When Ginger Johnson entered the Werk room on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, it was with a pair of sensible nude pumps and a well-placed poop joke. The jokes just kept on coming from there, with Johnson taking home not just the season-five Snatch Game crown for her portrayal of Barbara Cartland, the British “Queen of Romance” novels, but also the two previous RuPeter badges for her work as a crass but effective MasterClass mentor and as “Daisy the Cow” in Pant-oh She Better Don’t: The Rusical.
Johnson’s blend of quick wit and clean (if occasionally befuddling) drag was enough to land her in the season five finale, where she ultimately took the crown, beating out fellow funny Northerners Michael Marouli and Tomara Thomas. Following her big win, she spoke to Vulture about her dependable past and the big plans she has for the future with fellow funny gal Kate Butch.
You were a bit of a quiet assassin this season. You weren’t always the loudest and you weren’t always the most outrageous, but you were never in the bottom. What do you think that says about you?
I am someone that doesn’t necessarily choose to shout about how good I am. I would rather get the job done. Until now, I think my USP has been that I’m a dependable booking: If you booked me to do something, I’m going to come and I’m going to do a good job. Every day we walked into the Werk room, no matter what the challenge was, I just treated it like it was a day at work, because this is what I do as my job. I wasn’t so much interested in the posturing side of the competition, because that’s really not me. It makes me cringe a little bit, to be honest. I don’t mind other people doing it, like, absolutely celebrate yourself, go for it. But it’s not naturally in my personality to do that.
I think it’s funny that people think I was sneaking up on the competition, because I wasn’t. I was just on the jump all the time. You only have so much time to do these challenges and get your stuff together and learn your words and think of your jokes and all of that. I’m not trying to start fights with people, I was just trying to get into drag and try not to look too busted and make sure that gags were landing.
Who is Ginger Johnson to you? Like, if she has a backstory and a past life and a history, what is it?
Well, Ginger was originally inspired by all these amazing, fiery redheaded women from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Lucille Ball is one of my all time heroes, and Rita Hayworth and Carol Channing and Kay Thompson, all of those women, they really inspired me in the first place. And for a while, Ginger was kind of living in that time warp of old Hollywood. The look was that and a lot of the show content was that as well. But then, as I’ve progressed and life moved on and my interests moved on, she’s been in lots of different situations, especially in my theater shows. She’s been in a Victorian melodrama as a psychic and she’s been somebody that’s survived an apocalypse in 2040 or something. She’s lived on a spaceship. She’s had lots of different lives.
I don’t think anybody else knows this, and I don’t know if it matters, but for me, I think of her as a time traveler. She’s this character that can exist anywhere that I dare to drop her. My relationship to her is almost like a manager in a way. I’m like, “What if we put her here? How would she exist and react in this situation?” And that’s the fun of it, because then it’s a surprise to me. Because the character comes second nature to me now, I get to discover the world through her.
The winner of Drag Race UK doesn’t get a cash prize, but you do get to make a show for WOW Presents Plus. Have you thought about what you want that to be?
We’ve not done any of that yet but I’ve got some ideas. I’d love to do something with puppets, because that’s always been a big part of my drag. I use them in performances and I’ve done a puppet video series. I’d love to do something sort of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse but Ginger’s Playhouse, with my characters around me. That’d be really fun.
I’d also love to do something like a documentary-type series where I go and meet lots of queer artists and find out what inspires them and what they’re doing with their lives. I just love meeting and learning about people, so I’m going to try and think of a series that will take me on an adventure that I’m going to enjoy.
A lot was made on the show about the final three being from the northeast of England, but if you’re from America, like me, you might not really know what that means. Can you explain the significance and also what the Northeast sensibility is, since that was such a key touchpoint?
It’s quite hard to explain the geopolitics of the U.K., especially under a Conservative government, which is what we have at the moment, but traditionally the Northeast is deprived of resources. It’s old industry, it’s where the coal mines used to be, where the steelworks used to be, where the ships were built, all of which has been taken away through globalization.
There’s a lot of grit up north. It’s a predominantly working-class area, and I think that really informs the type of human that people are up there, and the outlook on life of, “let’s make the most of the time that we’ve got and let’s pull together what we can,” and I think that shows in the drag of all three of us — me, Michael, and Tomara — because we’re always there for a good time. It’s a different type of good time, but we’re all there.
Speaking of the top three: You, Michael, and Tomara are all white or white-presenting. Every previous winner of Drag Race UK and UK vs. the World has been white. Assuming you believe that everyone who has won deserves the crown, what are your thoughts on where Drag Race should go from here, diversity wise?
I think there are benchmarks of representation in this series, like how Cara Melle was the first Black trans woman to be on the show, which is an amazing accomplishment. But I also think that in every part of the media, there is opportunity for representation to be stronger. Hopefully Drag Race will continue broadening the type of cast that it has.
You started doing drag before Drag Race even existed, but I have to imagine you have your favorites. What other contestants do you love, and whose career would you like to emulate?
One of my all time favorites is Tammie Brown. I just think she is an alien sent from the planet Joy. I love that she dances to her own tune, literally. She’s someone that I really, really admire.
Career wise, Jinkx [Monsoon] and BenDeLaCreme are true, true icons for me. It’s amazing what they do, and I can only aspire to get anywhere close to that. Kate Butch and I have that aspiration, together, actually, so we’ll have to see how that goes.
