Original subtitles

[Applause]

or surplus Priscilla an inspiring movie

about drag conquering the world could

that again please tears Priscilla an

inspiring film about drag conquering the

world

[Music]

it came from a crazy idea one night

after Mardi Gras it's four o'clock in

the morning Oxford Street is just

pumping and there's some trashy drag

queen stumbling up the street big plume

of feathers break off wind picks it up

rolls down Oxford Street and there you

had a feather boa

that was a tumbleweed from a Sergio

Leone Western and that singular moment I

got it drag queens in the outback

[Music]

their frocks and feathers hit the battle

scars of decades of repression fear and

violence their journey would inspire a

modern-day fable

at the heart of the film was the simple

question what will be so afraid of the

boundaries of Australian masculinity

were kind of stretched or thrown out the

window or there was a light charm what

it was fear a man Priscilla who'd have

thought you take us so far every now and

then a movie comes up that kind of

changes the whole trajectory of your

career in your work and Priscilla was

one of those I never dreamt I could do

it I was frightened to do it but in the

doing of it I overcame my fear

so did Australia we changed we grew we

learned it was about time so let's begin

shall we Sydney in the 1970s

life in the suburbs had never been

better

each driveway throbbed with a v8 and a

man in a body shirt it was a culture

built on family and ruled by the great

Australian male if this was the life you

wanted it was paradise

if you dreamed of something different

it was prison there was no room to be

gay to be homosexual was not only to be

an outcast it was also a crime sex

between men had a penalty of 14 years

and a whipping which was greater than

the penalty for rape

but in the world the punish difference

everyone in this film dared to deviate I

was kind of raised in that perfect

Australian of a middle-class world I

mean it was white picket fence

personified divorce happened pretty

popularly then in the 70s divorce came

at exactly the right time for me the

white picket fence fence fell down when

I was about 13 the curtain lifted then I

started to question everything the year

was 1979 and I was 21 and I was a man

for a short time and just as soon as

that word was you are a man I thought

well all not for long

I think I'll become a woman very very

soon and six months later I was [ __ ]

up in Sydney and have an absolute ball

[Music]

Sindhi pastel would become the

inspiration behind Hugo Weaving

character in Priscilla

Mitsy the actor and his muse arrived in

Sydney around the same time

well I'd came out as a sort of West

Country English boy at age 16 thinking I

was really cool and I was quite struck

by a sort of aggressive masculine

frameworks and thought I in order to be

a bloke here or to be a man must rally

up you have to be a certain sort of

rough-and-ready character who who

doesn't talk about certain things and

jokes his way through and through stuff

[Music]

there were a lot of comments at school

you know kids it said here just a

[ __ ] and this than the other and you

think wow it's you wouldn't want to be

gay would you you know growing up wow

that's far reckon it'll be pretty pretty

tough a desert holiday let's pack the

drag away

guy Pearce's character Felicia would be

one of the many young Queens lured by

the bright lights beyond suburbia just

like Priscilla's creator Stefan Elliott

I went to Sydney Grammar School which is

snack bang in the middle of Oxford

Street basically at the end of that ride

there was this weird twinkling a little

bit of glitter in this kind of weird

world that was kind of winking at me the

inner city was a beacon for the refugees

of the suburbs a flame that drew exotic

creatures into the light the girls had

been bewitching audiences since the

early sixties a theater restaurant with

some unusual meat on the menu

[Music]

the evening ladies like Carlotta would

provide the model for my character

Priscilla

Bernadette

[Applause]

[Music]

I think I think do you think I look more

like a woman than a man

they girls probably simply because it

was a place where main cross dressed as

women it had a reputation early on

people might gay people might have gone

there but very soon I just became ahem

start our place I mean there were so

many more interesting places to go to

either my seventies a new kind of drag

was emerging in clandestine venues along

Oxford Street

it was the hub of a growing gay

underworld and a Rite of initiation a

new arrivals on the scene to supper day

I remember being taken when I was quite

young I guess still in school by a

friend to computerize for the first time

[Music]

and for you ascended these quite steep

stairs with a lot of anxiety because

what you were doing was sort of illegal

[Music]

and there was this some sort of strange

deal about do you know what you're

getting into and all of that and then of

course you entered this strange world

the music was really loud

that's how I noticed both so you kind of

swept along and the reaction to the

shows by the audience was a static and I

somehow recognized that this was my

tribe and this was we owned this kind of

show

in the early days it was a very

underground community which was

oppressed and the people were a little

bit scared and the drag queens seem to

be like the natural leaders hi we're the

castor Caprichos in Oxford Street and

you're just about to see the finale of

our first show

[Music]

