Pride Season continues with our screening of the outrageous and inspiring Australian road movie classic, The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. Even better, you can enjoy it on the big screen for just £5.
This uplifting odyssey now celebrates its 30th anniversary and charts the journey made by three drag queens into the heart of the Aussie outback, a journey that will change their perceptions forever. But will they be able to change the world's perception of them?
Director Stephan Elliott directs with verve, deploying eye-popping costumes and three multifaceted performances from Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce. Don't pass up the chance to see it in Cineworld and before you do, brush up on these fun facts behind the making of a modern classic.
- Some Like It Hot star Tony Curtis was originally cast as Bernadette
- However, Curtis was talked out of it by his wife and the part went to British actor Terence Stamp (Far from the Madding Crowd)
- The man who designed the bus Priscilla, Colin Gibson, also designed the souped-up, post-apocalyptic vehicles in George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road
- Inmates at Australia's Long Bay prison in Malabar, New South Wales helped make the costumes, which were overseen by designer Lizzy Gardiner
- In fact, the production only had $20,000 in total to spend on the costumes, which went on to win an Academy Award
- The original idea was to have a musical number with the three main stars on top of Uluru, but they could not get permission, so the location was changed to Kings Canyon.
- Director Stephan Elliott originally rejected Guy Pearce for the role of Felicia, claiming he was "too pretty"
- Before filming, Elliott took the three actors out in full drag to a local bar where none of them were recognised
- Several of the costumes melted together while being transported to the arid Australian outback
- The now-famous thong dress cost only $17 to make, using materials from American store Target
- Legend and Clue actor Tim Curry turned down the role of Mitzi, which ultimately went to Hugo Weaving
- Elliott recalled a preview screening in San Francisco that, in his words, "didn't go too well"; he added: "They began to boo, they began to hiss — and I’m sitting there dying thinking, ‘Oh my god, we’re dead in the water.’"
- Hugo Weaving's character, Mitzi, was based on Sydney drag queen Cindy Pastel.
- Elliott claimed that Terence Stamp, a man regularly voted as the sexiest star of the 1960s, was so depressed at the sight of himself in drag that all mirrors had to be taken out of his trailer
- All came good at the film's Cannes premiere, as Elliott recalls: "The room exploded — it absolutely exploded. The audience went nuts. And I knew then that I’d made the right decision. I really was not making a gay film full of politics. I was making a celebration of gay life."
Click the link below to book your tickets for The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. It screens at Cineworld on June 19th as part of Pride Season.
BOOK THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT TICKETS
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