'Shortbus' - Justin Bond Q&A

Ben Walters catches up with one of the stars of John Cameron Mitchell's hugely enjoyable 'Shortbus'.

Jun 14 2007

'I like the smell of an orgy. But generally more at the beginning...'

Justin Bond is probably best known as Kiki, the perennially sozzled ageing chanteuse who makes up half of cabaret duo Kiki and Herb. Their Broadway show was nominated for a Tony award this year but, Bond says, he's increasingly recognised for his turn as the 'mistress' of Shortbus – the 'salon for the gifted and challenged' at the heart of John Cameron Mitchell's terrific, touching and sexually adventurous character comedy of the same name. (See a clip here.) Time Out gave him a call at his new Greenwich Village apartment.

How are you doing?

I'm hot! So hot! I just ordered an air conditioner online, I paid to have three-day delivery, I called to see where it is: 'Oh, it's not going to be there until the middle of next week.' So I'm going to have to send it back next week 'cause I'm going to the store to get one today. The skin might melt but the spine of steel will remain.

Congrats on the Tony nomination.

Thanks. It's been really fun but I've been really, really busy – no time for craziness, only work, and I like the craziness myself. I got to go to the Tony nominees luncheon with people like Vanessa Redgrave and all these fantastic actors. I sat in between Dracula and Amadeus – Frank Langella and Tom Hulce – so that was very cool. But, you know, I'm on my same cow-path: I see the same people and the same people see me.

So 'Shortbus' is just coming out on DVD over here.

'Shortbus' has done more for my profile than the Tony nomination, I think. I get to make out with a lot more boys now, so that was definitely worth doing. Plus, I played myself, so everyone thinks they know me now – I represent something to people being the mistress of 'Shortbus'. It is such a feelgood movie that people are very warm about it, so it's nice, it's very cool.

You were about the only character in the movie who kept their clothes on.

Retained a little bit of mystery, yeah. I had the option of being in the orgy scene. Originally the DJ in the scene was supposed to be my boyfriend of the time, Sammy Jo, but by the time it filmed we were no longer boyfriends and he was on the road with the Scissor Sisters. I was planning on at least getting a little bit of action from him but that didn't work out. I could have joined in the scene, like John did, but I didn't really feel like it. And after you're in the room with all those bodies for a couple of hours under the lights, the smell isn't really that appealing. I mean, I like the smell of an orgy but generally more at the beginning than the end...

The DVD gives a lot of information about how intimate a process the film's production was, and how much of a gang you all became.

Still are. The New York 'Shortbus' people, every Sunday they're out there in the park playing wiffleball. I never realised I had a sport until I went to my first wiffleball game and I was really fantastic at wiffleball!

What is that, exactly?

You go to the corner deli and it's got a little plastic bat and a little plastic ball with a bunch of holes in it, so when you throw it it doesn't go too fast.

So it's the one sport where a limp wrist is an advantage...?

Exactly! So we all go out there and all these people look at these grown men running around like girls playing wiffleball. I think they might have started playing last summer when I was still in the UK but it's become a Sunday afternoon tradition. And then we drink.

You were living in London for quite a while, right?

Two years. It's been strange, I haven't been back since December so it's really the longest I've been away from the UK in probably five years. I definitely miss it, but I've got an apartment in the West Village that I moved into in March and it's my first apartment ever, so I love it. I do miss London and I'd love to come back, but so many people come over to visit so I get a little English every now and then.

Do they bring you Marmite and Ribena?

We've got a place up the street that sells all that. There's a campaign to turn what used to be the Meatpacking District into 'Little Britain'. As long as I can see the dried blood in the cracks in the sidewalk, it'll still be the Meatpacking District to me.

'Shortbus' is out on DVD on June 19.

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