I think we got to take a five-minute

Colgan

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

in macho Australia the bravest men wore

dresses Priscilla would make some

national icons

for about a young Queen just landed in

Sydney it was mesmerizing it was just

the gayest most wonderful thing to grow

up with no wonder I wanted to become

like them but not so much the glamorous

part but the the bit of the wonky kind

of it as the ages arrived

drag dared to break out from its secret

venues onto the street and into public

bars there was a new wave of punk

dragged crazier Wong kiyah

people are experimenting with lots of

different things in the eighties it was

an era that just opened doors for

anything just give it a go

[Music]

Sydney pastels star was rising when she

moved in with a girl who worked the door

of Patch's nightclub Karen Cahill I

moved in and it was a freezing cold room

and I I just couldn't stand it and I

just went and jumped in the side of the

bed and hopped into bed with her and it

was so warm and so gorgeous and it must

have got really cold one night and I

must have cuddled her and well there you

go the drag queen was on with the door

[ __ ] and they had a kid

be pretty amazed to hear that you live a

straight line you call it stride

[Music]

right

[Music]

Sydney it was a gay bubble it was Kings

Cross moved to Oxford Street and then

subsequently to Newtown the nurse

Conville area at gay but we didn't

travel west of King Street wasn't the

end of the world that you could see it

from there

[Applause]

Stefan Elliot was working on films by

day and propping up the bar of the

Aubrey hotel by night the Albury was the

king of drag venues and the Queen in

residence was Cindy pastel there was

Cindy pastel on a bar not just as a as a

woman he dressed as the most completely

stuffed up [ __ ] piece of Kabuki

science fiction you know sniff enamel

and you know I could and you know forget

about the lip stamping sinking that went

out the window in seconds and what

planet are we all on the idea for a

movie about drag queens began to

germinate but when Stefan dared to

venture outside the city bubble he came

face-to-face with the ugly genesis of

Priscilla with my first partner in a

restaurant two young 20 year old boys on

our own and suddenly this voice says

well what are we got here I want to spun

around and there was this kind of team

of football players and obviously one of

their mothers who was a battle-ax is the

best way to describe her and she started

could I please have a stop yeah can't

have yeah kind of nothing we've got

nothing here for people like you nothing

the humiliation of sitting so far out of

your comfort zones so far away from

Oxford streets so far away from those

bars I didn't know whether that big ugly

wall of suburbia had been put up to stop

us from getting out all them from

getting in I think that moment of the

humiliation of just being attacked by

this woman and not being able to fight

back I've never felt so humiliated

it was the story Hoke Stefan needed

he wrote a draft script for Priscilla in

a matter of days

[Music]

if anyone could penetrate the dark heart

of Australia it was the drag queens with

their frocks of armor and those dagger

tunnels Stefan came to see me at the

Aubrey and came down to the dress room

and I'd finished the show so he was like

can we have a conversation about this

movie I'm making are we now or don't not

now I've just finished a show and I'm

going out and so you know here's my

dress come round and see me tomorrow

and you know we'll talk about it then

anyway so I forgot he was coming and I

answered the door with my son in my

hands little baby something feeding him

muesli and and he's like how whose kid

knows like that's mr. Mikey this is my

son Adam and he said well look I'm just

gonna stop it right here now I'm gonna

go and rewrite the script

congratulations it's a boy one of the

great things about the films that sort

of hit on a particular point in gay

subculture in Sydney particular time

where drag had evolved into an art form

in its own right in a really kind of

interesting way and Priscilla sort of

surf that wave at the Aubrey SEF and

also met designer Tim Chappell an

escapee from fashion school who found

his calling making drag costumes it was

a natural fit well this is great

polari phrase called mock de croc and

mock the croc means to be able to make

something from nothing and mocked a croc

is the way most drag is made it's about

being able to put it together from an

air-freshener bit of tinsel and bit of

aluminium foil and sticking together the

hot glue gun or something well Sooni

pestle sometimes did it with stapler

Priscilla was mocked a croc he was a

true definition of mocked Oh [ __ ]

