John Cameron Mitchell is the driving creative force behind one of this year’s most exciting releases, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." He directed, wrote, and played the title character in the film, which is an epic rock musical about the trials and adventures of an unwilling transsexual. His work is remarkable in that it succeeds on every level; dramatically, comedically, musically, and cinematically. The film was a favorite in the 2001 Sundance competition, and deservedly won both its Audience Award and the prize for Best New Director. The film also features memorable, infectious songs written by Stephen Trask.

Mitchell, as Hedwig, embodies the cynical aloofness of Marlene Dietrich, the forbidden sexual allure of Dr. Frank N. Furter from "Rocky Horror Picture Show," and the timeless pathos of King Oedipus (including embroilment in convoluted sexual politics). Hedwig’s search for love and acceptance reflects what all of us want, and her quest gives the story a universal, ageless appeal that holds up on repeated viewing.

Mitchell himself is a thoughtful, soft-spoken man with deep ideas and the talent to express them in seemingly any form, whether via a stage production, film or music. It was my pleasure to have an opportunity to speak with this rising talent who will surely be a creative force to watch.

Allen White: What was the genesis of this project? What was the driving force behind the story?

John Cameron Mitchell: I think I was bored. I was also tired of being told what I had to do as an actor, or an artist; I couldn’t even cut my hair, because I had to be ready for the next part. Other pressures – it was not so much New York, but I just got mad at the way people were acting in the film and theatre situation I was living in, even to the point of, like, if you’re gay you have to be closeted to be in Hollywood, and all that shit. So I just wanted to do something really different. I wanted it to be the excitement that I had in a rock show, and there’s a lot of things that are really interesting to me, specifically this "Origin of Love" myth is something that I always wanted to use, so I think you can say that was the beginning of it.

A lot of things came together; a rock drag club appeared at the time I was thinking about it. Stephen Trask, I got together with him – a wonderful composer. I started thinking about my dad commanding the Berlin Brigade, some memories about German army wives, and all of these things kind of combined to get me to this first gig at Club Squeezebox. And the character was really quite born whole at that point, and if the piece was all over the place, the character was there. So it was a combination of things, and we developed it over many years, so whatever was interesting to me over those five years found its way into the piece.

AW: So it partially started as kind of a rock show, then? It was more musically driven?

JCM: No, it was always toward a theatre piece, but we wanted to keep it in rock clubs so the music remained potent and didn’t get watered down.

AW: Could you talk a little about the "Origin of Love" myth that you mentioned?

JCM: Well, it comes from Plato’s "Symposium," which is a 2500-year-old dialogue. Its setting is a party after someone wins the theatre awards – it’s kind of like a post-Tonys party, or something. And I saw it performed as such; you know, I think it was about a post-Oscars party in West Hollywood, performed in that way, verbatim, from the original text, and it seemed so modern. And everyone had to give a speech at the party about an ode to love of a man for a man. And one of the speeches is given by Aristophanes, and it’s this myth of the Origin of Love. How we were all globular at the beginning, had two sets of arms and two sets of legs; some were male, some were female, some were hermaphrodites – and we were very powerful, so the gods cut us in half. And we seek our other half, so those that were male seek the male, and those who were hermaphrodites seek the opposite sex; we’re seeking to reunite, and it’s a very beautiful, long monologue. And so Stephen, he adapted it to this wonderful song. And that’s really the center of the whole story, and Hedwig’s interpretation of that myth.

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