The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: Bernadette comforts Felicia

The English actor and writer Terence Stamp (1938–2025) had a career of extraordinary glamour, starting with a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his first film role in Billy Budd (1962). He was a much-photographed figure in the Swinging London scene of the 1960s, dating Julie Christie and Jean Shrimpton, and was tapped to play James Bond after Sean Connery retired – but his take on the character was too dark for the producers. He gravitated towards villain roles, playing cads, murderers, the devil and an intergalactic nemesis.  

Terence Stamp is forever to be a part of Australian film history, thanks to his role as Bernadette Bassenger in Stephan Elliott’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). Stamp plays Bernadette, the only trans woman in a trio of road-tripping drag queens, as immaculately coiffed, regal, deadpan and lethally sarcastic. She clashes with the hyperactive Felicia (Guy Pearce) for most of the trip, but in this scene, she lets her guard down to comfort the younger queen after a brutal attack in an outback town.  

Stamp had an extraordinary ability to let stillness hint at buried emotion. Whether laying thugs low or dancing in an emu headpiece, Bernadette is infused with his memorable cool. 

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