Richard Louis James interviewed by Nigel Kelly

Acclaimed character actor Richard Louis James first brought Quentin Crisp back to life in Berkley, California in June 2007 with his one man show Tea 'N' Crisp.
Now with a second run of his show in San Francisco in February 2008, I thought it would be interesting to find out more about this gifted actor who is so able to get under the skin of someone as unique as Quentin Crisp.

This is a full length in-depth interview, so I have divided it into Question and Answer sections with links to each one.
Or of course you can just read down through it all in full if you wish

Q. When did you first become aware of Quentin Crisp?

Q. Has he influenced your life in any way?

Q. Did you ever meet him?

Q. When did you first come up with the idea for your show Tea ‘N Crisp?

Q. Did you encounter much difficulty in getting it onto the stage?

Q. What do you think Quentin would make of the show if he were still alive?

Q. Your show was extremely well received in Berkeley. Do you find that there is still a lot of interest in Quentin in the states?

Q. Do you have any future plans for the show beyond the San Francisco Playhouse in February?

Q. Have you always wanted to be an actor?

Q. How did you get started as an actor and what was your first role?

Q. Which of the roles you have played brought you the most satisfaction?>

Q. Which actors have inspired you most?

Q. Are there any parts you would especially like to play?

Q. Most actors say they could never retire. Could you ever see yourself retiring?

Q. If you could go back and start again, would you still be an actor or would you choose another career, and if so what?

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Q. When did you first become aware of Quentin Crisp?

I guess the older you get things seem farther back in time.
My first immediate response to this question; I thought I was in my early twenties but if you subtract my age now from the time the movie The Naked Civil Servant was aired around 1975 I was in my early thirties when I first became aware of Quentin Crisp.

I was dealing with a lot of personal drama in my own life at that time, but the thought that comes back to me is how brave Quentin was facing his own adversity. Making the comparison between my own life and Quentin’s it gave me strength. It was a sort of “Well if he can do it so can I” mantra. Subconsciously I think he became a role model for me. But our lives were so far apart he was in a way untouchable and it wasn’t until years later our paths would cross again.

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Q. Has he influenced your life in any way?

Most definitely, especially within the past few years since I’ve done my research preparing for this production. The more I look at what he has to say the more I consider him to be a prophet. It’s simply profound what he has to say. I find I view other people in a different light. That is to say I notice people who embrace their individuality and their courage to dress or carry themselves in a “style” other than what society considers the norm and I understand clearly that quality Quentin talks about. That confidence to display to the world that which makes you so unique from other people and to wave the banner proudly.

I look at my past and realize that I was very much like Quentin in my youth. Although Quentin had parents and siblings he was in effect alone. My mother died when I was seven and my father abandoned me and my brother. My brother was killed at twenty-one so I was alone as well but I was strong willed like Quentin and made very little compromises as far as my lifestyle was concerned.

When I see the opening scene in The Naked Civil Servant of the young boy dancing in his mother’s dress in front of a mirror I think of myself. I was an effeminate boy and enjoyed playing dress up; I used to love to wear my grandmother’s Victorian wedding gown and pretend in front of the dressing mirror and enjoyed the smell of and wearing makeup. I think I was five years old and can remember as clear as a bell sitting at my mothers dressing table and holding the tube of lipstick and putting it on. It was a joy. I was teased constantly and came close to bodily harm many times as a young man and teenager.

Once when I was around ten I was harassed at school and when I got home I remembered a movie my parents took me to at a drive in Movie Theater. The Boy with the Green Hair. It’s basically an anti war film. It’s about a boy who wakes up one morning with green hair. At first everybody thinks its cool then they start blaming the boy for all the ills of the town. The boy is a metaphor for peace and tolerance. This one day after school when I got home I took down a bottle of green food coloring and dyed my hair green. I remember thinking I was going to give all those who pointed their finger at me something to point at. In a way it was the same as Quentin dying his hair to let everyone know that he was a homosexual.

