{"id":816208,"date":"2026-07-21T11:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T11:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/816208\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T11:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T11:05:18","slug":"katya-zamolodchikova-is-the-snob-the-culture-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/816208\/","title":{"rendered":"Katya Zamolodchikova Is the Snob the Culture Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Katya<\/p>\n

All photos courtesy of Katya Zamolodchikova.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s Lenin in the sheets, Dostoyevsty in the sheets; she\u2019s the bright red scare with the long red hair, but you probably know her as: Katya Zamolodchikova<\/a>. From the studio where she and Trixie<\/a> are about to film the pair\u2019s podcast, The Bald and Beautiful<\/a>, the drag queen beams in with a pitch perfect Zoom background\u2014the liminal hallway from The Substance. \u201cHer butt is right there,\u201d Katya says through an infectious laugh, pointing to the taut ass of Margaret Qualley<\/a> positioned just beside her left ear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had every intention of asking Katya about her career and her talent. As one of the most notable drag queens to come out of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race<\/a>, she\u2019s the definition of a multihyphenate: a dancer, a writer, an artist, and the progenitor of infinite memes and vocal stims. She and I just happen to both be something that tends to supersede everything else\u2014Bostonians. As it turns out, this shared identity proves an effective conduit for a conversation that covers everything from niche horror films to phone addiction. Together, we grieve the death of snobs\u2013it\u2019s what the culture needs! But what doesn\u2019t occur to me until after our conversation\u2014perhaps because it\u2019s a role she so naturally assumes\u2014is that the drag icon is the very critic she so desperately longs for. Katya is the snob she wishes to see in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TUESDAY 3 PM JUNE 23, 2026 LA<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

CAROLINE REILLY: I know that you\u2019re a Boston boy, I\u2019m a Boston girl.<\/p>\n

KATYA: We need to talk about this because I want to produce a workplace sitcom about Dorothy\u2019s Boutique in Boston. I have written a whole treatment and basically a pilot for this sitcom about this place I used to work at, and it\u2019s called A Friend of Dorothy\u2019s. I really think it could be amazing. It\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but Boston-based and a black comedy workplace sitcom, half an hour. I just wanted to put that out in an official place because then maybe it\u2019ll happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: Ok, yes. We need that. Growing up here, did you ever think that this was some sort of chic place? It\u2019s so trendy now.<\/p>\n

KATYA: No, absolutely not. It\u2019s aggressively anti-chic. If anybody\u2019s well-dressed, maybe they\u2019re a European professor during his 45 minutes of office hours a month. Otherwise, it\u2019s students wearing their pajamas and flip-flops.<\/p>\n

REILLY: In 15-degree weather.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: Yes, because there\u2019s only one fashion rule in Boston, and that is the minute the temperature goes above 60 that\u2019s when you throw all of your long pants into the storage unit and never see them again until October.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: People always ask me, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you date in Boston?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t always love to be on a date with a guy in a Celtics jersey and nothing underneath.\u201d It\u2019s just a lot for a first impression. [Laughs]<\/p>\n

KATYA: It is a lot. I think it\u2019s okay for gay guys because they\u2019re sluts and they\u2019re just like, whatever. It\u2019s easy off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: Do you miss Boston?\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: I do. The last time I was there, I stayed at, I think it\u2019s the Four Seasons? It was built over a dog park behind St. Germain Street, which was right behind where Dorothy\u2019s used to be, and it\u2019s beautiful. And I was just thinking, \u201cGod, this used to be a dog park.\u201d I was like, \u201cOh, now that I\u2019m kind of successful, maybe I could get a really small, little condo or buy an apartment here.\u201d Yeah, right. Do you have $10 million?\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: For the parking space!\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: Exactly. It is beautiful though. I love it. I mean, I lived in Bay Village for almost ten years and that was a dream, my god. It was so pretty for $700 a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: I feel like LA, where you are now, is kind of the inverse of Boston in a lot of ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: LA isn\u2019t really a city, it\u2019s a bunch of suburbs. Everything beautiful is private. I think it was during COVID that the beautiful reservoir of the lake was fenced so homeless people wouldn\u2019t find shelter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: God forbid.<\/p>\n

KATYA: Right. And there\u2019s incredible beauty here, but it\u2019s privately owned and gated and you can\u2019t see it. [Laughs] But the weather\u2019s lovely, which Boston does not have.<\/p>\n

