It was the classic film about three drag performers travelling across the country for a performance. They break down in a rural area and make some unlikely friends. A year before ‘To Wong Foo’, this story was told in 1994’s ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’. It featured Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Emperor Zod himself from the Superman movies, Terrence Stamp. Stamp played the role of the elder of the trio, transgender performer Bernadette.
In an interview with Deadline, filmmaker Stephan Elliot revealed that Stamp filmed scenes for the upcoming sequel in the months before his death, telling Elliot that he didn’t want his character to be replaced with a digital stand-in. Elliot said in the interview,
“He was 87, turning 88… And I put him through a multi-cam shoot, spread over several grueling sessions. All I can say is, that the old trouper gave it everything he had. He hated putting the wig on again. But at the same time, my God, you could have bottled that smile. I mean, it was brilliant fun, and he really did have the time of his life. But calling ‘that’s a wrap’ on Terence Stamp… are going to be words that will haunt me to the day I die.”
For years, Weaving and Pearce had talked about doing a sequel to the film, but Stamp had refused, saying he insisted that he would only participate if an amazing script was created. Elliot revealed some of the new movie has to offer, saying:
“Not what people expect… I’ve made a very, very unusual film, and it is about old age. It’s very touching. I wrote a lot of what I went through with Terence over the last couple of years. I wrote into the script of what it’s like to get old and to be either gay, trans—I mean, it’s a subject that’s never been explored.”