when Stefan first up speaking about

Priscilla I thought why not and at that

point it had been turned down for

funding from every film bodying in

Australia

my favorite one was when it came back

stant deeply shallow it was completely

racist

it was completely sexist it was

completely chauvinistic I mean we were

going to dress an Aboriginal up in drag

I mean no that wasn't going to happen

we're going to have you know an Asian

stripper firing ping-pong balls out of

certain bodily parts we couldn't do that

but you know and even the script I'd

first given to the mardi gras

organization because we needed to borrow

costumes they said no way in the world

this is this is this is horrible in what

was sensitive times to some it seemed a

juvenile film making light of a serious

world let's not forget while Stefan was

pitching Priscilla gay sex was still

illegal in some parts of Australia the

stigma of the 70's and homosexuality was

branded and mental illness still linger

the main options those days were either

going to a psychiatrist or undergoing

aversion therapy aversion therapy they

would attach some electrical equipment

to you but I'll show you images of naked

men and if you responded you'd get a

shock the worst cases of course were the

lobotomies they where they were actually

lobotomize you cut part of your brain

this would seriously stop you from

basically being a functioning human

being though no wonder so many gay

people in the seventies lived undercover

in the backroom bars and drag clubs for

those who chose to walk the streets in

protest there were serious risks you

could lose your job you could lose your

house you could lose your friends your

family could be wrapped on you and worse

things could happen

in fact than that there could be

violence

in San Francisco the counterculture was

exploring new ways to protest looked

like fun there was something going on in

America at the time they were having

parades gay parades but why don't we

have a party you know a straight party

Sydney's first Mardi Gras began with a

ragtag group of a hundred or so

following a truck down Oxford Street the

mood at the time was joyous and we were

hoping really hoping that we could get

the people out of the bars and into the

street that was so like big slogan at

the time out of the bars into the street

Renwick asked me he came out of patches

and he come and he said I'm out now and

I'm going all the way

[Applause]

flouting marches permit please tried to

shut down the party but defiantly the

parade continued onwards when we got to

the element fountain it was very dark

there they were police all around we

were cornered and the police were coming

in and I mean in numbers many many

numbers paddy wagons

we were lambs to the slaughter

and once there was like a physical

confrontation in the middle of Kings

Cross in the middle of the night with

police who had a very bad reputation for

their conduct I mean everyone started

getting involved

[Applause]

a very unfortunate these sort of things

happen I think it's unfortunate that a

couple of policemen had to receive

hospital attention

fifty-three people were arrested that

night but something had shifted

the gay underground had surfaced and

found new allies in the street Mardi

Gras had been born and there would be no

stopping it now man if I was conceived

by me as a celebration but there's no

way on earth it couldn't be political

and it has to be politics in drag I had

a dream against a mountain of naysayers

Stefan Elliot an executive producer

rebel Pampered Russell sought to raise

two million dollars for Priscilla very

difficult sell you know to drag queens

and transsexual on a road movie across

Australia by someone you've never heard

of the more noise we got the more

obstacles that got put in front of us

the the higher the toy went on the shelf

and the more determined we were to

actually make it

[Music]

the whole idea of three drag queens

traveling to is rocking a bus

I read that bit and I thought they end

up that shake themselves by the time

they got to Redford you know episode

bored shitless is sitting on a bus for

God's sake no this will never work

[Music]

