It was a role made famous by the late Terence Stamp over 30 years ago.
And now Bryan Brown has revealed that he was offered the part played by the famous British actor – a drag performer – in the box office hit The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
In a new interview, the 78-year-old Boy Swallows Universe star said he knocked back the film because he was producing a TV series of his own called Twisted Tales.
‘I really fancied the idea of getting dressed up and doing Priscilla. I thought it’d be f**king hilarious,’ the fan favourite told the Daily Telegraph on Sunday.Â
Featuring Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving in star-making roles, Priscilla was an international success and later spawned a successful stage musical.
During the chat, the actor-turned-crime novelist said that he was prevented from doing the low-budget Australian ‘drag comedy’ because it was to be filmed at the same time as his series Twisted Tales.
Famed Australian actor Bryan Brown (pictured) has revealed that he turned down a starring role in the box office hit The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Brown, 78, told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday that he was offered the part made famous by British actor Terence Stamp. But her knocked back the roles because he was producing his own TV series at the time. Pictured centre: Stamp as the character Bernadette in Priscilla
‘I’d thought [Twisted Tales] up. I knew what I was after. And I would have had to bail,’ he remembered.
Twisted Tales (1996), which screened on the Nine network, was an anthology mystery series that Brown had conceived as a way of introducing new young writers to TV.Â
He explained: ‘I loved it (the film) – that’s probably the only thing I can remember where I went: “That would have been fun and I said no”.’
Elsewhere in the chat, Brown, who recently appeared in Sydney Sweeney’s Anyone But You, reflected on his 50-year screen career.
‘Well, I’ve lasted, haven’t I? All I try to do is be real in whatever part I’m playing. And if people think I am, then I’ve achieved what I am supposed to have achieved,’ he said.Â
He added: ‘I’ve started to see even some of the under 45s go: “Isn’t that the old f***er that was in Anyone But You”?’
Actors Weaving, Pearce and Stamp all won great acclaim for Priscilla, a musical comedy, which saw the straight actors play drag queens who stage a travelling show centred on them lip-syncing to famed pop hits.Â
Stamp’s role in the film, as a transgender woman, was singled out as one of his best in a career that spanned five decades.
At the time of Priscilla’s production, Brown was a household name in Australia, having played roles in classic films such as Breaker Morant (1980) and on TV in the US mini-series The Thorn Birds (1983). (Pictured)
At the time of Priscilla’s production, Brown was a household name in Australia, having played roles in classic films such as Breaker Morant (1980) and on TV in the US mini-series The Thorn Birds (1983).
He was also well-known to international audiences after starring opposite Tom Cruise in the 1986 box office smash Cocktail as well as another US-made film F/X, released the same year.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert went on to earn over $30 million globally against an estimated budget of just over $2 million.
Brown, who rose to fame Down Under in the Australian film Newsfront (1978), shot to stardom after starring in The Thorn Birds a few years later.
It was on the set of that mini-series when he met his wife, Rachel Ward, 68.
They played husband and wife in the show and got married that same year, only months after filming wrapped.
The long-time lovebirds married at Rachel’s childhood home in Oxfordshire, England, before settling in Australia and having three children – Rosie, 41, Matilda, 38, and one son, Joe, 33.