Then when I came out around twenty I started smoking pink Sherman cigarettes and wearing effeminate clothing. Like Quentin during the Second World War I took advantage of the times. The Sixties were a time of bell bottom pants and puffy shirts. Fashion was Unisex but I stretched the boundaries. In the early Seventies I started doing drag and worked in a gay night club doing female impersonation in the tenderloin of San Francisco. It was risky because in those days you could be arrested and thrown in jail for wearing woman’s clothes in public. So to answer your question not so much influenced in my youth but I believe we had parallel lives in many ways only he was thirty-six years ahead of me. I think it’s more like validation of my past that he was saying to me “ Yes, you had courage and you displayed it!”

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Q. Did you ever meet him?

Yes I did.
The older I get the more I believe everything in this life as we know it is connected.

It was Thursday June 12, 1997. The time was between 3:00 and 4:00 pm. The place was the Welcome Home café on Castro Street (the gay neighborhood) in San Francisco. I used to go their often to eat and cruise. This particular day I was reading the gay newspaper Bay Area Reporter that came out on Thursdays and I was looking at an article about Quentin Crisp and his book Resident Alien. He was in town doing his one man show at Theater Rhinoceros and promoting his book. Who should walk in but Quentin Crisp and a young man who was interviewing him. He sat about three feet away from me. After his interview was over and he was about to leave I nervously got the courage to ask him to autograph the article I was reading. I was too star struck and tongue- tied to say much. He was very gracious. I hold that moment dear to my heart.
Little did I know ten years later I would become one of his representatives here on Earth. With the metaphysical beliefs and experience I’ve had in my life I believe that meeting was pre-destined. Somehow that meeting has influenced my spirit portraying Quentin on stage.

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Q. When did you first come up with the idea for your show Tea ‘N Crisp?

In 2002 I got a call from my doctor who was being given an award for his service with the Rainbow Community Center. It’s a safe haven and resource center for gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual youth. He asked if I would accept being part of the entertainment for the evening. All he told me was I had ten minutes. Dr. Sack is an incredible human being so of course I said yes.

After I hung up the phone I thought what the hell am I going to do for this exceptional group of people. Somehow To be or not to be from Hamlet just wasn’t going to work. A few years before my friend, John Butterfield, who is an actor and a dancer, gave me a book The Wit and Wisdom of Quentin Crisp. For some reason I was drawn to that book on my library shelf. The moment I started reading the first page I had found my material. I decided to transform myself into Quentin in front of everyone while doing some of my own material and a few passages from the book. I got a huge standing ovation. Instantly I thought: there is something here for a full evening.

I wanted the script to represent Quentin if he were alive today. The name Tea ‘N Crisp comes from two inspirations. One that day in June when Quentin was being interviewed and sipping tea and eating tea cakes. The other because when I was writing the script I used to go to my favorite places The Samovar Tea Lounge in S.F. A young man who was an owner served my tea and asked if I knew much about tea. I said no; he gave me a quick study lesson. He said all tea comes from one plant. It is in the processing that makes an oolong different from a black tea or green tea. And I thought of Quentin and how he says we must process ourselves to be uniquely different from each other. I also had an original idea of having table seating for the audience and serve tea and tea cakes. Someday that will happen.
I started work on it immediately. The original script was titled simply Q.C. I remember typing away and when I got to the end of the script just before I typed the words THE END I had this rush of energy that came from my feet all the way up my body out of the top of my head. Then I started sobbing uncontrollably. It was as if I had purged something. Then once again John told me about a video of Quentin doing his one man show. I transcribed the text and edited, wrote my own material and included passages from Resident Alien, and The Naked Civil Servant.

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Q. Did you encounter much difficulty in getting it onto the stage?

I’m telling you nothing happens in this life without a reason. And usually for the better.

In 2006 I was in a production of The Marriage of Figaro, the play, and one of the actors worked for a group call Project Inform in S.F. It’s an information hot line and lobby for people with HIV. I asked if they ever do benefit performances because I had a script which might work quite well. He told his board and they seemed very interested. In fact it was set to be performed the following February. Then a woman who worked at Project Inform, I assume, wanted to control everything and made it very difficult. So the idea was abandoned.

