GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 25, 1996

Evenings Out

With a butch and femme like Gershon nd Tilly, the film is Bound to be hot

Butch ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) is seduced by Mob concubine Violet (Jennifer Tilly) while the gangster is away.

by Doreen Cudnik

Who would think that a script about a mob heist written by two heterosexual married guys from Chicago, financed by Dino De Laurentiis of King Kong fame, and released by a mainstream Hollywood studio would result in some of the hottest, most authentic images of butch/femme lesbian sex ever to hit the big screen?

Bound, a film written and directed by brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski, adds a new twist to the classic film noir genre. "We wanted to make an independent feature, something that could push the boundaries of genre film and still remain entertaining," the brothers explained. "We like film noir, the mixture of suspense and humor, the kind of sexiness and stylishness it allows for, as well as it being a genre for strong female characters. We like strong women.'

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The film revolves around Caesar, a Chicago gangster who launders money for the mob. Caesar is not a hit man, or even a guy who gets to throw a punch with any regularity. Basically, he's a wise-guy accountant, responsible for the safe-keeping and delivery of large amounts of cash.

Violet is the woman Caesar has kept for the past five years, more out of convenience and because she looks good on his arm and impresses the higher-ups, rather than out of any genuine love for her. Corky, a leatherwearing, tattooed ex-con, has been hired by Caesar and Violet's landlord to do some maintenance work in the vacant apartment next door.

Early in the film, the three of them share an elevator ride. Violet gives Corky the onceOver while Caesar waits for the elevator

doors to open. The doors open and Violet walks down the hall with the tops of her garter-belted stockings peeking out from under her short, tight skirt, stiletto heels clicking on the marble floors. She looks over her shoulder to make sure she has caught the attention of this cool butch. When Corky returns her glance with a cocky smile, you know this film isn't going to be any Thelma and Louise.

Violet stops by the vacant suite the next day to offer Corky a cup of coffee, and makes no secret that she likes what she sees. Violet is clearly a girl that likes strong, butch women and she is attracted to Corky because of her masculinity, not in spite of it.

"You have strong hands," Violet remarks breathlessly. "My dad had strong hands--he was always fixing things." Later, after getting Corky to retrieve an earring she "lost" down the kitchen drain, Violet kicks the seduction into high gear. Corky plays along, smugly assuming that Violet's just another curious straight girl looking to experiment.

After some serious making out, the women are rudely interrupted by Caesar's return home. Much to the delight of the lesbians in the audience, he shakes Corky's hand that was just moments before firmly planted between "his" woman's legs. Eventually, Corky's attraction to Violet becomes stronger than any doubt she may have about her. Violet's persistence pays off, and the two women become lovers-and decide to steal $2 million Caesar has in a suitcase.

In classic film noir fashion, the story that ensues is a non-stop thrill ride full of twists, turns and unexpected results. "I was surprised the first time I saw the movie," Gershon commented, "because of course I knew the

script backwards and forwards, but I found myself wondering what was going to happen next. [The Wachowski brothers] put it together in such a great, suspenseful way that I forgot the whole story when I was watching it."

Once the script for Bound was written, the Wachowskis ran in to some unexpected challenges. Having convinced De Laurentiis to finance their directorial debut, the brothers set out to find two strong women to play the roles of Violet and Corky. Because the lesbian relationship is central to the plot, and the sexuality between the two women is dealt with in a very up-front manner, finding actresses with name recognition who were willing to take the parts proved futile.

"We thought, we're going to write this movie with really cool women in it, [actresses] will be lining up around the block to be in this movie," Larry Wachowski recalled, "but when they would get to the sex scene, the script would go flying out the window. So we have a very long black list now of actresses who turned us down,” he joked. (Linda Hamilton and Sharon Stone were two actresses that reportedly turned down the script.)

"No one has ever made a genre film like this, with two lesbians as the protagonists," the directors explained. "The sexual aspect of the characters did impact on our casting. People fear change."

The two actresses who knew a good thing when they saw it and jumped at the chance to play tough, independent women were Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly. Tilly has a solid background in both feature film and television, but it was her role as Olive in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best

Supporting Actress, and a solid place on Hollywood's list of up and coming actresses.

Gershon's last role was as the bisexual Vegas showgirl Cristal in Paul Verhoeven's controversial Showgirls. Following that film's release, Gershon immediately went into production on Bound, and making the switch from playing someone as traditionally feminine as Cristal to playing the butch lesbian ex-con Corky proved to be an interesting challenge.

"Coming right after [playing] Cristal in Showgirls, [Corky] was like at the opposite end of the spectrum," said Gershon "For the last six months I've had my long nails and my frou-frou hair, so I loved the idea of Corky just cutting off her hair and just being invisible. And having the tattoos and being really tough, but so vulnerable on the inside that she had to have this really tough exterior. There's a certain stillness to her that I thought I would learn from."

"People are always complaining about how there are no roles for women, but I found these two roles really great," Gershon said. When deciding whether or not to take a role, she added, "I just listen to my gut. IfI respond to the role and I respond to the director, I just take a chance and I'll do it."

"Besides," she continued, "when does a woman ever get to play the traditional man's part? I got to cut off my hair, and have dirty fingernails, it was exciting."

The role of Corky is traditionally a male role: the stranger or ex-con that gets seduced into the story. Making this character a lesbian seemed to the Wachowski brothers an interesting way to bend and twist convention.

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