Having a chat with Leslie Jordan is never dull. The timber of his voice mixes delicately with his southern cadence and twang, creating a sound that I could just listen to for hours. Add that to his hysterical, self-deprecating stories of his life, and the whole world becomes his stage. While in the past he may have been recognizable for his many walk on roles on television, he recently has found several new ventures, both on stage and on television that are setting him up for even bigger successes.
On Thursday, October 9 at Park Tavern on Piedmont Park, Leslie will unleash upon us his popular new stage show called ‘Say Cheese: My Life in Front of the Camera.’ I was fortunate enough to catch up with him and get the skinny on his new show, as well hear all about his horrible Celebrity Big Brother experience.
David Atlanta: You’ve done shows pertaining to your Hollywood experience, your mother, and growing up as a gay southerner. What’s this new show about?
Leslie Jordan: I have a dear friend named Tim Cox who has photographed me relentlessly for about twenty years. Way before I was even a semi celebrity, he would take pictures of me. A while back we were looking through the catalog of all the pictures he had of me, and there was one thing that stuck out in every single photo. I had some straight boy with me that I was currently in love with. I had this long history of fallin’ in love with straight boys. Imma sugar daddy! It goes all the way back to when I was fourteen years old. I was givin’ boys my lunch money so the would go out in woods (ha ha). I don’t know if it’s a generational thing or what, but I have noticed that a lot of gay men my age have a thing for straight men. I thought it was worth exploring in a show.
So I call it; ‘Say Cheese: My Life in Front of the Camera,’ which leads people to believe it’s gonna be something about you know, Hollywood or having my picture taken. But it’s much more about [my sexpoits]. I think the Atlanta crowd will really love it because it’s southern, and a lot of my stories are about boys that I’ve drug out of Swinging Richard’s. That’s where I would go when I wanted a new straight boyfriend! Honey, I’ve lived with some of them! I drug this one boy from there, Brandon, and I lived with him for ten years!
So, it’s exploring why I’m 60 years old, and I’ve never ever had a gay boyfriend. It’s very funny about all my insane stories about these boys…and I have pictures! I had to hunt them all down to get model releases so I could show everyone. They’re on great big placards of the boys, and it has this circus theme because: ‘I’m always happiest under the big top’.
DA: What was the Celebrity Big Brother UK experience like?
LJ: Well I realized once I got on there, that not a single one of these people really lead the celebrity life. I do, and I’m not even on the D-list with Kathy Griffin. I travel, stay in first class hotels, there’s always cars waiting for me at the airport. I get to eat in the nicest restaurants. You know when you take all that away, and put me in the Big Brother House…it was hell. I was shocked. If I didn’t complete my task for the day, I had to eat rice n’ beans! I had to eat rice n’ beans for three days! They kept sayin’, ‘there’s she blows.’
Also, the sleep deprivation was terrible. They’d leave the lights on at night on purpose. But you know, I got the check for it yesterday, and it made up for it all. I paid off all my credit cards. I have a little nest egg now. It was worth it because of the money, but my God I would never go through that again.
DA: You seemed both shocked, and sort of relieved when you were cut from Celebrity Big Brother, how far had you expected to go in the show?
LJ: Well I thought I was going to win! I really did. I looked around and thought ‘there’s nobody here as nice as me.’ But hey, nice doesn’t get you anywhere. [The way they portrayed me] nobody knew I was nice till I got out after 12 days…I do not think I could have taken one more day. I was so relieved. I had had it.
DA: Gary Busey was on the show too, what was he like?
LJ: That Gary Busey is not all there. It’s really a sad situation. You take somebody whose won an academy award, but then he had that horrible accident, and now he’s not all there. He kept telling the same story over and over. That he went to the light and he’s back spreading the love. I was like ‘the love? How about some fucking kindness?’ But he won!!!
We were set up from the very beginning… but they [the producers] paid [Busey] a fortune. Plus all the bad stuff he did was edited out. All that the UK public saw was this befuddled, old fuddy-duddy, kinda eccentric. They didn’t see him shit on the toilet. Shit around the toilet. Coming to the dinner table with shit on his hand! It’s disgusting.
DA: Oh God! That’s horrible! Do you feel like you were unfairly edited in the show?
LJ: Oh absolutely. They made me look like a Screaming Mimi. Like when I was screaming at that French stripper. That French stripper…she was absolutely impossible.
DA: Oh, you mean Angelique Morgan. Bitch or the bitchiest?
LJ: In her saner moments, you have to have some respect for her cause she uses the only thing she has, which is that body. You know she stripped for years, and she’s no spring chicken. What do you do when you’re an old stripper? She is without a doubt the most self-involved human being I’ve ever seen. She has these routines that are almost bordering on OCD. She snorts aromatherapy oil.
DA: She snorts the oils?
LJ: She snorts it! I kept saying ‘there’s something in those oils, cocaine or something.’ She’s too hyper. She would go days and not sleep. And I had to share a bed with her. Did you know that?
DA: No, I didn’t.
LJ: It was just process of elimination. When I shared a bed with her she would be just up, down, up, down. Opening little things, patting her face, putting on oils. Massaging her big ole’ trout lips. Four times a night she’d be snorting these oils. And then puttin’ on face masks and laying down. I’d think, ‘Oh thank God she’s finally going to sleep.’ But about an hour later, BAM! Up like a light. She was nuts! I’ve never figured it out…such a tweaker.
DA: Do you regret not doing American Horror Story?
LJ: I do. But if I had to do it over again, I’d take the money. I mean it was a lot of money. A LOT! Like six figures.
DA: All for twelve days of work? That’s worth it!
LJ: I mean, how many people can say in three weeks, they’ve wiped out their debt? You know credit cards. Everything down to zero. I was offered five episodes on American Horror Story, but they needed me in New Orleans the exact days they needed me in London for Big Brother. I screamed at my manager saying ‘this is not happening!’ I’ve never in 33 years in the business had to make a decision like that.
See the thing is, career wise, what did American Horror Story really get me? I’ve been the funny little guy coming in with the zingers. I’ve always been the bridesmaid. I’m never the bride. I’m never the series regular. What happened in England, is that it introduced me to this whole new audience. I’ve had vies from production companies (over there) who want to develop sitcoms for me. You know, things happen over there.
DA: That’s great! Maybe it’ll open up a few more doors than five episodes of American Horror Story would have.
LJ: Celebrity Big Brother is the number one show in the UK…I’ve never had name recognition, except in the gay community. People would say, ‘that funny little guy from Will & Grace,’ but they don’t know Leslie Jordan. After the show, I couldn’t get down the streets in London. People were yelling out of taxi cabs, ’Hey Little Leslie!’ and give me the thumbs up. That’s what they call me, ‘Little Leslie.’
DA: You should go on Celebrity Survivor or something.
LJ: No way! No way! I think now I’m gonna be offered English stuff like their version of Dancing with the Stars. I’ve done reality TV now. I think once you’ve done it, you shouldn’t do it again. I don’t want to be like a Gary Busey. Just going reality show, to reality show. I got too much going on for that.
DA: There have been rumors that there might be a Will & Grace Reunion show. Do you think that might happen?
LJ: No, that’s a total rumor I can assure you. You know, you can’t go back. As much as people would like it, you just can’t go back.
Photo by Kelly Smith Courtesy Reaction Productions