Nina West 'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 9' Contestant Preview
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00:00 I mean, like, there's a lot of stuff in here that I took.
00:02 Like, literally, it would go like, like, yeah.
00:05 A nude photo of Michelle Phelps?
00:06 I know!
00:07 Why do you want that?
00:08 Doesn't she look good?
00:09 Welcome back to EW's Summit with the Queens of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 9.
00:18 I'm Joey Nolte, Entertainment Weekly's Drag Race Reporter,
00:21 now with Vanjie's nail just for this interview.
00:24 And we are getting intentional and directional with my next congenial guest,
00:29 her favor within the fandom and her fellow queens rocketed north
00:33 after her run as Miss Congeniality on Season 11.
00:36 And we're here to see if competing on All Stars has chilled her warm heart
00:40 like a gust of eastern wind.
00:42 Please welcome back Nina West.
00:45 Hi, I'm Joey!
00:47 We have all been waiting for this for so long.
00:49 I love when we see a Miss Congeniality back in competition.
00:53 So I have to know, is she still congenial this season?
00:55 You know, I think so.
00:59 Truth be told, I...
01:00 That was a long pause.
01:01 I think so.
01:02 You know, um, you know, I try to be intentional, right?
01:05 I try to be intentional.
01:07 I think she's congenial, but did the girls say otherwise in their interviews?
01:10 Well, um, a journalist always protects their sources, Nina.
01:13 They do, they do.
01:14 And I'm a source.
01:15 And uh, you, oh, that is, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, manifesting that.
01:19 Honey, I want to be a source.
01:20 A source of life.
01:21 Or a Chanel, or a Chanel.
01:22 Chanel, do you notice, did you interview her?
01:26 Have you interviewed Chanel?
01:27 Oh yes, yes, yes.
01:27 She talks to her.
01:28 We do not know who Chanel is, Joey Nolfi, drag race reporter.
01:32 This interview's done, cut the cameras.
01:34 Okay, cut it.
01:34 I think Chanel was so constricted by her look that she could not move.
01:41 She was literally, my first ever drag race interview was,
01:43 she was literally standing.
01:44 Since it's not, she's not constricted just by her look.
01:46 She, um, I'm just kidding.
01:48 Okay, so she's not congenial.
01:49 So congenial this season.
01:52 You know, I came into this, I'll tell you the honest to God truth.
01:55 We wrapped Hairspray on June 26th and I went into filming a week later.
01:59 My time with this has been so quick.
02:03 And I was really drawn to wanting to do All Stars because of our charity band.
02:07 Yes.
02:08 You know, like what we're doing this season to promote these organizations,
02:11 especially in an election year.
02:13 It's all really, really important.
02:14 And so I think wanting to come back to All Stars this time,
02:18 I don't think I'll ever come back.
02:20 You know, I think this is it for me in a way.
02:22 Yeah.
02:22 I want, I was wanting to be very decisive about what that would look like.
02:26 Sure, you're going to get the same Nina West.
02:29 Like you're gonna get some really crazy, questionable runways because mama delivers.
02:34 You know, but you're like, we're gonna have a lot of fun moments.
02:38 But I think me being back in the workroom was as much of an,
02:43 was as much of an adventure and a journey for me as an evolution of who I've become.
02:46 That is such a good answer.
02:48 Well, thank you.
02:49 I was just going to say thank you for answering all four of my next questions.
02:52 And that one answer.
02:53 So this interview is done?
02:53 It's done.
02:54 The second time we're cutting it early.
02:56 But one thing about Miss Congeniality, actually, it reminds me,
02:59 you were actually back on season 13 in the room for the famous RuPaul Utica roast moment.
03:05 Honey!
03:06 With Miss Congeniality as guests.
03:08 So how did you feel about those jokes in the room?
03:11 I wasn't there for the rehearsal.
03:14 So watch it.
03:15 So I was in the room for the roast.
03:18 Yes.
