Trixie Mattel talks Drag Me Home & RuPaul thinking she's filthy rich

Out: The first season of Trixie Motel aired in 2022. When did you know that the show would get a second season?

Trixie Mattel: Oh my god. Like, 15 months later after airing. I love Trixie Motel, and we made season 1 to be a standalone show that had a nice ending. We weren't… I guess, in 2024, you can't ever hold onto half of your story until the second season, because you never know. But I was really surprised.

We always had ideas for other seasons, and we still have ideas for other seasons, like other properties and motels. But [David and I] were organically getting ready to move in together when we got renewed. So it was like, 'Oh, so with this season, let's do our home.'

We thought it would be less stressful because, in some ways, it's not a business... it's just our house. But it was more stressful in a lot of ways because it is our house.

So season 2 wasn't always going to be about finding a home? And this season could've been about different properties? I think a lot of fans were theorizing about that when it came to a second season.

I don't know if people even knew there would be a second season, but I guess you would expect there to be a second motel. We really do want to open one. We talk about other locations in other cities all the time. We've talked about Nashville, we've talked about Florida, we've talked about Big Bear, Joshua Tree… we've talked about Los Angeles, we've talked about London. We've talked about all different types of Trixie Motels.

But, yeah, the show got renewed when we were really, actually looking for our house. So rather than drop everything and fabricate what was going on, we decided to actually just go with it. We were about to get a house, and we were going to renovate it, so it had a lot of the same DNA as the [first] season.

This season has a lot of funny moments between you and David, but there are also really endearing moments. Without giving too much away, there's a particular scene when David talks about what a hard-working person you are, and my reaction was like, 'Oh, I thought I was just here to laugh, but I'm suddenly all in my feels.'

Yeah, it was real. We took a long time to move in together. Part of that is because I've been working since I met him. But also, it's really weird to have opened a motel and still not live together.

If you guys watched season 1, or watch my YouTube channel, you can see that I live on top of my drag. There's nowhere for another person. Everywhere is just full of wigs, shoes, costumes, and makeup. There was always a big barrier because of my career. I'm also gone half of the year.

So season 1 ended with me getting in a car and going on tour. Obviously, we did the stylized version of that. We didn't take a pink convertible all over the country [laughs], but I did tour until we got this house. I've been touring since season 1 of Trixie Motel. And then, as soon as I finished, we got this house.

We need to talk about this. I could not believe it when you called a real estate agent and it turned out to be Christine Quinn. I could not believe it.

I know!

I was dying. How did you meet Christine? How did this come about? I need to know everything. I'm obsessed.

Well, I do this digital series on Netflix called I Like To Watch and we watched Selling Sunset when it came out. This was early on in I Like To Watch. It was when the show was new, and Selling Sunset was new.

A lot of times, if Katya and I watch the show, the stars of it or the creators of it watch us watching it. And Christine is, obviously, a stone's throw away from being a full-blown drag queen. I think she's just missing some razor burn and a drinking problem… and then she could be a drag queen. But I've always loved her, we talked in the DMs, and we've stayed social media friends. So when we were looking for a realtor, David was like, 'Well, since you know Christine…' because he loves Selling Sunset, so I was like, 'I guess, yeah, I'll ask Christine.'

And Christine left Selling Sunset, so it felt so good to see her again. It was really fun.

She's great. Looking for houses and filming with her was really fun because she's really beautiful, and glamorous, and funny, but she also is a realtor. So it's interesting to watch her spout off about realtor knowledge. She actually isn't just a model. She's a realtor.

The Property Brothers also make an appearance in this first episode. I know they produced and made appearances in the first season, but I think their little scene in the Drag Me Home premiere was pretty funny.

We had them pop in during the first season of Trixie Motel because we work with Scott Brothers Entertainment on the show. That's their production company. And the Scott Brothers love drag, so if they ever had time, they would come to set and say hi.

This season, because it's Trixie Motel: Drag Me Home, we bought a house in Hollywood, and we really wanted it to look and feel like Hollywood. So David had the idea to reference movies while filming the show. He wanted to do Pillow Talk and was like, 'Let's do a telephone scene.' Because, I mean, we're doing reality, but I'm in a wig… so we're doing reality, but a lot of times we're doing a very heightened [version of] reality. That's how drag queens live. We just live in a heightened reality.

