Key Points
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar was released just one year after the similarly themed The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
John Leguizamo played a “drag princess” alongside Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze as queens.
“There was only room back then for one drag queen movie. We didn’t get the accolades that we deserved, I feel,” Leguizamo said in a recent interview.
Hot on the heels of his Odyssey turn, John Leguizamo is reflecting on another immersive acting experience of an entirely different nature —one that was in actual heels.
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar came out in September 1995, many years before drag culture became commonplace on television screens… although, oddly, also many years before it became a hot-button political talking point in state legislatures. In the film, Leguizamo plays a “drag princess” alongside the more experienced queens Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes) and Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze).
The trio, each of whom has completely opposing personas, of course, set out on a road trip from New York City to Los Angeles in a vintage Cadillac to attend the Drag Queen of America pageant. They take with them an autographed photo of Catwoman herself, Julie Newmar, hence the lengthy title.
On the way, they have a run-in with a homophobic cop and, later, their car breaks down in a small, impoverished Midwestern town. The folks there don’t seem to recognize that they are drag queens, and during their vehicle’s repair, they end up transforming the homdrum municipality into a fabulous hamlet.
Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, and Patrick Swayze in ‘Too Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar’Credit: Lorey Sabastian/Universal
But while it did manage to earn nearly $50 million at the box office, it took decades for it to be embraced as the cult classic it is today. Leguizamo placed the blame for the “brave movie” not doing as well initially on another drag queen flick that just happened to be released just one year prior.
“Priscilla, Queen of the Desert stole our thunder because it came out just before,” Leguizamo told Bustle in a recent interview. “There was only room back then for one drag queen movie. We didn’t get the accolades that we deserved, I feel.”
Its divergent critical reviews (49% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience score (72% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.1/5 on Letterboxd) support Leguizamo’s assessment.
“I think Patrick did an amazing job, and Wesley and I crushed it, too. And we took it seriously, and we really wanted to give these characters integrity,” he said, going on to explain how they had drag queen coaches, his being Laritza Dumont.
John Leguizamo in ‘Too Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar’Credit: MCA/Courtesy Everett Collection
“She was from the Bronx, and she was trying to help me do my accent correctly. And she taught me how to do it all right. I loved her, and I borrowed as much from her as I could,” the Ice Age star recalled.
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Perhaps more importantly, the movie has been embraced by the LGBTQ+ community, whose opinion Leguizamo places the highest importance on.
“LGBTQ+ teenagers came up to me a lot and said that that movie gave them the courage to come out to their family. That’s what you hope your work does: gives people a sense that they’re seen, that they’re important, that their lives matter. You know, that’s what you hope that you do with your work,” he explained.
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