Yahoo Finance Lady Gaga, Pinhead, and cute crushes pack Gottmik's 'gorge' Celebrity Must List
Category is: Icons stanning icons as RuPaul's Drag Race season 13 breakout Gottmik joins EW to spill on loving Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, and more in our latest Celebrity Must List interview. Watch the video above and read on to see which pop cultural projects had the biggest influence on the drag performer and makeup artist's life, from watching fellow trans trailblazer Chaz Bono come out to gagatrondrizing the cis-tem on mainstream TV alongside the cast of Pose.
Lady Gaga/Twitter; EW; Everett Collection Gottmik reveals obsessions with Lady Gaga, Hellraiser, and more in EW's Celebrity Must List.
Movies
You don't become a queer legend without a little help from the classiques, like Priscilla, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Little Shop of Horrors, and while Gottmik revisits those titles as "comfort films" when winding down, she's recently found another obsession that marries the chaos of cutthroat Los Angeles culture with the adorable sentiment of finding your chosen family — much like the sisterhood she settled into with her season 13 gal pals on Drag Race.
"I've been watching Dreamgirls every f---ing second of my life. Delta had it as an option [on a flight] and I was like, 'Okay, I'll get into this Beyoncé fantasy right now,' and I've literally been watching it every single week on flights," Gottmik says. "It's very L.A. vibes, climbing on top of each other to be famous, and then they realize their friendships are the most important thing in the world, and that the industry is awful. I feel like that's a lesson everyone learns eventually. It grounds me to get my s--- together!"
Gottmik also has a thing for demonic entities from the underworld, as she crafted an entire season 13 finale look with inspiration from the Hellraiser film series — a move that landed her an audition to play the part of Pinhead in the upcoming Hulu remake.
"When they saw my Hellraiser [look], they gave me the audition for Pinhead. I did [go on tape]! But I wasn't menacing enough!" Gottmik says with a laugh. "I had to read a bunch, I was in my apartment, against the wall, full-on trying to be Pinhead, pretending to pull needles out of my head, just going in! It was so funny!"
Lady Gaga/Twitter Lady Gaga's 'Chromatica' album cover
Music
Like virtually all queer people, Gottmik has a prestige passport to the land of Chromatica, the glitter-dusted planet ruled by President Gaga that provided a heavenly, aural escape from the chaos of 2020 via the house-infused national anthems on its tracklist.
"It came out during the pandemic, so I couldn't get off to a club to it every second, so I never had that moment right when it came out, but it prolonged in my brain, imagining being in a club to it!" Gottmik says. "That's seriously my favorite album ever right now."
TV
Gottmik draws her brows sky high on her signature, clown-white face, but her reality TV standards are down and dirty.
"I haven't watched anything else but this show for the past month: I've been watching The Girls Next Door every day!" Gottmik admits, gushing over Hugh Hefner's Playboy-themed E! docuseries that ran from 2005-2010. "It's a random, obscure show, I love a fun, little girly, mindless show with crazy editing. The editing gets me going!"
FX Hailie Sahar, Indya Moore, Mj Rodriguez, and Dominique Jackson on 'Pose'
Best "crash the cis-tem" pop culture moment
While Gottmik appreciates the simpler things on TV, her "favorite crash the cis-tem moment currently would just be Pose in general," she tells EW of the milestone FX series that follows the lives of a group of trans women (and their queer companions) throughout the New York City ball scene in the '80s and '90s.
"I'm so obsessed with that show. The way they handled every single trans issue is so real, based on true events sometimes! And then [the actors] on the show are iconic, amazing trans people as well! It's just so good, I can't believe I get to experience that on actual TV," she explains. "Growing up, the lack of trans representation was what influenced me. I remember exactly where I was the second I heard about Chaz Bono coming out, I remember all of those moments that influenced me, but I never connected with them. That's probably what made me who I am today!"
Wigs
"The best wig moment in pop culture history for me was [Gaga's] 'Telephone' video, across the board. It was the first time in my life that I saw a wig moment and clocked it, like, this is everything and I need wigs in my life," she says with a laugh. "Every single one of them: Coke cans, Beyoncé's hair with the bangs, everything I'm so obsessed with!"
Wildest celebrity interaction
Fan affection wasn't the only thing Gottmik caught across season 13; she also wrangled the attention of Grande, who posted a series of Instagram videos documenting her attempt to recreate the drag star's makeup.
"She was just posting it. I feel like she's so funny, like she was doing it as a joke and thought it was so funny that she had to post it," Gottmik recalls. "I posted it, and she was sending me painting [emojis]. I was like, 'Why are you sending me that?' and she was like, 'Because you're artistry!' It was so funny, I'm obsessed with her."
Makeup
"When I think of celebrity makeup, I go to Halsey. She does her own makeup, and comes from an actual painting background, which is very my vibe, too. That's how I got into makeup, so I relate to her and I love to see what she's doing on her eyes," Gottmik says, referencing her non-drag profession as a trans man (she uses she/her pronouns in drag, and he/him out of drag) known for his ace skills in beating famous faces like Heidi Klum, RuPaul, and Paris Hilton. "It's so weird that she's doing a full show that's so much, and then she's just backstage painting her own face. I love that!"
Noam Galai/Getty Images Adam Lambert
Celebrity crushes
Cara Delevingne and Adam Lambert, if you're reading this: Slide into Gottmik's DMs, because the performer cites both of you as real-life celebrity crushes.
"I'm obsessed with [Adam's] vibe and everything, and I've been obsessed with him for so long," she says. "Every time I hang out with him, he's such an amazing person, and so funny and so talented!"
Subscribe to EW's BINGE podcast for full recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race, including our new season diving into all five All Stars seasons, featuring exclusive interviews with Jujubee, Alexis Mateo, Shea Couleé, Alaska, Detox, BenDeLaCreme, Kennedy Davenport, and more. And be sure to catch up on our BINGE recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race seasons 1-13 with Symone, Jaida Essence Hall, Trixie Mattel, Katya, Peppermint, Bianca Del Rio, Bob the Drag Queen, Sasha Velour, and more!
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