Episode Synopsis
From Hedwig and the Angry Inch on the Rosie O'Donnell Show.
Mitchell's first professional stage role was Huckleberry
Finn in a 1985 Organic Theater adaptation at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. His
first New York acting role was Huck Finn in the Broadway musical Big River
(1985). He originated the role of Dickon on Broadway in The Secret Garden, and
appeared in the original cast of the Off Broadway musical Hello Again. He
received Drama Desk nominations for both roles, and can be heard on the
original cast recordings for each.
He appeared in the original cast of John Guare's Six
Degrees of Separation (both off-Broadway and on Broadway), and starred in Larry
Kramer's Off Broadway sequel to The Normal Heart, The Destiny of Me, for which
he received an Obie Award and a Drama Desk nomination.
Mitchell's early television work includes guest-starring
roles in Daybreak, MacGyver, Head of the Class, Law & Order, The New
Twilight Zone, Freddy's Nightmares, The Equalizer, Our House, The Dreamer of
Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story, The Stepford Children, and the ABC Afterschool
Special "A Desperate Exit" (his single line: "He's dead. Don't
you get it? He killed himself"). He was a regular cast member on the 1996
Fox sitcom Party Girl, and was the long-running voice for "Sydney",
an animated kangaroo that appeared in commercials for Dunkaroos.
His first film role was in an improvised drunk-driving
educational film, Just Along for the Ride (1983), in which he was killed on
Halloween while wearing a tutu.[citation needed] This was followed by the lead
role in My Father's Son: The Legacy of Alcoholism (1984) and his first feature
film role as Drunk Teen ("Hey, dudes, where's the brewskies?") in One
More Saturday Night (1986).
Starring and co-starring film roles include a homicidal
new-waver in Band of the Hand (1986), a Polish immigrant violinist in Misplaced
(1990), and a teen Lothario poet in Book of Love (1990). Mitchell had a single
line ("Delivery!") in Spike Lee's Girl Six (1996) as a man
auditioning for a pornographic film. Mitchell is a founding member of the Drama
Department Theater Company, for which he adapted and directed Tennessee
Williams' Kingdom of Earth starring Cynthia Nixon and Peter Sarsgaard.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch[edit source | editbeta]
In 1998, Mitchell wrote (along with composer Stephen
Trask) and starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, an Obie Award-winning Off
Broadway musical about an East German transgender rock musician chasing after
an ex-lover who plagiarized her songs.
Three years later, he directed and starred in the feature
film version of the play for which he won Best Director at the 2001 Sundance
Film Festival. His performance was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor
in a Musical or Comedy. Both the play and the film were critical hits and have
spawned cult followings around the world.
Shortbus[edit source | editbeta]
After the success of Hedwig, Mitchell expressed an
interest in writing, directing and producing a film that incorporated explicit
sex in a naturalistic and thoughtful way, without using "stars".
After three years of talent searches, improv workshops and production, Shortbus
premiered in May 2006 at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. The film garnered many
awards,[10] at venues such as the Athens, Gijón and Zurich International Film
Festivals.
Rabbit Hole[edit source | editbeta]
He directed the 2010 film Rabbit Hole, starring Nicole
Kidman (in an Oscar-nominated performance) and Aaron Eckhart, adapted from
David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. The film
debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.
Other work[edit source | editbeta]
Mitchell was the executive producer of the 2004 film
Tarnation, a documentary about the life of Jonathan Caouette whom he met when
the latter auditioned for Shortbus. Tarnation won 2004 Best Documentary from
the National Society of Film Critics, the Independent Spirit Awards and the
Gotham Awards.
He directed videos for Bright Eyes' "First Day of My
Life" and the Scissor Sisters' "Filthy/Gorgeous"; the latter was
banned from MTV Europe for its explicitly sexual content. In 2012, Mitchell
wrote and produced a narrative short film for Sigur Ros entitled
"Seraph", directed by animator Dash Shaw (link to film).
Mitchell has appeared as a pundit on Politically
Incorrect and various VH1 and Independent Film Channel programs. He introduced
films on a show called Escape From Hollywood on IFC for two years. Recently
he's written and directed a number of short films and commercials for Dior
including Lady Grey London and L.A.dy Dior both starring Marion Cotillard and
Dior Homme Sport starring Jude Law. Along with Shortbus producer Howard
Gertler, Mitchell is producing an animated feature, Shell Game, written and
directed by graphic novelist Dash Shaw, as well as developing for the screen
Neil Gaiman's short story How to Talk to Girls at Parties. He is currently
playing a recurring character, e-book editor David Pressler-Goings, on the HBO
series Girls.
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