REILLY: I\u2019m looking out at the rain right now!<\/p>\n

KATYA: It\u2019s great for reading.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Katya<\/p>\n

REILLY: It is and, on that note, I have to be honest, I want to talk to you about drag and your art and why you\u2019re a genius, but I\u2019m also dying to talk about what you\u2019re reading and what horror movies you\u2019re watching.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: Oh, yes, let\u2019s get right into that. I love movies so much and I watch a lot of movies. I just watched M\u0101rama, which is a Maori film. It\u2019s an anti-colonist horror movie that takes place in New Zealand and it\u2019s a perfect horror film. Eighty-two fucking minutes. Fierce. And it was so gorgeously shot. I guess it\u2019s the director\u2019s first fucking film, which is wild. I can\u2019t recommend it enough. Ugly, nasty, beautiful, cunty, everything. And then, I saw Obsession<\/a>, which I liked. I thought it was about 20 minutes too long. I love horror because I think it really lends itself to a concise kind of structure. Most horror films, you can get everything you need in 90 minutes to tell the story. I think in Hollywood, there\u2019s a lot of first drafts being made. You see it in the dialogue. You\u2019re like, \u201cWell, why did they just repeat that?\u201d Even in fucking Steven Spielberg\u2019s new film, it\u2019s like, I\u2019ve heard it! God, it was like, \u201cSir, it looks like they\u2019re going north. Are they going north? Yes, they\u2019re going north. Well, they\u2019re all going north. We have confirmation they\u2019re going north. They\u2019re going north!\u201d That was 20 minutes. Terrible!\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: Completely. I also think good horror either scares us because it\u2019s so disparate from the human experience or because it confronts us with how horrifying our experience is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Katya<\/p>\n

KATYA: Well, it\u2019s like Pluribus\u2014is that dystopian? I love that very real question of: Is this good? You\u2019re describing a reality where everybody works together for the common good to avoid pain and to avoid discomfort. I think maybe one of the reasons why zombie stuff is so popular and continues to resonate really well is because we are living it, it\u2019s not a metaphor anymore. Everyone is just doing this [picks up her phone and stares down], their neck cricked down, on the street, in the car. In! The! Car! Walking into telephone poles, walking into red lights, their mouth open, looking at their phone. It\u2019s so fucking crazy. One of the things I like about podcasts and doing the podcast with Trixie is that we\u2019re not looking at our fucking phones for two hours. And sometimes I get self-conscious when I\u2019m like, \u201cOh god, this is just another podcast where two people are shooting the shit or whatever.\u201d There\u2019s not a lot of structure. But I was like, well, we\u2019re funny and we\u2019re present. I think that\u2019s rare, which is so sad that that\u2019s the baseline of good. It\u2019s like, well, you were there and you weren\u2019t on your phone, so that\u2019s a big win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: Sometimes I\u2019ll go on TikTok or something and I\u2019ll see an influencer with a podcast and they\u2019re like this on the podcast and I\u2019m like, \u201cWhy am I listening to you while you watch your phone?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: It\u2019s fucking crazy. I think it has something to do with the fact that I\u2019m 44. I remember what it was like [before cellphones]. I grew up without a cellphone and I didn\u2019t have one until I was 22 or 23, and it was one of those brick Nokia ones. I think that there\u2019s something very, very severely neurologically deficient about the generation right under me. I think screenagers, as they call them now, are fucked. God go with them. Good luck. When I meet someone who\u2019s not on social media, they could be a serial killer and I\u2019d still date them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Katya<\/p>\n

REILLY: I was just talking to a colleague about American Psycho and how they\u2019re talking about a reboot. How could they even do it? His skincare routine is what every influencer\u2019s routine looks like, so what delineates Patrick Bateman from the average influencer\u2019s pathology? Sure the killing, but I\u2019d argue the 15-step routine isn\u2019t incidental to his psychopathy. People doing it now are just completely unironic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: I hate to say it, but even the killing would require a level of presence that people don\u2019t have! And preparing, and strategizing, and, oh, here\u2019s a big thing: Privacy! Today it would be someone filming themselves like, \u201cFollow along on my quest to kill 45 fucking people! As you probably notice, I\u2019m still wearing my plastic trench!\u201d God, honestly, I hate to say it, but I think the version of American Psycho for today would involve a significant AI portion. I remember the first time I was at a lunch or a dinner with a bunch of drag queen colleagues on tour together, there\u2019s maybe 10 of us at least, and everybody was looking at their phones and nobody was talking to each other. They were just collecting their photos from the previous show and looking at themselves, and either posting them or trying to self-promote it some way. I thought, \u201cOh man, this sucks. I guess it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

