- My darlings, It's Michelle Visage,
welcome to another episode of Whatcha Packin'.
(upbeat music)
And today we have got the fabulous Los Angelonian,
that's how you say it, right? It's Gottmik!
- Hi, how are you?
- Is that how you say it, Los Angelonian?
- I wish I could tell you, I'm just living here
pretending like I don't know how to say that.
- Where are you from?
- I'm from Scottsdale, Arizona originally
and then moved here maybe five years ago now.
- Did you go to Chaparral?
- No, I did not, (laughs) I went to Notre Dame Prep.
- Oh, of course you did, fancy.
- A little Catholic school angel.
- Aren't we all darling, aren't we all?
So how excited, Gottmik, are you that you are standing,
well, somewhat standing before me,
as a finalist on RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 13.
- I cannot believe it.
I mean, I can looking back at how hard I worked
and just how much fun I had and I think that really showed,
so I'm really proud of my spot.
And just overall looking at
how bad I wanted to be on this show for so long.
The fact that I could maybe win this show
is just the craziest thing that I could ever think about
in my entire life.
- Is this the first year that you auditioned?
- No, this is actually my third time.
- Okay, third time lucky, you got in, you're a finalist.
Now, I knew of you, obviously, we have very many mutuals.
We've talked about makeup before.
I'm dying for you to paint my face.
- Yes! - All that stuff,
so we have talked to each other.
But coming into it, I thought, "Oh Gottmik is here."
Now I know you to be a look queen,
I know you to be a makeup artist
but I don't know you to be a performer and what you bring.
We usually see you behind a camera
and doing makeup and things like that.
So I was very intrigued to see
how you were gonna handle it.
And I thought, in the beginning you were super nervous,
which happens. - Yes.
- And then each week that went by, stronger, more confident.
Each look was amazing,
but the more you got into the character,
did you feel yourself blossoming?
- Oh my God, beyond, I can't even begin to tell you
because I think it was also at the beginning,
I walked in there, to me it was just my makeup
and my looks was all that mattered.
I didn't need to like, go out there
and be the craziest performer of life.
And then the show showed me that
I was so much more than that.
And maybe I don't even care about that part of myself
as much as I thought I did, period.
I don't know, I was put in these situations
where I couldn't even think about what I was doing
and just got like shoved out there.
And sometimes it was really good
and I was winning things
that I never thought I would win in my entire life
and I was like, okay well,
Maybe I actually love roasting people.
Maybe I actually love reading people,
maybe I literally wanna go on roast tours now,
like, what is that? (yells)
- Sorry, sorry, I sneezed, it was a sneeze, sorry.
- No, you're good. - Sorry audio.
- That is- - carry on.
(laughs)
- You are a trans man.
So I kept not knowing what pronouns to use
and did not want to misgender.
But there's a conflict here because you are a man
but when you're in drag, you're a she.
So not to offend, I kept saying, "Gottmik, Gottmik",
and then finally they were like,
"Michelle, you can calm down,
she's okay about using the pronoun she when she's in drag."
Am I safe to say that?
- Yes, a thousand percent.
I don't know that many people that feel like me
'cause I am transmasculine, super hard he out of drag, but,
I feel like if I was the only drag queen
not getting called she,
I would be reverse clocking myself in a way.
It's just she's across the board.
- Did you feel any pressure
or did you put any pressure on yourself
being the first trans man in this competition?
Or did you just go with it?
- Yeah, I actually put a lot of pressure on myself
for a while
and that was my favorite thing that Ru said to me was,
she said that me just being here was enough.
You don't have to worry about
making sure everything you say is perfect
and all of that, which I really needed that
because I would full be telling my story
and I'd be stressed about making sure I used the right terms
and all that, which is important,
but also it was just causing me to overthink everything.
And the second Ru and I talked about that
I was like, girl, I just need to let go,
have the most fun of my life here and kill it.
- You live your life one way.
It might not be the same for another trans person.
You, I think are putting pressure on yourself
to be the spokesperson for trans men, when really,
your story is different to somebody else's story.
So I think the best thing you could have done
was let loose and you did and look where you ended up.
- Thank God I'm good at letting loose.
