Interview: John Cameron Mitchell on How HEDWIG Relates to Joe Exotic in JOE VS. CAROLE

Tony-winning Hedwig and the Angry Inch writer and star John Cameron Mitchell takes on the character of "Tiger King" Joe Exotic in Peacock's new limited series, Joe vs. Carole.

Based on the Wondery podcast "Joe Exotic," hosted and reported by Robert Moor, the limited series will center on Carole Baskin, played here by Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon, a big cat enthusiast, who learns that fellow exotic animal lover Joe "Exotic" Schreibvogel is breeding and using his big cats for profit.

She sets out to shut down his venture, inciting a quickly escalating rivalry. But Carole has a checkered past of her own and when the claws come out, Joe will stop at nothing to expose what he sees as her hypocrisy. The results prove dangerous.

BroadwayWorld caught up with John Cameron Mitchell to discuss his take on Joe Exotic, the similarities between him and Hedwig, and more.

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When you were first introduced to the whole Tiger King. Did you watch the show during the pandemic or did you listen to the podcast?

I didn't. I think I watched one episode of the docu-series and was kind of interested. The characters were certainly compelling, but the way it was presented was a little sensational and not brand empathetic. It was more like, "Oh, look roadkill." You know what I mean? So I didn't continue with it. When the role came up for auditions, I was like, "Oh, well, maybe I could think about this, you know?" It's kind of like, "Hmm, maybe there's something to be done here." So then I watched the series and listened to everything and watched every video in sight. So I really discovered it later.

When the series came along to you, do you feel that you were able to portray the character in a deeper sense?

Yes, well that's cause the script allowed it. I don't know if you've seen the behind the scenes trailer, but we both talk about the flashbacks to him in his twenties when he's really beaten down by homophobia. His husband of many years died of AIDS and he experienced a lot of shit. We're the same age, we're from the same part of the country, so I know what it's like. I was very moved by the script. It fully honored his queerness, where he came from. It doesn't condone his behavior, but it also is even-handed with Carole, who was also a survivor and a business person and created their own little kingdom, which started out as a sanctuary and maybe became a bit of a cult.

I couldn't help but draw a few similarities between Joe Exotic and your character of Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Was there anything that you found similar between the two?

Well, yeah, they both have a blonde wig. I like to create my own little communities, too. His was a zoo. Mine is a play or a movie or a podcast or a band. I love that. It's like, come join the party. What do you got to give? I don't care where you come from, what do you got to add to the party? You know, I know I'm definitely gonna respect you, make it a good time. We're going to try to challenge the audience here. Certainly something like Short Bus, which we just re-released, was created through my theatrical improv chops and created the script that way and got the characters really to challenge the audience with our sexuality, but in a way that wasn't just to shock or titillate, it was to actually illuminate and go deeper. I prefer my communities to be temporary and they're designed to die. I'm a benevolent dictator in those positions, but I think Joe obviously wasn't.

In the series, you represented certain qualities that Joe had in real life, but it never felt like a parody or any type of impression. How did you find the physicality of the character and figure out your own way to play him?

It was really just watching, watching, watching, watching. You can really absorb just by being around someone for a long time. I didn't do a lot of walking around as him, but I did practice my voice. He has different kinds of voices and different kinds of accents, depending on where he is. If he's in front of a crowd running for governor, he gets real country and he gets real tough and butch and when he's around his friends and relaxed, he lets his femme side come out a touch more, though he's definitely afraid of it ... So obviously, that internalized homophobia certainly comes back to bite ya, especially that generation where your femininity is the worst thing you can be.

Since you're also such a great writer and creator, are there any other viral stories or trends that you would like to adapt into the television or musical landscape?

Well, you know, it's interesting. With [Joe vs. Carole], I was able to buy my first house. Of course I need more work to furnish it. Not in New York, because that's impossible, I bought something in New Orleans, which in some ways it's like New York in the past. Feels like New York in the eighties or nineties, minus AIDS, for better and worse. But the better is that you got a lot of creative people working on each other's stuff and young people moving there to be creative, not just to be famous. I love it. One of my neighbors is Rickie Lee Jones, who was a heroine of mine in college. I listened to Tom Waits and Ricky Lee Jones and Joan Armatrading and Bonnie Raitt, those were my favorites at that time, as well as certain showtunes. I made friends with her and reading her autobiography, which is fantastic, called Last Chance Texaco. I kind of have a hankering to play Tom Waits. I gotta roughen up my voice a little bit, but I've always been obsessed with him and the relationship between him and Ricky Lee Jones, which was a magical creative coupling. So that's one character that I've always been interested in, but not to play. Suddenly I'm like, "Gosh, it is fun to play other people."

I never wanted to impersonate Joe. It's not about a shtick. It's about finding their essence, interpreting who they are through through my body. Which doesn't mean it needs to be, "Oh my God, he got that exact Twitch." You know what I mean? It's like, I don't feel the need to be a carbon copy and neither did Kate [McKinnon]. We all agreed that we're interpreting them and perhaps we're doing 50% of them and the other 50% is our interpretation.

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Watch the trailer for Joe vs. Carole here: