Ginger Minj Still Can’t Believe She Got Career Advice From Bette Midler: ‘She’s My New Drag Mother’

It’s been a while since she was on the set, but Ginger Minj is finally catching up with the fact that she got to act alongside Bette Midler.

In the long-awaited Halloween sequel Hocus Pocus 2, Minj plays a drag queen portraying a version of Midler’s Winifred Sanderson, where she got to act opposite the iconic actress, poking fun at her character. It’s just one of the Halloween-themed projects (including the Huluween Dragstravaganza and her new Hocus Pocus-themed tour) that the Drag Race star has been pursuing this month.

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“It’s like a season of Drag Race, where you’re constantly in ‘go go go’ mode, and it’s not until you’re on the plane home when you’re like, ‘Wait, what just happened?'” she tells Billboard over the phone.

With the spooky season upon us, Billboard caught up with Minj, where she chatted about the advice she got from Midler on set, the queer community’s love of Halloween, and which costumes she does not want to see this year.

Let’s talk about some of the good news that’s been happening for you, because there’s a lot. You’re ridiculously busy right now, how have you been handling your schedule?

Oh, I feel amazing — this is what I’ve worked my entire life for, and it really just goes to prove what my grandmother always says, which is, “You have to work your entire life to become an overnight sensation.” And that’s finally starting to make a little bit of sense to me.

There’s a lot of projects to break down, the biggest of which is Hocus Pocus 2. It’s so cool to see you in this movie — first off, tell me about how you got cast.

I was playing Ursula in this Disney villains drag tour over in the U.K. last October, and I got a phone call from Anne Fletcher, who had directed another movie I did, Dumplin‘, a couple of years ago. She was blowing up my phone in the middle of the night — so I text her, like, “Mary, it is 3:00 in the morning, this better be important.” She said, “Ging, call me.” So I did, and she told me, “You know, I’m doing Hocus Pocus 2 — you’re gonna do it with me, I created a part for you where I want you to tell us the other two queens we should cast.”

I fully went back to bed, and the next thing I know, the next day there’s all of these emails from my agent talking to Disney so I could reschedule my flights to go do some fittings, and the next thing that happened was I left the U.K., I got my costume fitting, and they told me they chose Kahmora [Hall] and Kornbread [Jeté] from my list. I love the both of them, and the three of us were sitting in the trailer that first day getting ready to go to set just absolutely freaking out. Like, “We’re about to be two feet away from these icons.” And let’s be clear — they are icons, particularly in the drag community. We were just like, “What do we do, what do we say, what if they decide they don’t like us anymore?”

What was it like being on set, especially with the stars you were portraying?

The moment we walked up on the set, the three ladies [Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy] looked at us, and each of our counterpoints came up to us and started saying these really nice things about us and our careers. Like, Bette Midler told me, “You were robbed!” This was right after All Stars 6, and I don’t know that she’s ever seen an episode of Drag Race in her life, but I’ll tell you what; it did the trick. It disarmed me, it made me feel very comfortable, it was so cool.

Kathy went to Kornbread and said, “You’re too beautiful, you need to be on that show, you want me to call RuPaul and get you on?” And Sarah Jessica Parker and Kahmora were basically exchanging their skincare routines in the corner — you could tell that they did their homework on how exactly to make us feel welcome. They really respected who we are and what we did. They tried their best to make us feel like equals! Which, P.S., we’re not! We will never be their equals! Ever!

It wasn’t until the last day, the last shot they were getting was the witches flying over the crowd. So, we’re standing off on the little grassy knoll, and the director screams, “One, two, three, fly!” And they just took off over our heads, and the three of us just grabbed each others’ hands and started crying a little bit looking at this. I mean, Hocus Pocus was a huge part of my life from the time I was nine years old, and it didn’t hit me until that moment that I was a part of something that really shaped who I was for all of these years.

There’s certainly something to be said for the fact that, a big reason why Hocus Pocus got this sequel was because there are a lot of LGBTQ fans who adore this movie and campaigned for it.

Oh, you can’t walk into a drag bar anywhere in the world from roughly September 1 to November 1 and not see a trio of drag queens performing “I Put a Spell on You.” It’s just what we do — we have largely kept it alive for all of these years, and I thought it was very special that they wanted to acknowledge that in the sequel. I wish they would have given us more lines and acknowledged it a little bit more, but it was nice just to have that little bit there.

