The San Francisco Examiner du lieu suivant : San Francisco, California • 55

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER Friday, Augut 5, 1994 C-9 ovies ified queen m. 0j ll.l.ll wor Stamp Hollywood's favorite English villain challenged himself to play an aging transexual By David Lyman SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER Jf Terence Stamp plays Bernadette in "The Adventures ofPrisciUa, Queen of the Desert, a comedy set in the Australian Outback Guns" and "Alien Nation." But in Stamp's eyes, quantity has not made up for the lack of quality. "It's frustrating," he said. "I feel deprived. Because there's all this great stuff being made, which I never get offered." So why does he bother? Why not pour himself into his writing he's written four books or expand his burgeoning health food business back in England? "I'm a film actor.

A serious film actor. It's my milieu. There's not many people who can say that," said Stamp. "I don't have 10 kids. I don't have six wives.

Film's my girl. It's the most fun thing I can think of to do." change their lines." Indeed, Stamp says he hasnt been offered a good part in a Hollywood movie in more than 20 years Bince "Blue," in 1968. Stamp steadfastly believes the picture, a Western directed by Silvio Nariz-zano, is as good as any Western made since, though critical opinion has long regarded it as a first-class stinker. Whichever, the movie's failure apparently took its toll on Stamp's career. He made two more pictures and then disappeared from the screen for nearly a decade, when he reappeared in "Superman." Since then, he's acted in a nearly unbroken string of high-profile pictures, including "Legal Eagles," "Young "pEOPLE LIKE us don't do I 'things like that," Terence JL Stamp's father cautioned the star-struck young fan of Cary Grant and Gary Cooper.

"And he was right," agreed Stamp during a recent conversation about his newest picture, "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert." The movie, which won Golden Space Needle Awards at the 1994 Seattle International Film Festival for best picture and best actor (Stamp), opens next week. Stamp's father was not trying to spite his teenage son. Indeed, Stamp views his father's admonishment as evidence of love. After all, to a tugboat master slogging away in London's grotty East End in the 1950s, the prospect of a career as a screen actor was as remote as the fanciful love stories "those people" portrayed on the screen. But something happened.

"When I was 18, 1 saw James Dean said Stamp, leaning back and scanning the hotel room ceiling as if it held some record of the miraculous event "It was a turning point, a gestalt, a shift in my life. 'He feels like I I realized." What had been a dream now became an obsession. Within five years, Stamp would race through acting school, succeed in provincial theaters and be nominated for a 1962 Academy Award for his screen debut in "Billy Budd." "It was as though the early part of my life was tough," recalled Stamp, "and suddenly, the stars moved around and the sun came through. And it shone on me." "At 4 years of age, James Morris knew without question that she was a girl," said Stamp. 'Tor her, life was different and difficult the very moment she woke up each morning.

Oh, life is hard. It's full of sadness. But at the end of the day, when we lay down, we're us, we're in our own body. We know we're going to wake up tomorrow with the assurance that we are who we are. "But for James Morris and for Bernadette that was not the case.

Their first thought was always, 'I'm still in this wrong At last, I was able to understand her predicament. I hadn't been thinking about how she was. I had just been feeling how she was. There's an enormous difference." During the filming, Stamp avoided watching the dailies the raw film shot each day. "I preferred to imagine myself as being a sylph-like beauty a little like Rita Hay-worth, perhaps." When he finally did see the picture at the Cannes Film Festival, he felt the image was closer to that of "an old dog." Nonetheless, Stamp admits that he is enormously proud of his work in the picture.

And it is far better, he says, than the endless string of drivel sent to him by Hollywood. "It's kind of tedious to get these badly written scripta," he said, fiddling with one of his well-worn leather slippers. "And it is tedious to go into a movie knowing that I've been hired because I can make badly written movies work. I can be relied upon to bring my own subtext without making a big song and dance and asking other actors to I I 1 f. ft XO Win AIIIICT Located at the Dixon Fairground TH J1H ml.

west of Davl Mm MM Ml PHANTOM GaAGCflDLlE VJE3EQE D1? SE30UE.D BE. A UEJSEOC-a. ing the rolled-up cuffs of his oh-so-masculine linen shirt. "As you know, those are in pretty thin supply these days. There are just two.

of us, I think. of course, was the one who was fool enough to accept it" The resulting movie is a wonderful bit of wit gingerly balancing preachiness with well-acted comedy. In it Bernadette and a pair of drag queens set off across the Australian Outback in a bus. But as they travel to a benefit performance in the center of the country, their bus painted an audacious lavender breaks down, leaving the painfully out-of-place trio to deal with all manner of people, from perplexed but accepting aborigines to gay-bashing miners to a crusty shopkeeper who falls in love with Bernadette. "At a certain point, I was really quite terrified of the role," admitted Stamp, whose usual demeanor is of firmness and unflagging self-confidence.

"In fact, my fears were so great that I was actually distancing myself from the project." But when friends warned that he was undermining the role before he had even begun, Stamp realized that it was the challenge of the role that intimidated him. "I realized that unless I took chances like this, all I had to look forward to was playing English villains in American movies. And that struck such fear in my heart that I poured myself into the role." Bernadette is no mincing caricature, no caterwauling, campy lampoon. Indeed, Stamp approached the role with the utmost thoughtfulness, investing Bernadette with dignity, grace and a self-assuredness occasionally bordering on downright bullheadedness. For the once-wary actor, salvation had come in the writings of Jan Morris, the English writer who had found fame and success as James Morris and, after years of marriage, fatherhood and a distinguished career, had a sex change' 7j Sea Otter i7 i a Stamp was nominated for an Os- car for his 1962 screen debut, the title role in "Billy Budd." Now, more than three decades after personifying all that is good in "Billy Budd," Stamp has become Hollywood's favorite English villain.

It's a type he's played in nearly a dozen high-profile pictures, from "Superman" (General Zod) to "Wall Street" to "The Real Mc-. Coy." But with "Priscilla," the 55-year-old Stamp has taken a decidedly different turn. In "Priscilla," this archetypal matinee idol plays an aging transsexual named Berna-dette. "When (director) Stephen (Elliott) came to England, he was looking for an older heterosexual icon," Stamp said, exaggeratedly adjust-; i California Come by The Exploratorium and check out the newest installation in our Interactive Sound Studio, the Karaoke. It won't be long before every great hall of science in the world is filled with the sound of people singing along with the bouncing ball.

But for now, we're the only one. Hurry though, ours is only here this Saturday and Sunday, 1 1 am to 3pm. ThE ExPLORaToRiUM. Located at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, 3601 Lyon Street. Open daily 10 am to 6 pm.

Wednesday until 9:30 pm. (415) 563-7337 Who Could Refuse a Face Like rs --v r-s r- -t 1 i k. aU 4 mm. aA Come get acquainted 5 with our sea otters as they frolic in a natural, twO'Story exhibit that reflects the diverse flora and fauna of the rocky California coast -their wild habitat. Watch the otters-orphaned as pups, then rescued and raised by the aquarium-as they tumble and play above and below gently undulating waves.

Follow as they dive and explore the rocky crevices. And see them return to the surface to eat while floating on their backs. Come visit soon. Nose-to-nose, these clever creatures will enchant you all over again. Exclutlva San Pranclico Ingtitmantl Ruth Haitlnai A Co.

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