Then in April I approached the artistic director of Shotgun Players of which I am a company member. They were starting a fundraiser to convert the theater to 100% solar power and had to raise $120,000.00. I suggested perhaps I could do my show during gay pride week in June. I had total support from everyone at the theater. The theater seats about 115 and I was given three evenings and the company raised over $5000.00 to put towards the fund.

The artistic director at The SFPlayhouse suggested that since they didn’t have a show on Sundays that I could do it there.

So, so far it has been easy. The hard part is to get people from other theaters where I know it would be a success to be interested or even come to see the show. Once they did I know they would want to book it. I don’t think they realize how powerful the material is and the message Quentin has to impart.

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Q. What do you think Quentin would make of the show if he were still alive?

I think he would appreciate it.
I think his words concerning the filming of T.N.C.S. say it all.
“I have spent sixty-six years on this earth painfully attempting to play the part of Quentin Crisp. I have not succeeded. Yes, of course you must have an actor to play me. He will do it far better than I have done.”
I don’t think I could do it if I knew he was in the audience. I would be a basket case.

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Q. Your show was extremely well received in Berkeley. Do you find that there is still a lot of interest in Quentin in the states?

Yes, in a way.
I’m surprised at how many gay people don’t know who he was and especially young people of course. But there is a percentage of people who find out I’m doing the show get very excited. People are either fanatical about their love for this man or don’t know him at all.

But I will say this, those who don’t know him or much about him after my show they all say they either have elevated their opinion about him or fall in love with him.

One of the nicest compliments I’ve received came from a young straight man who is a member of ShotgunPlayers, and quite handsome I might add. After my show he came up to me and said: I knew nothing at all about Quentin Crisp and now I’m in love with both men. Also I’ve had people tell me after the show that they were going to rent The Naked Civil Servant because they had never seen it or try and find his books to read more about the man.

This is why I believe so strongly in what I’m doing. The more people who bring Quentin Crisp to the public the better.

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Q. Do you have any future plans for the show beyond the San Francisco Playhouse in February?

I’m open to anything.
I would like to book the show in a couple of theaters in the city which are gay oriented. Some other thoughts I haven’t pursued yet are the gay cruise lines. I think it would be perfect. Also, schools or fund raisers especially gay organizations. I think it’s important for our gay youth of today to appreciate Quentin Crisp and what he had to endure. He was a pioneer for the freedom they have today.

Of course I would love to take it to the UK. Any takers? There are fringe festivals around the country and in Europe but of course that takes money. The only quotient in this project that seems to be missing.

I feel confident that the course of my journey is just beginning and many opportunities are in the future.

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Q. Have you always wanted to be an actor?

Yes.
As far back as I can remember. I must have been four years old and I told my father after watching a western on television that that was what I wanted to do. He said it would never happen because I had to have perfect teeth. He’s probably dead now and I’m still acting.

My favorite show was The Little Rascals. I was in heaven when they would put on a show in their backyard. If any one remembers Alfalfa and his hairdo; that spike of hair shooting straight up in the back. The other thing I used to do was pomade my hair so it would stick up in the back and go to school. He was my childhood idol. My favorite dreams would be musicals. I used to imitate Boris Karloff, Betty Davis, Stan Laurel and Peter Lorie and put on plays in my basement.

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Q. How did you get started as an actor and what was your first role?

I guess you could say the first time I appeared on stage in front of an audience was when I was a sophomore in high school. I went to a school that had no drama department and it was an oil refinery town so anything like acting boys didn’t do.

But my Spanish teacher was from England and did amateur theatricals. He was in charge of putting on the school play. Most of the time they were all girls in the productions. This year he announced in his class he was doing a melodrama and was anyone interested. Yes!!! It was called The Lighthouse Keepers Daughter. I played the lighthouse keeper; there were no lines just pantomime. I don’t remember much except I had to run around in circles and was bitten by the smell of greasepaint. My senior year he did another melodrama and I played the Villain in Curse you Jack Dalton, my first speaking role. I suddenly became a celebrity at school and received my first award.

