Transcript

Remembering actor Terence Stamp (2002 interview) | Fresh Air

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· 37 min · 6,098 words · 73 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Remembering actor Terence Stamp (2002 interview) | Fresh Air", an episode of Fresh Air published August 29, 2025 (37 min, about 6,098 words). It mentions 16 people, works and ideas, including Terrence Stamp, The Limey, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Billy Bud, Steven Soderbergh.

What this episode is about

Terrence Stamp, the acclaimed British actor renowned for his versatile roles including General Zod in Superman and a transgender woman in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, passed away at 87. This retrospective highlights his journey from a working-class upbringing in London to receiving an Oscar nomination for his breakout role in Billy Budd, as well as his collaborations with legendary directors throughout his illustrious career.

Key takeaways

  • From Zod to drag queen, Stamp's versatility is Hollywood's equivalent of a Swiss Army knife.
  • Born in wartime London, Stamp defied odds—proof that creativity can thrive even in turmoil.
  • With roles ranging from villain to leading man, Stamp showed that identity isn't limited to stereotypes.
  • His cutting-edge hosting on 'The Hunger' was both grotesque and brilliantly engaging—true art meets horror.
  • In 'Last Night in Soho,' Stamp proved that even in silence, a presence can command the screen.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Terrence Stamp, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Limey, Billy Bud
  2. – 10:00: Billy Bud, Terrence Stamp
  3. – 20:00: The Limey, Keith Waterhouse, Rab Butler
  4. – 25:00: Julie Christie, Waterloo Sunset
  5. – 35:00: Terrence Stamp, The Limey
  6. – 36:56: Terrence Stamp, The Limey, Billy Bud

Notable quotes from "Remembering actor Terence Stamp (2002 interview) | Fresh Air"

  • Passion and struck gold early. He first made it to the big screen in 1962 in the starring role of Billy Bud based on the story by Moby Dick author Herman Melville. Stamp played…
    about Herman Melville · at
  • Federico Fellini in a segment from Spirits of the Dead, Oliver Stone in Wall Street, Steven Soderberg in The Limey, and George Lucas in Star Wars Episode 1, The Phantom Menace.…
    about The Limey · at
  • Terrence Stamp's final role ended up being one of his very best. In 2021, in Last Night in Soho, he played a mysterious character identified in the credits only as the silverhaired.
    about Last Night in Soho · at
  • When Terry Gross spoke with Terrence Stamp in 2002, he was starring in the French film My Wife is an actress. He played a young sports writer who's married to an attractive actress. He's.
    about Terrence Stamp · at
  • Anything. So, Exactly. Exactly. I'd like to do like a film retrospective with you. So, let's go back to your very first movie, Billy Bud. This was made in 1962.
    about Billy Bud · at
  • Yes. Yes, I was cast. the first play I ever did professionally was called long and the short the tour which was a play by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall and it had spawned a host of.
    about Keith Waterhouse · at
  • Now it's said that you and Julie Christie who were a couple for a while are the Terry and Julie in the King song Waterlue Sunset. Is that accurate?
    about Waterloo Sunset · at
  • Wonderful. I mean to work with a guy like Soderberg, who's I in my book, he's the greatest American director since Willie Wileer, he's just so extraordinarily talented. But a funny thing happened. they had a they had a.
    about Willie Wyler · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Terrence Stamp — Person · Main guest (archival interview subject) / subject of appreciation · 6 mentions · first at
    Central figure of the segment: an appreciation of his career and an archival 2002 interview about his roles, voice, class background, and acting choices.
  • Steven Soderbergh — Person · Referenced director / collaborator of Stamp · 2 mentions
    Cited as the director of The Limey; Stamp praises him highly and discusses the impact of working under his direction.
  • Julie Christie — Person · Referenced actor / collaborator and romantic partner (historical) · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as Stamp’s co-star in Far from the Madding Crowd and as someone he was romantically involved with; also tied to the 'Waterloo Sunset' lyric anecdote.
    His flatmate Michael Kaine. But for a while, the roles were plentiful and meaty. He starred opposite Julie Christie, with whom he later became romantically involved in Far From…
  • Herman Melville — Person · Referenced author (source material) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the author of the story Billy Budd, which launched Stamp’s film career.
  • Oliver Stone — Person · Referenced director / collaborator of Stamp · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the director who worked with Stamp on Wall Street, illustrating Stamp’s Hollywood credits.
    Madding Crowd. He was directed by Federico Fellini in a segment from Spirits of the Dead, Oliver Stone in Wall Street, Steven Soderberg in The Limey, and George Lucas in Star…
  • Christopher Reeve — Person · Referenced actor / co-star · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the Superman actor opposite whom Stamp played General Zod, anchoring one of Stamp’s most famous roles.
    Wall Street, Steven Soderberg in The Limey, and George Lucas in Star Wars Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. He played the Kryptonian super villain General Zod opposite Christopher…
  • Keith Waterhouse — Person · Referenced playwright/screenwriter · 1 mention · first at
    Named as co-author (with Willis Hall) of The Long and the Short and the Tall, Stamp’s first professional play mentioned in the interview.
  • Peter O'Toole — Person · Referenced actor (theatre casting anecdote) · 2 mentions
    Mentioned as stepping into a lead role when Finney got sick, in the story of a play that connected Stamp and Caine’s early careers.
  • Willie Wyler — Person · Referenced director (comparative praise) · 2 mentions
    Used as a benchmark in Stamp’s praise of Steven Soderbergh, indicating Wyler’s stature as a classic American director.
  • Rab Butler — Person · Referenced politician (education policy context) · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as the politician behind an education bill (grammar schools/11-plus) that helped enable a wave of working-class playwrights and actors—context for Stamp’s era.
    Because what had happened in England was that they had passed a bill. A politician called Rab Butler had passed a bill whereby all kids had an opportunity of going to a grammar…

