The SXSW festival (virtual edition) is in full swing this week and one of the films making a world premiere splash is Todd Stephens’ fun dramedy “Swan Song,” starring Udo Kier, Jennifer Coolidge, and the legendary Linda Evans.
Kier stars as Pat Pitsenbarger, also known as “Mr. Pat,” a retired hairdresser living a lonely existence in a nursing home in Sandusky, Ohio. He gets a visit from a estate lawyer for a recently deceased former client, whose dying wish is to have her former hairdresser work on her final hairdo. Pat sets off on a walkabout through the streets of small town Sandusky on a quest to find hair products that no longer exist in former haunts and that are slowly disappearing. The film’s festival synopsis describes it as “a bittersweet journey about rediscovering oneself, and looking gorgeous while doing so.”
Cherry the Geek TV sat down with writer/director Todd Stephens as well as stars Udo Kier and Linda Evans to discuss the film.
The character of Pitsenbarger is based on a real life person that Stephens would see roaming the streets of Sandusky when he was a teen. “I came from a town that was fairly conservative. People didn’t really rock the boat,” Stephens said, but Mr. Pat totally stuck out. “He owned the most fabulous hair salon on the corner. Pat would go out looking very different from everyone else. He had a velvet fedora and feather boa, and this was back in the 70s and 80s. He was this outrageous man who was true to himself and that is what I admired about him, because I didn’t feel like I fit in either.”
Stephens has known for 20 years that he has wanted to make a film about this man. Casting however, was very difficult. “We thought about a bunch of people and then my casting director suggested Udo and I remembered all of the films of Udo’s that I have loved (Andy Warhol’s Blood For Dracula, My Own Private Idaho), so I sent him the script and met with him and we hung out and got to know each other,” Stephens said.
Kier was coming off a couple of films where he was playing evil guys and embraced the comical character that Stephens presented. “In a role like that, I don’t even have to prepare. I learned from Lars Von Trier: Don’t act. I didn’t have to act, I had a strong director.” Kier prepared by just looking at photographs of the real Mr. Pat, and talking to Stephens about Mr. Pat’s mannerisms. He also talked to friends of his and heard stories. He then asked if they could shoot the film chronologically and stayed by himself in the nursing home for a few days before shooting began so that he would be in character when the film crew showed up.
Evans, who hasn’t appeared on screen since the late 90s, said Stephens’ script is what brought her back. “I fell in love with it. He is the best writer. He just tugs at your heart. I saw the film a couple of weeks ago. I laughed and I cried. He (Stephens) did it. He pulled it off. People are going to love this film. It’s going to stand out,” she said. “Working with Udo is one of the joys of my career. We had such a bonding. He was so real that I felt that I was in life rather than working.”
“Linda Evans is one of the most professional actresses I have ever worked with,” Kier said.
Stephens addressed one of the themes of the film: the slow disappearance of small town gay culture. “Small town gay culture saved my life,” he said. “There was a queer bar in my small little town. I was very lucky. It was a family. A close-knit family full of people that I’m still connected to. I treasure that. But gay culture is melting. There are so many small town gay bars that are going out of business, for a variety of different reasons (including the pandemic). There are now a large number of young LGBTQ+ kids who don’t need that safe space like I did. They can feel more free to be who they are anywhere and that’s amazing but it’s bittersweet. The cost of that is that a lot of these small town bars and spaces are closing. It’s like the loss of a culture–the way we talk, the way we communicated. I was trying to raise that question with the film–Is it okay for these things to go away?”
While the film is premiering this week at the virtual online SXSW festival, Kier looks forward to the day when the world gets back to normal and the film can be seen with audiences in a theater. “I want to see it on a big screen. I will rent the biggest cinema in Palm Springs and invite all of my friends. We’ll have a party.”
SXSW runs online from March 16-20, 2021.
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