Lea DeLaria is a lady of many talents. She is a comedienne, jazz musician, and actress. She has appeared in movies like The First Wives Club along with television shows like Comedy Central's all-gay special Out There. It was Orange Is the New Black's role as Carrie "Big Boo" Black that has put her on the map and now moves into season three in the Netflix series.
Windy City talked to her by phone before an upcoming hosting gig for Lakeside Pride Music Ensembles' fundraiser.
Windy City Times: Hello, Lea. Good to see you are coming back to town. You are from Illinois originally?
Lea DeLaria: Belleville, Illinois, near St. Louis.
WCT: So you are still a Midwesterner.
Lea DeLaria: I'm a total Midwesterner, yes. Even having been a New Yorker for 20 years, I still am a Midwesterner.
WCT: Sandra Bernhard told me great things about you. She loves you.
Lea DeLaria: I love her right back. It is a little-known fact that I am a sperm donor for Cicely!
WCT: You are so funny. Your first big break was performing stand up on The Arsenio Hall Show?
Lea DeLaria: Yes, I was first openly gay comic to perform on television in America. That was in 1993.
WCT: Were you ready to get out of the biz if Orange is the New Black didn't happen?
Lea DeLaria: No, at first I wasn't cast in the show and I had a hissy fit in my manager's office. I said, "If it is a show set in a women's prison and there is not a part for me then I quit!" I have been in a lot of things before that I was on One Life to Live for ten years. I have done tons of work.
WCT: Your life must have changed a bit after Orange Is the New Black.
Lea DeLaria: Yeah, I am riding high again. It is an up and down business we are in. I've been up and down, now I am up again.
WCT: In the second season your character has been very sexual. Are you comfortable with that?
Lea DeLaria: I am completely comfortable. Trust me: This show doesn't even get close to what I do in stand up.
WCT: What is your favorite thing about working with Natasha Lyonne?
Lea DeLaria: Usually I would make a big ol' joke, but I am going to take a moment to be serious here. I think my favorite thing is having become such good friends with her. I think people might be surprised that, like me, we both have tough exteriors. Natasha Lyonne is one of the smartest, kindest and warmest human beings I have ever met. I don't think people know that about her.
We make each other laugh so hard. Somewhere along the filming of the first season around episode four, it became "game on" making the other one laugh on camera. We would make really funny choices trying to make the other one break or we would ad lib something completely wrong. We have gotten some of our best stuff because of that. We are endlessly trying to entertain each other. That is really fun.
WCT: Do they let you ad-lib much on the set?
Lea DeLaria: The thing is we probably have the best writing team ever. We have an amazing group of writers who are fantastic, with Jenji Kohan at the lead. We don't have to ad-lib because the show is written incredibly funny.
With some of the television I have done you get used to making the shit seem good. When you are a comedic actor you are handed crap and you got to make it funny. They think it's hilarious but you know it's crap. Finally I am handed a script that I don't have to make funny.
What is nice is that it is episodic and not filmed in front of a live audience. It is done like film. We do many takes. We will do some takes that are as written then someone will eventually say to have some fun with it. That is when we start ad libbing. That only happens with people that are funny. It is not like everyone is on the set ad libbing. If they have me and Natasha in front of the camera of course they are going to let us be silly. The same with Jason Biggs. They are not going to put him in front of the camera and tell him to stop his instincts. What's the point of having him? You know what I mean? We are blessed to work with people like this. Sometimes when we ad lib the producers will come out and tell us to say it again because they think it's hilarious. You are not dealing with people that have shitty egos because they really are funny and they know it. I will never work again after this interview! [Laughs]
WCT: I appreciate the behind the scenes. Your tattoos are all real on the show?
Lea DeLaria: Yes, I am the only one on the show with real tattoos. Everyone else has theirs painted on.
WCT: That must be easier.
Lea DeLaria: It has its other problems because I want to get another tattoo and I have been told no because they would have to cover it up unless it looks completely like a prison tattoo.
WCT: Has season three been shot yet?
Lea DeLaria: We are filming it right now. We are near the end. That is a matter of record so I think it is okay to say. We started filming in June.