Concepts & topics

  • Romeo — Concept · 1 mention

Media & podcasts

Full transcript with timestamps

Terrence Stamp, the British actor whose diverse portfolio of roles included super villain General Zod in the original Superman films, a psychopathic kidnapper in The Collector, and a transgender woman in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, died Sunday at age 87. Today, we'll listen back to a conversation Terry Gross had with Terrence Stamp in 2002. But first, we'll start with this appreciation. Terrence Stamp was born in London in 1938, just before World War II. His workingclass upbringing during tough times didn't make him a likely prospect as a young actor, but he followed his passion and struck gold early. He first made it to the big screen in 1962 in the starring role of Billy Bud based on the story by Moby Dick author Herman Melville. Stamp played the title role, a childishly innocent sailor recruited onto a British warship in 1797.

The officers were tyrants, and Billy, after watching a fellow sailor get whipped, complained to his new mates. But the more agitated he got, the more he stuttered. It's wrong to flog a man. D. It's against his being a man. I let it is that.

Why do you stammer, boy? because I sometimes can't find the words for what I feel.

Terren Stamp was nominated for an Academy Award for that supporting performance and other roles quickly followed. On Broadway, he landed the title role in a play called Alfie, but the show lasted less than a month. When the film version was offered, he turned it down and it ended up going instead to his flatmate Michael Kaine. But for a while, the roles were plentiful and meaty. He starred opposite Julie Christie, with whom he later became romantically involved in Far From the Madding Crowd. He was directed by Federico Fellini in a segment from Spirits of the Dead, Oliver Stone in Wall Street, Steven Soderberg in The Limey, and George Lucas in Star Wars Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. He played the Kryptonian super villain General Zod opposite Christopher Reeve in Superman and drew rave reviews as a transgender woman in a traveling cabaret show with two drag queens in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. His

roles were as plentiful as they were eclectic. He accepted parts in broad comedy films like Get Smart and Bowfinger, in erotic films such as Bliss, and even acted as the host of the 1997 TV anthology series The Hunger. He certainly brought his own unique vibe to that job. In this episode, he opens the show wielding a sinister looking hunting knife, using its sharp edge to point out parts of a disembodied brain which is floating inside a fishbowl. Until that is, he uses the hilt of his knife to shatter the glass.

