Queer cult classic is back and better than ever
Stills courtesy of Altered Innocence.
After Gypsy 83 premiered in 2001 at the New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Todd Stephens’ film did not receive wide distribution, despite wonderful, lived-in performances from Sara Rue and Birkett Turton as a pair of misfit friends traveling from small-town Ohio to New York City to attend a Stevie Nicks tribute concert. Over the years, the dramedy found an audience for its pleasant charms and honest characterizations. Now, for its 25th anniversary, the world will finally see the film in its intended form, thanks to Stephens’ extensive new director’s cut. I sat down with Stephens and Turton to discuss this exciting rebirth of Gypsy 83.
E.M. James: For the film’s 25th anniversary, you’ve not only restored it in 4K but extended the runtime from 90 minutes to 138. Gypsy 83 has amassed a notable cult following over the years, but with Altered Innocence behind this new theatrical release, so many viewers will be discovering the film for the first time. For those of us who never saw the original cut, can you explain what this new and definitive version adds?
Todd Stephens: Back when we were making the film in 2000, it really was unheard-of to have an indie film like this be much longer than 90 minutes. Even though I had written the film as a dual protagonist story with Clive and Gypsy both being the leads with their own backstory and all this stuff, in order to save time, Clive’s story wound up getting significantly trimmed. Not only that, but even just within scenes, lots of lines got cut out. It was just in a mad rush to get all the story in without really taking its time in the way that we had intended it. Even some of Gypsy’s stuff [was] cut out as well. I never was happy with the way it was trimmed up, so I always said “someday I’m gonna recut that movie.”
Basically, the whole thing was recut from scratch. We hired a new editor. He had never seen the film and I didn’t want him to see the film. I said “here’s all the footage – let’s just start over.”
EJ: That’s so cool. I thought the film was very well-paced and at no point felt its runtime. I can’t imagine it without the dual perspectives. If you trimmed either of those characters down, it would do a disservice, because as you said, it really is a dual protagonist film.
The performances are beautifully natural and sincere. Birkett, your chemistry with Sara Rue is outstanding. I totally bought into that friendship as something real. What was your process of getting into the character of Clive, and how much did you rehearse with Sara?
Birkett Turton: It was a very quick process, actually. I auditioned not too long before the actual filming started, so it was quick, but Todd very generously set up rehearsal time for both of us, and we really found it in the room. Sara brought so much raw energy to the part. She had her guitar with her. She was just bursting with this Gypsy energy, and I took that and tried to keep up, basically.
I remember the clothes were a big part of it. Kitty Boots’ costumes were really central. I think I found Clive by wearing the clothes, in a way. That’s something that’s still a big deal for me. The day I put on the costume of the character is kinda always the day that I figure it out, somehow, no matter what I might bring to it beforehand. Shout out to Kitty Boots. So, yeah, it really just came from that energy with Sara, Todd, the music and the clothes.
EJ: I love the clothes that both characters wear. I thought that the costume design was excellent. Were the clothes made for the film or bought?
BT: Some of them were made. Weren’t they, Todd?
TS: Some of them were, but I think a lot of them were bought. We had no money to make the movie, it was really low-budget, [but] Kitty had a lot of hook-ups at the goth stores, and I think a lot of it was donated as product placement. I still have a lot of it. I don’t know what to do with it. It’s the one film I’ve made where, for some reason, I wound up with a lot of the costumes, in part because I love them so much. Kitty, who did the costumes, did another film of mine as well – Swan Song. She’s just a brilliant, brilliant person of making things work beautifully on a low budget. I’d love to see what she could do with big money. That’s what we’re trying to do next.
EJ: I also really enjoyed Swan Song.
TS: Thank you.
BT: Beautiful movie.
EJ: Do either of you have any favorite memories of making this film?