WCT: Laverne Cox mentioned there being a season three at WorldPride in Toronto.
Lea DeLaria: We were on the same night for WorldPride. I was doing a concert with k.d. lang. That show sold out so quickly. You put me and k.d. on a bill together and every lesbian within a thousand-mile radius wanted to go to that show!
WCT: How was your event at the Mayne Stage last time you were in Chicago?
Lea DeLaria: It was great. People don't ask me to just do stand up anymore. It is acting and singing these days. It was wicked fun and we had a good time. Again, sold out and really fun.
WCT: When you withdrew from Womyn's Music Festival in Michigan, did you have a lot of support?
Lea DeLaria: The backlash I got from that was the backlash I have always gotten from politically correct lesbians. The biggest problem for me was how many people ignored the reason that I pulled out of the festival. They continued the infighting between politically correct lesbians and politically correct transgender [individuals]. That is my thing now, where trans is the new whiny lesbians. It's insane. Just when you think nobody can be worse than lesbians when it comes to that, then bam! This sort of infighting has to end. Any backlash I got from that I have been listening to my whole life.
This is what is happening on social media. People think that just because they have a women's study degree and a Twitter account that makes them an activist. They call you out on your shit all the time and they don't even understand what they are talking about most of the time. I got in trouble for saying "he-she" by a bunch of trans individuals because they felt it was a slur against trans. I had to remind them that "he-she" has been a slur against butch dykes since the beginning of time. This was before there was a trans community. You can't just erase history. That is the origin of "he-she." If I want to call myself "he-she," then I have every fucking right to do it.
WCT: How was the stigma of being butch for you growing up?
Lea DeLaria: I am on my way to give a lecture at a university right now. Part of the reason I am doing these lectures is to say to people, "This is who I am. Look at me and what I have done." If I can transcend who I am and be all of these things in my life then there must be something in being comfortable in who you are.
Has it been an issue for me? Of course it has. It is an even bigger issue in the queer community than with the rest of the world. I am getting more kudos from the rest of the world than my own community. Butch dykes and nelly fags are still the dirty secrets that the mainstream assimilationist wannabe queers want to hide in the closet.
WCT: So, as Laverne Cox goes out to be a champion for her people, so do you.
Lea DeLaria: I have always been a champion for butch dykes. That is all I have ever been.
WCT: But Orange Is the New Black gives you a platform now.
Lea DeLaria: For this show, yes, but before that I was a very successful stand up comic. That is a field that is very difficult to be successful in.
WCT: Your website is in the works, I noticed.
Lea DeLaria: Yeah, it is just down right now. We are trying to get all of the social media combined. People can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @realleadelaria.
WCT: What are you working on for next year?
Lea DeLaria: The month before season three comes out for Orange Is the New Black we do a lot of marketing. They send me everywhere. I have been as far as Sao Paulo, Brazil, over to Europe and down to Canada.
I will be recording my next record. I will be doing that in December and it comes out the same time as Orange is the New Black does next year. It is called House of David Delaria+Bowie=Jazz. It is jazz covers of 12 David Bowie tunes.
WCT: You will have to check out the Bowie exhibit at MCA while you are in town. What is your favorite David Bowie song?
Lea DeLaria: "Suffragette City." I love it. What a great song. What is yours?
WCT: "Life on Mars."
Lea DeLaria: I am recording "Life on Mars," and it is my second favorite David Bowie song. What we are doing with it will be great. There will be a string quartet and a Broadway gospel choir backing me up. It will be a big track.
WCT: Who do you work with on the arrangements?
Lea DeLaria: I work with a woman named Janette Mason. She has arranged from everyone from Oasis to David Bowie. I also work with Gil Goldstein who did the arrangements on my other records. I am on the Warner Jazz label so that makes things a little easier.
WCT: Have you met David Bowie?
Lea DeLaria: No. If I did I would probably explode—I'm such a fan!
Look for Lea DeLaria hosting Women in Music Sunday, Nov. 16, at 3 p.m. at Preston Bradley Center, 941 W. Lawrence Ave. Visit www.lakesidepride.org for ticket details.