For analogy, the belief that different parts of the brain are responsible for different kinds of thoughts. Romantic love over here, vision over here. The ability to recognize letters here, lust here, reason miles away over here, connecting the two, a bridge of neurons 26,000 miles long. Do you think you could get from here to there?

Oh, no. I don't think so. Terrence Stamp's final role ended up being one of his very best. In 2021, in Last Night in Soho, he played a mysterious character identified in the credits only as the silverhaired gentleman. There was a reason for the secrecy because the character's true identity is revealed only at the end. But throughout the movie, he keeps popping up following or observing the central character of the film, a young woman played by Thomas and McKenzie. The first time he approaches her, she fears he's a stalker, but the way he reacts suggests he has something else in mind and is almost humorously dismissive of her concerns.

Excuse me. Excuse me, love. I'm talking to you, Blondie. Sorry. I have to be somewhere.

I'm not trying to pick you up, sweetheart. Don't worry. I'm not worried. You look familiar to me. Who's your mother? My mother's dead.

I thought she might be. Most of them are. When Terry Gross spoke with Terrence Stamp in 2002, he was starring in the French film My Wife is an actress. He played a young sports writer who's married to an attractive actress. He's afraid she will fall for one of her leading men and even be aroused by their love scenes. Terry asked Terren Stamp if love scenes are arousing or just work.

Well, it can be either, you know, it can be um absolutely acting and it can be absolute passion. I think the the great Warren Batty once said that uh the way to get um stars in the movie is to find out who wants the shag who.

Is it ever embarrassing when it really is passion? Well, it's never passion passion because you know because everybody's there. It's like a you'd have to be a real exhibitionist to get real passion. um I mean actual passion, but um I think you have a good idea during a love scene. I mean, if you're interested in your in your co-star, then you have a good idea of whether it's going to lead to real passion because it's so kind of intimate. Do you think you could tell the difference on screen between relationships on screen that are just acting and relationships on screen where there really is some passion beyond the acting?

I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, well, you're talking about good actors right?

Yes. That's right. Exactly. Right. With bad actors, you can't tell anything. So,

Exactly. Exactly. I'd like to do like a film retrospective with you. So, let's go back to your very first movie, Billy Bud. This was made in 1962. Uh, it's based on the Herman Millville story. You play a teenager who's impressed to serve on a British ship during war with France. And you're the epitome of decency and goodness, whereas the master at arms is a sadist and very villainous. after he sets you up to take a fall for a crime you're innocent of. You try to defend yourself verbally, but your speech impediment prevents that.

You have something of a of a stammer. You punch him, he dies from a head wound when he hits the ground, and then you're court marshaled. This was your first role in a movie, and it's the leading role in a prestigious film. You must have had to learn a lot on camera.

Well, I I didn't I didn't. Um in fact as a two young out of work actors um I was sharing digs with Michael Kaine and although Michael Kaine wasn't known you know he hadn't been discovered he was absolutely unknown he did know a lot about the technicalities of filming and so he kind of versed me in those so I knew the technicalities and felt confident in that you know I knew how to hit marks I knew about sort of camera angles. I knew about lenses. And frankly, when I started the movie, a kind of an amazing thing happened because I just discovered that it was like I knew it.

It was as though it was absolutely second nature to me. Everything I saw that was new, I understood almost instantaneously. So, it wasn't really I mean it was nerve-wracking because I had no way of dealing with the like the artistic vision that you have in your head and doing it, you know, when they say action. So, that was a a kind of a problem and a fear, but for the most part, I just had like an instinctive understanding of it really.

