Hugo Weaving, Web Weaving: Priscilla Queen of the Desert Review
 
Hugo Weaving, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, backstage
 

Hugo Weaving ~ Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 

AU Movie 1994:     Hugo content: approx  93%   (104 mins )
Character: Tick: gentle, on-edge gay/bi with wife and kid in the closet
                   Mitzi: boozy harlot drag artiste
Cast: Hugo Weaving Anthony 'Tick' Belrose/Mitzi , Terence Stamp Bernadette,  Guy Pearce   Adam/Felicia,   Bill Hunter   Bob, Julia Cortez  Cynthia , Rebel Russell Logowoman
Dir/Wri: Stephan Elliott
Availablity: DVD(no features)  & VHS

Hugo Weaving: Priscilla Queen of the Desert Plot/Comments:

Priscilla is It's a Wonderful Life without the vomit.

Tick is easy-going, mild-mannered, gay and a loyal friend. He is also Mitzi: drag artiste, drunken tart-with-a-heart, vulgar trollop and 12" platform heel clotheshorse .
      Receiving an offer to take his drag act to Alice Springs, he takes super-out 'scene queen' Adam (Guy Pearce) and trying-to-age-gracefully post-op transsexual Bernadette (Terrence Stamp) with him. Naturally, there's a catch: Tick has an embarrassing secret; his undivorced wife has hired him, and he's about to see his son for the first time. 
     This is an exceedingly funny, beautifully performed and epically shot road movie across the stunningly barren Australian Outback. 
Hugo Weaving, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, desert rehearsal
The beauty of Priscilla is that it's much more than a sequence of (very funny) dick jokes, camp asides and brilliantly abstract song/dance routines. The script gives the characters plenty of scope to change and it is unafraid to carry an underlying message about the need for acceptance (racial, sexual, relationship, dress sense…): there is also a huge amount of heart, though never schmaltz. 
      It's no surprise that the film found such a huge mainstream audience (outside of the US) on release and Priscilla has so much going for it that it's become an established repeat-watcher, gaining a huge cult following among gay and straight viewers alike.

For a film as unabashedly and outrageously camp as this, it comes as a surprise on first viewing to see how character-driven it actually is; often showing subtle and insightful writing and acting.
       Terrence Stamp (who, for my tastes, can sometimes be rather woodenly hammy) plays Bernadette as completely 'straight', never resorting to anything like a trannie stereotype, and his slightly anachronistic bearing and mannerisms are perfect for the faded Lay Girl: he contrasts Bernadette's vulnerability and need to be loved/to love, with a toughness born by necessity. Priscilla is, without a doubt, his best performance.
     Although pre-LA Confidential/Memento Guy Pearce is suitably hyperactive and shallow as Adam, this character is perhaps Priscilla's only real flaw:  he's a little too one-sided and constantly facetious (though he does soften a little after the Coober Pedy incident). Still, the Neighbours -honed muscles made a lot of people happy and he delivers some wonderfully foul jokes (particularly the Abba relic).

Making Priscilla
Priscilla Gallery
Priscilla Interview
Back:  That Eye, The Sky
Next: Arcadia 
Web Weaving
Hugo Weaving, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Guy Pearce, walkabout
Hugo Weaving, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, tick-ed off

  HugoWeaving's performance is the glue holding the whole movie together. On one hand he is exceptionally funny as the spectacularly trashy Arch Queen, Mitzi, while on the other (the majority of screen time) he is vulnerable, confused and the most fleshed out of the characters as Tick. Weaving provides invaluable contrasts, whole-heartedly embracing Priscilla 's excesses while giving a completely believable and incredibly sympathetic performance.
 

Priscilla is a perfect balance of ridiculous entertainment and characters you really care about. 
It's impossible not to watch it without smiling. 

n. There was a fantastic video for I Love the Nightlife, with Weaving as a surburban family man/pilot metamorphosising into a drag queen . There was also a documentary of Weaving and Stamp interviewing their Trannie Trainers at Cannes.
Where is this stuff? This should be on the DVD (with a commentary).
Please email if you have this:kidney donation/trades etc. offered.

Typical Hugo Weaving Quotes:

  • "Look, I haven't lied about anything. After six years I get a phone call screaming for help and christ knows I owe her a couple of favours. [choking up] I'm sorry that I never told you. I'm not sorry that you're here"
  • "Well, I've had a look around and I think we can safely assume that I now know less about motors than when I first lifted up that...that bonnety thing"
  • "It's nice...in a hideous sort of a way"
  • "Tackarama!"
  • "You can make a fine living in a pair of heels"
  • On Aids Fuckers Go Home, painted on the bus"No matter how tough I think I'm getting, it still hurts"


Comments and Queries:

  • AFI Nomination for Best Actor: Hugo Weaving
  • Another stuttering part (see The Interview, Russian Doll, Peaches)
  • Did Tick do the full tuck? "I don't think I ever did it properly. You've really got to push your balls right up and then pull your dick right back and tape it up your ass. Instead I just went for tightish jocks to keep myself in position" See the Juice Priscilla Interview for the whole thing. 
  • Other gay parts in Bedrooms & Hallways, The Kiss 
  • Original choices for Bernadette: Tony Curtis, Tim Curry, Bryan Brown, Chrisopher Reeve, William Shatner.                              Original choices for Adam: Jason Donavan, Paul Mercutio  Original choices for Tick: Michael Hutchence, David Bowie, Rupert Graves, Hugo Weaving, Sam Neill and Rupert Everett, who was the main contender.
  • Stephan Elliott directed and wrote Fraudsand was the 2nd assistant director back in '87 on The Right Hand Man. Rebel Russell (exec producer, Logowoman) pops up everywhere.  See The Usual Suspects for a huge list of recurring Weaving co-workers.
  • Making of Priscilla available 2nd hand. Script available 2nd hand (Priscilla... Stephan Elliot) though is exactly as per the film, inc unscripted  adlibs.


 

Hugo Weaving content: 

According to producer Al Clark, Weaving was "a drag natural". 
   Tick is a wonderful example of his huge range, completely confusing people who only see him as the kick-ass mean bastard ( The Matrix , The Lord of the Rings ). Although on the surface, it seems a very atypical role, there are also some very typical Weavingesque traits: Tick is still riddled with self-doubt and is another character who feels, or is, ostracised from society.
Hugo Weaving, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, bus brows

It's a beautifully subtle performance, with Weaving bringing a huge variety of physical/facial/vocal variation to the role. 
    A good example of this is his campfire confession that he has a wife, while withholding the small matter of also being a father: markedly different to Tick's normal speaking voice while still soft, trying not to break; eyes betraying the doubt and uncertainty of confessing all to his stunned companions. The scene is all the more touching for being delivered in a gentle and understated way.