it was funny and ingenious the phrase at

the time was fish-out-of-water I I saw

it more as this collision between forces

that did not understand each other well

we did it so what now I think I want to

go home by 1993 they'd begged borrowed

and emptied their own pockets just

enough to make the film time to find a

cost first up

Mitzi Steph and I were doing frauds his

first phone and he said look my next

film says I'd you know there was three

drag queens going out into the desert

and I said I'll I said Steph I'll do

anything in it Hugo came first because I

had a good relationship with Hugo Hugo

trusted me and you know there was

nothing as more wonderful as I first I

have costume trials will report Hugo and

address in a hotel room in Melbourne and

he just ran up and down the corridor

screaming and he was lucky Kidner in a

toy shop and I just knew he go was fine

next came Felicia

one of the agents at the agency said hmm

we don't know if you should do this you

know don't know for to be a good movie

so I'm not even having this conversation

I really really want to do it and I

don't know why I given the role but I

know that part of it is because I think

Stefan liked the idea of taking somebody

that was been inators and putting them

in a dress you know and I think part of

what it was for guy was it was a chance

to shed that skin he knew that he would

absolutely take Mike for neighbors out

and kill him

lastly Bernadette which proved a little

tricky there was his wealth of realistic

actors that we went through it went from

Tim Curry to Colin Firth to Clive James

to Rupert Everett's and stuff on himself

went into it

in delirium where one moment he wanted

William Shatner to play Bernadette then

there was Tony Curtis who when I am

you're a Bernadette but of course the

new mrs. Curtis went oh I don't think so

Stapp had been on the cards for quite

some time and we just thought he'd never

do it wouldn't we don't have a hope in

hell and you know the planets aligned he

had decided that week to give up acting

his career had been reduced to playing

American villains in big-budget movies

and he'd given in and he walked into his

agent said I'm done now let's call it

off and his agent said why Kay how about

this and just put it in front of him

we're doing sunshine let me put you

straight on that I'll tell you how

happened right I was given this script

to read about like drag queens in

Australia and I thought this is the last

thing in the world I want to be doing

and then a few weeks later my friend

Caroline bliss came around and while we

were talking the phone rang and it was

my agent and she said oh darling what

did you think of that sort of drag queen

script we sent you and I said well you

know it was a bit sort of predictable

wasn't it she said oh we all rather

liked it and I said did you

and suddenly my friend Caroline said

just say yes and hang up what are you

talking about

and she said love your fear of this

project is out of all proportion to what

possibly could happen just keep saying

yes and maybe it'll go away so I was

bullied and taken the role but I would

only do it on one condition

tell me about you John complain bill

hunter must be my boyfriend spent 30

years around the world bill loved

Terrance he admired him so much and for

them to actually have the opportunity of

working together again and reacquainting

it with each other I was one of the I

think the big reasons why he wanted to

do Priscilla

and with that the wheels on the

Priscilla bus were rolling I didn't know

then but we needn't have gone to the

Outback to find the heart of homophobia

Sydney's homosexual community has been

promised top-level help in tackling what

it describes as a growing wave of hate

bashing 'he's a report out today shows a

high percentage of gays and lesbians are

victims of gang attacks less than half

of which are reported to the police used

to be yeah that the term the term

[ __ ] bashing yeah that was basically

a gang sport of the early eighties go

out the early eighties you go what are

we gonna do tonight

we gotta roll some quarters in the late

eighties rumors flew like the winds

around the cliffs of Bondi Beach

[Music]