How old were you when you made Billy Bud? I I had my uh 21st birthday during the movie.

Was acting a far-fetched ambition from someone from your neighborhood. Yes. Um I I saw my first movie and I just wanted to be that.

Mhm. And um I never really spoke about it. In other words, it was a very private sort of fantasy that I had. And when it got to sort of near leaving school, in other words, let's say I was like 15 16 and we we got our first television. I started making remarks about, oh, I could do that and I could do better than that. And my dad, he sort of wore that for a bit and then one evening I was carrying on about how good I thought I could be in that part. And he said to me, "Listen son people like us don't do things like that."

And I went to sort of protest and he said "Son I just don't want you to talk about it anymore." And my dad was, you know, something of a stoic and he didn't say much. So when he said something, it had, you know, it had a kind of um quite a heavy reverberation to it, but in fact, it didn't deter me at all. I wasn't allowed to talk about it, but I was used to not talking about it. I mean, it was I understood that it would have been ridiculous to everybody else, you know. So, all it did was it made a kind of a steam kettle into a pressure cooker.

Now, you said that um you grew up in in a very Cockney neighborhood. So, did you have a Cockney accent when you started to act?

Oh, sure. I mean, when I when I finally realized that I would have to go to drama school, um you know, to get my foot in in the door, I would I', you know, in those days it wasn't like today where if you could lift a lot of weights or if you could play football, you could become an actor. you know, you weren't you couldn't get in to see anyone unless you'd been trained. There was no such thing as a sort of untrained actors. So, I had to get into drama school and um and you had to do a classical piece, you had to do a piece of Shakespeare and a modern piece. And um I chose uh Romeo's death speech and u I can now I can imagine how hysterical it must have been, you know, like Romeo is a sort of cocknney bar boy, you know.

You write a little bit about your your accent in one of your memoirs and you say that you convinced yourself that since you had a natural ear and could pick up accents easily instead of learning to speak proper English you would just treat English roles standard English roles as a dialect and you know just learn it for those for those roles. Did that strategy work out?

It worked out and yes it worked out. I mean it worked out for sort of uh 20 years but eventually you know I had to sort of um and the thing was I think looking back it was something to do with um a loss of identity like I didn't I wanted to retain my own voice but as well I thought it I think that it was there was a lot of um there was a lot of sort of fear and trepidation ation involved in learning like to speak in a completely different way. So eventually treating parts treating all the parts I I did as a dialect.

I still had a kind of a London I had a sort of London foggy accent for for years. And it was only sort of um you know when I was sort of in my 40s that I thought to myself, well I might as well really just see if I can perfect my voice. See if I can have what they call RP. I think it's called receive pronunciation. and I'll see if I can have RP voice without losing, you know, the quality that makes my voice my own.

So, what did you do? Well, I just I had always been interested in um in breath. One of the things that I learned at drama school was this thing called the full breath and and um speaking on support, you know, which we all had to learn to do before everybody had throat mics. Um and so I had continued that study. I'd taken my study from just like uh learning to breathe theatrically to sort of mystical breathing and breathing exercises and yoga stuff I'd learned like in India. And so I just kind of widened my area of learning really and I just continued to find uh you know really wonderful voice teachers and and study with them and pick up things that I could get from them. And so it was a kind of an ongoing thing. I mean, I'm still a bit of a sucker for like if I hear there's a great voice teacher in town, I'll go and check them out, you know, because I think that there's a great kind of um I

think there's a great mystery in the voice, but also I think that it's something that is almost a lost art. And for my my own personal understanding is that any study any work that you do on your voice is really capital in the bank. I don't I don't regret um any of the money that I've spent, you know, studying voice.

