From Hedwig to Joe Exotic, John Cameron Mitchell never sold out.
Has the world caught up with him or passed him by?
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Not Joe himself, the exotic-animal zookeeper (a.k.a.
Unsurprisingly, several big names expressed interest, and several projects were undertaken.
But its Mitchell who will be the first Joe Exotic since Joe Exotic.
But Etan Frankel,Joe vs. Caroles showrunner, said he cant imagine anybody better.
It was difficult to find the right person to play this part, Frankel said.
I lived in places he did, so I kind of knew the environment, Mitchell says.
I love Joe Exotic, even though I dont condone his behavior.
He had watched and then stopped watching the Netflix series: too rubberneck-y, too little empathy.
I mean, he was an attempted murderer.
But I tried to do right by him in the portrayal so hes not a monster.
Hell never give up his apartment, his friend Paul Dawson told me.
It has been very important to him throughout his career and continues to be.
But the city changed around him.
The old libertine freedoms of art and life and the parties where they intersected are less in evidence.
It feels a little bit like New York was in the 80s and 90s, he says.
In terms of Make things happen, you know?
The art is made of whatever you picked up at the dump.
And it feels very right.
His mother lost herself in grief and Catholic devotion.
She wasnt much of a mom, Mitchell says.
She wasnt really there for us.
She was kind of running after the Virgin Mary.
She would tell Mitchell he should become a priest.
When he was growing up, the family moved often.
I always had a little bit of an on-the-lam feeling, he says.
I always thought Id be a good hostage.
Id know what to do.
Hedwig is based in part on Helga, his brothers German babysitter who turned tricks on the side.
(Trask and his band, Cheater, were the partys house band.)
But the show is also unsettling and a little brutal.
Hedwigwas heady, hard-to-pigeonhole stuff, and most theaters turned it down.
It sold out night after night; celebrities came, including Ziggy Stardust himself.
(John, you got it right, Bowie told him.)
That was the same year the also pathbreaking but sanitizedWill & Gracepremiered.
(Drag Racewas still a decade in the future.)
The 2001 film seems to have had that effect for millennials and beyond.
They feel like theyreseen.
I know he had other opportunities that would have been far more safe.
AfterShortbus,there was another news-gathering visit.
We call it the film that mother will never see, Joan Mitchell told the paper.
A winding career followed.
(He also doesnt appear to age, she added, which is rude.)
Trask also left New York, in 2004.
Today, he lives in Kentucky with his husband and works primarily on film scores.
Shivving proprietyhas always been part of Mitchells act.
Granted, he fell out of a guard tower.
We all suffered, ladies and gentle what?
Why are you yelling at me?
He told it to me twice over the course of several weeks of interviews.
And, okay, I laughed.
Both offer the opportunity to dissect past work with the presents scalpel.
There have been Black Hedwigs and Black Yitzhaks, Hedwigs onstage foil, too.
Its impossible to discuss this stuff.
There are still those who revere Mitchell and his work, but the criticism clearly prickles him.
A lot of young people are kind of annoying to me right now, he tells me.
A little naggy, telling you what it’s possible for you to and cant do.
Sometimes, you know, for good reason, but it does make me feel weirdly old.
For Mitchells devotees, the censoriousness is puzzling.
Everything about it was life-changing for me.
They described Mitchell, whom they eventually met and befriended, as their gay guru.
Those two movies shaped me and my sensibility more than anything else I can remember, Booster told me.
I didnt know you could do things like this.
Its not a criticism that I really agree with, quite honestly.
Somebody had said during a Q&A, Who are you to tell the Asian womans story?
I created the character.
That is my story.
In some ways, the culture has finally caught up with Mitchell.
Hedwigwould never, couldnt have been on Broadway back then, he says.
Recent roles have cast him as a gay contrarian: art typecasting life.
Im sure there will be some point maybe its something in this podcast that will offend, Mitchell replied.
All of those tools are really useful for making art but also for making protest art.
You know, it’s possible for you to call someone a faggot.
I dont believe in canceling the F-word.
I dont believe in canceling the N-word.
Whether the criticisms of him are entirely in good faith, whether theyre reasonable, is open to debate.
What isnt is that the debate is no longer on his terms.
Cranky, but also careful.
Were in Wokeland now, so everyones on notice, he says.
There is a bit of a cultural revolution.
He dreams of a more peaceful revolution, an incremental revolution.
New York, Mitchell says, can be a little constricting.
If I never make another film, that wouldnt kill me, Mitchell says.
Meanwhile, to pay the bills, hes still acting.
And then it goes away.
All his work, fromHedwigtoShortbustoAnthem,is obsessed with the possibility of forging connection and finding community.
No, Mitchell says cheerfully.
I live here now.
He is joining a loose community that is coalescing.
Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters lives nearby.
The lesbian burlesque duo Kitten N Lou are opening a sno-ball shop around the corner.
We lived in the West Village.
Enough, Mitchell said.
She turned to him.
Are there ghosts in your house?
Through the Alzheimers, Mitchell and his mother found a relationship they had never had.
Mitchell still refers to him as my boyfriend.
Mitchell says he isnt seeing anyone seriously now.
Im picky because Im older.
You know, Ive had my heart broken, so Im not leaping.
Ill have sex once in a while, but, you know, dating is scary.
Because Ive lived long enough, and I also like things the way I like them.
I dont like the idea of being responsible for somebody elses happiness.
Id like to be happy together.
Moving out of town might actually be good for this, he muses.
People have more patience in the smaller towns.
Not rushing to the next thing.
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