VARLA JEAN ON SCREEN

A Houston-born drag performer stars in the indy hit Girls Will Be Girls

by Bradley David Williams

Drag superstar Varla Jean Merman (a.k.a. Jeffrey Roberson) has finally made it to the big screen, starring in the twisted new movie Girls Will Be Girls. The gender-bending flick, which at press time was set to open November 7 at the Landmark Greenway 3 Theater, features Roberson as Varla, a country girl with a bit of an eating disorder and a relentless drive to make it big as an actress. Varla is part of a three-drag-queen ensemble that includes Jack Plotnick as Evie, an aging lush in the “twi-dark” of her acting career, and Evie’s roommate and verbal punching bag Coco (Clinton Leupp), whose only goal in life is to have a child with the doctor who performed her abortion. The over-the-top film was a huge hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and it won Roberson best-actor kudos at the Aspen HBO Film Festival and at the 2003 Outfest Film Festival.

If you haven’t caught one of Varla Jean’s rollicking (and always sold out) performances in Provincetown, New York, or points beyond, you may have seen Roberson’s network TV debut in February on All My Children in the recurring role of lady of the evening Rosemary Chicken. Other acting credits include HBO’s Dragtime, E!'s Fashion Emergency, E! Goes to Cannes, MTV’s True Life: Mardi Gras, and the role of Mary Sunshine in the first national touring company of the Broadway revival of Chicago.

Roberson was born in Hermann Hospital in Houston some 33 years ago. The son of an FBI agent who was constantly transferred to different jobs, he spent much of his childhood in various towns throughout Louisiana and got a degree in advertising from Louisiana State University. He recently moved back to New Orleans and bought a house in the Marigny Faubourg district, from which he recently spoke by phone about Girls Will Be Girls.

Bradley Williams: Congratulations on the movie

Jeffrey Roberson: I laugh about it—this is not the first movie I’ve done, but it’s the first movie I’ve done that is actually going to be released. I’ve worked on a couple of other projects that were, I guess, ill-fated. This is the first time somebody has actually written something for me that fits.

How did the movie come about?

I knew this guy in New York, Miss Coco (Clinton Leupe), who is in the movie Trick. He came to my show in L.A., and my piano player at the time, Seth Rudetsky, brought his best friend from school—Jack Plotnick, who plays Evie Harris in the film. So Seth brought Jack, and Jack brought his good friend Richard Day, who writes for television—he’s written for Ellen and the Larry Sanders Show. That’s when Richard got the idea of writing a movie with our characters living together in, you know, a Hollywood food-chain movie.

How did you get started in drag?

I started doing drag just in New Orleans because, you know, in New Orleans there’s not this big stigma attached to drag like you see in these other places. It seems like whenever somebody was having a party when I was growing up, before long, after a few drinks, someone would pull out the box of wigs and the Goodwill pantsuits . . .

Does being a drag queen ever interfere with your dating life?

Oh, god, yes! People look at it like you’re some crazy freak. I usually don’t even tell people. No one ever recognizes me. I mean, I definitely consider it acting at this point. When I started out, it was just to be crazy. I started out going out in New Orleans. I’d go out with a giant can of refried beans and dance drunk on the bar. I don’t know what it is, but a lot of guys are really put off by it. Even this guy I’m dating now, when he found out, he was really freaked out. It’s just a difficult thing to balance, but once they see I’m nothing like that person on stage—or at least I hide it from them [laughs] —they’re OK with it.

What’s this I hear about Elton John being a big Varla Jean fan?

Yeah, he first came to my show in L.A. several years ago. They said after the show, “Somebody wants to meet you,” and I thought, Who is this? I went outside and it’s Elton John standing there, but it looked like it was a wax figure. I mean, it was so surreal. Then he invited me to do some benefits for his AIDS foundation in London. He’s very nice.

Bradley David Williams interviewed actor Todd Waite for the October issue.

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