I want to play a scene from your movie The Limey. And uh this this is a pretty recent film. And in this film, you play a working-class guy who's just gotten out of prison in England. and you've come to California to avenge the murder of your daughter. You think she was murdered by a record executive who made his fortune in the 1960s. He's played by Peter Fondo. Anyways, in this scene, you're talking to a drug enforcement agency agent who you think has some clues about where to find this record executive you're looking for, and you're talking to him in this really thick cochnney accent. It's not the way you speak in the rest of the movie. It's just something you're putting on for him in this scene. How you doing then? All right, are you now? Look, Squire, you're the governor here. I can see that. I'm on your manner now. So, there's no need to get your in a twist. Whatever this boll bollocks is that's going down

between you and that sl Valentine, it's got nothing to do with me. I couldn't care less. All right, mate. Let me explain you. When I was in prison, second time, uh, no, tell a lie. Third stretch. Yeah. Third third. There was this screw what really had it in for me. And that geyser was top of my list. Two years after I got sprung, I seized him in a park. He's sitting on a bench feeding bloody pigeons. There was no one about. I could have gone up behind him and snapped his neck. Wall up. But I left it. I could have him, but I didn't.

Cuz what I thought I wanted wasn't what I wanted. What I thought I was thinking about was something else. I didn't give a toss. It didn't matter. See, this Burke on the bench wasn't worth my time. It meant to sod all in the end because you got to make a choice when to do something and when to let it go when it matters and when it don't. B your time. That's what prison teaches you if nothing else. B your time and everything becomes clear and you can act accordingly.

Terren Stamp in a scene from the Limey. Terren Stamp, did you ever talk that way?

No, I didn't really. Well, I may have, but when I was working on it, I that was that was really how my dad spoke and how my uncle spoke. And, uh, strangely enough, in England, um, I got a lot of stick for that. You know, people critics said, "Oh, nobody talks like that." But the the truth is that, uh, they haven't been to the local Turkish bath on Saturday morning, you know, where everybody talks like that. Now, were you starting to act in a time when it was becoming more acceptable, more possible for working-class actors who didn't speak received English to or receive pronunciation, whatever it's called, to to to get started, you know, was it was it more acceptable to to talk like you did and still be on the stage?

I think more than more acceptable, it was actually something that was needed because what had happened in England was that they had passed a bill. A politician called Rab Butler had passed a bill whereby all kids had an opportunity of going to a grammar school. They had this thing called the 11 plus. And if you passed the 11 plus, didn't matter what strata of society you came from, you could get to go to one of these rather good grammar schools. And the end of the 50s um the big sort of mass of workingclass kids who previously hadn't had a higher education were being sort of released into the world and they were giving birth that was giving birth to the great workingclass playwrights. And the working-class playwrights were really writing plays that needed um a different kind of actor. They wanted like workingclass actors. And I think that that was the beginning of that kind of 60s wave of uh

of you know workingclass guys. And were you cast in any of those plays? Um yes. Yes, I was cast. Um the first play I ever did professionally was called long and the short the tour which was a play by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall and it had spawned a host of actors. I mean the lead part had been written with Albert Finny in mind. Albert had got sick. Uh Peter Oul had stepped in um became a big success. Michael came with Peter Ool's understudy and never got to play the part. So he did the tour which was where I met him.

So that was the first play that I was in. That was one of those plays. But of course there was like Osborne, there was Pinter, there was Ann Arnold Wesker, you know, there was a kind of a whole clutch of um working-class playwrights that were writing wonderful things.

You started to um become very well known in the 60s. In fact, you became kind of a symbol of London in the 60s. In in Shan Levy's new book about London in the 60s, he writes that you were among the swingingest of young Londoners, handsome, stylish, and always up for some wild scene. What was it like to become known in the 60s when everything from the class six system to sexual moray was was loosening up?

Well, I I think it was uh the best time and place a boy could be really was like after the pill and before AIDS, you know. So it was a was an extraordinary release and um I think that we felt it particularly in England because we'd been confined by the you know by World War II and the kind of poverty after World War II which which drifted right on really through the 50s. So I think that I think of the 40s and the 50s as being in black and white and I think that you know with the birth of the of the decade of the 60s it suddenly burst into technicolor.

