Trinity the Tuck Talks ‘Drag Race’ Challenge Wins, Strategy & More – Billboard

Since her debut back on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 9, Trinity the Tuck has always made a point to show the other girls on the show what it means to be a fierce competitor. Whether it’s in comedy, fashion, acting, or any of the other assorted tasks thrown at her, Trinity has time and time again turned them into show-stopping performances.

So it’s became no surprise at all when, on the all-winners season of All Stars, Trinity the Tuck managed to break an all-time Drag Race record. With three challenge wins thus far this season, Trinity has officially surpassed past contestants BenDeLaCreme and Manila Luzon in becoming the contestant with the most Maxi Challenge wins across all seasons, with a whopping ten wins under her belt.

The latest of those wins came in the last episode of All Stars 7, where Trinity stomped down the runway in her own, custom-designed, RuPaul-inspired look based off of her season 8 promo. Wowing the judges, Trinity earned her third top spot thus far this season, and managed to win in a lip sync agains Jaida Essence Hall, giving her the power to block fellow competitor Yvie Oddly.

Trinity spoke with Billboard after the episode aired about her record-breaking run on All Stars 7, her affinity for helping out a queen in need, and why she’s more interested in “beating the best” than using strategic subterfuge in the competition.

How has your Pride been going so far?

Well, it’s just been super gay, so that’s been fun. [Laughs.] No, it’s been really great, I feel like there’s been so much more representation this month. Like, right now I’m in London — there’s so many gay and trans flags everywhere, like painted on businesses and windows, and it’s just so great to see the support so far. 

I also wanted to congratulate you, because you recently broke the Drag Race record for most Maxi Challenge wins from a single contestant across all seasons — you are now up to 10 wins total. How does that feel to break that record?

Regardless of what happens in this season, I feel like that is almost more impressive than winning my original season, winning season 4 of All Stars, even winning this season. Having the most wins out of any Ru girl ever… I cannot believe it, that feels so crazy to me. 

For all the fans who love to talk about track records, you are the one now. 

Yeah — I mean, to be clear, track record is definitely not everything. Winning a challenge doesn’t make you the best queen out of everyone, and you can have an amazing career not winning anything! But, it does, for me, feel very self-gratifying to have that validation from the judges, so I am absolutely loving it.

Are there any of those wins in your history that you are particularly proud of?

Oh, honey, all of them! I’ve literally won … almost all of the types of challenges that Drag Race offers. To have a bunch of different types of challenge wins for this makes me so proud, because I do think that certain girls very much have a set aesthetic that people know them for. Like, people will know certain queens as a fashion queen, a comedy queen or whatever. I pride myself on being a very well-rounded queen, not having one set look, not having one type of performance. I just want to do my best in as many areas as possible. 

In this season in particular, you obviously killed both design challenges — when it comes time for you to put together an outfit, where do you usually find yourself drawing inspiration from?

You know, I feel like … as far as inspiration goes, it’s kind of a crap shoot, because you don’t know what fabrics you’re going to get until you get them, so that determines a lot on what the design is going to be. I am not a professional seamstress, I am self-taught, so I know how to make what I know how to make. Fabric choice definitely is a huge part of what I am capable of making, so it depends from moment to moment. This season, the reason why I made what I made the first time was based off of that red pleather fabric, and the same thing happened with the baby blue this time. I was truly just thinking, “What are the biggest silhouettes I could do?” And that dictated the look!

Not only did you do a great job, but you also took time out of making your outfits to go and help the other queens with their outfits — how much of that was sisterly behavior, and how much of it was strategic gameplay to avoid getting blocked?

The thing with the show is, we’re filming for hours, and they have to edit it down to just one hour — you don’t get to see everything that happens. This is my third season, and every single season I have done, I have helped girls out just as much as I have this season. I don’t do things for people based off of what I can get out of them, you know what I mean? I know I made a joke this episode on the runway about doing this so I don’t get blocked, but honestly, I genuinely want to compete with everyone around me succeeding, and me beating them because I was the best, not because of some crazy strategy. Doing stuff for other people was genuinely because I love these girls, I want them to do well, and I want to beat them by being better than their best. 

I get that, you’re not interesting in winning on what some would call a “technicality.” 

No, absolutely not. I have never been that type of competitor, I will be that type of competitor. If I lose fairly, that’s fine — if I deserve to win, I want to win because I was the best. 

As we look back over past seasons, do you have an all time favorite Drag Race moment?

Oh, well it’s obviously when I won All Stars 4. I just feel like … you put in so much work, and there’s only a handful of people that can say, through all of that, that they actually accomplished the end goal, which was winning. So that was definitely a huge milestone in my career.

Anything you’ve been listening to lately?

Absolutely: I’ve been listening to my own music, honey! So, I have been working on a new album that comes out in July, I have several singles that have come out since then. I’m big on listening to my own stuff because I am not a vocalist. [Laughs.] I do music for fun, and to give my fans some content. But this album is honestly super good, and I cannot wait for people to get to listen to it as well!