the coastal track alongside marks Park

was a popular gay beach and the place to

prove yourself for Sydney homophobes one

of the things that I saw happening quite

clearly was that because he had young

people going war Society hates gays the

cops hate gays it's okay for us to do

whatever and we're never gonna even get

into trouble for it sometimes it was a

bit of a Rite of initiation you know to

go puff to bashing John Russell was

preparing to leave Bondi and build a

house on the family farm it was the

weekend that he was gonna be moving up

to the farm

deados character dad was coming down on

the Saturday Saturday morning to pick

him up and Thursday night he went out

many way where it was wasn't uncommon

for him not to come out you know a

debate a your night but I suppose it's

better won't you come home or not of

course there we going to find it if they

come to any further let's come down this

is the Block wage only gonna build a

house we were gonna fence it off sazzle

takes in the waterfront and all that I

was at work the next day and two police

officers walked in I said look you know

we think we found your brother so they

drove me over the glue coroner's court

where identified him this is where he is

you know when they are meant to end up

with the dory someone good I might a

gown said you better come inside now I

got something to tell you and the

nightmare transpired from me Shawn Ellen

Russell's it's been a while

please dismiss John's death as a suicide

or accident it's how a lot of gay hate

murders were brushed under the carpet in

those days he was actually found holding

someone's hair in his hand which was not

his own hair so you had clear evidence

it was a murder there's no other reason

why he would have been holding that here

and you know back in 1989 police just

overlooked that and in fact you know

that crucial piece of DNA evidence even

went missing

tragic

there's certain amount of evidence say

about anything of any DNA value was

there's no present that lost that that

lost all that

[Music]