Now it's said that you and Julie Christie who were a couple for a while are the Terry and Julie in the King song Waterlue Sunset. Is is that accurate?

Yeah, that's absolutely true. Um um Ray Davis, Ray Davis actually told my brother Chris that. My brother Chris um discovered the Who and um you know with his partner Kit Lamb but made them I think into the great group they they they became. But um Ray Davis told my brother Chris that that when he was writing the lyrics of Waterloo Sunset, he envisaged Julia and myself for that lyric. We're talking about your your voice and how you used to have a cocknney accent and how you you you learned to speak differently for for movies and and theater. I want to play a scene from your movie Priscilla Queen of the Desert. This is a 1994 Australian comedy in which you played a transsexual who has an act with two drag queens in which you lip-sync and dance to disco hits. And in this scene, you're in the dressing room with the two drag queens.

year old putting on makeup. And this is shortly after you've fallen on your head in shock upon learning that one of the drag queens in your act not only used to be married, but he has a son.

Christ sake, Mitch, why didn't you tell us? Why the hell do you have to shock me like that? Oh, this lump on my head is getting bigger by the second. I'm about to make my Northern Territories debut. Looking like aing Warner Brothers cartoon character has hit me over the head with an iron.

I think you look more like a Disney witch myself. Oh, shut your face, Felicia. At least I don't look like somebody's tried to open a can of beans with my face.

I'm sorry, girls. I couldn't stand the thought of you begging me in the bus for 2 weeks. Anyway, what difference does it make now?

Oh, about 2 in to my head for one. Did he get a good look at him? He's got my profile, that's for sure. I think I'm going to be safe.

I hate to be practical here, but does he know who you are? I mean, does he know what you do for a living?

Well, he knows he has a further in the show business cosmetics industry. Oh, Lord, I don't understand.

No, you don't understand. So, stop trying to. It'll be fine. It better be. It's Taran Stamp in a scene from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Now, one of the things I find really interesting about your performance in that movie is that you didn't really change your voice. You you change the kind of language that you use and and the way you'd speak, but you don't try to make your voice higher in it, even though you're playing a transsexual. Um, te tell us why you didn't do that. Well, uh during the you during the time I was sort of researching the role, I was I was uh getting introduced to actual transsexuals, you know, guys who had actually been sort of tried to change themselves physically from being a man to being a woman. And one of the things that I noticed about them vocally was that they either spoke below the break or above the break.

So either they were sort of hello darling and yes my name is this or they were sort of speaking above the break. And during rehearsal, I really tried both of those vocal sort of approaches. And um and the director said to me like don't worry, you know, just like just your voice is fine, you know, don't really worry about um affecting a voice, you He said like a lot of do that but um it'll be it'll put too much of like a strain on the performance you know if you confine yourself to just an area of voice. So that's really how how the finished product came about

and look at how say Lauren Beall's voice deepened as she got older. Right. Right. Um, what surprised you most by how you looked as a woman with a long blonde wig and and makeup and and you know, women's clothes heels.

Well, I was rather um I have to say first out that, you know, when I saw the movie, I was like bitterly disappointed. I had understood, I had been led to believe that um you know the cameraman was making me look like Lauren Be and Princess Diner and Candy Berg and you know that's and so I'd given given the performance believing that I was being made to look like this real babe you know and on the about five minutes before I saw the film which was at the camp festival Well, the DP came up to me and said, "Listen, Terrence, I don't want you to be upset with me, you know, but like I did I really didn't make you look good, you know, and I I was really I said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Well, you know, I didn't do the best for you." I said, "Why?" And he said, "Well, Steven didn't want me to, you know, I said to him, Steph, you know, I I can make him look wonderful like it's just a lighting thing." And Steph said, "No, no, no. I want him looking dodgy, you know, don't make him look good kind of thing." And then I'm at the premiere, you know, and the film starts and there I am looking like this old Tom cat, you know. So I was like I was really taken back. It was a huge uh dis instant dismantling of my ego, you know,

