Issue Number 1008 | Big Gay Following: Martha Plimpton | Advocate.com Big Gay Following: Martha Plimpton  |  | Advocate.com

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Big Gay Following: Martha Plimpton
The go-to Goonie for tomboy or lesbian parts since her 1985 big-screen breakthrough, Martha Plimpton has balanced mainstream films such as The Mosquito Coast and Parenthood with queer-friendly art-house fare, including Pecker and I Shot Andy Warhol. Now a member of New York’s theater circle (having earned a 2007 Tony nod for her role in Tom Stoppard’s epic The Coast of Utopia), the 37-year-old Emmy nominee currently stars in the Broadway production of Top Girls, Caryl Churchill’s 1982 feminist masterwork, as a legendary cross-dresser and proves once again that, to paraphrase Cyndi Lauper, what’s good enough for us is good enough for her -- unless, of course, that includes Facebook.
From The Advocate  May 20, 2008
Big Gay Following: Martha Plimpton

In Top Girls, how are you approaching Pope Joan, who, according to legend, became pope in the ninth century by posing as a man?
Very gingerly. Mainly, I’m just trying to learn the Latin. She’s a fictional person, which is a benefit to me, but also a slight impediment, meaning there’s not a whole lot of research material on her.

How does your own feminism manifest itself?
I don’t let it get in my way. I don’t even think about it that much, and I have the benefit of not having to, considering all of the women who did before me.

In Top Girls you also portray Angie, whom I’ve always considered a lesbian character.
No. People think that or ask that, but I remember Caryl Churchill saying she really never understood why that was. She’s just a teenager, and she has a young friend that she has a strange, oddly bullying relationship with.

Your first lesbian role was in 1992’s Inside Monkey Zetterland. How did that character’s sexuality inform your performance?
Honestly, I haven’t seen that movie in a really long time, so I don’t remember if I made use of that at all, but I don’t recall that I did any really heavy thinking about it.

In that film you played a lesbian terrorist, opposite Rupert Everett, who outs closeted gays in the entertainment industry. How do you feel about the media’s obsession with outing celebrities?
I feel like people’s lives need to be their own. The whole point of liberty means being able to make your own choices in terms of how you live your life and who you want to talk to about it. Who am I to tell anyone what to do?

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