when I flew into Australia to start the

movie I looked down my soul there's

wonderful cliffs of Bondi Beach

completely unaware of like their

terrible secret at the time I was

obviously totally preoccupied with like

how I was gonna play Bernadette you know

like a woman born into a man's body my

task as an actor was no less than to

become a woman and I had no clue where

to begin

he did start all with it I reckon

generally I remember that he wouldn't do

the Tuck interesting considering he was

the one who had the operation but I

think you know you've got a lave your

sexuality at the door when you've got to

leave all sorts of things at the door

when you play any kind of role really

and it's your masculinity and that on

some level that's gonna be left at the

door when you take on roles like this

and I reckon there was a little part of

Terrance that hung on to that stamp

didn't know who he wanted to be and he

had this image in his head of being half

Brooke Shields and half Jacqueline

Bisset and he brought Jacqueline along

for cut the matings and was studying her

and watching her and you know you know

he's no Jacqueline Bisset I'll say that

and your nose says will be the mill

darling but you did have at least one

good idea you realised I needed a

trainee trainer enter Robin Lee

Mothercare instead remember when I was

young I loved him so that was very

exciting for me just the fact that I was

gonna meet him let alone work with him

another war where he had to learn men

every since like when we sat together

I'd say you pick up a class and he he

got the class fees harm I like that and

I said No

that is how you do it don't pick up just

little things and then I'd go like that

with my head then he just used to sit

there like we'd be talking but he just

watch everything I did and he said

that's very fascinating the one thing we

had to do was ultimately the litmus test

which is to get him out there take them

out onto Oxford Street and in character

let him see the experience let him go

through what drag feels like so we spent

a full night getting them all done

getting him all ready and took the three

of them out to a nightclub in Sydney

with Bill Hunter as bodyguard so we were

all made up and in a frock it was like a

multicolored sequin sort of me I had a

blonde wig and guy and Terrence and I

were all going to meet at my house I

went home in my full regalia got back my

little boy who was four at the time

screamed and ran away from me and and

and and I said oh it's all right darling

it's okay he said I said it's daddy he

said who said take the wig off take the

wig off I'd - I took my wig off and he

said we were put it on again put it on

again side I put it back on but dumb

Terrance and guy arrived and then I

think we walked from there Billy

chaperoning us all the way got to DCM

and proceeded to get very very drunk

one of the things that was actually

really fun about it was that I wasn't

recognized I was in disguise the syphon

Franklin was in drag I was actually in

disguise and so I was like wow this is

incredibly liberating guy was very hands

flapping about running about having a

great time and getting adored by

everybody and letting them touch his abs

Tarek's would say lady like take

nomination any luck even if hey Chris

just watching everything and me like in

the movie going come on Darlene come on

I'm time to go now and I remember other

drag queens looking at us and kind of

going these girls and Senators goes

before my mascara was running when they

took me down this steps at the end and

my heel was broken and my wig was askew

and I was a very sick boy and ended up

vomiting out of Steph's car on the way

home so it was a fabulous night we had a

ball but sadly like Cinderella

I woke the next morning to find nothing

had changed

I was still terrified first I shoot he

was frightened and we knew it so we made

a decision right there and then no

mirrors no he couldn't look at the the

dailies he couldn't look at any footage

let's just keep Bernadette away from him

and for two or three weeks he had this

basically this shadow hanging over him

of what it what it was he was doing and

he was frightened he couldn't get the

voice right he couldn't he couldn't find

himself it's true I was fine on the gay

Golden Mile of Oxford Street but once we

left the safety of Sydney it was a

different story

Lex Watson I think went to do a device

about about gay rights in Milazzo

tonight remote Iser Monday conference

debates homosexual rights and wrong

and that was incredibly brave to go to

like a very masculine and very outback

and very socially conservative place yes

one why you're poor why don't you call

yourself astride out [ __ ] and further

and why our pervert allow to run the

street and rape and murder kill little

baby the booties on the other foot my

friend we don't go around murdering kids

we don't go around murdering

heterosexuals but the reverse is done to

us that he was attacked and had [ __ ]

thrown on him and stuff was you know one

of those iconic moments I guess in you

know the conflict between a sort of a

visible urban gay scene and the great

vastness of Australia Oh Felicia where

the [ __ ] home

[Music]

the mining town of Broken Hill was the

first place we filmed outside of Sydney

we were to perform on a bar in front of

extras who were real-life local miners I

was consumed with fear waiting in the

wings looking like some drag abomination

of a Cabbage Patch doll I found myself

wondering what am I doing here

I'm a maknae I do I'm a serious actor

I'm the best-dressed man in Britain what

am I doing here and then action

[Music]

pure adrenaline one take I'd broken the

bounds after that I was flying and

afterwards it was a different person and

I said you were right till thinking I'm

you know my career's over and he said I

just crossed the barrier he said I'm not

frightened anymore I'm not frightened of

anything if we'd been in Sydney I would

have marched in the parade

[Music]

[Applause]

one of the icons of Mardi Gras in the

early 90s was Vanessa Wagner part of a

new wave of drag queens were the

political edge and the taste for anarchy

known defrocked is Tobin Saunders in

1991 for mother Sydney gay and lesbian

Mardi Gras I can remember thinking I'm

sick of all these parade entrants that

are obeying and marching up the street

let's get a bunch of doled out drag

queens whose shopping trolleys smashing

into the audience and causing mayhem

thank god the new week so we're going to

do like a guerilla entry and I was just

so sick right and I was like oh this is

a really bad flu and my friends were

like no you can do it you can do it we

can get up and do it and shoving speed

up my nostrils and trying to get me out

and I was just the cruelest I'd ever

been it felt like someone had stuck a

needle in me and sucked the life out of

me he shut me down bang bang

bang-bang

bang-bang my baby shot me down when HIV

came to Australia it was seen as a gay

disease simply because the first

statistics were of amongst gay men

prejudice emerge I mean there were

terrible newspaper reports people who

you thought might be your friends turn

against you and so that the whole move

with which we had grew felt was

gradually occurring towards liberating

homosexual life stopped it took a

terrible step backwards

ADEs would be the ultimate whole deal

the gay community would live and die

through there's people dealing with

enormous amount of fear and grief and

there's there's people sick seeking ways

that no one's ever seen before

I just photograph my friends and perhaps

that's the power of my photographs of

AIDS is that

[Music]

people let me into their lives really

and into the dyeing process and I think

that they felt that they were making

some contribution by allowing their

story to be told

each of the thousands of candles carried

in Sydney is a lost lover or friend

brother son daughter ken Madison dad

Mason Harbor with their sequin armor and

verbal weaponry it was the drag queens

who rallied the troops the drag queens

seemed to be like the natural leaders

and I think that's partly because when

you become a drag queen you have an

alter ego you have another self which is

different from your normal self it's

like you can be everything that your

normal self isn't I often used to say

you know I'm here now too you know the

Andrew sisters went to war to entertain

the troops well I didn't go to war to

entertain the troops I stayed here to

entertain my brothers and sisters who

have lost other brothers and sisters due

to AIDS I just felt like every time we'd

lose somebody a part of them would come

in me a part of them to give me strength

to be this performing puppet for them

there was a real fabulous fatalistic

kind of frenzy if you like if I've got a

little right and I can remember thinking

okay well [ __ ] that if I'm gonna die I'm

also dying on a colorful street

it was defiant exultation that had

brought the gay community this far and

would now burn more brightly than ever

we had this city that was just on fire

so much was happening in Sydney it was

breaking almost every rule in the book I

mean it's Sydney suddenly got sick of

being frightened and it erupted

[Applause]