because you wanted to look like a beautiful woman. Yeah, I was really that's what I was exactly. I was choosing hearing. Oh, I see Michelle Fifer wear those. I can wear those. You know what I mean? I was like I was really into it. And uh I said to Stefan Elliot, you know, why did you do that to me? you know why did you I don't I really don't understand you know and he said um he said well that's the point you know that I want what I wanted was a a creature who believed that she was beautiful and the reality was she was an old dog you know so in other words he wanted a kind of he he thought that the character would be more touching if that element was there he just didn't want me looking um you know like Lauren Belell.

Did that work for you when you started to see it that way? No. No. I always hated it. I always thought it was a lost opportunity to be a babe.

Now, now um Morin Dow had a New York Times magazine article with you after Priscilla was released. And in that article, you say that um you used to have this fear of looking stupid on screen and that that used to hold you back, but after Priscilla, you stopped worrying about that. accurate.

Um well, I hate to contradict the lovely Morin Dow. Um the way in which I what I felt about that was that I didn't know that I had this fear of looking stupid. It was a kind of um I was tethered by it, but I didn't know. And during Priscilla, it came up and I had to confront it and and I had to confront it because what I was doing was absolutely ridiculous and there was no way of doing it without risk of looking an absolute idiot. And when I'd gone through it, in other words, when it had happened, then I saw it. And then I saw the extent to which I to which I'd been limited by it. So in other words, it the ex the movie was was a growth experience on on that level.

I I want to say I I might that's basically what she says you said. And if I misrepresented what she said you said, I apologize for that. But but I think she represented what you said very very accurately. So So can you um put put your finger on what you did differently after that?

Um no, not really. Well, I can I can explain to you. I can't really uh give you examples but but after it um after the take it happened like it actually the the the the freeing the breakthrough happened during um uh during the um the performance of Shake That Groove Thing, you know, and I'm I'm I'm I'm in this town called Broken Hill and um which is a lot of like it's sort of a mining town where most of the guys are out work, you know, and they and they'd got all these miners in to be extras. And the way they'd kept them there was by giving them lots of beers and stuff. And I came out of the trailer and I've got these kind of like putty colored queenies tights which I've put my force nail through so they're laded and I've got these s of pink knickers with like little stars stuck on them and I've got a red wig with detachable pigtails and we're all standing on a bar in our high heels waiting to do this number in front of

this very rockous audience of mine. and and in fact as I was standing there like the the thoughts that were going through my head were like um what are you doing here you know you're you're the best dress man in Britain you know you're you're a middle-aged man you were the great Iago of your drama school you know you're a scholar and a philosopher you know and then suddenly there was like playback Da da da da da da da da da da da da da. And you do it. And you do it. And we did it. And I was I had done it. I had done the lip sync.

I had done the dancing. I had made an absolute ass of myself. And I was kind of in the stratosphere. And I think that after that, so in other words, it was a kind of it was like an inner dimension, you know, it was something it was like a sort of reservoir of energy that had never been released before. And after Priscilla, um I never had to really um consciously draw on that. I mean I haven't done anything that's sort of um extended my fear barrier but there is that kind of understanding within me that I I'm fearless you know I mean I would never really turn down another movie from fear and I was able to look back and see that I had turned down wonderful roles

because I was because I was frightened. Um, I turned down uh Camelot with the wonderful Josh Logan, you know.

And you would have had a singing role on that. Yeah. I would have been the king, you know,

if ever I would leave you. Is it? Yeah. You wanted me. That would have been Terrence Stamp singing that.

Yeah. And that was the fear, you know, and and it wasn't I didn't really know it until I had that breakthrough and I thought, yeah, I I turned that down for the wrong reason, you I turned it down because I was frightened that my singing voice wouldn't have been good enough, you know.