So we got the Scott Brothers to do a scene where we ask them for help… but instead of asking them for help with the designer, why don't we do the Trixie Motel version of that, where we make it a little play?

Yeah, they're shaving in the bathroom, and it's just funny. I think that's why the 'earnest' moments resonate even more — because the rest of the show is all about this heightened reality, and these cute scenes, which are so camp and drag.

When I bought the house, I was nervous because I really hadn't told David that I bought it… but I also really thought he would like it. I would never have bought this house if I was single. I bought this house because l knew David was going to love this. It was perfect for us. We've spent a lot of our relationship apart, so after the lockdown and everything, I was just ready to settle down, stay home more, and be with him more.

In the first episode, you see us house shopping, and you can tell we have strong opinions. I don't know. I hate when people watch house-hunting style shows and everyone is so mid about everything. I'm a person of extremes, so I either love it or I hate it. With this house, I loved it. I wanted it.

There's this meme on the internet about people on HGTV shows who are like, 'Oh, I'm a stay-at-home dad and my wife is a teacher, and our budget is $5 million.' And we're like, 'Where is all this money coming from?!' But I actually felt like the conversations about your budget on Trixie Motel: Drag Me Home made sense. You seemed actually nervous to go over the budget. It felt relatable, and it all made sense.

No, especially… I don't know how other people do it. But the way that we do it is, we go off of what things cost. It's easier to go off the truth than to fabricate everything. So it's just easy for us to just be like, 'Well, this house was $3 million, so why would we lie about how much it is?'

Just like season 1 of Trixie Motel, you have a few guest stars on Drag Me Home. Can you talk about the celebrities who are appearing in season 2?

So, this is the Hollywood season, right? Season 1 was all about Palm Springs, and the desert, and vacation… and this season is about Hollywood. This house is nestled a few blocks from Netflix, a few blocks from World of Wonder, and all my little jobs where I go film on camera.

We really wanted it to be very Hollywood, right? And so many of real friends are other singers, musicians, actors, comedians… again, if I'm involving my friends in a process like this, they probably would be other performers.

Spoiler alert: we get a lot of house porn this season. We go inside Orville Peck's, Lisa Vanderpump's, and Katya's houses. So even if you're not watching for the house porn of my house, you can watch for the house porn of other people's houses.

But you know, these are all people who are friends of mine. They're artists who worked for their money and bought a house. I value their opinion, or them telling me that my nerves are valid, that my stress is valid. And I love having my friends around to work on things.

In season 1, I loved having Orville come do some demolition with me, I loved Vanderpump coming to see the property with me. So, this season, I feel like my friends have superpowers. Orville was so good at making a house his. Vanderpump is so good at knowing what to change and not to change in a house.

And Katya… I can be the most honest with her about what's going on, and about what's not working, because it's stressful. Filming this was 10 times more stressful than season 1 of Trixie Motel.

Did you expect that?

No! I thought it would be easier. But it's like, 'Oh, it's just for us.' But, to be honest, this is a house, so we're going to have to see it every day and live in it. It also has to function like a house.

A commercial property has to function like a commercial property, which is really different. This place had to be what we wanted. Otherwise, I'm going to have to hear from David for the rest of my life that it didn't turn out like he wanted.

I can see how the rooms in the Trixie Motel can be as wild as you want. You're not going to live there. But in your home, you need to make sure you can stand this aesthetic every single day of your life.

Right. And since this was 'the Hollywood season,' in addition to having Hollywood celebrities as guests, we also really wanted to do heavy Hollywood regency for the house. A lot of bold colors, a lot of rich textures, a lot of animal prints and gold finishes. And Hollywood regency interiors came from people watching TV and wanting their houses to look opulent like the houses on TV.

The design almost makes people's houses look like little TV sets, and we really wanted that, so the aesthetic is very different from season 1. I actually think it's faster, and it's funnier, and more surreal. The scene where I'm sitting at the bus stop in drag… [laughs] there are things we could do, because it's Los Angeles, that we could not have done in Palm Springs. Los Angeles is weirder.

