Skip to main contentKaren Black is the Queen of the B's.
As in B-movies, that is. Once the star of such screen classics as Five Easy Pieces and The Great Gatsby--and cult faves like The Day of the Locust and Airport '75--for the last two decades Ms. Black has toiled in the "where are they now?" section of your local video store.
And while a few naysayers consider her little more than a Norma Desmond for our generation, many others (especially gay men) consider the Illinois corn-bred Karen Ziegler to be nothing short of an icon (there's even a sweet queer-boy film titled Karen Black Like Me). Either or, there's no denying her impact on audiences. That's why I'm thrilled to hear that she's in the latest tour of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. Before she arrived in PDX, I talked to Black from her home in Sherman Oaks, Calif., on the day after it was announced she had been cast in the show.
Willamette Week: Is it true you played a singing nun in The Sound of Music?
Karen Black: Yes! And I still sing. As soon as I finished appearing in The Vagina Monologues in New York, I went straight into Joe's Pub and did my one-woman show. I perform stand-up literature: Katherine Anne Porter, Faulkner. And I sing. I do David Bowie.
What Bowie song do you do?
"Time." At which time Ms. Black begins to sing--loudly--into the phone a Bowie classic.
Your bio says you're not only an actress, but also a singer, writer, director...
I would not consider myself a director, but go on.
So if you had to pick only one creative outlet, which one would it be?
When you're writing, there's nothing to compare with that. What's wonderful about acting, or writing, is that you go where your characters are living, you listen to what they have to say. When I do TVM I perform as a Muslim lady, and I go there. I go to the rape scene and I'm there.
My favorite movie of all time is your big comeback, Robert Altman's Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. There's no question you performed the character of Joanne as if she really were a transgendered person. What was it like preparing for that film?
It was horrible, and I hope to never do it again. It was actually months of work. I talked with transsexuals, I went to all kinds of clubs where they're bartenders or whatever. I did research into pretty depressing statistics about people who've become transsexuals and how they still don't feel complete. I had to become a man, and I am not a man. Byron, I'm really feminine! And that transition was so painful to me, to become a man, that I could use the pain of my actual transition for Joanne.
I think you've always been, and always will be, a movie idol to gay men everywhere. Do you consider yourself a queer icon?
It's a strange kind of self-destructive elitism, like I don't care or something. And I should care because public relations are everything in show business. But I've just never paid attention to it. I just accept it and I think it's marvelous.
Do you feel the same about the band named after you, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, or do you feel ripped off?
No, I wouldn't go that far. I like the girl. She came to my show, she rushed backstage, I took one look at her, and I said, "You do look like Karen Black." It's not a great concern of mine, but I think they could've asked.
By the way, are you any relation to Jack Black?
No, none whatsoever.
The new touring cast for this widely traveled show makes its first pit stop in Portland-- with Karen Black!
Touchstone Coffee House is the place to touch down for a night of lovely lezzies and a cup of hom- joe.
And Dyke Night Portland is on the Web: www.techno dyke.com/dykenight .
Slam poet Alix Olson will perform a benefit concert for the Sexual Minority Youth Recreation Center with singer- songwriter Doria Roberts.
WWeek 2015