Peppermint Went on 'The Traitors' to Represent the Transgender Community
Peppermint
When looking at the cast of The Traitors Season 2, Peppermint is certainly an outlier, and she knows it. She's the only contestant who's previously competed on RuPaul's Drag Race, she's the only transgender contestant and she's the only one hoping for a sewing challenge.
Of course, being a trailblazer is nothing new for the actor/singer/drag queen/activist. When Peppermint was announced as a cast member on Season 9 of Drag Race, she became the first contestant who'd announced their coming out as transgender prior to the show's airing. She then became the first trans finalist on the show. A few years later Peppermint was cast in the Broadway production of Head Over Heals becoming the first out trans woman to originate a lead role on Broadway. Since then, she's appeared in Fire Island, Pose and Schmigadoon with plenty of other credits to pad her resume as well.
Related: Three Former Rivals from 'The Challenge' Are Now Working Together to Win 'The Traitors'
While she's yet to return to Drag Race, however, she did sign up to compete on Season 2 of The Traitors, a choice that carries added weight for her. In pre-season interviews, most of the cast cited the money or the adventure as their reason for joining the murder mystery-themed show. However, the stakes are a bit higher for Peppermint, who hopes to use the show as a platform to advocate for transgender rights.
Prior to the season's filming, Parade sat down with Peppermint for a brief chat as to discuss why she decided to swap out lip syncs and the Snatch Game for digging in the mud.
Matthew Huff: What drew you to The Traitors? Why did you want to compete on this show?
Peppermint: I love murder mysteries. I love horror. I hate cartoons. I hate kiddy things. This show! I didn't even know that it was coming last year. I was very unaware. It felt like it sort of just dropped out of the sky. And it was like the best drugs ever. I couldn't get enough of it. I was like feverishly searching for the episodes before it was actually available to stream in the states on Peacock. I watched both versions, the British and the US. Then found other versions. I just love it. It's a great new premise and a very refreshing approach to reality.
Related: The Parvati/Sandra Feud Has Arrived to 'The Traitors'
Does being on Drag Race give you an edge at all here?
We don't jump in the in the lake or dig in the ground, but making an entire outfit and then having to model it is challenging and I would love to see how people in this cast would do in that situation. I don't know if we'll have the opportunity to do that because most of the challenges aren't very creative, but Drag Race is very different.
So much of what you do on Drag Race is really about how much of your own personal talent and creativity and personal growth you are willing to have on that show. And so it doesn't really prepare you well for something like this where there's such big personalities from the start, and it's really about the strategy. There are some really strategic people on Drag Race, but my game on Drag Race is pretty straightforward. Unless there's a gown-making conversation or a lip-sync thing, which I would love, it might not help me much.
There were some musical things in the first season of The Traitors, and I nailed them. It could have been different in the edit, but I felt like I got them right away, all the songs that they were trying to guess. And so, if something like that comes up, I think I'll be good.
What does it mean to you to be a transgender cast member on this show?
I'm really grateful to be here with these people I've watched on TV for so many years. I don't know, but I think I'm the only LGBTQ representation in the show besides Alan, which shows some progress but also there could be more. I'm the only one on The Traitors from Drag Race as well. And so I'm a little bit an outlier in that situation. [Editor's note: Contestant Parvati Shallow came out as queer following this interview.]
Do you think that because you come from Drag Race you'll be underestimated?
I don't think many people knew who I was when I walked in the door here. And I don't think many of them have watched Drag Race. I think I appear to be just like a drag queen, but I'm the first ever trans woman to originate a principal role on Broadway. And so I have a lot of talents and skills a lot of people just don't know about. And so maybe in that regard, yes, I'm an underdog, under-the-radar player.
I definitely feel like a little bit of an underdog, but that does reflect my experiences and the experiences of many people in the LGBTQ community outside in the real world. In the United States, there's over 500 anti-trans and anti-LGBT pieces of legislation trying to remove health care and access to fair housing and access to employment and so that is on my mind. I know there was a recent Pew Research Center poll a few years ago that said as many as 80 percent of Americans say they don't know and have never met anyone who's transgender. It's not lost on me that in addition to me being the only Black trans woman in this house, that this might be the first time a Black trans woman has gone into the houses of the viewers of this show and that's important to me to make a impression whether I'm a Traitor or not. To show that we can do the same thing.
Next, 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 16 'Ruveals' Premiere Date and Cast
