“I hope the noise of me eating doesn’t disgust you. Sometimes I’ll have to leave the movies if someone is chewing popcorn too loudly. The noise disgusts me.” Within the first thirty seconds of sitting with writer, director, producer & performer, Peaches Christ, you know this won’t be just any old interview. And thank the Lord for that. Amen!
Having moved to San Francisco, at the behest of her icon John Waters no less, Peaches first made herself known at Trannyshack before launching her own night, Midnight Mass, where she screened cult movies, before creating her own skits, parodies, short films, feature films and more. Michael Turnbull sat down with her to discuss dinner round Elvira’s, casting Bob the Drag Queen in Legally Black and the importance of diversity. (Thanks to Fallon Gold for her editing eye.)

Were you always aiming for this kind of scale?
No, it was a total accident. I thought I would be a filmmaker until I met my idol, John Waters. Discovering John and I were both from Maryland really changed my life, because we had similar upbringings and I totally related to the world he was reflecting. But I didn’t want to be John Waters. I say to young people now, ‘Don’t try and be RuPaul, there will never be another RuPaul, Divine or John Waters. Be your own version of the people that inspire you.’
Then I became friends with these people I idolise and that’s very surreal for me, even today. I go to Elvira’s house for dinner and to John’s Christmas parties. I am a person who worshipped these people, so it’s a delicate balance between true friendship versus fandom.

How long has Peaches Christ been in existence?
My first time in drag was at Penn State University in 1995, for a movie called Jizz Mopper. Back then drag was dangerous. I got threatened, run off the road by a trucker. I was a young, queer activist who was also very femme. For me, drag was part of being a radical queer.
Originally I was only Peaches, not Christ, because the cinematographer that I worked with was a Christian and really offended by that notion. But then when I moved to San Francisco, I became Peaches Christ.
Then at Trannyshack, I would perform Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s a Sin’ as a priest giving people abortions. In those early years it was all sacrilege, horror and religious-gore. I was a Catholic kid who had grown up being told that my queerness would send me to hell. The name Christ was used to hurt and humiliate me. Reclaiming the word Christ was political.

Tell me about Trannyshack.
Trannyshack was a very wild, niche, outrageous, drag cabaret. It really was an inclusive environment – cis-gay men, cis-women, trans women. It was such a wild and wonderful time. In ‘96/’97 we didn’t have these other words, we were all queens. ‘Tranny’ was an umbrella term used affectionately.
We were performing for each other. Performers for performers. Many of us are still making a living being creative artists and performers today. Ana Matronic, of course, went on to do the Scissor Sisters…

Ana was part of Trannyshack?
Yes, a dear friend of ours. We were all ambitious, which led us to build wild careers almost by accident. Ana didn’t know she was going to become a rock/pop star. I didn’t know I would become a cult movie queen.
I look at drag now and think, ‘OK, now there’s this road map of how to become successful and it’s by getting on a reality show.’ I love Drag Race, don’t get me wrong, but when only thirteen people a year get that opportunity, I often tell other queens, ‘There is another way…’

And only one queen from San Francisco.
Yeah, although many of us have been pursued by the casting directors and chosen not to submit audition tapes. I mean my whole career has been built on being niche, cult, alternative and literally for an audience that is on the outside, even in the drag community.
In some ways I think Dragula is a better reflection of drag in San Francisco. The Boulet Brothers hosted it as a regular night here in San Francisco for a while.

And now you perform before screening a movie?
Well, it was different formats back then. One week it could be a Joan Crawford movie and the pre-show might be Mother/Daughter mud-wrestling, where drag queens would wrestle each other. We did drag queen roller derby in the theatre. The whole audience had to sign a Release of Liability form before they came in because people would get hurt. Drag queens were actually being thrown into the audience. We broke a lot of laws, I cannot believe I was never shut down.
The first celebrity who came to my night, Midnight Mass was Mink Stole and because of Mink we invited Elvira, Linda Blair, Bruce Campbell, the cast of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, John Waters, Tura Satana the star of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Pam Grier, Apollonia from Purple Rain, Barry Bostwick from Rocky Horror and Patricia Quinn too – she plays Magenta. I look at the list and go, ‘Wow!’ It has been my life. Ultimately to this day I am a fan first.

