For eight seasons, RuPaul’s Drag Race alums Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova have opened up their darkly twisted brains for their World of Wonder shortform series UNHhhh, in which the duo dish on a range of subjects — such as jealousy, the weather, phones and domesticity — while seated in front of a greenscreen. Riffs and tangents ensue, with Trixie and Katya expanding on the episode’s topic, surrounded by animation, clip art and text that have been added in the edit. UNHhhh feels at times like a trippy visual podcast, a scrappy public access-style show that has sparked viral memes among the online drag-obsessed. Having passed a 200-episode milestone this season, the show — which runs about 10 to 13 minutes and streams on YouTube and WOW Presents Plus — has been submitted for Emmy consideration for the first time. Trixie and Katya spoke with THR over Zoom about their longtime collaboration and the Emmy nomination they have in their sights.
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Did you instantly connect when you met on Drag Race?
KATYA Our cycles sync up naturally by staying in close proximity to one another. There was a lot of biological and psychological glue gripping us together. But she still doesn’t know when my birthday is, so…
TRIXIE To be honest, Katya is someone I probably spoke to the least. We didn’t really bond until later.
KATYA We spent a lot of time on the phone together [after the show], and we quickly realized that we’re not exactly the typical “Yas! Werk! Diva!” kind of drag people — not that we don’t love those, we’re just not part of that cloth. We felt like outsiders, and we bonded over that. We were huge fans of the WOW Presents videos — basically, they just throw some queens on a stool and say, “Hey, what do you think about birds or whatever?” Trixie had the idea that we should actually critique one of the longest-running and beloved shows on the network, called Fashion Photo RuView, where we review the outfits of the reviewers. And that sort of established our one-on-one rapport.
TRIXIE There was a looseness to it in the beginning because, at the risk of sounding gauche, a show like ours didn’t really exist yet. We were just talking [in front of] a greenscreen, and we didn’t really know what it was going to be comparable to. We were going in a little blind. Personally, I had never worked with a queen where we could throw the ball back and forth. When she and I first started having candid discussions about the world of drag, it was like, “Oh my God, somebody else feels like the chaperone amongst these demons.”
Eight seasons and over 200 episodes later, do you still find ways to surprise each other?
KATYA Well, let me tell you something: A wonderful way to stay surprised is to get dementia, which I apparently have. I don’t remember anything. Every day is like the first day for me.
TRIXIE To be honest, the only surprise we reckon with is some days you can tell I’m sort of not in the mood. Or some days you can tell Katya’s not in the mood. And then, some days we’re both not in the mood. Those actually end up being the best because we’re both like, “Girl. We’re on episode, like, 5million.”
KATYA It’s like senioritis. Like, we can see the comet coming toward the Earth.
TRIXIE There was one particular day we were just at the end of our rope. Improvising when you’re really burned out — it’s like the batteries are dead.
Do you film multiple episodes in a single day?
KATYA Three. We used to do four, but the episodes were shorter then. And we were so ugly. Oof!
TRIXIE I think we just kept doing it because, I mean, how many shows can say, seven years in, that people continue to watch it?
KATYA All that needs to happen is to get an Emmy. (Grabs a foot statuette off a shelf.) This is a gold foot, but it’s the closest thing I have to an Emmy. Please!
It’s funny you say that. In the 200th episode, Trixie says she never wants to be nominated for anything because she hates to lose.
TRIXIE You’re not supposed to say you want it. That’s illegal, right?
KATYA Tell that to Melissa Leo! Nobody deserves anything, but I really, really would love it. And you know, maybe things happen. Or we don’t get it, and then Hollywood Boulevard might endure a series of horrific events.
TRIXIE Sure, we have beautiful bodies and beautiful faces and hilarious personalities, but the editors — they really make the show.
I’m very curious about how the edit works. Do you have any expectations of what the final product will look like? Or is it always a surprise?