03:18 So watching her get very explicit instruction to not do those jokes,
03:23 after the fact effort, after I heard the jokes, I was like, wow,
03:26 she is, she believes in these jokes.
03:30 Yeah.
03:30 And they weren't funny.
03:32 Really making a case for not Congeniality?
03:36 No, no, here's the thing.
03:38 She gagged me.
03:39 And you know, I think that is the point of a roast,
03:42 in the spirit and the intention of the roast.
03:44 And I, and I love Utica.
03:45 And I think her intention, I think her intention was to be funny, you know,
03:49 and it just didn't read that way.
03:51 And that's okay.
03:52 Yeah.
03:52 You know, and that happened how many years ago now?
03:54 And I feel bad.
03:55 Oh God, yeah.
03:55 You know, that she's still living with that because it happens on TV
03:59 and we all come to it a different time now, the way we watch TV and stream.
04:02 Maybe one of my favorite roast jokes of all time, if not my favorite, is the one with,
04:08 oh, I was going to say when Utica asked Ru to stand up.
04:11 RuPaul, you are such a fashion icon.
04:14 If you could stand up for us, please.
04:15 Oh, I think that was really funny.
04:21 I thought Candy Muse from the Bronx Zoo.
04:25 That's pretty funny.
04:25 That was funny as well.
04:26 I just think that like, what was that?
04:28 And like, cause you got to witness something that very few people have got to witness.
04:32 I mean.
04:32 RuPaul with the fingers.
04:35 Being in the room, literally, I mean, there was more shock there.
04:38 Yeah.
04:39 Where everyone I think was like, I can't believe she just did it.
04:42 And then everyone, of course, in the room looks at Ru and everyone's like, what's she going to do?
04:47 You know what I mean?
04:48 So it was iconic.
04:49 I mean, there's something about the balls that Utica has, you know, and you see that in her,
04:55 how she does her fashion.
04:56 She's very, you know, she's very intentional.
04:58 Intentional is a good word for this.
04:59 But she's like super intentional with like how she delivers her fashion and what she believes in.
05:04 And I, you know, like she went, she went right for the jugular on those jokes.
05:08 And that one, that one landed.
05:09 Yeah.
05:10 That one landed.
05:11 Let's keep an intentional count running in the edit on this.
05:14 How many times Nina has said intentional.
05:17 You started it.
05:17 You said it first.
05:18 You said it first in the copy.
05:20 One being intentional with my Vanjie nail.
05:21 So before that, season 11, though, I mean, an amazing collective season.
05:26 It was so entertaining to you, Evie, Silky, Brooke.
05:29 I mean, so many amazing personalities, also including your sisters, Plastique and Vanjie.
05:34 So given this new twist this year, did you try to maybe form an alliance with your sisters?
05:38 No.
05:40 I didn't.
05:42 I wasn't thinking alliance, right?
05:44 Because there's a lot that happens this season that you're going to get to see kind of unfold.
05:48 And you're going to experience by being a viewer and like brought into the workroom.
05:52 What was really cool was to do this experience with people who I did season 11 with and see how,
05:58 you know, I'm friends with those people.
06:00 I'm friends with Plastique and I'm friends with Vanjie, but I'm also fans of them.
06:03 So to watch their evolution since our season has been tremendous.
06:08 I mean, Plastique basically owns TikTok.
06:10 So I mean, hello.
06:12 She's so fierce and she's on her own force.
06:15 And Vanjie is like, I think, in my opinion, one of the top three personalities to come
06:21 out of the show.
06:22 And so to be in the workroom with them again,
06:25 but felt really comfortable and really safe.
06:27 Like it was like, right, this is familiar.
06:29 And then, you know, you look at the rest of the workroom, right?
06:31 I've been friends with Roxy Andrews for like a very long time.
06:35 You know, we both started drag very early on.
06:38 We're both pageant girls.
06:39 You know, we've been intertwined in our circles for a very long time.
06:44 And then to do this experience together has been really awesome.
06:46 It's an interesting mix of different aesthetics and personalities this season.
