Compared to other liberal cities like San Francisco and Amsterdam, New Yorkers are always trying to do something, make art or love or money or whatever, and they have this phobia about standing still.
— John Cameron Mitchell
I would love for 'Hedwig' to be in every tiny shopping mall so every freakish kid like I was can have a broadening experience.
I really want as many people as possible to relate to something, without compromising or dumbing down.
Doing 'Hedwig' totally contributed to my acceptance of myself.
I don't regret anything, because I feel better every year, and if I'd done something different, maybe I wouldn't. I'm more of a whole person, the older I get.
I actually came out the year that AIDS hit the front pages. So there was this mixed feeling about it - excitement that life's finally begun, but it was completely tied up with mortality and danger and politics.
I think it helped me like myself more, playing Hedwig.
I thought, 'O.K., if I'm a valuable person and an independent entity, then I don't have to worry about what people think of me. I can reach out now.'
I have a weird propensity to know what's going to happen in the future.
I'm an honorary old Jewish lady of the West Village.
I like all kinds of input.
The best things happen in the dark.
Chaos is the natural state, and theater tries to make sense of it, but it's got to be a little messy to be believable.
I'm not interested in replicating 'Hedwig' like a virus.
I like the fact that it's like The Ramones. You just have to change your name, and you're a Ramone. You just have to put the wig on, and you're Hedwig. Women have played it. Gay men, straight men, you know.
Some people end up becoming just a conservator of the one thing they did and making sure they get their merch out and all that.
Humor without sadness underneath it feels cheap and aggressive.
Having been an actor in Hollywood for a certain amount of time, I always felt a pressure to be sort of a neutral person. 'Don't do anything to your hair. Don't tell them your age. Don't tell them you're gay. Don't tell them anything that could limit you, specify you as a person.' I always hated that, actually moved out of L.A. because of that.
'Hedwig' is unabashedly analog.
I've always liked a good joke that everybody can laugh at.
London is the English-speaking theatre capital.
New York is so unique, and you are not always encouraged to consider the people in the city your neighbors because of the fast pace and surface anonymity.
I did take comfort in the vespers and compline. I might have become a monk if I hadn't come out.
The people that were most interesting were always questioning the status quo.
My mom was a little weepy. My dad was very logical about it. Once they realized you can't change, they wanted to know that you can be happy and be gay. Once they realized that, they were very cool about it.
Queerness isn't just Lady Gaga and overpriced drinks and fauxhawks. It's James Baldwin and Bea Arthur and Gertrude Stein and Gore Vidal.
Acceptance and assimilation, you know, breeds mediocrity and perhaps an even more sheep-like conformism in terms of what kind of music you're supposed to listen to if you're gay... What are you supposed to look like? What's your body supposed to look like?
You're on Facebook, and you're supposed to know your sexual orientation at 13... Nobody really knows what's going on at that time, and people seem to... know stuff, or they have to act like they do, and they make decisions before they really need to.
Nowadays, the term 'selling out' doesn't exist anymore because everyone is trying to make a living.
Getting the blood moving through your body does do wonders for your complexion.
'Hedwig' is not autobiographical, but what she goes through is clearly a big metaphor. She doesn't want to be what she is, but she comes to an understanding that what happened to her has actually made her whole.
You get all these French directors who have all these pretty, vacuous stars of their movies - from Jean Seberg on - who have become iconic but were never really good actors.
If I wanted to make a lot of money with 'Hedwig,' I could have spent all my time on it. But that's boring.
I think things are dishonest if they're not aware of sadness.
Isn't it funny - why is it called a tennis bracelet? It doesn't seem very tennis, does it?
I come from the theater, and there is a real collaborative history there.
There's something cool about being a stealth classic.
Drag is a little scary, especially for a gay man who's not comfortable with his feminine side.
You can make serious pop, you know? There was a time when the best movies were the most popular, and I keep thinking that can happen again.
I remember being afraid of doing drag when I was younger because I didn't really like my feminine side - most gay guys at some point are told that that's the worst part of you, so that becomes a negative thing.
Bob Fosse, even though he wasn't gay. He was certainly queer and had a huge effect on the 'Hedwig' film, as did Hal Ashby and Robert Altman, who had a weird butch queer feeling about him. His films almost flirted with camp but in an extremely realistic acting way.
I sometimes buy albums that I don't like now, but that I know I will like. Coming out was the same thing. In high school, I thought, 'I know I'm going to have to deal with this, but I'm not confident enough now.' But when I finally did, my whole life changed.
Our feet are planted in the real world, but we dance with angels and ghosts.
Obviously, when you get into larger budgets, you have less of that freedom, and I just - I'm not a person that tends to make stories for those larger budgets. To me, it's not much fun to have that kind of pressure.
There are a lot of silly projects out there.
Nothing is a calling card. Everything is what you do. If you do it in order to get somewhere else, you're not actually doing it. If you're thinking, 'What is the weird thing I want to make with my friends?' money and other things will come later.
I studied meditation, knowing it would be a huge new calming skill.
I've obviously always been aware of actor-oriented films, being an actor. Altman and Cassavetes were really strong. And then I realized their structures were quite fascinating, too.
What's interesting is that some of the things I'm interested in talking about is a story which has to do with the second half of your life, which can be told through Hedwig's voice because she's older. If the timeline is consistent, she's as old as me.
It's the weird thing that actors do: You jumped across that building because the scene required it.
