Academy Award-winning costume designer Tim Chappel can’t believe it’s been 30 years since he was approached to work on a low-budget movie, oddly titled The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.
The humble and fun-loving designer says it was the creative project that changed his life forever.
“It certainly did,” Tim, 56, says, recalling the first time he clambered aboard the iconic Priscilla bus in what would be the ride of his life. “I was only 23 at the time. I went from being a bartender to an Oscar winner in a matter of weeks.”
“I went from being a bartender to an Oscar winner in a matter of weeks.”
Tim Chappel
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Indeed, not only did this little Australian film clean up at the Oscars in 1995, it also garnered Tim a BAFTA and AFI.
“I’m still pinching myself that Priscilla came along, and she just keeps giving,” he says. “I love her, I see Priscilla as being my grandmother. Thirty years on and I’m still working on Priscilla. I’ve just got back from London where we’ve put together the latest incarnation of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert – The Musical.”
The Priscilla musical has been a hit on Broadway and won two Tony Awards in 2011, including Best Costume Design.
“It’s now an immersive nightclub experience. You can sit upstairs and watch the show while enjoying dinner or you can go down to the nightclub and be amongst the actual show while it is playing out around you. The stages all move,” says Tim. “You should see how excited the audience gets when the stages start moving and they have to get out of the way.
“It’s a big show with 360 costumes,” a proud Tim says of the London project. “The show really works. At first, I was dubious. I couldn’t see how it would work as it is such a huge show. But it works brilliantly and the audiences are loving it.”
A LIFE-CHANGING MOMENT
The original movie project came into Tim’s life when he was a battling student doing his BA in fashion design at Sydney College of the Arts and working as a bartender at Sydney’s iconic gay bar The Albury on Oxford Street.
“College was great, but one exercise involved me designing a skirt. You would draw it, then make a pattern and then make the garment. I explained my skirt took up an entire room and that I couldn’t make a pattern as I would use up all the paper on the rolls. So they failed me.
“Funnily enough, I ended up back there lecturing even though I failed the course. I’m also the only person from my year who is working in clothing.”
Tim’s talent hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“I was making the costumes for the drag queens at the Albury Hotel. Stephan Elliott [Priscilla’s writer and director], who was also friends with designer Lizzy Gardiner, had seen the Albury show and wanted me to do the Priscilla project because I could sew.
He knew I would be cheap. He had seen my works and knew what I could knock out. I could be the designer and make everything at the same time. It was a very low-budget movie, I think about $700,000.”
Tim says the mood on the Priscilla movie set was fun and buoyant. “Everyone was completely invested in the project and was having a joyous time.
“Somehow that energy was captured and translated to the audience. Everyone respected each other, and that energy was used in such a positive way.
“The cast and crew have all stayed close. We’re all family, whether we like it or not.”
ONE BIG FAMILY
Tim has stayed particularly close with Hugo Weaving (who played Mitzi), Guy Pearce (Felicia) and Terence Stamp (Bernadette).
“My favourite memory was when Terence let his hair down and joined in the fun. He was always charming and always very gentlemanly. We weren’t friends at first, but respectful.
“One day there was a moment a mob of us jumped into the back of a ute and headed out to see a place I think was called the Painted Desert [near Oodnadatta].
“Terence came out of his trailer and said, ‘Can I come too?’ He jumped in the back and off we went. We got to this place filled with multicoloured plateaus. I went running and jumping down a very steep embankment and Terence was right behind me. We went running and screaming down and across the desert together, laughing. From that moment, he went from being a client to being a really good friend. Like I said, we’re all like family.”
Tim says his favourite costume from the movie is what they call the Gumby costume, which features in the classic I Will Survive scene.
“I think it exemplifies what I am good at, which is taking obvious elements that I am familiar with and then chucking them in the blender in my head and spinning out something that is unique and original, yet still seems familiar,” says Tim.
PRISCILLA COSTUME DESIGNER’S STARRY NIGHT
He still recalls proudly the night he and Lizzy’s names were read out at the Oscars.
“We had gone there not expecting to win, just to soak up the experience and have fun. People were betting on our chances of winning. If you had bet on us in Vegas, you would have won big dollars as we were the least favourite to win,” he says.
“When they called out our names, it felt like that moment in a movie when a bomb goes off and everything goes white and silent.
“Looking into the audience, I caught Tom Cruise’s eye and Oprah Winfrey, and they’re clapping and laughing and so genuinely pleased for us.”
Since then, Tim’s career has gone from strength to strength. His costume design credentials go from theatre to film to television. He’s designed for Cher, Missy Elliott and Matchbox 20. His next project is a major opera about legendary magicians Siegfried and Roy.
But his “grandmother” is never far from his heart or mind.
“I think I actually added to the Australian identity.”
Tim Chappel
“It’s been an interesting relationship [with Priscilla],” he reflects. “If I get run over tomorrow, as I lay dying in the street with a bus tyre on my head, I think I’d go ‘Wow! I think I actually added to the Australian identity.’ Just think of the closing ceremony at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. I love Priscilla. She’s given me 30 years of fun.”
