Bottom of page - Pictures - Related Links - Sources April 1998. ASH was unable to attend this event, so he sent a videotaped greeting to them.
Transcript (from an incomplete tape).
A. I got to wear some cool clothes. Basically, I kind of redesigned the clothes and redesigned-- My concept of Frank was that he was this dirty little man; he's a demon who likes screwing a lot and so basically does it with anything he can and will dress himself and will make himself up accordingly. But, y'know, come the evening, he doesn't do anything with his wig, he just put it in his stand and probably not even that, he'll sleep in it. So I wanted kind of things growing in it, and dreadlocks and stuff. And his make-up just, basically, he'd put one lot on top of the other. And his clothes, instead of the standard stuff, which was a little black [...] and a corset, I went a little bit more feminine, I went towards a teddy with a corset over the top of it and this sort of net housecoat; there's basically not much left of it, it's strands. And the other thing was the boots, the ankle boots. They'd been wearing, um, like Tim, originally they'd all been wearing these platforms, and I wanted to be much more mobile. I wanted to be able to climb the gantry and jump [...]. I used to do in the, uh, not the '95 production, the production before, the staircase used to go up all the way from the stage level right up to the flies and I used to take it in threes, three steps at a time, I used to [.......................] extremely fit. Q. Good workout. A. It was a great workout. But the point was I designed these little ankle boots, these little patent leather ankle boots, so that the ankle was supported so I could leap about and do all sorts of things, and I originally--we were talking about spikes instead of, but they had to be slightly wider at the bottom than that 'cause otherwise I would sort of fall in through the little holes. Q. Okay, well, were there any other parts of the character that you-- A. Oh, my character! You were talking about character, I was talking about-- Q. No, I was. No, I was! But now I switched over to the character was, what was what you wanted the look like set. A. Yeah, that was-- Yes, the look was 'cause I'd seen a couple of Franks do it and I just put two and two together and thought, "Well, why has one got to just keep doing the same things? Why not let's change some stuff here," and in fact, the last.... Oh god, another costume point, the last time I did in, in '95: I suddenly realized that my uh, the stuff that I was wearing for the coming down on the moon and the final sort of party scene was really like Marlene Dietrich, so I went the full way and got a top hat and a blond wig that when you took the hat off, the wig came off with it and I was left with this fairly unpleasant stocking cap. When I saw a couple of Franks, and I thought.... They, for me they were missing something, there was something that I thought that was in me that I could bring to it, which was, y'know, I wasn't scared of me feminine side. I haven't really got a problem with my masculine side. So they seemed to be either one or the other, and I thought, well, this man, he appeals to all sexes. Otherwise, he wouldn't get so much, as he does. He seems to get everyone, so I thought there must be something in there. Q. Okay, well, uh, you have a bit out that you did called Slags. A. Mm-hm? Q. And uh, why don't you tell us a little bit about that? A. Well, Slags was, uh, I forget who it was written by, but it was The Comic Strip, which were a bunch of people who used to perform in our Comedy Store and a friend of mine, Nigel Planer (sp?), who was in The Young Ones. I remember him coming back from a comedy store, the first night he performed there, saying, "Christ, it's great, mate, you can do anything, you can get up and play your guitar. It's, it's just great, mate." And I, like an idiot, went along. At the time I thought I could do stand-up and learned very very early that it was a horrible experience. And so, I don't know. I got to know them more and I did a couple of films with them and Slags was one of them. They were looking for a Mr. Smooth to play the leader of the Hawaiians and, uh, it was just fun 'cause I got to play with all me mates, y'know, which was fun. And my girlfriend Sarah was there. She was literally she was [...................] Q. Well, we've got a clip of that coming up soon. (Slags clip; back to interview, joined mid-sentence). A. ...and the [..........] I met, who was the m.d. at the time, he used to look up from the pit with horror on this face and he's like--this 40-piece orchestra sawing away and basically no way of stopping it and me going, "Uh, uh," 'cause when you forget, when you drop words, you can't just make them up, and you're thinking, "Well, cut to the next verse," 'cause by the time you've thought of the line that you've lost, it's gone. I had some moments in that. Rocky was reasonably free of that. There were a few moments. Luckily, also, in Rocky you can just stop and start again. [...........] Then basically people watching will have to fill in the gaps, is all I can say.
(Sings) Thank you very much. And I am! I'm going home! Q. You're going home. A. I am, and it's cool. (Turns to camera) But I'm sorry I'm going to miss you guys. Q. Is there anything you'd like to say to the convention people? A. Um...well... Don't get too rowdy because it's not understood by people. The sort of suspenders things, people don't understand all that, so you have to keep all that under wraps. Don't let anybody see your kind of clothes and things. Lots of dressing gowns and things are required. But, otherwise, y'know, have a jolly time in one's absence. Have a good time and I hope it goes extremely well, I do, and I'm sorry I'm not there.
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Page created August 1998; last updated January 1999. Original material © Betsy Vera (bentley@umich.edu). This website is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.
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