Did you have to compromise on anything to make sure you were making money?
Sure. It’s a bummer. I went from doing 400 seats at Midnight Mass movie shows to 1,400 seats at the Castro Theatre. That’s forced me to be popular in a way that I don’t always love which is why a lot of people who come to my shows and are surprised by how twisted they are.
If I do Steel Magnolias, it’s going to be the Peaches Christ version. Truvie is named after Truvada. Annelle’s name is Anal because it’s Alaska Thunderfuck. Shelby was a pageant queen who was toying with the idea of quitting drag. So we were having to feed her mimosas and make her sniff poppers to remind her how gay she was. But she wanted to be heteronormative and a lawyer. So Mahlae Balenciaga, who is a fantastic queen, comes out as a man in the last act of the show. It was really shocking for the audience. That’s the drag world I come from – it’s rotten.
Sometimes I have to do content I am not inspired by, like Legally Blonde. So I make it Legally Black and cast Bob the Drag Queen and then I made a show that I fucking love. It was about the hypocrisy of what is possibly the whitest movie you could ever watch. I had to find a film that would sell tickets but then find a way for me to be interested in it.
I’m all about the subversive. That’s why I knew Loverboy because of your Francois Sagat shoot. I just adore him, partly because of that cover you did. It was amazing! He’s just so fabulous, he’s an artist. Have you seen LA Zombie?

Of course!
One year I was at Sitges Horror Festival with one of my films and they do this Zombie Walk there, where all these Spanish teenage boys literally walk around like zombies. LA Zombie played immediately after. So you have an audience of Spanish teenagers, kids(!), who have come to do this fun little zombie walk, all dressed up, LA Zombie movie posters all over town, nothing about porn. It’s just Francois Sagat in a big monster costume. When he starts fucking that guy’s brain?! The teens thought they were going to be horrified one way, and they were completely mortified in another way!

Do you do charity work as well?
One of the great parts of drag is not just that it can be political but also that it can be philanthropic. My beneficiary of choice is called Shanti. They formed in response to the AIDS crisis in San Francisco and helped people who were dying but could not afford basic necessities. Peaches Christ has raised something like $60k for them. I’m super proud of that relationship.

How important is diversity for you when it comes to casting?
The drag world I come from included The Cockettes, women, bearded queens and more, so I’m really lucky to have inherited that. I do recognise that a lot of drag communities are not as naturally diverse as the San Francisco scene. It would be very easy, if I weren’t conscious of it and just based on sheer numbers, to have all white casts. But I don’t care if people were white in the movie, they can be Asian, Black, Latino, whatever! Our casting is intentionally diverse.
I’m very open to evolving. I remember when people were upset because Heklina changed the name of Trannyshack – especially older gay men. But we were baffled by that, because the name was never offensive but it is now. I’ve never set out to offend my own community. In fact I want to create a space for the queerest of the queers, to feel like our show is their church, their home. That’s what a true cult is.

What do you make of Ru’s recent comments?
I wish I had more context about where and when Ru made these comments because I think it’s really easy to pull a quote out from an interview and make someone look a certain way. But she is essentially part of the trans community. She lived and worked on the streets of New York as a female sex worker. This person has Candis Cayne on her TV show. This person I do not believe is anti-trans.
I bet of all the people who take RuPaul’s Drag Race seriously, Ru is on the bottom of the list. She knows it’s a fucking TV show, produced by people that are interested in making money. I’m guessing her commentary had more to do with that she believed would be allowed on the show versus her own sense of community.
Drag on television will eventually reflect its evolution in the clubs and communities. They’re going to exploit the first time they have a trans woman on who has breasts. They’re going to exploit the first time they have a cis woman on, because it’s fucking Hollywood. If you’re looking to Drag Race to be a reflection of our drag community, you’re making a big mistake.
I would encourage anyone who knows only about Drag Race to go out and discover artists like Christeene, Dina Martina. There are plenty of drag performers who are never going to be on a TV show like that.

What’s next for you?
I have formed a new production company called Into The Dark and I’ll be creating my first ever interactive, immersive, theatrical haunt and it will be at The Mint.
I think Peaches fans will be surprised by how scary it is and horror fans will be surprised by how campy it is. When you go into this cult leader’s demonic lair it will be scary but when the leader is doing her monologue it’ll have some sassy quips.
I also have my second film called Slay Gardens, which is two drag queens who have performed the same Grey Gardens parody for forty years. It’s Grey Gardens mashed up with Phantom of the Opera and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? It’s me, Jinkx & Bob the Drag Queen. I said to Jinkx, ‘I hope you’re comfortable wearing prosthetics! I’m turning you into an eighty year-old lady.’

What is your favourite Mariah song?
As a movie person who had dismissed her, to then see her sporting a moustache in Precious, I was really blow away by that performance. It really made me love her.

Find out more about Peaches Christ and her shows at www.PeachesChrist.com or on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter.