‘I’m gonna buy you a gastric bypass’: Trevor Ashley on his mum’s unsolicited offer

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week, he talks to Trevor Ashley. The Sydney actor, singer, comedian, director, cabaret performer and drag queen, 43, is representing Australia in the current season of the international reality-TV, drag-queen singing competition, Queen of the Universe.

“I’m proud of Australia because I’m [in the US] and seeing these crazy f---ing things, like abortion being banned again and now attempts to ban drag queens.” Credit: John McRae

BODIES

Did you feel comfortable in your body growing up? I’ve always gone up and down with my weight. My family’s quite obsessed with it. In fact, last year, my grandfather sent me an email telling me how fat I was.

Oh, that’s horrible! How does that feel? It was pretty awful. My mother had me going to a dietitian when I was 13. A couple of years ago, she said to me in the car, “I’ve got my super payout and Dad said I can have $10,000 to do whatever I want with. So I’ve decided I’m gonna buy you a gastric bypass.”

Wait a minute … your mother was going to buy you a gastric bypass? She thought it was going to be a great thing to do. I said, “Stop the car!” [Laughs]

What have these conversations done to you? Oh, they’ve f---ed me up completely. I wouldn’t mind losing a few kilos, but I can’t really be bothered any more. I’ve got a better relationship with my body now than I used to. My mother and my granny have died and my grandfather, who sent the email, is 101, so he’ll be gone soon. He’s the last person to really be obsessed with my weight.

Ironically, it sounds like a weight has been lifted. It really has. Post 40 [years old], I’ve stopped caring so much about what other people think. There’s a lot more body-positivity now about being a larger person and I think that’s a really great change.

When was the last time your body came through for you? My body was amazing over WorldPride. I was doing eight shows a week of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and 17 other gigs on top of those – and I managed to get through it all. I was like, “Well, she’s not out for the count yet!”

MONEY

As a kid, what did you want to do for a living? I always wanted to be a performer. I wanted to sing; I wanted to be on stage; I wanted to do musical theatre. Drag was never really something I considered seriously, but I fell into it. In the end, a combination of drag and musical theatre is what I’ve done for the last 20 years.

Are you doing well financially? Yeah, I do really well. I’m very lucky with that. Obviously, the COVID [lockdown] years were hard, but they were hard for everybody.

How did you navigate that period? Look, it was hard. As soon as I could get back on a stage, we were doing the four-square-metre rule, so I’d put on shows for 100 people in a 400-seater [venue]. The 2021 shutdown was the worst one. Luckily, I was in Queensland at the time, so I just spent 17 weeks floating around up there. It was like a giant, weird holiday-but-not-holiday. Strange but very fun.

Now you’re competing in Queen of the Universe [where the top prize is $US250,000]. Are you in it for the money? I did the show [airing now on Paramount+] for a couple of reasons. One: because it would be nice to win all that money. Two: we’d been locked up in Australia for those two-and-a-bit years where I wasn’t able to do what I normally do, which is go and work all over the world. Now I’ve got this opportunity to go to London and shoot a TV show with Graham Norton and really just put myself back out into the world again.

What was your last happy purchase? On my birthday, I went to Gucci and bought a bag. It’s really outrageous and camp. I made all that money over WorldPride and thought, “I can go to Gucci and buy a bag.” Well, I actually went to buy shoes … and I came out with shoes and a bag. I drank champagne in Gucci: that’s what happens.

What was your last regret purchase? Probably the same thing! [Laughs]

POLITICS

“Being queer is inherently political because we’re politicised.” Discuss. That’s true. I’m seeing it here in America at the moment, where they’re trying to ban drag in particular cities. Some of the most successful cultural products in America happen to be things like RuPaul’s Drag Race. People have been watching drag and queer entertainers for decades; just think of Some Like It Hot. For me, it’s always been political. I was involved with Mardi Gras, volunteering, from 19 years old. The political side of community has always been very important to me.

What makes you embarrassed about Australia? The fact that the opposition is opposing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is an absolute disgrace. They’re on the wrong side of history.

What makes you proud about Australia? I’m proud of Australia because I’m [in the US] and seeing these crazy f---ing things, like abortion being banned again and now attempts to ban drag queens. We’re living in a country where our parties – independents as well – are much more progressive and moving in the right direction, rather than going back to the 1950s or … well, I don’t know where America’s going, but it’s a very strange place.

Final question. When are you going to run for office? [Laughs] Well, [NSW independent MP] Alex Greenwich already calls me the First Lady of Oxford Street! So I feel that’s enough of a contribution.

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