The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Short description
Three performers leave Sydney for a booking at a hotel in Alice Springs, on the far side of the Australian outback. Two of them are drag artists, Tick and Adam, who work as Mitzi Del Bra and Felicia Jollygoodfellow; the third is Bernadette, a trans woman still nursing the wounds of a failed relationship. Rather than fly, they buy a battered bus, paint it a loud shade of pink and name it Priscilla, then set off across the desert with a wardrobe of costumes and platform shoes in tow.
The long drive puts them in contact with outback locals whose attitudes range from curious to hostile, and with Aboriginal Australians they meet along the way. The three friends bicker, perform and look after one another as the trip forces each of them to confront what waits at the other end.
Stephan Elliott wrote and directed the film, his first feature as director; his later credits include Eye of the Beholder, Easy Virtue and Swinging Safari. Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp lead a cast of twenty-one, with Bill Hunter, Sarah Chadwick and June Marie Bennett in supporting roles. Made for about two million dollars, it took roughly thirty million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 7.3 rating from 51 reviews, and on TMDB a matching 7.3 from around 960 votes, so critics and audiences broadly agree.
What's left behind the scenes
- At the beginning of filming, director Stephan Elliott took the three lead actors to a gay and transvestite costume party where they went unrecognized. As a result, Guy Pearce began to be rude to those around him, Terence Stamp forgot where he was and started hitting on the girls, and Hugo Weaving got so drunk that he lay under one of the tables for several hours (he only had enough strength to try to tap out the rhythm of the screaming music with his fingers). A similar scene was then included in the script.
- The bus, on which filming took place while in motion, was so small that the crew simply had nowhere to go and had to remain in the frame, hiding under piles of clothes and other props.
- Bill Hunter (1940-2011) simultaneously starred in P.J. Hogan's comedy 'Muriel's Wedding' (1994) and this film, with both roles requiring his characters to have beards and hairstyles of varying lengths, and the filming locations being in different parts of the country.
- According to Terence Stamp, he got into the role by imagining himself as a beautiful woman. However, the director and screenwriter, Stephan Elliott, instructed cinematographer Brian J. Breheny to make Stamp look as bad as possible. Stamp never reviews the footage shot during the day, so he had no idea how he actually looked on screen until the film's premiere. Upon seeing himself at the premiere, he experienced a genuine shock, and Breheny even apologized to him.
- The scenes with which the film begins and ends were filmed on the same day.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
