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DragQueens

How Drag Race Landed Gottmik an Audition for the Hellraiser Reboot

YouTube/RuPaul’s Drag Race

The season 13 finalist’s Pinhead eleganza caught the eye of Hulu casting directors.

Rachel Shatto

EIC of PRIDE.com

Rachel Shatto, Editor in Chief of PRIDE.com, is an SF Bay Area-based writer, podcaster, and former editor of Curve magazine, where she honed her passion for writing about social justice and sex (and their frequent intersection). Her work has appeared on Dread Central, Elite Daily, Tecca, and Joystiq. She's a GALECA member and she podcasts regularly about horror on the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network. She can’t live without cats, vintage style, video games, drag queens, or the Oxford comma.

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Rachel Shatto

rachiepants

July 21 2021 1:36 PM EST

May 26 2023 12:22 PM EST

For RuPaul's Drag Race fans who love horror movies, no look in the series’ history has been more instantly iconic than Gottmik’s season 13 finale Pinhead-inspired lewk. As it turns out, the filmmakers behind Hulu’s upcoming Hellraiser remake were also gagged and thought he might just be the new Hell Priest they were looking for.

"When they saw my Hellraiser [look], they gave me the audition for Pinhead. I did [go on tape]! But I wasn't menacing enough!" Gottmik told Entertainment Weekly. "I had to read a bunch, I was in my apartment, against the wall, full-on trying to be Pinhead, pretending to pull needles out of my head, just going in! It was so funny!"

Sadly, Gottmik didn't ultimately land the role, but he agreed that his charming, upbeat personality wasn't quite the right fit for the leader of the gruesome (and mega kinky) Cenobites. "I wanted to be Pinhead more than anything in my soul, but, also, I'm like, I get that!" Gottmik explained. "I mean, at least let me walk on the carpet in that look! I'll make a new one! I just want to be there. I'll just be in the background next to Pinhead!"

Gottmik and Pinhead

Hellraiser is based on the Clive Barker novella Hellbound Heart about a man who summons demons called Cenobites that offer untold pleasure and pain. Barker adapted the story into the film, which he also directed, and it went on to spawn nine sequels. The new Hulu adaptation is set to be directed by David Bruckner and, for the first time, will feature a gender-flipped Pinhead, played by Odessa A’Zion.