I was thinking more: oh my God, I get to star in a movie with Clea! The film was so clearly taking the piss out of anybody who would have a philosophy that was anything like that of Cathy Moriarty’s character.
at first, I don’t think I even realized that much that this was a gay movie. I was dying to work with Clea, who remains my favorite person ever. I was already a John Waters fan, so Mink Stole and Divine were on my radar, but I don’t know if that was necessarily communicated in the script. Natasha: I’m not sure if there was an awareness of the camp factor. Had Jamie already seen you in something that made her say yes right away? I guess it’s not that different now, expect now people slide into each other’s DMs. Natasha: And that is a time capsule of the nineties, okay? That’s how movies used to be made. The script for But I’m a Cheerleader was in my car, and you pulled it out of my backseat and said, “What’s this?” I said, “It’s a movie I’m doing,” and you said, “Can I be in it?” and I said, “I don’t know.” Then we laid in my bed and read the script together, and I called Jamie Babbit and told her that you wanted to be in the movie, and she said okay. You came up to visit me in San Francisco. how old were we then?Ĭlea: I was twenty, you were eighteen. Natasha: It’s worth noting that I was in Kate & Leopold, or as I call it, Girl, Interrupted 2. Okay, but then what happened was that we were driving around-Clea had a car, I was a New Yorker. I was auditioning for another part in that movie, but I didn’t get it.Ĭlea: I didn’t want to bring up that it was Girl, Interrupted and that I got a part and you didn’t, but since you’re bringing it up, that is true. Was that the audition for Girl, Interrupted? I think it’s important that the record show Clea got the job. Natasha: That’s wonderful, but I don’t remember any of that happening at all. I’m wondering when your paths first crossed and how you began working together? You’ve both been acting for most of your lives. The two actors talked with me about how they first connected in Hollywood, their on-screen chemistry, and the devoted following the film has amassed in the twenty years since its release. In celebration of But I’m a Cheerleader playing on the Criterion Channel this month, I called up Lyonne and DuVall, who remain best friends and collaborators. Employing kitschy, midcentury production and costume design, Babbit bathes the film in an atmosphere of high camp, highlighting the artificiality of the world True Directions seeks to create. But when Megan meets the lovable rebel Graham-played by Clea DuVall with a charming mix of vulnerability and sensuality-she awakens to her own desire.
#BUT IM A CHEERLEADER HOW TO#
A hot-pants-clad RuPaul teaches the men how to chop wood and repair the undercarriage of a car, while the women paint each other’s toenails, try on wedding dresses, and learn how to scrub a kitchen floor.
Under the leadership of Mary Brown (Cathy Moriarty), the young attendees are made to deconstruct their identities and adopt behaviors that reinforce stereotypical gender roles. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan, an effervescent, all-American cheerleader whose parents (played by cult icons Bud Cort and Mink Stole) begin to fear that she’s a lesbian and send her off to a reparative therapy center called True Directions. Yet, as queer communities continue to fight for their human rights, Babbitt’s inclusive tale of love and self-discovery continues to feel transgressive and ahead of its time.īased on both Babbit’s own experiences and ones she had read about, But I’m a Cheerleader playfully confronts the homophobic practice of conversion therapy. Over the last two decades, we’ve witnessed the rise of LGBTQ representation in mainstream film and television, the legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S., and-just this week-the long-overdue prohibition of workplace discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual identity. When Jamie Babbit’s But I’m a Cheerleader made its theatrical premiere in July 2000, it was entering a queer political landscape vastly different from the one we live in today.
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