The Big Picture

Jinkx Monsoon took inspiration from Michelle Gomez’s Missy and Neil Patrick Harris’ Toymaker in her portrayal of Maestro, highlighting the power and depth of her character.
Monsoon praised her
Doctor Who
scene partners, Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson, for their generosity and shared dedication to delivering top-notch performances.
Monsoon discusses how she approached the role to keep such an over-the-top character grounded in something real.

Doctor Who has teamed up with Disney+ to usher in a new era of the long-running sci-fi series. During the 60th anniversary specials last year, showrunner Russell T. Davies created an opening that has allowed him to introduce a plethora of new bad guys into the Doctor Who zeitgeist, preceeded by the legendary Toymaker. The latest, introduced as a descendant of the trickster god of play in “The Devil’s Chord,” is Jinkx Monsoon’s Maestro. Stomping around the 1960s and stealing the music of The Beatles, Cilla Black, and more, Maestro leaves their mark as one of the best new villains introduced to the series in years.

Ahead of this weekend’s new episode, I sat down with Monsoon to chat about her turn on the series. During our conversation we spoke about how Davies reached out to her about the role, the inspiration behind Maestro’s elaborate costumes, and their connection to the Toymaker. Monsoon also discussed taking inspiration from the incomparable Michelle Gomez, who previously wowed Whovians as the first femme presenting version of the Master in Seasons 8-10. Monsoon had high praise for stars Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson, who gave their all for every take — even when they weren’t on camera. Finally, we also chatted about her current run on Broadway as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors.

Doctor Who The show follows the adventures of a Time Lord “The Doctor” who is able to regenerate, and the Doctor’s human friends. The Doctor and companion’s journey through time and space in the TARDIS – a time-traveling ship shaped like a police box – saving the universe with a combination of wit, bravery, and kindness.Release Date March 17, 2006 Main Genre Sci-Fi Seasons 14 Studio BBC America Streaming Service(s) Disney+

As a Drag Queen, Monsoon has her fair share of experience in crafting stunning aesthetics through both makeup and fashion. However, when asked if she had any influence over Maestro’s look she confessed that they “were perfect when they came to me.” She went on to say, “I just loved the looks. All I did was say, “Yes, and…” you know?”

Monsoon continued, explaining that each of Maestro’s costumes were inspired by iconic musicians from The Beatles to Adele. As the costume designers pulled from these legends, Monsoon applied that to her performance, assuming that Maestro also took the aesthetics of these musicians. She explained:

“They came to me showing me these ideas for Maestro that were inspired by iconic musicians throughout time,
so you get a little bit of Liberace flair in the piano key coat and then we have a nod to Adele with my grande dame at the piano moment, and then of course, Sergeant Pepper in my music battle
. But all I really did was say to them, “We the people, them, the designers, are getting the idea for the costumes from the iconic musicians, but in my mind, the iconic musicians got
their
ideas for their look from Maestro.” As if these iconic musicians throughout time have interacted with Maestro in some capacity before. That didn’t really change the costumes, that’s just where we all kind of went, “Yeah!” And I guess leaned in a little bit. [Laughs]”

Russell T. Davies Cast Jinkx Monsoon in ‘Doctor Who’ After Watching Her On Stage

Having gotten into Doctor Who because of my wife, I was delighted to learn that Monsoon also watched the series with her partner at the time during lockdown. They picked the series as the show they could agree on because, as Monsoon confessed: “I have very eclectic taste in television and he’s British. [Laughs] So, we watched Doctor Who. Funny enough, we wouldn’t watch it when we were separate, so we kind of fell out watching it together at the end of the seasons that Russell wrote. So I’ve seen everything that Russell wrote for Doctor Who!”

Before stepping on set for Doctor Who, Monsoon and Davies were already fast friends. She explained that, after watching her on the stage, Davies called and said he had a perfect role for her — and he was right, I can’t imagine anyone else as Maestro. Monsoon said:

“He came to my show,
Together Again, Again!
, which I’m gonna be playing soon at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. He saw this show, which is me playing myself in my 80s. It’s a very absurdist, dystopian, futuristic show that I created with my music partner, Major Scales. Russell saw that in Manchester, and I guess on the walk home that night, thought I might be good for the character Maestro. I thought that was really, really funny, but it was also kind of affirming because it was a specific performance he saw. It wasn’t like he was just giving me a role because we’re pals, you know? He saw me in a role and he goes, “Oh, that’s kind of what I’ve been looking for for this villain.” And of course, I was just like, “Russell, you can have a kidney if you need it. Take it. I’ll do anything.” [Laughs] I love it!”

Relished getting to step into Maestro’s shoes, saying: “Oh my gosh. Well, I just loved everything about this character. First of all, I love playing a villain. Villains are typically a lot of fun to play. Depends on the beast. But I love playing a villain when it’s right, and Maestro is a god. I mean, what actor doesn’t want that gift, right? Because a god, you can do anything as a god character, as an immortal.” She continued, “With Maestro, Maestro is just not bound by any mortal, societal rules. Maestro makes their own rules, and that’s so exciting as an actor to get to play. I got to play such a range with Maestro, and they had so many facets to their personality, and they were a god, so it was just a dream job.”

