![]() ![]() It was reassuring that he was on board, he's such an icon, a real man of the people and so loved. He'd warned me how tough the mining towns would be, and they were as bad as he'd said. He doesn't make a big deal of it, he's just there for you, watching your back. That was really touching, and typical of the guy. Bill found out where we were going and he joined us with a very tough character and they stayed with us half-way through the night on a club crawl of Sydney's rough bars and gay clubs. It's a certain kind of level in acting that's to do with commitment in front of the camera.īefore we began shooting, Stephan insisted that the three of us playing drag queens had a night on the town in full drag. And because of the relationship in the movie, I became party to the real significance of the man. I told Stephan that I felt that with Bill in the role, I knew we'd have a chance of bringing it off. I knew it would be very bizarre, and I wanted someone who would be absolutely believable. I wasn't really concerned about the other actors - I knew the director, Stephan Elliott, would have the best he could afford - but what was crucial was that I needed somebody in the role of Bob who I could rely on totally. When they were wooing me to do Priscilla, I was uncertain, I was still feeling insecure about taking the role. If Bill had been born over here he'd now be one of our great classical actors. He's the perfect actor, he has such a huge range, but his performance is always seamless. There was a big scene with the whole cast - a lot of firepower - and I thought he was just brilliant. What really made me take to him was his performance on set. A lot of drinkers feel threatened in the company of those who don't, but he wasn't concerned, we were still like drinking companions. One of the things that made me like him initially was that one night he and John Hurt and I found ourselves in the bar of the hotel where we were staying now Bill enjoys a drink, but Hurt wasn't drinking at that time and I don't drink at all, and so there Bill was with two stone-cold sober guys. He played a heavy, and I remember thinking how good he was. I'd seen him in a movie called Mad Dog Morgan. TERENCE STAMP: We met on the set of The Hit in Madrid in 1984.īill's tall, he has a sort of lugubrious face and the kind of rolling gait you associate with athletes. Stamp, being what he is, and what he brings to the screen - I'd jump at it. I'd say 99 per cent of time if I was offered a movie, and Stamp was in it, I'd take it. I think he'll only play leads from now on, and rightly so. I wasn't really happy with the stuff he's been doing in America in recent years, he's been treated as a third-in-line support actor. Priscilla will give people an idea of just how good he is. Now, I think he's got a whole new career ahead of him. I don't know any other actor alive that would think he could do that, given the insecurity this job breeds, but Terence did, and hats off to him. Terence has a lot of guts remember, he took ten years off. It's an opal-mining town peopled by very rough gentlemen. I tried to warn Terence about the sort of towns we were going to, and he looked at me with that wonderful look he has of utter disdain and said: 'Hunter, I've worked all over the world, nothing will surprise me.' But when he got to places like Coober Pedy he got a rude shock. Mind you, for the three sensitive artistes going rock-climbing in their frocks, it must have been arduous. We had a great time, all the way across Australia. ![]() He plays hard, works hard, loves to party, and as a consequence everything is a huge giggle. The atmosphere was manic - Stephan goes a million miles an hour, 24 hours a day. Anything that's got Stephan Elliott directing it is going to be interesting, to say the least. The producer rang me and said, 'Bill, if you won't do this film, I can't' So it was a fait accompli. I accepted Priscilla without seeing the script, and with great alacrity.Īpparently Stamp said he'd do it if I did. ![]()
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