from agony to ecstasy it was the wildest

of tires

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

there was just a sense of happiness and

rebellion and and it just all came

together and once I stepped my foot into

that world then everything charged

I'm pretty sure the general strike

community too alike wow those people

really know how to throw a [ __ ]

party and have a good time we want a

piece of that

at last the tribes have been united in a

spirit of pure abandon the same spirit

would inspire the most iconic image in

Priscilla the thing about making a film

is a single image has to linger in your

imagination

it starts quite early on and it's the

one that keeps you going that keeps you

aspiring to realize the film Stephan

like to name sections of the scripts and

this one was called the Spirit of

Ecstasy

and he was inspired by the ornaments on

the front of the rolls-royce you know

the lady who's flapping and I was like

oh that's quite nice like let's build

the dress into sales him when Owen came

back with four foot wings I went

completely ballistic and said come on

this is this moment Tim's mum worked for

Fatah Jay or something and no she got

20% discount imagine so Tim went and

bought every piece of llama he could

find and I think it added up to being

about a hundred and eighty meters of

llama I had one day to get it ready to

go on the bus and so I just spent the

next 24 hours

sewing cutting sewing cutting sewing

cutting the next morning would get to

set its beautiful dawn it's like a

magical picture the bus is ready I lay

the l'arme out along the road and attach

to the bus and there's no wind at all

and the bus starts stuff and it's just

dragging along the ground flapping

floppy floppy it was very sad it was a

very sad moment and then their stunt

supervisor said to me Tim it's really

dangerous for the performer you're gonna

have to go over there and cut it off so

I went over to the bus and I picked up

the llama with my scissors and as I

picked the scissors to the l'arme this

huge gust of air picks the whole thing

out of my arms and she's off and away

and Priscilla is born

it's the one image everyone remembers a

banner of change driven into the

Australian psyche on an old bus

[Music]

decades later its brilliance hasn't

faded after years of neglect

institutions which had once ostracized

the gay world are now treating it with

dignity 15 years on John Ross's case was

reopened by police and a caronia ling

quest began you can't just write someone

off and so will they they're not a

legitimate victim they though in the

wrong place at the wrong time they lived

a reckless lifestyle because they lived

that way they don't deserve the same

amount of care and the same amount of

discernment from an investing in

authority I think I don't think that's

right I think we've got to do the best

we can for those families because they

always left wondering it's a wound that

will never heal for them in Questor film

but John Russell had been thrown from

the cliffs and that motive of gay hate

had been ignored or missed and up to 80

other murders since the seventies I

would like to know who did who was and

and justice be done

whether it was one five or ten everyone

that's suppose that's all every

everybody ever wants is justice they did

matter they were important we are

prepared to learn from these attitudes

will change their death is not in vain

I cannot first treat an unlikely group

of marchers join the Mardi Gras parade

you know the beginning of the parade

route you had the police lined up at one

corner and that the exact adjacent

corner was the 1978's who'd been bashed

by the police and the police is standing

near the 78th is our there I'm just

standing there watching this going Wow

and as the parade took off in the 1978

has led the parade because it was 20

years the police all stood there and

actually saluted and people had tears

running down their faces the cops were

crying the 78s were crying it was just

like this magic moment of you know

social healing

[Music]

I went along to the margarita and

watched that become a celebration of the

city and somehow contained within

Priscilla is that whole journey of gay

culture with a short space of time from

being where you know if you're gay and

and an activist you you were likely to

be hauled off the streets and thrown

behind bars to to a real celebration

where you've got police flights and and

politicians marching you know so it was

a huge transformation within a short

space of time and kind of reverberate

beyond Sydney in a big way and with this

film kind of out to the world so it did

it did catch a fantastic wave we surf

that wave over the oceans to a little

town called kin in the South of France

[Music]