06:55 It's going to be very interesting, but the twist.
06:58 Oh, you said a twist!
06:59 How would you say the twist, like maybe change the way the competition unfolded this year?
07:06 I'm going to be intentional about what I say and say the twist.
07:09 Which twist are you talking about?
07:10 Are you trying to get some tea out of me?
07:11 There is a twist, mama!
07:14 And that twist happens immediately.
07:17 No elimination twist we're talking about.
07:20 Oh, that twist!
07:22 There's no other twists.
07:24 There's some lemons in the room that we twist into a cocktail.
07:26 Well, confirmed or not confirmed.
07:28 House of Love cocktails.
07:29 Sponsorship.
07:30 This interview is so left!
07:32 Yet, I think one of the reasons that got me to come back was the fact
07:39 that it was a no elimination season and that it was for charity.
07:43 I had been asked to do All Stars twice before and I had said no for a variety of reasons.
07:47 Yeah, I was going to say why.
07:48 COVID happened and someone in my family was sick with COVID and that was
07:53 very middle, early on in the pandemic.
07:57 And then Hairspray.
07:58 I was on the road with Hairspray and I committed to this contract that I was so in love with.
08:02 And I had only hoped the opportunity would come back and it did.
08:07 And then it came back with this whole charity arm of the season.
08:12 And what's really important about that is not only are we standing in this everybody say love idea,
08:19 we're actually exercising it every single runway.
08:25 And we get to hear about incredible organizations,
08:27 both locally and nationally, that need a lot of attention and a lot of love.
08:31 And it's going to give the viewers of the show
08:34 an opportunity to figure out how they themselves can be involved in community.
08:38 Which I think is really ultimately something that's been really lost
08:42 in a social media generation of how we can activate young people.
08:47 And people who watch a show are young and they're motivated and they stand so strong in their voice,
08:52 oftentimes in the critiques online.
08:54 But no, hopefully this will inspire people at home who may feel disenfranchised
09:00 or may not see themselves or the people they love present or uplifted or even in the conversation.
09:05 Every single contestant has a different organization and that organization speaks
09:10 directly to them and it's really incredible to see how they're uplifting those organizations
09:14 to get people involved.
09:16 And this is coming from someone who has done a lot of work with in Ohio and raising,
09:22 it's literally millions, millions of dollars.
09:24 So I mean, that must have been a very big deal.
09:27 Well, and I do want to say, I mean, I do want to say the reason that so much money has been
09:30 made through the Nina West Foundation or in Columbus, not only with my drag mother, Virginia,
09:36 but it's literally the community.
09:39 And it's like, that is what I love about queer community and LGBTQIA+ spaces,
09:44 is the fact that we really do, despite a lot of difference, rally together around our civil rights.
09:51 And I think that's, especially in this time of this presidential election year,
09:56 to really focus on those things that can really bring us together.
09:59 Well, what do you think of your biggest area of improvement going into this season is?
10:04 Because I mean, we got to get through our questions.
10:09 I know, sorry.
10:09 I'm sorry.
10:09 I'm so chatty.
10:11 No, I love talking about this stuff.
10:13 But going back to All Stars 9, yeah, what do you think is your biggest area of improvement
10:18 you've had since your original season?
10:19 And what do you think will maybe surprise fans the most about All Stars?
10:22 I think my biggest, yeah, I think my biggest area of improvement on All Stars this season
10:25 is I was a little bit more confident, a little bit more self-assured in what I brought and what I
10:30 know to be Nina West and who I know needed me.
10:34 I left Drag Race and I had the world open up to me and I really got to experience things
10:38 and challenge myself and all those things made me better.
10:42 And I brought that with me, I think, that made me more confident in the work room.
10:46 Great.
10:47 Yeah, I mean, and, you know, like, I like, I was working a little bit on my sewing skills.
10:51 Did you say sewing skills?
10:53 Sewing.
10:54 OK.
10:54 I mean, like, not that I'm like, I am not the seamstress, girl.
10:57 What is, what's Alyssa say?
