“RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars” is about to crown a winner. But the people’s champ is Tessa T.
The Swiss queen competed on the inaugural season of “Drag Race Germany,” where she lip synced for her life four times, eventually landing in eighth place. Her appearance on “Global All Stars” was a surprise alongside more familiar names Alyssa Edwards, Kween Kong and Kitty Scott-Claus. But Tessa stood out from the beginning with fierce looks, a keen sense of humor and that immeasurable X factor that makes a star.
She won a sewing challenge, was dubbed “trade” of the season by viewers and became part of a Texas legacy. Read on for more.
You came into “Global All Stars” as the least-known queen and are leaving a breakout star. Do you feel it?
For sure, especially compared to “Drag Race Germany,” which was a pretty intense experience for me. I felt pretty defeated from it. “Global” is like night and day. It’s just so addicting almost to have so many people understand what you do and understand who you are. I was 110% myself, which is bratty, annoying, but also very eager and hardworking and also very clever, which a lot of people don’t really get. On “Drag Race Germany,” I held myself back. I censored myself before anyone else could. I had such a guard up, so I don’t even see the Tessa on “Drag Race Germany” as the real Tessa because it was so much struggle in a way.
What did it feel like walking into the Werk Room and seeing everyone?
If you watch the Tessa in the first three, four, five episodes, she was something else. Watch ing her back, I was like, girl, you have nerve. I don’t know where I got that nerve from. So much audacity that was necessary. It was so necessary to have this completely deluded sense of self, to fake your way up to the top. While everyone else there felt the pressure of placing so high in their (original) season, I was just there to have a good time and accidentally became a Global All Star.
RuPaul said you had to make a lot of noise in the beginning to let yourself be known.
You really had to kind of over-exaggerate in the beginning so people knew you were there. I was a chihuahua yapping in the midst of 11 Dobermans. In the beginning, I was very much the drama. I was very much stirring the pot. The more comfortable that I got, the less I felt the need to fight or point out my finger. I think my relationship with Alyssa Edwards also helped me a lot. It was a lot of focusing on what’s really important, which is me, myself and I, my performance in the competition and impressing RuPaul. It was a lot of Alyssa Edwards telling me, now calm down, because that’s not what an Edwards does.
I think becoming part of the Edwards family is the real win of the season.
It was so difficult to keep that a secret for an entire year, that I’m like best friends with one of the most famous drag queens on this planet. And now possibly the winner of “Global All Stars.”
What’s your biggest takeaway from the experience?
My absolute willingness and eagerness to through it all, 100% be myself, not keep my foot off the pedal, just give 300% and commit to being myself fully and not taking things personal, ever. And that’s something I’ve been trying to apply to my life outside of the competition. Sometimes it’s harder and sometimes it’s easier. But it’s the right focus, for sure.
You seemed at peace after judging and even through the elimination.
It was pure peace. I was so happy with being top five. I mean, some of the most iconic drag race queens were top five: Trixie Mattel, Katya, Lucy Laduca, Morphine, all of these icons have been top five. It was such an honor to me to even get this far. Of course I would have loved to have gone all the way to the finals. The lip sync also was such a great way of putting everything on the line one more time and saying, “Here you go.”