Interview 31st May 2001 by
phone ex Sydney
by John Frame for Queer
Radio on 4ZZZ
Transcript 14th June 2001 © jvframe@ozemail.com.au
Hear
this interview as a 128kps stereo mp3
- When is Paul coming to
Brisbane hasn't seen Paul Capsis since about 1994, when you brought
"Burning Sequins" up to La Boite Theatre here.
It's been a long time between drinks!
It's a long time - but Brisbane is waiting to see Paul Capsis. We've got
the Brisbane Powerhouse Centre, who are sponsors of Queer Radio, and we would
expect that Brisbane Powerhouse would be inviting you to perform - hopefully in
the near future.
I really hope so. I'm really hangin' out to come back - I've been hangin' to come back since I performed there in '94. It was a WONDERFUL experience.
You have a great show - you were saying that it's a big performance. When
we saw "Burning Sequins" it was "you".
Yeah, it's changed a lot since then. I mean that was a very different way
of performing - with just prerecorded music - but now I've got a band, and I've
got a few configurations. I can sing with just a piano player, or piano player
and prerecorded music, or I can do a whole band - and I suggest the band is the
one that goes off. Do you know what I mean? It's a really good show.
- The film "Head On":
You're described as being one of Australia's great divas, which is a
wonderful thing, as a man, because your voice is a very "all
encompassing" voice - and during "Burning Sequins" you evoked
the personalities of women as well as men. But you do have an extraordinary personality
- you've played in very successful movies like "Head On". You
received the Film Critics of Australia Award for Best Supporting Actor for
"Head On". You've also had a painting of you entered for the
Archibald Prize…
Yeah, and I've just done another one - this other guy asked me to sit for
an "Archibald". ~(laughs)~ It's sort of bizarre,
really - it's nice, it's a great acknowledgement.
I loved doing the film "Head On" - it's been a great thing for
my career and what has happened now is I've become known for that film. It's
that thing of, you know, you could be working for ten years as a performer on
the cabaret/music scene and then you do one film…it's an amazing thing.
You were proud of the character you played, "Johnny"?
Very proud. My god, I'm so proud of the whole thing really - the
whole film. It was a great opportunity for me to show that I am an actor,
because I didn't sing in the movie, so that's good…
You danced…
I danced a little bit, yeah, but I didn't really sing - so it was very
much an acting role and a very strong character. I identified a little bit with
that character, mainly because of the cultural background (the Greek/Maltese
thing that I have , and the character is Greek) and with the gay stuff…all that
came together and kicked in. And playing with gender as well:- which was a
stage there in my career, where I was playing with that a little bit. I don't
use that so much these days, but there's still an element of it in my work.
It was a great experience working with Ana Kokkinos, the director. She
made a short film called "Only The Brave", which was an incredible
short film and won a lot of awards. I watched the film to see what sort of a
director she is… and I thought "Oh my god, she's gonna go there! She's really
gonna go there!"
"Head On" got a very mixed response from people who found it
very confronting, which is good - do you know what I mean? - It was like a new
way of presenting Australian stories. But I just feel very blessed that I was
given the chance to play such a great part and in such a wonderful movie, based
on a wonderful book, "Loaded" by Christos Tsolkas. I'm
grateful that I've had an opportunity to do something really good.
- "Outness" with family:
There are times when people have to decide that they're going to take a
line where "this is who I am, people will have to accept me as I am".
It must be extremely hard with a Greek/Maltese background, where there are
strong pressures to behave in a certain way. When I spoke to you in'94, you
said that you felt those pressures as well, and that you would try to come out
to your mum and she would put her hands over her ears, yell and run out of the
house - rather than talk about it. Have these things changed?
Oh yeah…a great deal. A lot of it has to do with my work, I suppose, but
I've changed too, I don't know… I guess you just sort of make a decision - and
it's not an easy decision. It wasn't an easy one for me…but it was a
really good thing. Mum's sort of OK now. I'm in a relationship and have been
with this lovely man for two years and Mum likes him and he's in the family -
the family knows about him.
So it's changed a lot because, I guess, I just live my life. I think I've
become stronger, more than anything. But I still feel there's quite a high
element of homophobia out there and knowing full well that I don't get the
opportunities because I'm openly gay:- basically I've gone "well,
there's no turning back". So I'm just going to go further with it and
embrace it even more, rather than try to pretend, or satisfy other people
because they may not be comfortable with it. I think I'm stronger now than I've
ever been about all that. But I just "am" - I just do it, I
"be" rather than think about or contemplate - do you know what I
mean?
- Paul Capsis sings Marcia:
With "Burning Sequins" you were refashioning, perhaps, other
people's work but you're contributing to the CD "Refashioned"
that's just been released through Groovescooter Records, and you're reworking a
Marcia Hines song…
It's the first actual proper professional recording I've done, so I was
really thrilled to be asked. When Georgie and Paris approached me, initially it
was another Marcia Hines song they wanted me to do - "Something's
Missing" - and I thought that was a little bit kind of slow and a bit
sappy. So I said what about "(Without) You"? - something a bit
more "up" and a bit more camp, maybe.
It's an interesting one with that song, 'cause I have a connection with
Marcia from my childhood, from when I was a kiddy at school:- My best friend at
school was a Marcia Hines fan and we used to go to Marcia's house and stalk her
and hide behind trees - and then one day her mother invited us into the house!
So we met her when I was at school and we used to watch her on CountDown, and
she was the Queen of Pop and all that…she was like the Diana Ross of Australia.
