“It was a macho, misogynistic, and homophobic environment, but it was also a socialist state with free housing and healthcare. “Army life made me fearless and adaptable,” he recalls. army general (who in later years revealed to his son that he had been bisexual before getting married) and a devoutly Catholic, Scottish homemaker, Mitchell lived in 15 places growing up, many of them in the Bible Belt. Mitchell’s path to revered queer artist was not-you should excuse the expression-a straight shot. I played straight a lot when I was younger and saw it as a badge of honor, because masculinity is the currency of gay men. The truth is, I could’ve been like Joe we both grew up in the South and I had enough heterosexual competence. Exercising my masculinity in the role was fun, like stage diving and slam dancing at punk shows or playing sports when I was younger. But in some ways, he was also a caring guy. I wasn’t going to do a hatchet job or a Saturday Night Live sketch.
Which I haven’t done in decades! And I do feel like I gave Joe his due as a human being with feelings. You wanted that role so much, you even auditioned for it. He posted about the casting: “John Cameron Mitchell was going to make me look like a flaming fag, when I’m just a hardworking gay male.” I responded to his post with the painted fingernails emoji. He’s almost imitating his oppressors, thinking that more guns and more mullets mean more protection from being hurt.ĭo you think that’s how Exotic thinks of himself? I see him as Richard the III he was bullied his whole life and had to control everything, which destroyed him. I realized playing Joe had a lot in common with playing Hedwig-the showmanship, the blonde wig, the bitterness. What about Joe Exotic and his sense of style? And when Tucker Carlson is vaccinated and pretending he isn’t, he’s wearing populist’s poses just like drag. Punk was invented by a Black drag queen, Little Richard. I consider Mae West and Marlene Dietrich drag performers. When I watch Twelfth Night, I think Shakespeare is queer. I mean, at 10, I played the Virgin Mary at Carlekemp Priory in Scotland.”ĭrag is more than just clothes, wigs, and makeup, isn’t it?ĭrag is always a reflection and exaggeration of the times sometimes it’s a funhouse mirror and sometimes it’s a brilliant social statement. And yet that’s the closest thing to what I’ve been,” he says. “To me, ‘nonbinary’ feels temporary, because it’s defining yourself by what you’re not. Mitchell understands that younger generations want their labels to be “accurate,” but as an amalgam of hippie, punk, and activist, he stays open to fluidity and change.
“I’m too old to change my pronouns, because I can barely remember my phone number.” “Someone went on my Wikipedia page and changed my pronouns to ‘they,'” the 59-year-old says with a boyish grin. Recently, he has added yet another hyphen: nonbinary. Building a cult-hero career on the shoulders of Hedwig -the redemptive tale of a man coerced into a botched gender-reassignment surgery-Mitchell has outperformed mere Hollywood hyphenates as a producer-director-filmmaker-playwright-screenwriter-actor-singer-podcaster-DJ.
Carole, a series based on Exotic’s murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin, streaming now on Peacock. Indeed, over the last 40 years, Mitchell has largely done exactly what he wanted, including currently bedazzling the small screen as Tiger King’s Joe Exotic in Joe vs. “I have never wanted to be told what to do in my life,” says the Tony Award-winning creator and star of the legendary gender-queer rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Out of 100, my applications with a male name got 10 responses to interview Out of 100, my applications with a female name got 87 responses to interview The female resume got 870% more responses.JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL AIN’T NOBODY’S BOTTOM. Sometimes the male went first, sometimes the female went first. Made a fake resume, and responded to craigslist ads with both male and female names. So then I thought "what about someone looking for working class jobs?" So I decided to focus on restaurants- servers, hosting, etc.
Out of 100, my applications with a female name got 45 responses to interview The female resume was 650% more likely to get a callback. Out of 100, my applications with a male name got 7 responses for interview. I'd send it out with my real name, then a few days later (or few days before) with a female name. So I took my CV and changed the name to a female name. It's MUCH better being a woman So I did an experiment, I work in CS and decided to test what the gender bias is. 29.6K 1.3K sent 100 applications as a man and a woman.