Fabulous new movie musical Leave It on the Floor lifts the lid on Los Angeles’ ball scene, where young gay black men, often from the streets, strut their stuff in drag both femme and butch. David McGillivray met director Sheldon Larry and two of the film’s stars…
SHELDON LARRY
Veteran TV director Sheldon is neither American nor black. But he’s been aware of the ball scene for a long time.
I saw the documentary Paris Is Burning more than 20 years ago when I was directing off-Broadway in New York. I started visiting the balls. There was Madonna. She was doing her research for her song ‘Vogue’, which comes out of this world. Then I came to L.A. and about seven years ago I was doing a black project and they said, “You know there’s a ball community in LA?” Who knew?
The documentary had brought some attention to the ball scene and then, in the 90s, a lot of the guys who created it died of AIDS. But around 2001 it began to gather momentum again and now there are fairly active scenes in about 15 cities. We spent three years developing the script. The first year we were going to balls, getting some trust. These kids are wary, the community is way below the radar. We met the house parents of the 13 or 14 houses in Los Angeles, told them what we were doing. I told them that anyone in the community could be in the film. If you vogue you can vogue, if you walk you can walk, if you want to audition for an acting part, please do. One house mother became a prototype for the Queef character.
“There’s no money in this community and they’re all about making something out of nothing.”
Balls are held in very different places. One of them was done in a shirt factory, or someone rents them a loft for 30 or 40 dollars. There’s no money in this community and they’re all about making something out of nothing. Every house will have a sex siren, a hunky guy who’s got a perfect body; or someone who has to dress as a straight high school boy; or a vogeuing femme, which is more transgendered, and then there’ll be vogueing butch; and there are even drag categories – butch queen in drag and femme queen in drag. So the houses will find kids in clubs, with the idea of them walking, but it’s also about the forging of this family, which is really for me the centre of the movie.
I thought who the fuck is going to give me money to make a movie about black drag queens and transgendered kids? But I teach directing at the University of Southern California so fifty students of mine worked on the film on deferred money. The most gratifying thing was that [the kids] really love it. We had a cast and crew screening. It was so joyful and so emotional that it was exhilarating.
PHILLIP EVELYN
Former model Phillip, who worked for DKNY, plays femme queen Princess Eminence, who introduces new kid Bradley (Ephraim Sykes) to the L.A. ball scene.
I’m from Atlanta, Georgia, originally and that’s where I was first introduced to the ballroom scene as a late teenager. I moved to New York almost four years ago and I was sought out there by the ballroom scene. It kinda found me – again. I’m part of a house called Comme des Garçons and that’s how I found out about the movie itself. My house father, Michael, called me and said, “Hey, they’re auditioning for a musical. I know that you sing. You should go. They might have a part for you.”
“They played some music and I did a few moves. I do have some rhythm. I guess that was good enough because I got a call and they flew me out to L.A.”
I went in and they asked me to sing and I told them I hadn’t sang since I was a kid in church and I closed my eyes and I sang ‘Joyful, Joyful’ and they asked me to read a side. It was a conversation between Princess and Queef. They asked me if I danced and I said no. They said, “Would you mind doing a little something for us?” They played some music and I did a few moves. I do have some rhythm. I guess that was good enough because I got a call and they flew me out to L.A.
I’ve been to a lot of screenings. In Harlem in New York one guy was almost angry. He said it was like an exploitation film. He felt that this wasn’t right. But he was comparing it to Paris Is Burning, which is a documentary. It was a very rough Q&A but I was completely OK with it and I’ll tell you why. I’m an African-American gay male and I didn’t feel exploited at all. To me there was an authenticity there. I respected his opinion. But some are gonna like it and some are gonna hate it.
BARBIE-Q
“B”, as she likes to be called, plays acerbic house mother Queef, who eventually takes Bradley under her wing.
I’ve been doing musical theatre for 13 years, started off when I was 18 years old. I choreographed about seven musicals, community theatre stuff, and then I got into drag when I was in college. I started doing it full-time maybe four years ago. I told my agent, “Hey, I want to do Barbie-Q full-time.” He started sending me out to auditions and stuff, I did Lady GaGa’s video ‘Telephone’, and then I came across Leave It on the Floor and I had four call-backs. When they offered me the role, I was very flattered because I knew I’d worked for it. It wasn’t just given to me.
“I want to be the Oprah of drag queens! 60 per cent of gay youth are on the street right now in Los Angeles.”
We shot for about 24 days in the heat of summer in California so a lot of times it was already 100 degrees outside and we’d go on set and it was even hotter. After 18 hours it would get to you. But I want more. I want to do more films, more television, gosh, I would love to host my own show one day. I want to be the Oprah of drag queens!
60 per cent of gay youth are on the street right now in Los Angeles. People don’t realise that. It’s because of the intolerance from their families. A lot of times the kids are going into a pack that’s really not healthy for them. So I’m loving that people are seeing what’s going on. It’s a dramatisation, but I think it’s pretty much on point on what the community is and what they do for each other.
• Leave It on the Floor is at the Leicester Square Theatre now.