KATYA I’ll walk out of that studio being like, “Well, that was a steaming turd that nobody’s going to watch.” And then — gold.
TRIXIE This show is how I learned that sometimes things don’t feel funny [in the moment], but they are later. We do leave that set sometimes being like, “Wow, I just went in there and talked about my breakfast and I ruined the whole shoot.”
KATYA I’ll be like, “Hey, Trixie, did you like filming August: Osage County today with me?”
Part of the joy of watching is that you both have such infectious laughs.
KATYA I think the density of jokes per minute this season is actually overwhelming, just in terms of the editing. I mean, I don’t ever tell a joke. The things that [the editors] will associate through wordplay, and it’s so quick — bam, bam, bam, bam, bam! They’re so talented.
TRIXIE Most of our stories never show us as the smart person, the person who won, the person who did the right thing. If anything, [they are] cautionary tales of what being a human being can get you. The editors end up making it funny.
Are there stories you have told each other that still stick out in your mind?
TRIXIE She told a story about getting misgendered by a colonial [reenactor] in school. Just the thought of that.
KATYA It was a traumatic event. Thank you for bringing that up.
TRIXIE When the lights are on, and we’re all in there in wigs, we feel invincible. It feels like we’re in a room where no one’s ever going to hear what we’re saying anyway.
So, now you’ve been submitted for an Emmy. Have you imagined what you’d say in an acceptance speech — or do you have thoughts on what makes a good one?
KATYA It all depends on the venue and the award. If it’s the Oscars, it’s a whole thing, and you only get 40 seconds max. And if they don’t know who you are, you get 20 seconds.
TRIXIE One of our big pet peeves is when people win major awards and prepare nothing. We hate that.
KATYA You’re one of five people! “Oh my God! I’m Cate Blanchett! I simply had no idea that I…” You knew, come on.
TRIXIE We’re looking at you, Jodie Foster in bed. And all the awards shows have all these sections of comedy that’s not funny. Like, the way people present, it’s never funny. And when someone’s actually a third [of the way] into their heartfelt speech, the music comes in hard and fast. I want to hear Jennifer Coolidge talk about all the years she took little B-side jobs just to stay afloat! I don’t want to hear a presenter tell some lame joke about the parking.
KATYA I think if I were to win an Oscar, I would go up to the podium and I would say, “Thank you to the Academy for allowing me to be my real self,” and then rip off a prosthetic mask. I’m Judi Dench underneath. Short and sweet.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the political attacks on drag and queer people. Do you feel that your show is in any way a resistance to that?
KATYA I personally feel like I’m Julianne Moore in the remake of Carrie: “These are godless times.” I honestly think the pendulum swings left to right. It’s so fascinating to see how these stupid, ignorant right-wing lawmakers have weaponized drag into this bony broth of paranoia and hatred.
TRIXIE People literally google image-search “drag queen,” put a picture on a conservative news story and go, “Drag queens are groomers.” They’ve done that to pictures of me! And no one dislikes children more than me. No one! At the end of the day, they give us too much credit. None of us are sitting around the table at night going, “Whose kids should we take next?”
KATYA Or like, “Which child can I positively impact tomorrow?”
So you’re not volunteering to read to children at a library.
KATYA Oh my God, worst mistake any drag queen ever made.
TRIXIE I was brought to every sporting event. I never became athletic. But to answer your question: Do you know how many people say that this is the first drag they’ve watched? The show demystifies drag.
KATYA And you would not believe the quantity of times we have heard [from] people who have gotten cancer, and all through treatment in the hospital chemo, we got them through. Which is the most wonderfully hyperbolic compliment that we could ever receive.
TRIXIE We’re lucky to work in drag because, honestly, we work in the last frontier.
KATYA We’re first responders, is what she’s trying to say.
TRIXIE We’re up there with people doing cleft palate surgeries in the Middle East.
KATYA [The ranking is] us, and then there’s Doctors Without Borders.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
