When legendary drag queen Divine auditioned for ‘Blade Runner’
It would be hard to argue that Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner is not one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. Starring Harrison Ford in the lead role of Rick Deckard, Blade Runner is adapted from Philip K Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.
Amazingly, the iconic drag queen Divine had an audition for Scott’s sci-fi classic. Divine’s real name was Harris Glenn Milstead, and he was closely associated with director John Waters, and he joined Waters’ Dreamlanders acting troupe alongside his friend David Lochary.
Divine most famously performed in Waters’ 1972 film Pink Flamingos, which is one of the most controversial films of all time, even by today’s standards. Divine played a character who is proud to be considered “the filthiest person of all time”, and she gets into a competition with a gang of criminals who want to be even dirtier than she is.
In his biography of Divine, author Bernard Jay wrote (via Dangerous Minds) of Divine’s meeting with Ridley Scott, “I was discussing with an important casting agency the possibility of Divine playing a role in an upcoming movie, Blade Runner, to be directed by Ridley Scott, one of Hollywood’s new ‘darlings’ since his success with Alien.“
According to Jay, Divine got an invite to give a private reading for Scott at his office in Hollywood. “We flew to the West Coast—at Divine’s expense—and worked solidly together for many hours on the brief pages of film script provided,” Jay wrote. “Divi was terrified. It was the first time he had ever had to audition, and although it had been arranged in privacy and with great courtesy by Ridley Scott’s office, he was a nervous wreck.”
Divine spent around an hour with Scott, and Jay remembers being nervous, pacing around outside Scott’s office. In the end, Divine wasn’t offered the role, but the meeting was still of great use to them. “Divi wasn’t offered the role but told me Ridley Scott had spent most of their time together talking of the John Waters movies and how great a fan of Divine’s he was,” Jay added. “He also asked him to read from a completely different film script than the one we had prepared from.”
“Divine was immensely flattered to have been approached and humbled by this experience,” Jay went on. “Once again, I was impressed and proud of the way he had dealt with it—and delighted to note that he was beginning to be taken seriously within his own industry.”