REILLY: It\u2019s so fucking grim. It\u2019s like, if I wanted to sit on my phone I would have just stayed home.<\/p>\n

KATYA: Right! And I don\u2019t even want to do it at home! I\u2019m getting way better at it, but I\u2019m still bad. I\u2019m complaining because I do it. I wouldn\u2019t be talking about it if I didn\u2019t do it. I could just be sanctimonious because I would be better. I literally would be better than you. [Laughs]\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: Yeah, I envy those people who are completely insulated from social media. And the wild thing is, you see these young people who are on their phones watching other people constantly and yet, they have no discernible social skills. You\u2019d think they would pick something up through osmosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: No, instead they learn and then discard the 12 to 16-word jargon of the week. Not the jargon of the week! Not me with the jargon of the week! It\u2019s giving jargon of the week. Not everything has to give, some things can be. It\u2019s anti-intellectual; our vocabularies are reduced, not expanded, and it\u2019s crazy. If you start a sentence with a capital letter and then you have correct punctuation with a comma, especially a semicolon, with a period at the end? You might as well be a fucking Oxford professor with a quill. It\u2019s so antiquated and it\u2019s so incongruent with the language that is being used and the language that determines whether you have anything interesting to say. It\u2019s dumb. You just learn what people are talking about and it\u2019s \u201cpilled\u201d or \u201ccoded.\u201d There\u2019s so many more beautiful and interesting ways to relate to information or experiences that aren\u2019t \u201cIt\u2019s giving.\u201d There\u2019s a vehement anti-intellectual movement in the United States, and it has nothing to do with money\u2014libraries are still fucking free!\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: Sometimes I feel very tinfoil hat about it, but I\u2019m like is it a coincidence that we\u2019re seeing the use of AI with the creeping rise of fascism? It feels like a second Dark Ages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Katya<\/p>\n

KATYA: I just had a major health issue. I was in the hospital for ten days, and I have friends at my bedside telling me what ChatGPT said about what happened to my body. I was like, \u201cListen. I have access to the head of surgery at this hospital. I\u2019m going to listen to what he says and that\u2019s it. So shut the fuck up.\u201d This is how the AI thing is really tough, because I love information. I love getting information. I love learning languages. I try to learn something new every day. AI is very seductive. Thankfully, I come up against these roadblocks frequently when I\u2019m looking for the English translation to the Russian lyrics of a song. It\u2019s always wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: That\u2019s kind of reassuring, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: Totally. It\u2019s one of the most interesting things about language acquisition. It just can\u2019t really get it right. But it has such a voice of authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: It\u2019s sort of like when you talk to a hyper-religious person. I have had a couple surgeries over the past year and without exception, someone will always say something to me like, \u201cHave you prayed?\u201d<\/p>\n

KATYA: Well, no co-pay on the prayer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: Exactly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: And just like a hyper-religious person, you know what AI is going to say. And as a writer, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll understand that it\u2019s the writing that is the fun of it. You\u2019re like, \u201cIf this were easy, it wouldn\u2019t even be fun.\u201d I think when I write something that I like and that I think is good, it\u2019s an incredibly pleasurable activity, but that\u2019s not AI. If you are writing with AI, you are not writing and you don\u2019t want to write. You\u2019re not a writer. So stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: It anesthetizes something that is so fundamental to the human experience, the creative process. It\u2019s incredibly dark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Katya<\/p>\n

KATYA: This is a similar situation that has all the same flavor, just slightly different meat. When I\u2019m trying to make a decision that I already know, I pull out my tarot cards. So I\u2019m pulling a card about these three guys that I\u2019ve slept with over the last year. I just want to see what the cards will say. They are interpretable. But I don\u2019t take that and be like, \u201cI\u2019m going to go to the bank right now and sell my house because I got The Tower [card].\u201d This is just a fun, little tool where I can get witchy and think about it, but it\u2019s certainly not my first line of defense, and it\u2019s not the last one either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: There\u2019s also this thing with AI where people have this superiority complex about relinquishing a task. Like, \u201cWhy would you want to martyr your way through thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n

