Interview: “Hedwig”’s John Cameron Mitchell is Absolutely Queer (Even When He's Directing Nicole Kidman)

John Cameron Mitchell

How do you top the stunning gender-bending musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) that made such a big name for its enormously talented writer-director (and actor) John Cameron Mitchell? Mitchell did it by putting together a partially-improvised, non-linear, very sexually explicit film experiment called Shortbus (2006).

But how in the world do you then top Shortbus?

How about with a quiet, moving movie adaptation of a tasteful Tony-Award-winning play starring A-List actors like Nicole Kidman and Dianne Wiest that’s already getting talk of Oscar nominations?

I know: it sounds like the work of some completely different director, doesn’t it? But to hear Mitchell tell it, his new movie Rabbit Hole (reviewed here), about two parents dealing with the death of their four-year-old boy eight months earlier, is exactly in keeping with his existing body of work, that the characters are just as “queer” as those in Hedwig and Shortbus.

Yeah, this sounds like spin, the kind of thing directors always say when they’re trying to get their existing audiences to follow them in some radical new direction. But you know what? Mitchell is so smart and so thoughtful – and made such a convincing case that Rabbit Hole is “queer” – that I pretty much completely bought it.

Mitchell was just as interesting on other topics ranging from gay directors’ relationships with their female stars, to how his moving between cliques in high school prepared him for moving between avant-garde and Hollywood film circles, and even to how his own sexuality has shifted over the years from the glorious “slutivity” of his twenties to his current belief, at age 47, that cuddling might be just as important as sex.

AfterElton.com: A lot of people are making a lot about the fact that this seems like a departure for you: from outrageous, controversial movies like Hedwig and Shortbus, to this quiet, Oscar-bait meditation on death. Do you see this as a bold departure?
John Cameron Mitchell: I don't. I really don't. It was unusual to work with stars. That was the most unusual thing about it. This is a lower budget than Hedwig, the way we shot it. It was a third less of the budget. Same DP, shot in New York with some of my same crew. In a way, the actors were working in my territory. It was somebody else's script, but it's very much in the style of things I'd acted in, not necessarily directed.

I've been working for 30 years. I'd approach the script as an actor the same as I would as a director. Sometimes I wrote it, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I acted in it, sometimes I didn't. It was unusual not having the final say, but we had producers with really good taste so it wasn't like I was arguing with obdurate studio heads. These were smart people with slightly different opinions, so it would take longer for me to get my way. [laughs] But sometimes, their way was right.

Mitchell with Rabbit Hole star Nicole Kidman

AE: Nicole Kidman produced the film. So they brought the project to you and said would you like to direct this?
JCM: My agents showed me the script and told me they were looking for someone, and I just fell in love with it. I reached out to Nicole's partner who wanted to do Hedwig many years ago when he was with Robert Redford's company. He was intrigued by my interest, and he liked the idea, so then I talked to Nicole on the phone. I talked about how I was moved, about how the loss in my life was brought up in a beautiful way by the script, and it felt like it would be a healing experience for me to do it, and for an audience. This could be our generation's Ordinary People.

Next Page! How is filmmaking different with big stars?