Since we were first introduced to her on season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race, we have had a sweet tooth for Peppermint. The multi-talented performer has appeared on stage and screen and has released two parts of her “Letters to My Lovers” musical trilogy. She has also faithfully recreated some of Janet Jackson’s most iconic videos, including “Rhythm Nation” and “If.”
Peppermint returned to the reality world with her appearance in the Emmy Award-winning series The Traitors, currently streaming on Peacock. Pep was one of 21 reality stars, including cast members from The Challenge, Survivor, Big Brother, and The Real Housewives franchise. The new season’s premiere episode was the most-watched reality season debut on Peacock.
Set in a remote castle deep in the Scottish Highlands, five-time Emmy-nominated host (and national treasure) Alan Cumming welcomes these larger-than-life personalities as they come together to compete in a series of challenges with the objective of earning a cash prize of up to $250,000. In addition to challenges and missions, several contestants (dubbed “the Traitors”) will devise a plan to steal the prize from the other contestants (“the Faithful”) without revealing who's stabbing them in the back.
In the second episode of the series, Peppermint was banished (in other words, she had to sashay away) after falling victim to her cast mates’ victim of this group's mob mentality, in large part thanks to Trishelle Cannatella from The Real World: Las Vegas and The Challenge.
We had the chance to chat with Peppermint about her (far too brief) time on the show and what’s next for her in our exclusive interview.
First of all, you hardly strike me as the deceptive type. How did you end up getting cast on this season of The Traitors?
I mean, it's one of my favorite shows. I love murder mysteries and maybe that's where I went wrong. I didn't necessarily go there to deceive, but I mean, I don't really know what's fully involved in a show like The Traitors. I mean, I do now but I was under the impression as a viewer, it's really easy to think that there's just three deceptive people who are the traitors and everyone else is honest and a faithful. That's an easy mistake to make, I think. I also wasn't sure to what degree the physical, the strength and the physicality when it goes into the missions and the other things. I mean, there's a mission on every episode and half of them are probably very physical. And the other ones that I've seen, at least from being a spectator, utilize musical skill and things like that. And so, I wasn't sure to what degree someone's value would be shown through their ability to help with the missions.
Watching shows like Survivor and other shows, you know, when they are figuring out, oh, who are we going to vote off? It does come into consideration, even in that moment. Well, they are really good at challenges or missions and they do help with this. And so I was hoping that I'd be around long enough to show my worth. And, you know, there's a lot that they had to show in the first couple of episodes, but I busted my behind in those missions and I wanted to show that I was a valuable person.
Clearly, I wasn't and it may not have come across, you know, they might not even have thought about it. I don't even know, but that's what I wanted to show. And I think I thought as long as I'm showing that I'm actually a faithful and that that can come across to the other people and that I can build connections and alliances with people so that we like each other and want to protect each other because they feel that I'm not a traitor and I'm not deceptive and they feel that I'm in fact honest and I'm good in the challenges and the missions, then I have a chance. It was a terrible method, obviously. If I had to tell, I'd say go back and lie and cheat with everyone you can and just backstab and don't do anything in the challenges.
Did your experience in reality TV prepare you for what you experienced on The Traitors?
I mean, I think in some ways it did, you know, but listen, there's like two things happening – there's how well you can solve a math problem or how well you can do the mission. And then there's television. How good you look. Now my experience in reality prepared me in a way that I don't think anybody else prepared by the experience that I've had in reality are different than the ones that most of the other people have.
And these are people who are reality show veterans. Many of them have been in reality for many years. We've watched them for decades, you know? And I was on a reality show once in terms of being like a contestant and things like that but I can't say that you're either prepared or you're not. I wasn't someone who just like sank the ship. I was targeted and attacked.
Were you into games like Clue and mysteries when you were growing up?
Of course! Oh my gosh, games, movies, all of the murder mystery games, which there's not a whole lot of and, of course, every murder mystery movie like Murder on the Orient Express, Clue, Death on the Nile…there's the newer ones, but there's just so many of them. I'm a hundred percent into them. But in those, nobody gets like banished right away before they get to the house.
What was the hardest part of the challenges that you took part in?
The hardest part was communicating with everyone. The first challenge that I did, we were swimming in the water and moving puzzle pieces that exploded.
That second one, the whole mission was the superlatives, you know, the trivia, if you will. And then the scarecrows in the field, that was the hardest part. I mean, it was obviously difficult to run and carry the thing, but we had plenty of really strong folks on our team, even though I did my fair share of the carrying. There were lots of people. There were a couple of people on our team who were like, I'm just going to carry this. It was like, we have three guys that were willing to do some carrying. And so, the hardest part of that entire mission was definitely the fields where we had to try to tear apart the scarecrows with our hands and look for gold and shields in their bowels.
Did you learn anything surprising about yourself during your time on The Traitors?
I learned that I can swim in the Loch Ness. You know, I wouldn't usually go and swim in that kind of water. I don't like to swim in water where I can't see what's at the bottom. I was really afraid that I was not going to be able to perform the task. And I was also afraid that I wasn't going to be able to contribute physically. I was worried that people would see me instantly judge me and be like, absolutely not this one, which ultimately when it ended up happening, but I was worried that they would say this person provides no value here in any way, shape or form socially or physically, they can't. I was worried that's what they would judge me on, even though I don't necessarily believe that to be true.
I wanted to prove to them through my actions that I was a worthwhile person who could contribute. Now, there's so many people, there's 21 of us there in the beginning, and so it probably got lost in the shuffle. Although, you know, I do think that people who were around me were able to see my value. I hope so. They were able to see my effort in trying to really do a good job. You know, I didn't want to immediately run off and go and look for shields. I didn't want to make any decisions that would look selfish or that people would think that I was lazy or not putting in my not pulling my own weight – and I got plenty of weight to pull so I was really doing my best to pull it. And so much so that even in the first mission, I was helping untie as many people as I could, even, you know, some of the first people who got free.
If they asked you to come back and do it again, another season of The Traitors, would you want to do that?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
I just have one non-Traitors question, which is actually more of a request. For your next Janet Jackson video, please do “Love Would Never Do Without You” because I think you would look fantastic in that outfit.
Oh my gosh, you know what, that would be a really easy one to do, but the next video that I'm going to be doing is “Together Again”. But maybe I'll do a bonus…you know what? That's actually not a bad idea. Just like throw the outfit together because she's just on a desert and that's really easy to do. But I yeah, I'm, I'm looking forward to the rest of the year for sure, because I've got some really cool things coming up.
What else is upcoming for you?
I'm releasing my third album this year, the third portion of the [Letters to My Lovers] trilogy, if you will, comes out this year. And so, please keep your eyes peeled for it.
Watch season two of The Traitors on Peacock. Follow Peppermint on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Help her make her “Together Again” video on GoFundMe, score some merch or book her on Cameo.
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