At the end of the school year they had an assembly where they announced the scholarships and sports awards etc. Unknown to me they created a special best actor award for me. I remember the student body cheering when they announced my name. I was shocked.

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Q. Which of the roles you have played brought you the most satisfaction?

There is no question that creating Quentin Crisp is the highlight of my life as an actor.

This is a question which is asked of every actor I believe and I think every actor would say that they have many favorites.

Each role brings a new adventure, a new study, a new spirit to breathe life into.

I’ve been acting for over forty years now so I’ve played so many roles but a few of my favorites are:
Lear in King Lear,
Marquis de Sade in Quills,
Salieri in Amadeus,
Lenin in Travesties,
Scrooge in A Christmas Carol,
Samuri in Rashomon,
Teddy in Faith Healer,
Ken Tally in The Fifth of July,
Con Melody in A Touch Of the Poet,
Noel Coward in Oh Coward,
Frank Doel in 84 Charing Cross Road,
George Bernard Shaw in Dear Liar,
Lord Brockhurst in The Boy Friend,
Mr. Anthrobus in The Skin of Our Teeth

and the list goes on.

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Q. Which actors have inspired you most?

Laurence Olivier, Betty Davis, Anthony Hopkins, Joan Crawford, Ian McKellen, Irene Dunn, Loretta Young, Stan Laurel and someone who very few people would probably know Michael O’Sullivan.

I saw him do King Lear in 1960 with the Actors Workshop in San Francisco. I was transformed.

I said:
"I’m going to play that role someday."

And I’ve had the chance to play it twice. Once when I was 27 and just recently at 61.

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Q. Are there any parts you would especially like to play?

Yes.
Prospero in The Tempest. Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. I would like to play Salieri for the third time. I wanted to play Eugene in Long Days Journey into Night but now I would like to play Eugene’s father Tyrone.

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Q. Most actors say they could never retire. Could you ever see yourself retiring?

I don’t think so.
I find when I’m in a production my health is better, my spirit is better and when the show closes about a week after I go into a slump and feel lousy. It’s what identifies me. Learning lines has always been a chore for me and the older I get the more I fear forgetting something on stage. Once again, I should just listen to Quentin. There’s an interview with Quentin on the disk of Homo Heights where he talks about not being able to remember his lines and it must frustrate the other people but that is just the way it is. He took life day to day, moment to moment.

I love to direct and have directed about eight shows.
If I decided the stress of performing was getting too great I would go into directing and writing.

Although doing Quentin is different. He fits like a glove and I think I could go on forever playing him. And it wouldn’t matter if I forgot lines because those who saw him in 1997 said he was forgetting what to say quite a bit. I would just find a way of working that into the production. Actually I’ve already done that in case I “go up” during the current production. I went up on opening night in Berkeley and asked the stage manager to feed me the line and got right back on track. Everyone thought it was part of the show. The worst critic for an actor is himself.

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Q. If you could go back and start again, would you still be an actor or would you choose another career, and if so what?

Definitely!!!
But if I couldn’t I always wanted to be a concert pianist or an opera singer. It would have to be something in the arts.

I can’t think of any other career that gives you such immediate satisfaction and a sense of power and self-confidence. Think of it, whether it is one or one thousand people sitting in a room riveted to every word you utter and being moved to tears or laughter. It’s frightening, exhausting, thrilling, emotional, purging, uplifting and more. I’ve been very blessed in my life and have found ways to still act and support myself. I’ve received recognition for my work and I’m respected for my work ethic. I don’t think I would change a thing.

If I couldn’t have been an actor or a pianist, or a singer I would have wanted to teach acting. It’s in my blood. It’s what keeps me vital and alive.

As Quentin Crisp would have said it’s that which identifies me it is my essence.

Thank you for this journey along my life path; it’s been most enjoyable.
You’ve given me a wonderful gift of reflection.
May others take these questions and apply them to their own lives and find that they have been blessed as well.

Good health and happiness to all.

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