Years later I got to sing with Marcia at the Pride New Year's Eve around
'94/'95 and it was like amazing - beyond dreams come true. So it's kind
of ironic for me to have done that song on this album. And there's another
connection, because I've just been cast in a musical (yet to be announced) that
Marcia was in years ago. So there are lots of parallels to Marcia.
- The Eurovision Song fracas:
I think that there are a lot of excellent versions on the "Refashioned"
CD and these are great pop songs from the Australian past. You recently
co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest on SBS, and someone suggested to
me - when I had said "these are not all great songs" - that
they believed some countries were deliberately entering crappy songs so that
they had no chance of having to host it next year…
That's a strong rumour, yeah. You look at them sometimes and say that
they just have to be deliberate, they are so bad. They dress bad, the
songs are bad - it's high on cheese. It's a high cholesterol experience… and
it's a lot of fun! I really enjoyed it, but I was incredibly nervous because I
don't usually do that sort of thing (hosting TV shows, live to air). But
it was fun and I had a good time.
It came over very well; it looked like you were enjoying yourself.
It was interesting that SBS had quite a few people calling up about the
show. They got a lot of negative responses and a lot of those negative
responses were about the gay element of the show. There were people complaining
"Oh Effie, she's giving the Greeks a bad name";" So-and-so's
giving the Croatian's a bad name" - da, da, da, da, da… They love to
have a little whinge, you know? But a lot of people rang up very homophobic
comments to the station:- "What were all the gays doing there?";
"Leave Mardi Gras to Mardi Gras" or something. 'Cause there was
myself; and there was Claire DeLune; the editor of DNA; and there were lots of
drag queens in the audience. It's very interesting isn't it?
Yes, and they can't see that this is the tradition of "high
camp":- not taking yourself too seriously.
Well they got the highest ratings that they've ever had for Eurovision,
in all the years that it's been showing on TV, but it also had the most
complaints for any show they've ever run as well! ~(laughs)~ But
out of that, I've just done an episode of "Pizza" on SBS. I'm playing
Bernard King's camp flatmate - very funny, very funny. I won't say any
more, but it airs in September.
So are you getting offers to do roles in films as well?
Not so much. I've only just started getting offers now because of
Eurovision. "Head On" garnished nothing for me as an actor -
absolutely zilch, got me nothing. I mean I got an award, nominated for an AFI,
I got great reviews all around the world, and people say wonderful things in
the street. But as far as the Australian Film Industry goes, they just
basically put a lid on me and just went "ah well, he did that - I guess
he just played himself".
- New project with Barry Kosky:
You said that you're away soon with stage director Barry Kosky…
I'm going to be working with Barry in Vienna, for three months. So I'm
going to be off doing that and hopefully getting into the Europe scene,
somehow, with my act. 'Cause I've performed in Edinburgh - I've performed there
twice - but Barry wants to do a new show that the two of us write. I did a show
with him called "The Burlesque Tour" a couple of years ago,
which was a BIG show. Again, it was a shame it never made it to Brisbane, but
it was very highly acclaimed. Our new show will be a more theatrical and
intimate piece, probably along the lines of what "Burning Sequins"
was about.
- A full life, not a lonely "performer"
life:
In '94 you said you heard your mum, after refusing to hear you say that
you were gay, go out and say to the neighbours over the fence " My son
Paul will never marry - he's married to the stage!"
Yes, that prompted me to come out to my mother, because she used to
always say that to people - and I didn't think that was a good idea because I
thought people knew - and they'd be laughing at her, you know?
Do you still feel yourself though, that you are married to the stage and
that's your direction in life - your vocation?
It's my thing. It's definitely my place. I mean I feel very blessed,
because I'm doing what I want to do and that's perform - and I've always wanted
to do it. But now I have a relationship, and I was one of these performers who
believed that if you were a performer, that you had to be alone and dedicate
yourself to your work 100% - and you're lonely like Judy Garland and Janis and
all that. There was a period where I was like that - for a long time.
It's only been the last two years, but I've met somebody who's incredibly
understanding and is accepting of me and wants me to do what I want to do. He's
encouraging of me continually doing what I do, because I had this career before
I met him. And he understands when I need to be on my own; and I need to
rehearse; and I need to research.
Nothing's changed - if anything, I feel like I'm incredibly supported and
loved, and it's the sort of love you'll never get from an audience. I mean
"audience love" is particularly powerful and incredible, and there's
nothing like it - but there's something about intimacy too, you know? 'Cause a lot
of the books I've read about Judy, Janis and Marilyn say they could never find,
in a person, anything that came close to what they had as a performer – and to
a degree that's true, but I didn't want my life to be like that - so I made a
decision that I wanted a full life, not a lonely "performer" life.
Who knows what will happen in the future, but for now, right now, I'm
enjoying being in a relationship and being a professional performer with a
career. I go away a lot, and that's really difficult. I was in London last year
for six weeks and I really missed him - and that was very difficult actually.
And I'm going away for three months to Vienna and already I'm dreading it. I'm
aching to go to Vienna and work with Barry, because I love Barry and love his
work and respect him as a director, and I'm excited about the opportunity of
going to Europe and creating work over there and do my thing - but I'm also
dreading being away from my boyfriend for that long.
It’s been lovely speaking to you Paul and you know you’ve got a crowd
waiting up here to go and see you – certainly anyone who saw you in
"Burning Sequins". And all those people who’ve seen you in shows with
Mardi Gras Festivals, come back and say that each show is a knockout, and that
each show is different and fabulous.
That’s great – well I hope I’m there really soon – at least early next
year, at the latest.
Look after yourself Paul.
Thanks John.