Trixie and Katya on 200 episodes of UNHhhh: ‘Our show is shot and lit by one human being’

The smell of make-up and synthetic hair; the heat from lightbulbs; perilous cables scattered across the floor… Interviewing Trixie and Katya on-camera has long been on this journalist’s bucket list. 

Well, dreams come true. Sort of. Attitude recently caught up with the RuPaul’s Drag Race vets on-camera – albeit out of drag, and over Zoom (they were on tour in Charlotte, North Carolina) – to talk eight seasons of their incomprehensibly funny show for the WOW Presents Plus streamer, UNHhhh.

Not that we’re remotely disappointed to chat to them virtually. It’s brilliant. As we talk, Trixie walks circles in an empty carpark (“I’m meeting my friend from high school for lunch after this”) while Katya’s “on the hotel balcony – smoking…” speaking with that irresistibly enticing drawl that makes even the most ordinary sentence sound outrageous. 

“Remember Jenny’s scene in Forrest Gump when you think she’s going to jump?” offers Trixie. Unlike her co-star, Katya’s camera is off; her balcony-smoking, we imagine, looks glamourous. “Let me shatter that illusion for you,” she counters, switching on her camera to reveal her off-duty look: a black cap and t-shirt, twinning with Trixie.

“Oh my god, that’s so embarrassing…” Katya admits upon realising, as Trixie chimes in: “My high school friend knows I’m bald… but I’m not ready to be bald in front of her!” As it strikes me how handsome both are, Katya’s internet connection freezes her face in a bizarre grin – her wacky surrealism, it seems, bedevils tech as much as it does Attitude: we can’t stop laughing. The call’s further thwarted by our lack of prep; it was only confirmed that morning. “Well, you look great!” compliments Katya. “Just be British!” adds Trixie.

“They’ll get Marcia Marcia Marcia and Ts Madison on the green screen!” – Trixie on the future of UNHhhh

How did UNHhhh reach its 200th episode, one wonders? “Internet is the new cable; YouTube the new HBO,” opines Trixie. “I fully expect UNHhhh to keep going after I die,” says Katya, reflecting on the word ‘longevity’. “They certainly have the skills in post-production and animation to revive my corpse; have it flail around.” Adds Trix: “They’ll get Marcia Marcia Marcia and Ts Madison on the green screen.”

We love them both, but… No! Just, no!

“You have to imagine, UNHhhh is big now, but in the beginning, it wasn’t crazy watched,” says Trixie of the show’s journey, going on to claim: “I mean, I don’t want to get in trouble… But in the beginning we weren’t even paid. It wasn’t a business at first. It was a hobby. We were doing it for fun.”

It’s an origin story that will ring true for many working in creative industries – as will the reality of UNHhhh’s still-bare bones (if purposefully gonzo) production. “Most shows you work on have a lot of people – on this show, for eight seasons, the sound, and camerawork, lighting, everything, is done by one person: Pete Williams,” explains Trixie. “The more opportunities we get, the more I’m shocked our show is shot and lit by one human being.”

“I just want to echo that sentiment,” adds Katya. “Pete Williams is the best ever.”

Here, we chat to the girls about sex, drugs, drag, money, and death. All in 20 minutes.

Hi Trixie and Katya. I thought I’d start with a boring question to see how absurd your answers are. How’s the weather with you?

Katya: 75 degrees and sunny. Wouldn’t you say it’s 75 degrees and sunny, Trix?
Trixie: It’s about 40 degrees too hot for drag.
Katya: The perfect weather to do some phoners! What are you doing there, Trixie? What are you getting money out for? Are you buying drugs? She’s buying drugs on the phoner, just so you know.
Trixie: If I wanted to buy drugs, I’d go on Grindr, OK? I’d go to a high school football game – give me a break. I’m in a parking lot, sitting on the ground, counting money.
Katya: Not suspicious at all.

What’s on your Grindr bio?

Trixie: Mine says: ‘Why the fuck are you talking in all caps?’ I can’t stand it when people do that.
Katya: ‘Prefer over-30.’
Trixie: I don’t even care anymore. ‘What are you looking for?’ ‘Not you, 18-year-old! Get the fuck out of here! Go fuck someone your own age!’

What were your rejected drag names?

Trixie: Cupcake. It’s good I didn’t choose that. As there’s a rapper called CupcakKe.
Katya: Bumpy Bullet.

What do you want written on your gravestones?

Trixie: Maybe: ‘She ate’?
Katya: You’re going to do from obesity. They’re going to know you ate.
Trixie: Yeah, they will.
Katya: I’d want unmarked. I already have fans coming to my house. Can’t I have some anonymity in death?

What’s been your weirdest interaction with a fan?

Trixie: We got a cat foetus. 
Katya: At meet and greet, they gave me a cat foetus. And her 65 dollars in cash.
Trixie: Love that. That was incredible. People who like us have this internal game they play. ‘If I do something really fucking weird, I’ll leave an impression.’ So, everybody’s ready to do a skit or tell us a weird story. Or something really dark. Or really over the line about their body. We’re like: ‘Oh. OK. Bye.’

Not wanting to outweird your fans, but I’m getting my first butt plug. Do you have any advice?

Trixie: I’ve never used one. I don’t understand the appeal of your butt being full of one item that doesn’t move. Fucking is a movement. An in and out. When it’s just a big, rubbery presence, what is that? 
Katya: [Unintelligible] ….sphincter… [unintelligible] …you’ve got get a set of three, precisely for the reason she just described. You need the size difference in order to [unintelligible] …assholes.

Have you ever done each other’s make-up?

Trixie: No. I like to look really good.
Katya: [Unintelligible] …bastard.
Trixie: She has bone structure and features that… She has a convertible sofa of a face. I have to do a complete copper re-pipe every single time.
Katya: I’m like a lovely sculpture at a museum. She’s like a dinner plate.
Trixie: Right.

Has RuPaul ever given you advice on the subject of legacy?

Katya: ‘Stop doing drugs, you crackhead.’
Trixie: [Deadpan] I don’t think she really thinks about us. I don’t think she’s ever seen UNHhhh. If anything, I think her surprise that Katya and I are still in the game at all is compliment enough. We bump into her and she’s like: ‘Are you still trying to do this?’ He did once ask me: ‘Who owns your music?’ I said: ‘Me.’ He said: ‘Good. You should keep trying to own all of it if you can.’ 

Was your chemistry innate or did you have to workshop it?

Katya: It was many years before we had any chemistry on-camera. Once we established a really vigorous and hardy sexual rapport – sexual rapport – then all the improv came naturally. But don’t you think, Trixie – after we stopped having sex, that’s when it really started to gain momentum. After the… sex?
Trixie: When I showed up to set, I thought we were doing porn. I showed up in a little schoolgirl outfit. I thought I was going to get plugged within an inch of my life. Instead, they were like: ‘What do you think about food?’
Katya: I saw the outfit and was like: ‘No. No, no. I don’t do this type of porn. Y’all know what I do.’

What’s your chemistry like off-screen? Are you laughing even when you’re relaxing and chilling?

Trixie: We live very separate lives. And that’s a little bit intentional. Because we spend so much time on-camera together. UNHhhh’s in its eighth season, our Netflix show is in its fifth, our podcast just hit 100 episodes. We’re lucky in that every time we want to hang out, there’s a paycheck involved. [Stops, thinks] What does it say about me that my most valued friendship is based on money?”
Katya: [Tries to speak but connection drops out]
Trixie: She’s dead. What did she say about longevity? 

UNHhhh season eight is available on WOW Presents Plus now.