Never knew, but it worked.
- Did you ever think that you would have won Snatch Game
on RuPaul's Drag Race?
- No, I still laugh when I think about that.
Ru even was like, "Are you still gagged you won that?"
And I was like, "Yes,
how will I ever not be gagged that I won that,
as Paris Hilton."
- I'm gagged that you won that.
Because again, contrary to popular belief,
I like when I'm shown up, I like when I'm wrong.
So going into it, I thought, well,
I know what Gottmik is, preconceived judgment, of course,
but that's all I knew.
When you did it and you performed and you were Paris,
you were Paris, you looked just like Paris.
It was like, I'm not kidding, it was unbelievable.
Now I know you have a history with her
and it's much easier when you know somebody
or study somebody, but it was so funny and so good
and I was blown away and I love sitting back and going,
"Oh my God, I was so wrong."
- I'm so happy to hear you say that, that's everything.
That was maybe the most fun I've ever had, too.
I was, the cameras were full off
and we were all just sitting there ready to go
and I was in it,
I had a heel on under the table just to really feel it.
I was just, I got into it.
- You were also the winner of the ball challenge.
- Love that, too.
- Do you make your own stuff
or do you have somebody sew it for you?
- I did go to fashion school
so I can do really one, two, like the basics of it all.
But I love working with designers 'cause they will do things
that I never would've thought of doing.
- When you go to fashion school,
you don't necessarily sit down and learn how to sew, do you?
It's more like about design and then there's marketing
and all that other stuff too, right?
- Yeah, I definitely did all of that
but I also would just have to do
a gorgeous six hours of pattern-making
and all of that awfully boring stuff.
And I might've even blocked out in my mind
because of how much math and weird,
I just hated that, it was not my thing.
So I probably could do less pattern making now
than I did before I went there
'cause I blocked it out, hate that.
- And what I loved about your looks
is that you gave us Gottmik in everything.
But you switched it up.
And I think I kind of told you early on,
if you're gonna do the white face with everything,
you're gonna hit a wall.
It's amazing, it's iconic, it's yours,
but it's also one note the only thing over and over again.
Same thing with Trixie, same thing, you know, with Bianca
and it's kind of, you push, you push
and you don't have to veer too far off
to give us something that's different, but still you.
And did you feel, when you did do other things
that you tapped into something new
that you didn't ever try before?
- Yeah, for sure, I definitely made it a goal
to always kind of,
serve a little something different every week.
And I have done skin tone drag before.
But before I was always like, "Oh, I look too feminine"
and I would kind of like trigger myself.
And so I wouldn't be into it that much.
I don't know if it was 'cause we were just moving so fast
and we had to do things without thinking.
It was kind of the first time
where I was really into how I looked
with just pretty skin tone drag.
And now I'm so down to do it more
and it really opened my mind to that
so it was cool to have that moment for the first time
where I wasn't hating how I looked in normal drag.
- I think the pressure you're putting on yourself
to represent a specific ideal versus just being,
and when you allowed yourself to just be,
you were saying, okay, well I'm walking in my shoes,
I'm not walking in their shoes.
And that works out better for you
because you tapped into things
that you normally wouldn't have done
because of whatever reason, so,
that's exciting to see and it paid off honey,
you were never in the bottom two, how did that feel?
- I cannot believe that.
But I'm really happy for that, looking back.
Yeah, I'm really happy we got to lip sync
that one moment at the beginning
even though that was the most stressful moment of my life.
I did want that little lip sync in front of you guys moment.
So, glad I got it out of the way then.
- What do you say to the kids
that are auditioning for this show?
I think they need to know how difficult it is.
Both mentally, spiritually, and physically.
'Cause you will be broken down and brought back to life.
Having gone through it, getting ready for the final,
what do you say to the kids that are auditioning?
- If you are really wanting to be on this show
you have to make sure you're just in a place
where you're so comfortable with who you are.
This show is gonna force you to realize really fast
that you don't know a lot of (bleep) about yourself
and they're gonna air it on national television,
every single thing you don't know about yourself.
Definitely just go in with an open mind
and I would really recommend that you're also in a place
where you learn that you're competing with yourself
and not the people around you
'cause that is what I learned kind of early on
and I think that's what my saving grace was.
