Actor and director Virginia Gay has opened up about her latest project, directing Yve Blake's new play Mackenzie, a Shakespeare reboot where Lady Macbeth is reimagined as a nightmare stage mother. In a candid interview, Gay shared her thoughts on everything from favourite fictional villains to the most overrated Shakespeare play.
Favourite Fictional Villain
Gay named Ursula from The Little Mermaid as her top villain. 'Disney does villains really well: they're fabulous and funny; all of them are queer coded, which is both fun and problematic. But Ursula is fabulous. She's a strong female role model: she's a business woman, she's taking people's voices, and it's a clear contract that she makes with Ariel; and she's living by herself, under the sea, so she's the master of her own time and beholden to nobody,' she said.
Most Overrated Shakespeare Play
When asked about the most overrated Shakespeare play, Gay didn't hesitate: Hamlet. 'It's too long. And I think there's something about the world we live in now which makes me go: "I don't really want to hear about your sad boy thoughts." It's also because I studied it, which means that I've wrung every scrap of meaning out of it, so I want to give it a break. It's become a marker of when you've reached a certain stage of a certain kind of career in acting, and I just wonder whether there's something more interesting to mark that stage now?'
Returning to The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Gay revealed that The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a work she always returns to. 'I learned an enormous amount about acting, about storytelling and about fabulousness from that movie. I discovered it when I was very young – some would say too young. We had it on VHS and my parents knew that if they put it in and pressed play, that's where I would be for the next two hours, and they wouldn't have to worry about me.' She described it as camp, fabulous, and surprisingly moving, adding that with Mackenzie, she wanted to create a Rocky Horror Show for bookish tweens and their favourite English teacher.
Best Lesson from a Colleague
Working on Colin from Accounts with Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer taught Gay valuable lessons about workplace tone. 'What I learned from Patty and Harry is that if you're the person setting the tone of the workspace, you can make that tone very joyful and playful, and everybody can bring their own unique comic voice. And your job as the person at the top of the hierarchy is to tune those comic voices into a bandwidth where they all exist together.' She noted that making comedy requires technical precision but that it can be achieved without making anyone feel corrected or excluded.
Best Advice Ever Received
The best advice Gay ever got is the phrase 'Be yourself, everyone else is taken,' often attributed to Oscar Wilde. 'When you go to drama school – and it might have changed since I went – you get taught to soften your edges and make yourself more adaptable, and actually, especially for film and television, the very you-ness of you is actually what makes you employable. This is true when you make your own work, too. And I think that saying is about honouring and refining and really backing the weird me-ness of me, which is queer and silly and irreverent and hopeful against all odds. And also the masc-ness of me: I used to think I had to femme up all the time, and actually, the masc-ness of me is what makes me valuable.'
What Dessert Are You?
Gay identified as a creme brulee. 'Very creamy, indulgent, a little bit textural, it's got that hard layer of toffee on the top. There's something about it that requires a bit of extra work, but once you're in, it's spectacular. With something like the panna cotta, there's no mystery – it's all one texture, it's all one flavour. But the creme brulee, she's got layers. She just wants to be cracked.'
Most Chaotic On-Stage Moment
During a performance of Calamity Jane, Gay threw lollies into the audience as part of the show, but they hit a glass globe in the bunting, shattering it over the audience. 'Primarily over this wonderful human being who simply put her hand over her glass as it was happening. I said, "Can I get you another drink?" And she went, "Nah, I'm fine", and just took a sip.'
Most-Used Emoji
Gay's go-to emoji is the melt. 'I really like the melt, because it can be very sexy, like, "Oh my god, I'm melting just thinking about you." But it also can be, "Help me, Jesus Christ, I'm sliding off this plate." I really like emojis that have two uses. And for me, it's sexy first – it's the ultimate response to an image that gets sent, or if like somebody sends you a cute little thing and you're like, "I'm melting thinking about you."'
Most Embarrassing Artistic Act
As a student, Gay took any job she could, including walk-through immersive character work at fancy fundraising balls. 'You'd be wandering around, sort of in character but sort of not, and thinking, "OK, well, I suppose if I stay here for another hour and a half, I might have enough money to pay my rent"; doing those math equations in your head the entire time, not thinking about whether you were Anna Karenina or whatever you were meant to be.'
Habit She's Trying to Break
Social media addiction is a struggle for Gay. 'I am absolutely addicted. Actually, what has been very useful in breaking the addiction has been making Mackenzie, because I'm so flooded with dopamine from being in that rehearsal room, and the discussions are so complicated and interesting and full that I don't search for the surface dopamine that I used to get from Instagram. But if I don't actively parent myself when I'm not doing a job like this, hours and hours of a day can easily go.'
Virginia Gay is directing Mackenzie, which runs from 6 June to 18 July at the Neilson Nutshell and from 29 July to 5 August at Arts Centre Melbourne.