TS: One of the things that just popped into my head, [which] Birkett mentioned, is how we rehearsed. I always believe in rehearsing with the actors in a movie, which is something that doesn’t always happen. As a director, you really have to fight to make it happen. When we were rehearsing, we did the initial rehearsals in New York City. The club Mother, where Night of 1,000 Stevies was held, was still open at the time. It was about to close down. Night of 1,000 Stevies is still going on decades later. Shoutout to Chi-Chi and Johnny, who still do it. It was just there at the last one that was amazing. I just remember that Sara and Kett and I went to the club, and the three of us danced to this song. How they let Kett in, I don’t know. He was 18.
BT: [playfully mumbling in a secretive manner]
TS: [laughs] Exactly, but we had connections. Just the three of us bonding as a family or a unit, that was one of my favorite moments where I was like, “this is gonna be good.”
BT: Was that Mother that we shot in?
TS: When they walk into the club, that is the exterior of Mother – which, by that time, had closed. We shot the interior at a place called Don Hill’s, which is where Night of 1,000 Stevies moved for a number of years after Mother had closed.
BT: One of the very clear memories for me is shooting inside of that nightclub, which I guess was Don Hill’s. We had the whole place taken over with lace and lights, and we had a lot of the performers from the actual Night of 1,000 Stevies. We had – as I recall, anyway – Stevie Nicks music booming over the sound system and people performing. It was very much like an actual Night of 1,000 Stevies, except I think we filmed it in the middle of the day. There’s nothing more magical than a nightclub in the middle of the day. [laughs] I remember that very, very clearly, just how real that felt and how gritty and awesome that day was.
EJ: The invisible presence of Stevie Nicks looms large over the film’s narrative, with the Night of 1,000 Stevies being the whole impetus for Gypsy and Clive’s trip to New York City. Has Ms. Nicks ever seen the film, and if so, how did she respond?
TS: I have no idea. If you find out, let me know. We licensed one song, called “Talk to Me,” that Sara does in karaoke, and I think it plays in two or three other places. That was the only song we were able to get, because Stevie Nicks did not write it. We were unfortunately not able to get the rights to her music. We kept trying to get to her through some personal connection and never really were able to, with her management at that time. We re-approached them for the director’s cut, and they made the same decision that they didn’t want Stevie’s music to be in the movie, which is heartbreaking to me, because obviously I adore Stevie Nicks. I’ve named two of my movies after her songs. Maybe she’s mad that I called one of my movies Edge of Seventeen. I don’t know. Sorry, Stevie. Please forgive me. [laughs]
I still love Stevie, despite it all. It kinda made the goth music be able to step forward a little bit. [It] was amazing to me to have all these songs from The Cure, and Echo and the Bunnymen now, and Cocteau Twins, and stuff like that, so there was a silver lining to not getting her music. But I don’t know if she’s ever – that’s a great question, Matt. I would love to know. I ask the same thing myself. I wrote the movie as a love letter to somebody and I don’t know if they ever got it, you know?
EJ: I think the film does have a lovely soundtrack, especially the scene with “Just Like Heaven.” I really liked that needle drop.
TS: Thank you.
EJ: As I learned from the press notes I was sent, Gypsy 83 didn’t really receive its proper due in its day, perhaps due to being considered “too queer” for mainstream audiences but not enough to be marketed solely to the LGBT demographic. Now that it’s been given a fresh chance at cinematic life, how do you hope its legacy will ultimately be defined?
TS: I think that what I was trying to do is to show the intimate relationship that a queer – in my case, cis male – can have with their female best friend. The character of Gypsy is based on somebody in my life – a couple people. I think a lot of us have these kinds of relationships that can be very intimate, like a non-sexual intimacy, and there a number of scenes that I realized got cut out of the film where Clive and Gypsy are just cuddling and sleeping together and stuff like that. I’m like “damn, why did I cut that out?”
That’s what I was trying to get across, that love and intimacy [that’s] not really a sexual thing. I find that a lot of people relate to that and have had either a Clive or a Gypsy in their life. That’s probably the main thing I hope people connect with.
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Gypsy 83: The Director’s Cut is now playing at The Quad Cinema in NYC and Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles, with an expansion to follow.