10:59 I'm not a seamstress.
11:00 I am not.
11:02 Not the seamstress?
11:03 What else are we not?
11:04 I am not a sinker.
11:05 I am not a sinker.
11:09 She says, I'm not a sinker.
11:10 But.
11:12 Is this a Snatch Game character?
11:13 What's that?
11:14 Snatch Game character, Alyssa Edwards?
11:15 You can poke all you want.
11:17 Poke the bear all you want.
11:18 She's not coming out of hibernation.
11:20 She's not.
11:21 But after your season 11 elimination, you, you, we did a few interviews, I think,
11:26 since then.
11:27 We did one for the Binge Podcast and one for your exit interview.
11:29 And you said something about that look.
11:32 You said that you still stand by it.
11:33 My pride look.
11:35 Yes, the elimination look, the makeover look.
11:37 Why was it so important for you to sort of stand firmly by that look, even though it was one that got you?
11:42 I mean, look, I still stand by that look, even though it was terrible.
11:45 I admit I know what the judges saw in that look and I know what they see wrong with it.
11:49 But the definition of family resemblance to me meant something more than just,
11:56 here's a look that compliments one.
11:58 I took it in a completely different way and I stand by it.
12:00 You know, the silhouette might not have been right.
12:02 It might not have been the most flattering.
12:03 But I do think the story and the connection with, it was me and Suga, right?
12:08 I mean, that was like an incredible moment for me to have with another really good friend of mine.
12:12 I was ripped apart for it, but I love what that look represents.
12:17 And those looks, per very Nina West, were inspired by the musical Kinky Boots
12:22 and the finale in Kinky Boots and like what those queens
12:24 walked down the runway in at the very end of the show to songs called Just Be and,
12:29 you know, Raise You Up, which are themes that I really believe in.
12:33 So like, yeah, I stand by my look.
12:35 Good.
12:35 Well, that did also famously lead to the meh reaction, lip sync, with Silky.
12:41 So how did that moment, we talked a little bit about this on Binge too,
12:44 but how did that moment impact you going forward?
12:47 And if Nina has to lip sync on All Stars 9, would you say that you've had like a lip sync glow up?
12:52 She, okay, also maybe probably not, no.
12:54 Rue said "meh" like twice and it was like cutting.
13:00 It felt like, Silky, I don't even know if it was in the,
13:04 it might be in the edit, Silky went, "What?"
13:06 And like literally Silky took the words out of my mouth.
13:09 I was like, you know, a lot of people have said things to me over traveling around the world.
13:13 They're like, "Oh, you know, you were robbed."
13:15 I wouldn't have wanted any other result.
13:18 I have lived the most amazing life since my time on Drag Race.
13:22 I have performed with Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy and the entire Muppets.
13:28 I have worked for Disney proudly.
13:30 I have done, I've worked with Greta Yankovic.
13:32 I have, but all these things have come from my time on the show
13:36 and having the opportunity to meet people and have people see me
13:39 and my most vulnerable things.
13:41 Drag queens, there are queens within the community who have critiqued me
13:44 and my drag for going on the show and saying, "Oh, poor me, poor me."
13:48 But what happened in my time on Drag Race the first time was I was very vulnerable
13:53 and I wasn't, I was so out of my own element, my comfort zone,
13:57 because I had never filmed a show before.
13:59 I had never been in an experience where I was around these loud, big personalities
14:04 experiencing loud, bold emotions and that just knocked me on my ass.
14:08 - Yeah. - All of that vulnerability
14:10 connected me to thousands of people around the world.
14:14 My story has opened me up to have stories with other people
14:17 and have them share their very personal stories with me.
14:19 And I'm very proud of that.
14:20 - The message of kindness has always been consistent with you and your art too.
14:24 And you've tried to be more inclusive, I think, in your career
14:26 of families that want to foster acceptance for LGBTQ people.
14:29 You released a children's book, among other children's programming endeavors,
14:32 The Storytime with Nina.
