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Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. I was thrilled by your new direction, musically, so
who chose your song, You Aint Woman Enough To Take My Man,
and was the dance fun?
A. The first question, it was my idea and what happened
was Gary and I were having breakfast and I said 'what if Elliot
would sing?' And he asked, 'well what would be sing'? 'Well, there's
this song that's maybe not what you would expect him to sing;
old country music love songs, like You Aint Woman Enough To
Take My Man'. He loved the title of it, I sang a couple of
lines, and he loved it more...
Coalminer's Daughter is one of my favourite movies and Sissy Spacek
sung her own music in that, which is always very impressive, so
I wanted to sing that. And, of course, the dance at the end -
Elliot is, by way of Chili's help, living his dream, on stage,
he's there, he's entertaining. He doesn't want to leave the stage.
He's looking at Chili and waving.
That dance is a traditional Samoan cultural dance and I was lucky
to be able to call my cousins, who are professional dancers, and
I flew them up from Hawaii and they were able to get in the movie
with me and we had a great time.
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Q. Moving away from typecasting,
this role gives you an opportunity to 'mince about'. Was that
an attraction?
A. For me, it came in the material. Of course, it was
so well-written when I read the script and the opportunity to
work with great actors was too good to pass. And, of course, the
opportunity to mince about, as you say, was just an added element
that I wanted to take advantage of.
Q. You built a career up by being the ultimate in cool,
so were you worried about what the reaction to your character
would be from your former wrestling buddies?
A. Oh no. Not at all. They're very, very supportive.
And again, you have a role like this where John talked about being
fearless, where you can create something, so not at all.
Q. If you could choose something you identified with
as far as your character is concerned, and something that you
didn't, what would that be?
A. I liked his ability to deal with a lot of the negativity
that surrounded him. Even though he was in a world that he didn't
want to be in, he still saw the bigger picture. He saw the brass
ring that he wanted to grab in this world of being around a lot
of crazies that he didn't want to be around.
And then the element of being gay and still maintaining a sense
of dignity. When he spoke to you, he spoke with an earnest vibe
and an earnest energy.
The one thing that I couldn't identify with is probably realising
that once I put the blue cowboy outfit on, I just wouldn't have
picked red boots!
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