On top of the superficial stuff with the crazy makeup and costumes and wigs and singing and dancing and all of that, these three witches are… yes, they’re witches and they suck the souls out of children, but I also feel like they were completely misunderstood by the people in Salem. Especially when they show you in the sequel what drove them to become the way that they are, and… I think a lot of queer people have felt that way in their lives. They felt like, “You don’t understand us, so you shun us and run us out of town, and you don’t really give us a chance to… not fit in, but find our old place here.” I think that’s more the deeper level of why queer people are so attracted to their characters.

Well, let’s break down something you mentioned, because it’s definitely noteworthy that Disney is featuring drag queens in their movies, but we can all recognize that there’s more to be done — a lot of people think Ursula should have been cast as a drag queen in the upcoming Little Mermaid adaptation.

Well, you know, they did come to me about Ursula! In their defense, we had some meetings, we went through a few rounds of auditions, I made it further than I ever thought I would have a chance of making it. They ended up getting some cold feet and went in a safer route, and… I’m not sitting here saying that they were ever really going to give it to me, I’m saying they had opened it up to queer artists and drag queens, and then sort of went another direction. So, it was really nice when they circled back around to this, because you could tell that they have a mission to kind of make things a little bit more inclusive, and a little bit better. I think this is a great baby step.

What sort of effect do you see these sorts of baby steps having on future representation in Disney projects?

If they continue on the path that they’ve been, like with us and this movie and some other projects where they’ve been incorporating queer artists, I really feel like change is coming. Maybe Hocus Pocus 3 is the witches coming back to fight the drag queens for a spot in the local show. [Laughs.] Who knows? I’m just manifesting it out there into the world.

I mean, we’re doing this big Hocus Pocus Halloween tour right now, and it’s so cool — on the last day of filming, Bette said to me, “I really just love the way that you do me, and I’d like to see you take this and turn it into something else for you. Run with it!” So I said, “You know what, Bette Midler is my new drag mother, and I’m gonna follow her advice.” The show is so fantastic and so funny, it has my favorite parts of the second movie and rolled them into a completely original story with 11 musical numbers that range from “Tomorrow” from Annie to “Read U Wrote U” from Drag Race to “WAP.” I don’t know if you’ve ever wanted to see the Sanderson Sisters singing “WAP,” but now’s your chance.

This is also just one of the projects you’ve worked on this year, because you also starred in the Huluween Dragstravaganza with Monét X Change. What was that like to film?

It was so much fun, we had the best time. Monét and I, our stuff was so separate from what all of the other girls did, except for the finale. That was such a fun day, though it was kind of chaotic. But it was so fun, and the best part was that we didn’t get to see what the others did until the special dropped. So as much as I felt like we were this huge overarching part of the special, there were still so many surprises for me as a viewer. Hulu treated us like royalty, which is not always the case when big companies bring drag artists in; sometimes we are treated like a novelty. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been brought into acting projects where they are genuinely surprised that I know how to act. Like, I got into drag because of theater! I find it amusing when people are like, “Oh my god, you’re the real deal!”

With it being the spooky season (a.k.a. peak drag season aside from Pride Month), I’ve got a few rapid fire questions for you. First up, why do you think Halloween has essentially been rebranded at this point as Gay Christmas?

I think it’s because Halloween is a safe space for weirdos, for folks who feel different. You can dress up in wild costumes, so why can’t you throw a wig and heels on and explore that side of yourself? I feel like so many queer folks and oddballs always feel really comfortable, because for once it’s good to stick out and be different from everybody else.

Do you have a favorite horror movie?

I’m not a horror fan, I don’t like blood, and I don’t like anything with kids or animals getting hurt — but weirdly, my favorite horror franchise is Nightmare on Elm Street. [Laughs.] I think it’s because, once you get past the first movie which is truly terrifying, Freddy Krueger is really just a stand up comedian with a bunch of wild dad jokes! I love corny s–t, and Freddy Krueger is that. I wanna see his stand-up special.

Finally, with all of the performances that you do around this time of year, what costumes are you tired of seeing? What should people not go as for Halloween?

I think it’s in poor taste to do anything related to Jeffrey Dahmer or any other serial killer. I only mention that because, after the Netflix show came out and blew up, I’ve seen all of these people talking about how they’re gonna do him for Halloween, “I’m gonna be this victim, I’m gonna be John Wayne Gacy.” While there is maybe a weird, camp fascination to that, it’s still glorifying and celebrating something that needs to be shown respect. What might be really funny or kitschy to you really does not come across that way to people who were genuinely affected. Just be socially aware of how what you do impacts the people that are around you — be silly and be campy and have fun! If you wanna be a killer, be Freddy Krueger, be Jason. Be someone who doesn’t actually exist.

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