14:33 I know it was a very sweet thing that you did a while back.
14:35 - Thanks. - But like, I mean,
14:36 it did lead to some very scary things.
14:39 Can you walk me through maybe the impact and the reaction to that
14:43 and why you persevered and like continued on this path of, you know,
14:47 advancing these things because they're so important to you?
14:50 - At the time during the pandemic, when I started Storytime with Nina, I started,
14:53 the world shut down, what, March 20th? - Yeah.
14:56 - I think I started Storytime with Nina maybe at like April 14th.
14:59 I didn't take a lot of downtime. I took, I was like, what am I going to do?
15:02 I started doing them live on Instagram.
15:04 I think the third episode, a bunch of alt-right people had come into the Instagram live
15:10 and were blowing up the conversation.
15:12 All of my personal information had been put online.
15:14 People started showing up at my house.
15:16 People started putting signs in my yard.
15:18 People started putting things in my mailbox.
15:21 People started standing outside my windows, blowing air horns in my windows.
15:25 It became a very unsafe thing.
15:26 And I moved out of my house for a good period of the pandemic
15:31 and lived an hour and a half north of Columbus in some cabin.
15:35 And I would drive back and forth every weekend to film more Storytimes with Nina.
15:40 Somehow conversation in this country has devolved down to the lowest common denominator,
15:44 where we feel like we have it, people feel like they have it within their rights
15:49 to make someone feel their lowest of lows, less than, not any value or any worth.
15:56 And I can tell you, honestly, there were many times where I was like,
15:59 I don't want to do this anymore.
16:00 This isn't for me.
16:01 I don't feel like I am making an impact.
16:06 And then through a lot of hard conversations and a lot of tough conversations with myself
16:11 and with a professional, I just had to figure out what's my purpose?
16:16 What am I here to do?
16:17 I'm here to entertain.
16:18 I'm here to have fun.
16:18 I'm here to remind people of the joy in life.
16:21 That's what drag is.
16:22 I don't know what made me push through.
16:24 I published a kid's book and then I went on a Christmas tour where Proud Boy showed up.
16:29 - Yeah, oh God. - At every single stop.
16:32 Bomb threats at like, like at the second half of the tour, almost every single stop.
16:37 We would have to have bombs, different dogs come in.
16:39 It is so demoralizing and humiliating to have people, you know, try to like tell you who you are.
16:47 - It's awful.
16:48 - It's awful.
16:49 And I don't know, you know, I don't know how I feel about it all still.
16:55 I just know that I'm supposed to be doing something and I can't sit at home
16:58 twiddling my thumbs and I don't, and I just, I have to figure out the best way to do this.
17:03 I don't know if, I don't know if couching my whole brand and my whole life in kindness
17:07 has been the right answer because I feel like that has often opened me up for very specific
17:13 and unique types of criticism that I'm just honestly operating as my authentic self.
17:20 I'm just trying to do my best, make the best choices and authentically be me.
17:26 The character of Nina West is loud, is a bigger exaggeration of who I am as Andrew,
17:32 but you know, I really do believe in these things.
17:37 And so I think I just continue to try to move through the space
17:40 with as little harm to myself or others and wanting to elevate other people.
17:44 And sometimes there's just people there who just want to kick you down.
17:47 And I'm lucky enough to have a tremendous support system
17:51 of people who believe in me and who will lift me up.
17:52 - Did you steal anything from set?
17:54 - Did I steal anything from set?
17:56 - Yes.
17:57 - Mama! Honey, I stole a lot from set.
17:59 - Oh, this is a stack.
18:00 - Oh, I have a stack. Okay, so on our last day of filming, I'm sure you've gotten the story.
18:05 Last day of filming, one of the girls, Vanjie, went behind,
18:10 Vanjie, went behind the workroom wall and she, yeah, Vanjie,
18:16 she cut off a wallpaper for all of the staff.
18:19 - This is becoming such a trend.
18:20 - And we all signed it.
18:22 - It's the real, it's the real wall. Can I touch it?