KATYA: \u201cWhy go to medical school when we\u2019ve got ChatGPT? We can get your appendix out, we can do it in the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

REILLY: \u201cThe dog can do it!\u201d<\/p>\n

KATYA: [Laughs] \u201cJust rub some peanut butter on your stomach, and then have the dog come in!\u201d It\u2019s like this anti-knowledge, anti-learning, anti-intellectual thing. I think we should bring snobs back. Snobs have such a bad rap because it doesn\u2019t pay to be a snob. When you think about cultural critics, you think about Fran Lebowitz and that\u2019s it. And what she\u2019s about? Dressing well and not having a cellphone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: It\u2019s aspirational, really.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: Well, and the other thing we\u2019re not discussing in this conversation, kind of the elephant in the room, is the money. I mean, if I\u2019m growing up today, I could go viral on TikTok or get a liberal arts degree at a private university to make forty grand a year. I\u2019ll have a fabulous, incredible, mind-blowing education to be a barista. Or, I can kick a shoe on TikTok, transform my outfit, and make $20,000 just doing that. When you open social media, how many English majors are there? They\u2019re slinging drinks down at the coffee shop for $12 an hour. And the TikTokers are living in the Hollywood Hills! [Where I went] to college is now $70,000 to $90,000 a year. So you\u2019re paying $350,000 for a fucking undergrad degree? Whereas, if you\u2019re cute, kick a fucking shoe on TikTok!<\/p>\n

REILLY: It can\u2019t be a coincidence that education is getting more expensive and life is getting more mind-numbing. There is a part of me that\u2019s like, maybe there is something moral about not doing certain things or not \u201cselling out.\u201d But then again, we all go to the same place when we die! No one gets a gold star on their bank account.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Katya<\/p>\n

KATYA: And that was the thing about coming from art school and going into drag\u2014it was very shameful, like I was \u201cselling out.\u201d Selling out? I need a job! I need to make money! I was working and stealing from a costume shop to pay my rent. So then, we got into drag and the rubric for \u201cselling out\u201d became adjusted; I was like no, I need to maintain my artistic integrity and just lip sync to Russian songs that nobody knows because that\u2019s cool and interesting. And that\u2019s what I really wanted to do. But then, I ended up selling out on weekends dancing to Britney Spears for the bachelorette. Shameful! And now, the basketball wives come in and throw $100 bills in our face and it\u2019s like, \u201cWow, we made it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: I do think we all have a line, right? Or we\u2019d like to think we do. A sort of moral compass where we say, \u201cOk, this is where I\u2019m willing to compromise to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: No, because it\u2019s a free for all now and I don\u2019t blame anyone. I would not want to be a TikToker, but I fell into a social media goldmine. I got on a TV show and then, three weeks later, I had a million followers on Instagram. Here\u2019s a perfect example of how bizarre this all is: I was in England in a suburb and I was trying to buy weed and I almost got robbed by a gang of young kids. It got very tense, push came to shove, and I don\u2019t remember exactly how it came up, but I showed them my Instagram. They saw two million followers and they were like, \u201cAre you famous?\u201d These kids who don\u2019t know anything about drag. And we became friends because I had something extremely valuable. All of a sudden, I was cool and it was because I had this incredibly valuable social capital\u2014the new gold. It\u2019s intangible, but it means possibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REILLY: I mean, that is such a literal illustration of currency\u2013social and financial. It says so much about where we are as a society.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KATYA: My older brother is a huge influence on my life in the opposite direction because he meditates seriously. He did a 90-day silent meditation retreat, he\u2019s in regular contact with the monks that live close to him, and he was always on the verge of joining a monastery. He doesn\u2019t watch crap, he doesn\u2019t do social media, but he doesn\u2019t have an easy life. He is still a layperson with a job, and a seven-year-old kid, and a wife, and a house, and a mortgage, and all that stuff, which is very complicated. He did tell me the great thing about Buddhism\u2014real Buddhism\u2014is that the Buddha one day was done and he never looked back. What people don\u2019t know, or they forget, is that the point of Buddhism is to close the door and leave the house forever. That you are done, that you are enlightened now. It doesn\u2019t slip away. It\u2019s a done deal. There is an endpoint, and you reach that endpoint and you never have to go back. I was like, \u201cYes, fierce!\u201d [Laughs] Anyways, yeah, that\u2019s my thought of the day.<\/p>\n

\"Katya<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t