If you watched Lady Gaga’s recent video “Telephone” and wondered what the story was behind the prison yard butch makeout session, look no further. I was really surprised and excited simply to see a butch in the video; masculine lesbians are just not cast in mainstream or pop anything, even though they are iconic as hell. When Gaga made out with her butch GF I had to know who this boundary-crashing woman was, and how this situation came about — lucky for me Gawker’s Doree Shafrir interviewed genderqueer artist and female bodybuilder Heather Cassils about working with and locking lips with Lady Gaga. I love that since making the video, Cassils has gotten mail — a lot of mail. “Some of these letters are from very young queer and disenfranchised people, who live in smaller cities with no support. Teens have written me from Germany, France and Scotland, telling me of their feelings of alienation and that by being the artist that I am, and by being outspoken about my beliefs that I have helped them alleviate their own personal feelings of shame around gender identity and sexuality.”
Here’s a snip from the interview:
(…) Cassils: I had no idea about the story line, except that I was to be a security guard in a woman’s prison scene (which I thought was hilarious). My initial role was not described to me at all with the exception of the interactions I had with Gaga after meeting her. She looked me over and told me she wanted me to play her “girlfriend in prison.” She mulled over our interactions and said finally, definitively: “when I want someone I never go to them, they come to me… so you come to me.” She then told me I was to “touch her inappropriately.”
As for costuming, the night before the shoot we were sent a list of clothing options to turn up in, items such as bikinis, thongs, high heels etc. At this point I panicked and called the casting director informing her that I do not do bikinis and heels. She assured me it would be okay if I turned up in some dark form fitting clothes. So I actually wore my girlfriend’s pants and leather vest that day. (Great thing about dating women is that you double your wardrobe possibilities). But generally I wear similar garb. I like to fashion my self after a Tom of Finland drawing or the illustrious art hustler of the ’70s Peter Berlin. I showed up dressed as you see in the video and was sent up to set.
(…) The kiss was down from the get go. It happened very naturally and organically. I leaned into smell her and I started by kissing her neck. It was electric and when I got to her mouth, she actually kissed me. Kissing Lady Gaga was like kissing any beautiful woman you feel a connection with: as soon as I touched her she was just that, very sensitive and responsive. It even eclipsed the crazy cigarette glasses that were smoking. I think we did four or five takes, it all happened so fast, it was a bit of a blur. By the last takes we were brushing ashes off each other and coughing and laughing. (…read more, gawker.com, thanks A)
Cassils also told Out Magazine that Gaga’s tongue was the real aggressor that day. Yeah! After you read the interview, watch this behind the scenes video where we see Telephone being made, a few shots of Cassils, and a bit of commentary from Gaga’s genderqueer prison guards, one of which is Cassalis’ friend and fellow queer bodybuilder Dallas Malloy:
Thank you Violet for bringing this to my attention. I’ve seen the video, but this gives me a new bit of appreciation for the artistry in it – which I thought was pretty good to begin with.
Wow, those were actually really nice reads (though the one from Gawker desperately needs to be better edited). I have much better appreciation for the video now.