Huh. And there were lots of things like that that I rose that I've turned down because, you know, later on in life, I saw, yeah, I could have, of course, I could have done that. You know, I could have gone through that fear barrier earlier.

Well, you know, you haven't had the most prolific career. You've been making a fair number of movies lately, but there's a period in, I guess, the 70s and part of the 80s when when you weren't doing that much. And part of what what you were doing was um international productions. Was that a conscious choice? Did

No, no, no. On the contrary, um you know, the 60s ended and I ended with them. I was sort of out of work for 10 years really. And then, you know, that was like a tragedy for me, but it was just one of those things. It wasn't anything that I could uh if I had wanted to continue working during the 70s then I would have had to have done real crap you know and I'd already I'd been spoiled you know I'd worked with Wer Fellini Passelini Loi I didn't want to do uh Cockney Lori Drivers you know gangsters and stuff so I just um I was out of work I was out of work from um about 69 till till I got the Superman movies.

How would you describe the phase of your career you're in now? How would I describe um Oh, I think I'm a golden oldie now. You know, I think I'm an old master with wisdom and vestigages of sex appeal. I think one of your greatest performances and this is this is you know my humble opinion is in the limey. I think you're just so wonderful in in that film.

It's funny with the limey because it was something that um it's it's to do I think with resignation. You know when you resign yourself to the fact that you know you're never going to get another great role then something happens. And um and when it happened it was just so wonderful. I mean to work with a guy like Soderberg, you know, who's I in my book, you know, he's the greatest American director since Willie Wileer, you know, he's just so extraordinarily talented. But a funny thing happened. Um they had a they had a cast and crew screening and um at the at the director's guild right here on Sunset Boulevard. And um he asked me to come and look at it and a friend of mine, a great friend of mine called Richard Llant was actually in California and I said, "Come with me."

You know, I I need a bit of backup, you know, because none of us really knew what Steven had been doing. like we didn't actually know that he was um you know making a film that was sort of outside the time space concept you know um we didn't realize that it was going to be like a nonlinear movie and anyway I go along to this uh and there was only supposed to be sort of you know 40 or 50 people the place was packed there were hundreds of people and um and it was just extraordinary it was just an extraordinary event for for me and you could tell from the audience that everybody was locked into it from the first frame, you know, which is the way you can you can tell a great master director, you know, they they pick you up and you're confident that they're going to take you somewhere and put you down, you know, and everybody in that movie was like totally attentive. And uh on the way home, I said to my friend

like, "What do you think of it?" He said, "My god, I think it's like the best thing you've ever done." And I was a bit taken aback, you know, because that seemed I thought, well, I've done lots of terrific things. But when I was going to sleep that night, I thought to myself, you know, something if it had to end here, like if this had to be the last one really from Billy Bud to the Limey was like more than any young actor could hope to do really.

Well, Terrence Stamp, a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you so much. Not at all. Actor Taran Stamp speaking with Terry Gross in 2002.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Remembering actor Terence Stamp (2002 interview) | Fresh Air"?

Terry Gross (Host), Terrence Stamp (Guest).

What is "Remembering actor Terence Stamp (2002 interview) | Fresh Air" about?

Terrence Stamp, the acclaimed British actor renowned for his versatile roles including General Zod in Superman and a transgender woman in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, passed away at 87. This retrospective highlights his journey from a working-class upbringing in London to receiving an Oscar nomination for his breakout role in Billy Budd, as well as his collaborations with…

What is mentioned in this Fresh Air episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Terrence Stamp, The Limey, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Billy Bud, Steven Soderbergh, Last Night in Soho. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Remembering actor Terence Stamp (2002 interview) | Fresh Air"?

The episode runs 37 min; the transcript is about 6,098 words in 73 timestamped sections.

More from Fresh Air

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.