18:24 - Have you guys not seen this yet?
18:26 - No, I have not seen one in real life.
18:29 - This is it. So this is, so I'm going to tell you, I have two of them.
18:33 So I'm auctioning off one of them for my charity during this season.
18:37 - Oh, that's great.
18:38 - Which is going to be, I'm playing for the Trevor Project.
18:40 - Oh, lovely.
18:41 - So you can get the sign, it's a piece of the workroom, signed by all eight contestants.
18:44 - Okay, I bid $5, I'm taking it now.
18:46 - $5, Mama, $7.50.
18:49 - I'm just kidding.
18:49 - And then, hold on, I'll hand you that. You can hold that.
18:52 - Okay, yes, I can hold that.
18:53 - So then, like the big takeaway from my experience is I, this time, journaled every single day.
19:01 And this, like my best friend sent me off with like post-its I put around all around my hotel room
19:06 while we were filming. You're really ridiculously good though. Patricia, Patricia wrote that.
19:10 - Oh, it was Dracaspazzi?
19:11 - Yeah, Dracaspazzi!
19:12 - Yes, yes.
19:13 - So I have one of my cards from one of the challenges that I stole.
19:17 - Okay.
19:17 - That there's some secret information on the other side, but you can't see it.
19:20 - You can't see it.
19:20 - Um, like every day, like, oh, my hotel-
19:23 - A picture of Rue.
19:24 - Yeah, there's a picture of Rue in here. This is my, let me see this. Let me take this.
19:28 - Okay, go ahead.
19:29 - This is my hotel room key from the hotel that I glued into my journal. I was in room 521.
19:36 - We'll blur out the name of the hotel.
19:38 - Yeah, you probably should do that. The big score here, really, in all of this is that I stole from
19:45 set a Tic Tac. It was gifted a Tic Tac by someone very legendary on the set, and it is in my little
19:54 Ziploc bag, and I'm going to, you can hold that too, but you don't squish it.
19:59 - I'm gonna eat it.
20:00 - And you know, this Tic Tac is from the episode, I think, on season, what was Rosé's season?
20:03 - Rosé?
20:04 - 13?
20:04 - 13, yeah.
20:05 - On the season where they all, like, swam in the Tic Tacs?
20:08 - Yes.
20:08 - That's from the pool?
20:10 - It's from, but they're like, of course, they're all over the, like, they're in, like-
20:12 - Oh, wait, that was 14, wasn't it?
20:14 - Whatever.
20:14 - I think it was 14. That was your sisters, Georges and Angeria.
20:18 - Yeah, yeah. That's a Tic Tac from set.
20:20 - So, Angeria already touched this Tic Tac, because it was in-
20:23 - RuPaul touched that Tic Tac, honey.
20:25 - I just didn't put it in my Tic Tac.
20:26 - The sugary, delicious, little-
20:28 - Wait, I'm being overloaded with items.
20:31 - And then there's, like, yeah, so, I mean, like, there's a lot of stuff in here that I took.
20:35 Like, literally, it would go, like, yeah, just like-
20:38 - A nude photo of Michelle Phelps?
20:40 - I know!
20:40 - Why do you have that there?
20:41 - Doesn't she look good?
20:42 - Yes, mother!
20:43 - So, but, you know, what's really exciting is that my memory can be selective.
20:48 When you leave an experience like Drag Race, you can, like, kind of have, like, a selective memory.
20:52 - Yes.
20:52 - But now I have a journal where I have selective memories of my own experience from the day of,
20:56 honey.
20:56 - Yes. Love to see it.
20:58 - Yeah.
20:59 - Nina, thank you so much for all of this.
21:01 - Thanks.
21:01 - For just being so kind and for being so great to interview you always.
21:05 - I love you.
21:05 - The feeling is mutual. Thank you so much, Nina,
21:08 and we can't wait to see what you do on All Stars 9.
21:09 - Thank you.
21:10 - Thank you so much, and stay tuned for more with the cast of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 9.
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