‘Doctor Who’s Jinkx Monsoon Took Inspiration From The Toymaker and The Master

With their episodes essentially airing in the same season, I had to know how much of “The Giggle” Monsoon was privy to before filming “The Devil’s Chord.” Having all the pertinent information, Monsoon said, “I knew that it was Neil Patrick Harris. And since we were on the same NDA contract, I texted him, “Hey, Daddy.”

Monsoon went on to describe how she approached the charqcter, comparing the newly introduced villain pantheon to Greek mythology. She said:

“But yeah, it was very exciting because I am a Greek myth nerd, right? Essentially Maestro is part of a pantheon in my mind, anyone that was really, really exciting. What I find that Maestro and the Toymaker share with the Greek gods is that they have egos and they have human traits. Even though they are omnipotent and very powerful, they have desires and they make mistakes and they can slip up.
When you’re playing someone as powerful as Maestro, you still want parameters, right? You still want to work within something that makes sense. You gotta still kind of find the logic of this world. So, what I liked about Maestro is they had a mission. They weren’t just evil with a capital E, they had something they really believed in that they thought was a
beautiful
thing, and I believed it was motivated by daddy issues they had, an inferiority complex they have around their dad. So, that is so much more rich and full to play than just being evil for the sake of being evil, and that speaks to Russell as a writer.”

The Toymaker wasn’t the only Doctor who baddie that Monsoon looked to for inspiration. The actress swiftly praised Michelle Gomez’s Missy, and revealed some key similarities between their roles. “What I like about the Maestro and what I like about Michelle Gomez when she plays a villain is how unfazed they are because of how powerful they know they are. I don’t know,” said Monsoon. “I love seeing a femme character who’s just not scared. I love playing a femme character, or a character who has femme attributes, who is just not intimidated by male tactics, and I see that in Michelle Gomez.”

Jinkx Monsoon Praises Her Scene Partners in ‘Doctor Who’ and Her Companions on the Stage
Image via Disney+/BBC

Back in December, I spoke to Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson for the Christmas special and, and Gatwa revealed that Gibson had been a little star struck working with Jinkx Monsoon. She was cool enough about it on set that Monsoon didn’t notice though, saying “I didn’t know Millie was starstruck. She was full of compliments, of course, but everyone loves to compliment a drag queen. That’s par for the course.”

She went on to show her gratitude for the entire cast and crew of Doctor Who. “What I can say about both of them is they were just such extremely generous scene partners and just so easy to work with because they were happy to be there, they had good attitudes,” she explained. Continuing to thank the cast and crew she said: “The whole crew was so lovely, from every actor to every stunt person. Every person I interacted with on that set was just lovely. It was a really friendly, safe, warm environment, and Ncuti and Millie being kind of the anchors of the series, it starts with them and the fact that they brought such wonderful attitudes to every day of shooting.”

Gatwa and Gibson gave their all so that Monsoon could feed off that back and forth energy to bring her A-game to every take. She said:

“When you’re working in TV and film, sometimes there are moments where all the cameras are on one person, but your scene partner is still acting with you to try to get the reactions and try to match up everything, and they never held back. That made it easy for me to give them my all, even if the cameras weren’t on me, and that makes for such good acting. And that’s what I mean when I say generous. They never gave me less than 100%, and that made it easy to do the same.”

While I wish I had my own TARDIS so I could see it in person, I had to take a moment to ask Monsoon about Little Shop of Horrors. Fans lucky enough to make it to Broadway can see Monsoon making her dreams a reality. When asked what it’s like to see her goals come full circle like that she said, “I feel like I overused the word surreal because I think, at a certain point in life, I had already accepted that that might not happen in my lifetime, and through the last decade, it seemed more and more likely.”

She went on to shout out her fellow queer and trans stage stars like Peppermint and Alex Newell for opening doors for queer people on Broadway. “I feel so fortunate and gracious to be living in a time where theater and entertainment is ready to take these steps forward in representation, because queer people, all types of queer people, everyone in the queer community, we have always worked in entertainment,” she explained. “We have always been there as designers, as crew people, as directors, as creators and writers, and for so long, our chances to be in front of the camera were so limited, especially if you didn’t fit into a palatable mold, right?“ She continued:

“The fact that in my lifetime as a drag entertainer, as a transfeminine person, that I’m being given the opportunities and the trust and respect that I’ve been given recently, it’s really incredible and it gives me hope for the future. It makes me happy when young, young actors come up to me after a show and tell me they see it possible for them now, because it’s drag entertainers who did that for me and I get to now pay that forward, and that’s just really lovely. And of course, I’m having the time of my life. I always wanted to play Audrey. I never thought anyone would
ask
me to play Audrey, but here I am and I’m not gonna question it. [Laughs] I’m just gonna keep chugging because I love it.”

You can watch Monsoon’s performance as Maestro right now on Disney+ and watch our full interview in the player above. Stay tuned at Collider for more out of this world Doctor Who coverage. New episodes air on Fridays at 7 PM ET.

Watch on Disney+