I love that scene. You say something like, 'Let's get into more comfortable clothes,' and then you're in full drag, totally uncomfortable, sitting at a bus stop waiting for Christine Quinn to come in a Lamborghini.

Yeah. She picked me up in a yellow Lamborghini. It's like, 'What is life?'

It comes up on the show that you would keep your apartment for your drag, and the house would be for you as a couple. Is that how it's still functioning right now? Did you keep the apartment for content?

Yeah, my condo that you see in season 1 is where I've lived for a lot of years. That is my YouTube stuff, my podcast stuff, and I have a little bed there. I do end up sleeping there some days when I have to get up at six in the morning to get in drag. And if it's a late night, the night before, it's easier to just crash there.

So, I do end up sleeping there. I still have my fridge, and my toothbrush, and I do end up crashing there semi-often.

Any plans for future seasons of Trixie Motel?

Don't even get me started! I would love to do… well, there's a few. With the motel, we matched it to Palm Springs, but I would love to do a London one. I would love to do a Nashville one. I would love to do a Milwaukee one. I would love to do Florida. And Vegas, I would love to do a Vegas one.

There are so many places I would love to do more motels, and then I also would love to do a season where… I really want a cabin. I'm a country boy. I want a cabin, so I could renovate a cabin for a season, too. Like, a vacation home.

Also, one of my dreams would be to do a 'gay bar 911 show' where I go to struggling gay bars and help them revamp their reno and entertainment, whip their management and bartenders into shape. and I'm a big fan of Tabatha Takes Over and Bar Rescue and Queer Eye, and all of those level-up-your-life shows.

Gay bars are closing left and right, and I would love to do a show where we spotlight the story of a gay bar, talk to the owners, talk to the community about why it's great, and then we diagnose some of the problems.

I've owned gay bars, I own a motel, I own a makeup company. I know how much little things can be tweaked, and how they can change an entire business' prognosis. I would love to use the skills I've built in renovation and business-owning to help other gay bars. That would be my dream. You'd watch that, right?

I would totally watch that, and I think local business owners would trust you. You run so many businesses, and you've been so successful. You would actually know what to do.

I've run so many businesses, but I've also been a shot girl, a bartender, a bar back. I've cleaned motel rooms. I had to work for the money to do these things, and I had to start at the bottom when I was trying to do these things. I would listen to my advice.

I've also performed in every gay bar on the planet at this point. I think that's given me a third eye, a sixth sense of, 'Okay, I know what should be different here. Your programming should be this, your drink programs suck. People can't see or hear the drag queens. You need an outdoor smoking area.'

And AC. Of course AC.

Oh, AC, of course. But I'm always in gay bars looking around, being like, 'Wait, why is it set up like this? Why is the bar over there? The bar should be over there, and then the stage should be over there, and then why is there a cover on a Tuesday night?' You know what I mean?

There's a lot of talk about this season because, obviously, you're buying a home and you're renovating it. Out of curiosity: in that talk show interview where RuPaul says how rich you are, and really emphasizes it, where do you think RuPaul got that information?

I have no idea! Apparently, RuPaul is my accountant, because I have no f*cking idea. By the way, she says it as if she's a little latchkey kid…? Like she's not f*cking 10, 15, 20 times richer than me, you know what I mean? [laughs]

But that's what's funny about it.

I was very flattered. But I was also like, 'Is RuPaul doing my TurboTax? Is she doing my QuickBooks? I don't know.'

It's the fact that RuPaul talked about you as if you were as rich as RuPaul, or maybe even richer than RuPaul? The way it's talked about is just like, 'Where did she get that idea from?'

Please print that in this article, that I'm richer than RuPaul! Please, tell everyone! But no, you know how I took it? I took it as, 'Oh, she really must pay attention to my career. She must think I'm out here just printing money.' So I guess I took it as, 'Wow. I impressed RuPaul.' I'll take it.

I laughed so hard, and it's so funny, to me. It's weird enough to hear RuPaul say your name, you know? But it's weird… I really keep mentally coming back to, 'Okay, but why does she think I'm Bill Gates?' All the rich people I know don't work at all, and everybody knows that I work every f*cking day, so I don't know.