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Tj_ would be accurate to claim that Hedwig And
X L The Angry Inch is the Citizen Kane of cross
dressing rock operas, as creator/writer/star John
Cameron Mitchell emerged from the creative
chasms with the first truly engaging and widely
accepted drag manifesto. The creator and star of
the award-winning film Hedwig... is coming to
town on Valentine's day for a special screening of
the him. A Q & A and signing session will follow.
Though openly gay, Mitchell is not Hedwig
incarnate, so don't expect his appearance at the
screening to be a preliminary Boybutante Ball
(though don't let that discourage you from unre
tiring those high heels). But, do bring your
broken heart, sing along with the lovely Hedwig
on the screen, and find out just what it takes to
be an independent filmmaker these days. Mitchell
recently took time to talk with Flagpole about
Hedwig. him and celebrity:
Flagpole: What brings you to Athens?"I under
stand you are going to be here a month.
John Cameron Mitchell: I've been visiting
there for the last four or hve years because I have
a friend that I'm writing with down there named
Julian Koster (of Music Tapes].
FP: And what sort of project are you working on
together? Is it going to have music in it?
JCM: We're working on a children's story for
him. It won't be a musical, but it will have music
in it.
FP: Who were some of
the people who helped
bring Hedwig to the big
screen?
JCM: It started out as
a theater piece that I
wrote with Steven Trask,
who is the music com
poser/lyricist. So he was,
obviously, my biggest co
writer, so to speak. The
most important people
were my cinematographer
Frank DeMarco and editor
Andrew Marcus who,
because I was acting in it,
did more than their usual
share of work and were sort
of like co-directors for me.
FP: How easy or hard was
it to balance the many roles
that you had in the film with directing in it, cre
ating it, starring in it?
JCM: It was certainly harder than anything I'll
ever do again, because I really didn't enjoy acting
in it. It's just not what I was interested in. I've
been acting in it on stage for years, so that
wasn't the interesting part, it was more the
directing and the writing, which was new to me.
So the acting sort of got in the way of the other
stuff sometimes, and I was impatient with it, and
would forget that after setting up a shot for hours
I'd have to be in it. It seemed like a nuisance.
FP: So you wouldn't recommend a first time
filmmaker to star and direct in their own project ?
JCM: Some people really like it and do it a
lot, though I have a feeling some people do it
just because it is easier to cast. When you know
you're there, you don't have to deal with the star.
I spoke to Spike Lee about it once, and he said
he kinda hates acting. But he and I think people
like Woody Allen do it sometimes because it's
just easier than all the wrangling with getting a
certain star in there and having to deal with
them. You can sort of save time. Do you know
what I mean?
FP: How much is Hedwig a part of your life?
How much is fiction, how much is based in reality?
JCM: I don't want to repeat what's in the doc
umentary [included on the DVD version of the
film]. I don't mean to be impatient. I won't mind
another kind of a question. The documentary talks
about my baby-sitter and the prostitute, that part
was real. My father was in the army in Berlin, that
part is real. The stuff that's new. you know: I
didn't get my dick cut off. And I'm not a woman.
That stuff.
FP: What was some of the more prevalent
imagery you wanted to convey in the film?
JCM: The myth of the "Origin Of Love" [the
film's pivotal tune] and seeking your other half
was always at the bottom of it all, so whenever
there was resonance that related to that, it was
always relevant. For example. Tommy's face in the
mirror sort of completing Hedwig's face. And there
was one shot in the trailer when their faces come
together, and other times where people come
apart and a lot of these overhead shots of bodies
on beds interlocking.
FP: How did everything change after the film
won the Audience Award at Sundance?
WHAT: Hedwig and the Angry Inch,
with John Cameron Mitchell
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Thursday, February 14,9 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $5
JCM: Well, we had just fin
ished it, and had this fabulous debut, and it was
kind of a whirlwind since then. I must have gone
to 25 festivals this year, and done about 2,000
interviews, but it was always from a point of
enthusiasm that people would interview. That is
what got me through the madness of it, you know,
because it becomes kind of frugal repeating
thoughts and information and trying to remain
open to it. But because people really did respond
to it, it was great. Of course, I was the only
person who could do any press. And when you're
at this level of budget, you really have to do every
opportunity of press because we really don't have
money to advertise. So to get it out there, all of
that is really important. But it can be really ener
vating, and I haven't been able to get back to
writing, which has been really frustrating me, so
going down to Athens is where I write often. It's a
really really good place to be creative and get
away from the usual commercial aspects of what
I'm doing.
FP: Why do you believe that the central concept
of Hedwig, that of a guy dressing in a woman's
clothing, be considered so controversial and
pushing the envelope?
JCM: I see it more as less controversial than it
might have been a few years ago. We could talk to
death about Americans' fear of femininity. It's the
worse thing you can be, a woman, even if you are
a woman. Through the Internet, cable, Clinton,
those three tilings, something as mundane as sex
uality, gender (when I say mundane, I mean
because they're facts of life often) are less threat
ening to people because they're around more.
Even if it is still unusual and peculiar and
freakish, so is your Aunt Ida. It's more like some
thing in the family nowadays. It's not so scary.
It's kind of cool to unexpectedly have hetero or
elderly audiences who are really psyched about
the movie because, I've always felt, that the myth
speaks to everybody.
FP: "Origin Of Love" is the film's strongest
song...
JCM: It was our first song. It was the center
of the piece and it is an ancient myth written by
a person rather than a tradition. It was written
by Plato, and what's the myth that a person is
going to write? It's going to be about love; it's
going to be about the only thing we can all
relate to, thinking about completion through love
and, specifically, romantic love. And it's intense.
So I'm just thrilled that it's
not freaking out too many
people and having a really
diverse audience.
FP: What comparison to
other films are you really sick
of hearing?
JCM: Well, the Rocky
Horror one is really
annoying. I understand
that people have to com
pare in order to describe.
That's just the nature of
getting something out
into the world. I think the
element where people feel
that they can watch the
film over and over, that
they want to sing along,
that they are groupies
and they get together
with people who like the
movie. That element of
the movie I like. We have our “Hed heads."
FP: What question do you keep waiting for the
press to ask they but never manage to?
JCM: Ummm, I think they've pretty much have
been all the same, [but] I understand the neces
sity of all of it. A lot of the people reading this
won't know about something, won't know about
Hedwig, and you can't say it's "one thing," so it
needs interviews... This is my last interview. This
is the end for a long time, because it is time to
get to something else.
Geoff Carr
Read the rest of our exclusive interview with
Mitchell on-line at flagpole.com
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FEBRUARY 13, 2002 • FLAGPOLE.COM 11