Gina Gershon was a guest on The View today where she stopped by to chat about her new film Staten Island Summer, but she also talked about her famous part as Corky in the Lana and Andy Wachowki film Bound. Raven-Symone asked about her taking on LGBT characters when she’s not part of the community, and Gina joked, “Well, I’m not a Hasidic Jew either!” about another recent part she’s played.
But the actress, who has played gay in other films like Prey for Rock ‘N Roll and Dealin’ With Idiots, told a great story about making a decision to take a chance, even when the people around her told it was a bad idea.
“You know, it’s a funny thing with Bound. I remember I loved the script so much and no one knew these unknown directors and I wanted to meet them just because I thought, ‘The writing is so spot on.’ And as soon as I met them, I was like ‘These guys are great.’ You could tell they were geniuses. But my agents and everyone was like ‘You’re not doing this movie – it’s going to end your career.’ I’m like ‘Why?’ They’re like, ‘Well, you’re playing a lesbian-it will ruin your career.’ It’s like ‘So what? It’s a great part. It’s like the classic part I never get to play.’ And they’re two unknown directors-I’m like, ‘They’re bad asses. These directors are incredible.’ And they’re like, ‘No, no. It will ruin it-we can’t let you do it.’ And I said, ‘Well, I guess then I’m going to have to leave.’ And I left my agents over it. It was weird, but at the time-you know, this was before Boys Don’t Cry came out and stuff-if definitely pigeonholed me for a second. After Showgirls and that, then all of a sudden I was just getting killer lesbian motorcycle crazy people, and which, I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is so silly.’ But I’m so proud that I did that movie and so happy that it helped a lot of people. It’s amazing. It’s a great film. I love that movie.”
You can watch that portion of the interview starting at 19:23 in the video below.
As someone whose first memory of seeing a lesbian-themed movie box at my local Blockbuster as a pre-teen was Bound, I thank you, Gina Gershon. And Jennifer Tilly, too.
