway several times more than I’ve been back to Drag Race. We’ve even got people that have won Project Runway that then come back and compete again just because they enjoy the competition, they enjoy showing the new techniques that they’ve learned. I don’t think that anybody should ever be discounted or told that they shouldn’t continue to pursue something that they are so passionate about. I truly believe that if you are passionate about something, you should share it with the world, because you never know who it’s going to resonate with. And can we just end the narrative right now that people who do return have an unfair advantage? Because I feel like I and Jorgeous and Jujubee and all of us who have appeared more than two or three times have a disadvantage walking into the competition, because we’ve already shown what we can do to the best of our abilities, and if we don’t at least meet that or exceed it, we’re going to be the ones with egg on our face. We’re going to be the ones that are sent home and look like a fool. We have the most to lose because we’ve already been good.
You were on season seven and All Stars six. Now, there have been three queens from both of those separate seasons that have gone on to win crowns. Have you heard from fellow winners Violet [Chachki], Trixie [Mattel], Kylie [Sonique Love] or Ra’Jah O’Hara after you were crowned?
Yeah, the All Stars six cast is still really, really close, and we talk all the time. Ra’Jah and Kylie were two of the first people in my DMs going, “Oh my god sister, we’re so proud of you! This is so exciting.” All Stars 6 filmed at the height of the pandemic, and we had all been locked up in our houses for so long that we were just so happy to be in a room full of people creating art and doing drag and having a good time, and I think that’s why we’re all still so close. And then Saturday, after the dust had kind of settled a little bit, Trixie called me and we had a long heart-to-heart. And she just said, “I’m so proud of you. You’ve achieved this goal that’s so cool, and you’ve wanted it for so long.” And she said, and “There’s days now, like 10 years later, almost, where I look at my [All Stars three] crown and go, ‘Oh my god, it’s so cool. It’s so cool that I did this thing.’” She said, “But you’re also getting all of the people who are giving you backhanded compliments of, ‘Congratulations on your win, ignore the haters.’” She said, “Just don’t entertain any of it. You know why you did it, you know why you deserve to win and you just kind of have to live in that moment for yourself before you can start entertaining the good or bad from anybody else.” So it was really nice to hear that from somebody that I respect so much.
You won four challenges this season. Which one was your favorite, and are there any others that you wish you had won?
My favorite challenge was the one that I didn’t win, which was the talent show. And I feel like that’s because people expected me to do well in Snatch Game, and I’ve proven that I could do that several times before. I can do improv challenges, I’ve done sewing challenges where I’ve done well and I’ve done poorly, but I’ve never gotten to show that side of me as an entertainer, and that’s really me at my core is this little Broadway brat, this musical theater kid who got into drag through theater. It was a way for me to give a love letter to that younger version of myself, and I’m so glad that it was so well received by the fandom. That was really the most important challenge to me.
Going off your love for Broadway, you’ve recently teased that you may be making your Broadway debut in the near future. What can you tease about that?
It’s going to be happening sooner than we all think, and it’s going to be happening in a very unexpected way.
Ginger Minj
Santiago Felipe/Getty Images for Paramount+
You’ve said that your aesthetic has been changing, but you’ll always be the same performer. In terms of your aesthetic, how would you describe that as a newly crowned All Stars winner?
Even though I’m still a plus size beauty, and I will continuously remain that way because I’ve found my comfort and my joy in representing the plus size community, now that I have lost weight, I am more comfortable in my skin and I’m feeling sexier. I’m taking a lot more chances when it comes to fashion. I’m enjoying cutting the neckline a little bit lower and the skirts a little bit higher and showing off a little bit more of what I’ve got to offer.
You looked amazing in your finale episode look.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it, and I felt good. That’s the thing — I never set out to lose weight as an aesthetic goal. I was pre-diabetic, my blood pressure was through the roof, my sugar levels were ridiculous, I had horrible sleep apnea, so I never got any kind of restful sleep. I was on the verge of a heart attack, like all of these things went into me going on this health journey and losing weight. But also aesthetically, I just am starting to feel more like who I’ve always wanted to be. I’ve always felt really beautiful on the inside. I think it’s finally reflecting on the outside.
In the video of you winning, you just seemed so excited, happy [and shocked]. Can you take me through what that moment specifically felt like?
I was fully prepared for the disappointment of losing again, especially since Jorgeous is such a fierce competitor and I’m such a fan of Jorgeous that, you know, much like when Kylie won All Stars six, I could be super happy for her and also very disappointed for myself at the same time. Those two things can coexist, and it’s kind of the opposite this time. I was very happy for me, but super disappointed for my sister. I didn’t know if maybe it would be a double crowning. To me, that would have been the most exciting thing, because I think we both represent two completely opposite ends of drag, and together, we kind of encompass all the beautiful things about what drag has to offer. But having gotten so close two times before and not getting it, I had prepared myself that it wasn’t going to happen. And when it did it, it awakened so many other emotions that I hadn’t prepared myself for. So I think that’s why my first inclination was to check in with Jorgeous and be like, “Are you okay?” Like, I know that I’m not okay, and I just won. Because I’m concerned about you, but I’m also really happy for me, and I don’t quite know how to process this moment from this perspective, because I’ve never had to do it before. It was shocking and exhilarating, and I was happy and I was sad, and I kind of experienced every emotion that you could imagine at one time.
You’re heading out on your Hocus Pocus Live! tour this fall. What else can we expect to see from you during your reign?
I just signed a contract to star in a brand new Universal Pictures movie that’s going to movie theaters, directed by Adam Shankman. I’ll get to act and sing and dance and be silly and fun in front of your movie screens all around the world! I’ve got a couple of other really fun big things in the works. My book Southern Fried Sass is out there for anybody who wants to learn a little bit more about me as a person in my life, as well as cook some delicious Southern recipes. Just keep your eyes peeled. There’s music, there’s Broadway, there’s movies, there’s everything!
***
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 10 is available to stream on Paramount+.
