Terence Stamp spent the final months of his life back in wigs, sequins, and heels, returning to one of his most beloved roles.
The Oscar-nominated British actor, who died in August at 87, had quietly reprised his turn as Bernadette, the transgender nightclub performer at the heart of 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Director Stephan Elliott revealed to Deadline that Stamp pre-shot all of Bernadette’s material for a planned sequel, determined that the character would live on through his performance, and not through digital trickery.
“He said, ‘Just in case I don’t make the start line,’” Elliott recalled. “He wanted the chance to put the character down himself.”
Stamp had long resisted calls for a sequel, but Elliott finally convinced him with what he described as a “special and unique” script that wasn’t just a rehash of the original. Production began workshopping Bernadette’s look at 88, spending months in makeup and hair tests before Stamp committed to his scenes.
“He was 87, turning 88, and I put him through a multi-cam shoot, spread over several grueling sessions,” Elliott said. “The old trouper gave it everything he had. He hated putting the wig on again. But at the same time, my God, you could have bottled that smile. It was brilliant fun, and he really did have the time of his life.”
While Hollywood has increasingly digitally resurrected actors before—Oliver Reed in Gladiator, Carrie Fisher in The Rise of Skywalker—Stamp’s case is different. His performance was captured “before the fact,” in full hair, makeup, and costume, with his own voice and movements intact. The challenge now is how to integrate those scenes into a film that must continue without him, a feat Elliott admitted he’s “still trying to work out.”
That question lingers over Priscilla Queen of the Desert 2, which had been inching toward production with Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pearce all set to reprise their roles. The 1994 original, about a transgender woman and two drag queens road-tripping across the Australian desert, became a global hit and a queer cultural landmark. Its over-the-top costumes, disco soundtrack, and celebration of chosen family helped pave the way for drag and trans representation in the mainstream. Elliott himself believes it laid the groundwork for phenomena like RuPaul’s Drag Race.
For queer audiences, Stamp’s Bernadette was especially groundbreaking: a trans character played with dignity and tenderness in a time when such roles were almost never written, let alone taken seriously. That he chose to make Bernadette his final role feels like a poetic full circle.
Elliott confessed that calling “wrap” on Stamp’s performance was one of the hardest moments of his career. “Those words are going to haunt me to the day I die,” he said. “He was an absolute sweetheart.”
Elliott added Stamp wanted a “final curtain” instead of a funeral, and thanks to his determination, Priscilla 2 may end up being a last bow for one of cinema’s most iconic performers, and one of queer film’s most enduring characters.
