Nina West has joined the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” elite since being crowned Season 11’s Miss Congeniality. She portrayed drag legend Divine in 2022’s “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” and Edna Turnblad in the national tour. “Hairspray.” And now, she chooses chaos.
The actor and activist is among the eight queens competing on “Drag Race All Stars” 9 alongside Roxxxy Andrews and Plastique Tiara. The winner gets $200,000 for their favorite charity. Nina West is playing for The Trevor Project.
Nina West spoke about her return to “Drag Race,” the importance of LGBTQIA+ rights and her Snatch Game performance as Liberace.
You’ve had lots of success since your first “Drag Race” run. Why come back to all this craziness?
Literally the only reason I agreed to come back was because of charity. I just really am so confident in who I am as a drag artist. I’m not a seamstress. We all know I’m not a seamstress. I got to show myself on my first season, and I was vulnerable without ever needing to be prodded. It just all came out of me. It was such an accurate representation of who I was that I just didn’t have any unfinished business. I had such an incredible blessing of an experience the first time around. I felt like I won. So I just didn’t need that. So 12 weeks of me being able to be on TV and talk about Trevor Project was absolute 100% the reason why I did it.
Was there anything that gave you pause about coming back since the first time was such a positive experience?
Yeah, because five years is a long time. Some people may have just watched season 11. Some people have never seen season 11 who are watching me on the show now. And then some people have been diehards of the show. The thing that gave me pause was, do I really want to be in a reality competition again in drag? It wears on you. There’s no secret to that. It’s mentally exhausting, and it’s tough. It’s not for the weak at heart. I made a pros and cons list before I confirmed that I would do it. I mean, it was pretty quick. All the good outweighed any fear that I think came with that.
Were you surprised so many queens, particularly Jorgeous, saw you as a threat?
I was surprised a little bit that she thought I was such a threat, because we are so different. First of all, I’m like twice her size in height. I’m this big campy dude. I’m not going to go bust the house down and do all these tricks and splay out on the stage. “Yes, mama!” That’s not me. But the acting stuff, I would be a little intimidated by someone like me. If Jinkx Monsoon walked into the workroom, I’d be like, she’s the one to watch. If Kennedy Davenport walked into the work room, I’d be like, shit. Everyone has the thing that they really excel at. That’s what makes drag so awesome and exciting is that none of us are the same. I love Jorgeous. She’s like my little sister. I love her so much. She’s so funny. She says the craziest, funniest things. And I really love that people are getting to see that again on TV, because she’s such good TV.
This new format, where someone is blocked every week but no one goes home, really shakes things up.
It’s the most challenge(-focused) or “Survivor” that the show has been in a long time. As a fan of “Survivor — plug, I really want to be on “Survivor” — I really love this because hopefully it reminds the fans that this is a reality show and we are all participants in a reality show. It’s not real. It’s not as serious as I think a lot of the people want to make up. I hope it’s a reminder to everyone watching that drag is a celebratory art form. We celebrate ourselves, we celebrate our community, we celebrate these charities. We’re a celebratory art form.
Nina West, Firefighter Nathan as Anita Blaze, and Gottmik in RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, episode 2, season 9
It’s the most challenge(-focused) or “Survivor” that the show has been in a long time. As a fan of “Survivor — plug, I really want to be on “Survivor” — I really love this because hopefully it reminds the fans that this is a reality show and we are all participants in a reality show. It’s not real. It’s not as serious as I think a lot of the people want to make up. I hope it’s a reminder to everyone watching that drag is a celebratory art form. We celebrate ourselves, we celebrate our community, we celebrate these charities. We’re a celebratory art form.
It’s showing viewers another side of these queens we’ve come to know and love.
That is who we are as queer people. I hope people connect to that, especially in this election year, and are like, this motivates me to want to protect this community and protect these artists and protect these people who are someone’s kid, someone’s son, daughter, child, uncle, brother, sister, parent. I hope then it encourages people in a new way. You can give your time, you can give your talent or you can give your treasure. What we’re doing on this season is we’re giving our time and our talent and eventually our treasure.
Does it feel more important, more urgent now, especially at the start of Pride month?
When I filmed my first season, Trump was president. It all felt very oppressive. Now, we’ve lost a woman’s right to choose. We’re losing things, and LGBTQIA+ rights are next up. So how do we protect that? We have to motivate ourselves, and we have to motivate our community and motivate our friends and our family to vote and to ensure that they’re casting a vote that protects LGBTQIA+ rights. And it’s not just the presidential vote, friends. It starts in your local municipalities, in your towns, in your cities. That’s really where, first and foremost, these laws need to be enshrined. We’ve got to make sure that you’re electing state representatives who, in your state of Texas or my state of Ohio or wherever, that are speaking to the needs of our community. And I think the show, brilliantly, is creating a celebration. And also creating talking points. And they’re also creating a momentum and an energy surrounding the specificity of how important it is right now to use your voice. That transcends these organizations, and it transcends all of us.
Speaking of talking points, how happy were you to finally be able to do all those reveals during the lip sync?
Girl, first of all, let me tell you something. The reveals did not work the way that I wanted them to work. The song, admittedly, was really difficult. I don’t speak Spanish at all. I was freaking out. I just won the Snatch Game, which was like a dream. If there was any unfinished business, it was winning Snatch Game. I couldn’t remember how the garment went. I just couldn’t remember. What side is where? If anyone knows me personally, I just got in my head and in my way so fast. It didn’t matter how many times I was trying to rehearse that damn reveal dress, but I got to wear it. And you can buy my lip-sync shirt on my website.
Did you come in with other Snatch Game options besides Liberace?
Oh, good question. No one’s asked me that. I had two backup options that I did not rehearse as much as I had worked on Liberace. I was going to do Mary Todd Lincoln. And I took Ethel Merman. I didn’t do either, clearly, because I was so confident in Liberace. And then Shannel said she was doing Liberace, too. My stomach hit the ground. You gotta be kidding me.
Having now seen you do it, I think you made the right choice.
My take on Liberace was how do I make him the out gay man I think he wanted to be? I mean, he was pretty much out. But how do I give it a lightning bolt energy? How do I make him more electric.