Cindy pastel who'd inspired Hugo's

character came to with his son Adam to

face the music of Fame and their own

stories we had to rush to get ready to

get to the opening and suddenly we're

there and we're sitting there and I've

got Adam sitting next to me and then

comes the most my favorite scene in

Priscilla's when when Hugo is pretending

to be straight sorry about last night

I don't always sad dressed up in women's

clothes I mean you know don't get the

wrong idea if you ask me what the film

is really about it's about a gay man

coming out to his son and has spent his

entire life fighting this moment you

know what I am don't you and I knew this

was coming up and I was thinking oh my

god I've never had to tell Adam anything

like this before and here it is this is

our life here we are watching our live

thing and I thought oh my god and I just

remember reaching down and grabbing his

little hand and

and holding it because it was like too

late I had couldn't tell him it was here

it was on the big screen in front of us

and I remember it's so distinctly that

he grabbed my hand and he squeezed it a

little bit tighter as if and it was a

feeling of life it's okay dad

everything's all right no words had to

be said nothing had to be explained it

was just life and we were just living in

the heart of the film caught with that

can crowd that story of a father and a

son that brought total silence to them

they weren't laughing film ended house

lights went up then they ripped up the

seats that was the real surprise they

went ballistic

[Music]

and they just kept clapping and roaring

and clapping and roaring and roaring i

said when does this end and then it was

stunned than I did I got very emotional

and then stamp said let's go let's quit

whilst we're ahead and I gotta agree no

we'd only had ten minutes of standing

ovation when we could have gone on to 20

and apparently that's the guide you can

but you know you never see a life

changing in a moment your life changed

my life changed at that moment I was

doing the nefesh no river and they

wouldn't give me the time out to go to

the can so I had Stefan and Hugo and

Terence bringing me drunk after the

screening and can and had gone off and

everyone had loved it you know no I'm

sick I'm great it's great guys I created

the character of Bernadette by just like

thinking about the most beautiful woman

I'd ever seen and wonderful women are

gone out with you know so she was really

gonna be absolutely fabulous and that

was my whole motivation I believed I was

creating this glamorous creature course

Stefan never allowed me to see the

rushes and I didn't understand why until

the first night in can and the movie

opened and I looked like this old dog

and I thought [ __ ] he's really taking me

to the cleaners that bastard you know

but think of him is jus he really worked

because what was her touching was the

character believing she was this God's

gift to women and she was this old dog

[Applause]

[Music]

after the film the musical as Priscilla

hit the stage if the West End Umbro mwyn

went to Italy Brazil

recently it opened in Korea where

apparently no one is gay

[Music]

having cop Australia the Trojan horse of

drag continues to take on the world

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

it was the toughest movie I've ever done

and the most fun

[Music]

and I'd made up my mind really early on

if I wanted to make that Pro gay film

which dealt with all the issues maids

and equality and no one would have seen

that film I made a film about three

clowns that asked you as an audience to

laugh at them

anybody could laugh at the Nanuk would

laugh at

[Music]

the joy of the film was it took you in

on one level it turned you in the middle

of the film and by the end of it you are

laughing with

[Music]

[Applause]

Stefan you stole fire from the heavens

you added the drag queen to the pantheon

of Australian icons and I'm so pleased I

was part of it I hope another hip pops

into your head in the meanwhile

farewell love

tell us how you guys met in a toilet at

the trough wait where did we meet

patches I don't remember I think it was

patches in the dressing room at patches

patches was booming in those days and I

remember you coming there and doing

solitaire if I remember correctly and I

thought was one of the best things I've

ever seen and then when we clicked I

said he wouldn't happen to be ally

overture and that was it we were

inseparable

and we kind of have been for many years

but we haven't seen each other for many

years and now we live next door to each

other and it's heaven

it's heaven and you've just turned 17 I

haven't and you still remember who I am

I do I haven't got out sorry not yet or

dementia no we'll probably get them

together and we move really far let's go

I've got to worry the day you come out

and I go through you then you go to

worry well we just stay here we you

it'll be fine we'll get on fine

come on Gia go one go