Terence Stamp died recently. If you saw his face you would recognize him “Kneel before Zod”, Superman.

In 1994 he made a movie called The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

I went a movie junket and got to interview him. He played a transsexual in the movie who goes on a journey with two drag queens, quite a departure for an actor who usually played a tougher man.

When he died I dug out my notes from the interview. Here’s what he had to say:

First, I asked Stephan Elliott, who made the movie, why he picked an unlikely Stamp for the role.

“Nobody would expect it. Here we have a man taking women’s clothes off for years and he has to put women’s clothes on.”

I asked Stamp about what he learned playing a transsexual. “I’m not so quick about asking girls to get into fishnet stockings and high heels anymore.”

At first he rejected the role. “I didn’t want to do it. Being a woman is mostly about discomfort. Things like having your body waxed.”

He came around when he visited with a transsexual person.

“She was glamourous. I put my General Zod stare on her. That’s when I knew I could do it. I couldn’t be a woman but I could be a transsexual.”

And, “In America it might seem like a risk. In England we don’t care.”

The interview then branched off to the roles he was being offered in America.

I don’t get good parts in Hollywood movies. I just do the best I can with them. It’s frustrating. I have to keep it from eating away at me. I’m just not thought of for Hannibal Lector or a Dangerous Liaison.”

He said he was the envy of every gay actor in England when he got the Priscilla role. “Why him, he’s so butch.”

He was appreciating the reaction to the movie in America. “It’s crossed over. It’s not a gay movie. American audiences so far have been incredible open. If I were homophobic I’d go to scoff, and then we’ll get them suck them in.”

My final notes are from asking him about making Far from the Maddening Crowd.

“Schlesinger (the filmmaker), we didn’t get along. He didn’t want me.”

As for being in a Fellini movie, he “was everything you ever wanted. He changed my life.”

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