I did not even care what other bitches were doing
as long as I was doing it, it was fine.
- Gottmik, I know that you became friends
with a lot of the queens.
Who are you gonna walk away saying,
"Oh I've got a best friend now, for life."
- I think me and Kandy definitely clicked so crazy, so fast.
I mean, I had seen her online before, we never really talked
and I didn't really expect that from us.
I felt like we were kind of different vibes.
But we both have different paths
that we learned kind of the same lessons from,
if that makes any sense.
And I think we both kind of dealt with our emotions
and this whole weird, stressful situation
in the exact same loud, obnoxious way.
And so anytime I was feeling loud and obnoxious,
even if she wasn't, she would get on my level
and vice versa and so,
I am just so thankful she was there with me the whole time.
Every time let the music play,
we would find each other
and just attack each other every week, it was everything.
(laughs)
- Yes, gorge. - Yes, gorge.
- How was this experience for you?
Are you so glad you did it?
- I'm so glad I did it
and I'm so happy I didn't get on
on the other times I auditioned.
That girl, don't know her anymore.
Even the bitch that walked in the workroom that first day,
I am not that person anymore.
I'm already ready to level up
and this journey isn't even over.
I am just so grateful
that I learned how to push myself so hard
because I think I used to be so comfortable
and I'd be so comfortable
with being in that comfortable zone.
And now anytime I'm comfortable, I'm like,
"Okay time to move on, what's next?"
- Well, look at you.
Who would have thought this beautiful trans man
from Scottsdale, Arizona now Los Angeles,
and the top four of RuPaul's Drag Race.
I am so proud of you, Gottmik.
Seeing you give in to yourself and release
into the whole idea of what RuPaul's Drag Race is
and can be, is not easy to do.
And so many kids produce themselves,
try to be something that they think they should be,
that the people will want instead of just going for the ride
and you were able to do it and it's paid off
and I am so proud that you're standing here in the top four.
- Thank you so much, your critiques and everything
was so helpful for me the whole time.
I cannot thank you enough.
- Aw, thank you, sweetheart.
Let's talk about your final dress.
You and I, before we started filming, we're like,
"It looks pretty sad just sitting by itself."
- Yeah, it's so bad, like this is my final, best drag
and it's just that, like, that's disgusting. (laughs)
- But it was so amazing on.
This was obviously your idea, your concept.
And what was it? Because it's so simple.
How did you make it not look simple?
- Yeah, there was this makeup look that Kabuki did.
- Right.
- I think it was probably late '90s and he just had,
it was skin tone polka dots.
And I looked at that when I was maybe in high school
and I was like, "Oh my God, I'm so obsessed with that."
and I've saved it for so long.
And then I was just going through my Pinterest boards
before I went on the show and I was like,
"I have to do something like this
and I have to level it up into a drag way."
And then me and Dallas figured out this little dress moment.
I was in the workroom and I just spray painted polka dots
all over my hair and teased it into this weird circle,
it was just very, as we go, even Rose was like,
"Why did you wait to the last minute to do all of this?"
And I'm like, "'Cause I don't really know what's happening,
I'm just living."
I just think it's fun.
- That's what giving into the system is.
Not knowing what you're gonna do.
And sometimes it's the best way to be.
I'm a fan of planning, being the Virgo that I am,
but sometimes just winging a little thing here and there
and going, I didn't even plan out.
I love the negative space, polka dot situation.
It's what took it to the next level.
It was amazing and you are amazing.
I am just your biggest fan
and I'm so glad you're standing here.
- Oh, thank you so much.
I could literally cry hearing you say that.
- Well don't cry. - Okay. (laughs)
- Just go for it, give it your best in the final.
And I can't wait to give you a big hug.
- I know I'm gonna hug you so hard
and I'm so excited to kill this finale.
- Well, I'm excited to see you so, good luck.
Condragulations and I shall see you at the final.
- Alright, thank you so much.
- Thank you, Gottmik.
- Love you! - Love you, honey, bye.
- Thanks for watching another episode of Whatcha Packin'
I'll see you next time.
♪ All I want, all I want is to stay up ♪