Stephanie Hsu and the upside of being a ‘Rocky Horror Show’ virgin

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Caroline Cao: Was getting the Tony nomination for Janet any different from getting an Oscar nomination?
Stephanie Hsu: Both are so meaningful. The Oscar nomination was so meaningful because I think at the heart of Everything Everywhere All At Once is that Joy and Jobu was such a beacon of possibility and hope for my generation. There's Michelle (Yeoh) and Ke (Huy Quan)’s generation of what that kind of recognition represents, but I think Joy and Jobu is such an icon for young queer people. 

When I was growing up watching the Tonys and Idina Menzel, who I just love because of Wicked, I could not think of anyone that looked like me at all. My most vivid memory as a kid watching the Oscars was when Halle Berry won. Obviously Halle Berry was not Asian, but she's the closest thing that felt closer to me than what the norm typically was. I never really imagined myself as a quintessential ingénue, or a leading actor growing up, so getting this Tony nomination is such an affirmation. Also, I like to say that all these (accomplishments) are building generational wealth for the community. I feel really honored and excited that this is going to be really meaningful for younger versions of myself, the community, and people who are waiting in the wings for their opportunity.

CC: You were a virgin to Rocky Horror Show when you joined the production. How did you get in touch with your inner Janet?
SH: The good thing about being a virgin is once I watched (the movie), I deep dived into the history of Rocky Horror. This is my first-ever revival, or professional revival, which is actually quite fun because you have 53 years of history and a lot of research to pull from. Obviously I pulled from quintessential leading ladies of the 50s and 60s. In Rocky Horror, there's so many references to these women, like Fay Wray. Sam (Pinkleton), our director, always says if Rocky Horror was Alice in Wonderland, then Janet would be Alice. Or if it was The Wizard of Oz, she would be Dorothy—the Judys of the world. My biggest inspiration is Madeline Kahn. She is a quintessential ingénue, like she looks like an ingénue. She's so funny, and I could just tell how delighted she is to be doing what she does.

CC: In your short-lived show, Laid, your character Ruby says, “I have always known I was queer, but I am queerer than I thought.” Did it feel that way getting into Rocky Horror Show?
SH: Thank you for saying that. That's actually a line that I pitched for the writers. The spectrum continues to widen, and I do believe that queerness is a really expansive spectrum beyond the language for identities I had when I was younger. The beautiful thing about Rocky Horror is that because it's (about) aliens, the queerness is even more expansive than what we think of in human terminology. Getting to be inside of the show feels really liberating because of the whole concept of “don't dream it, be it.”

Stephanie Hsu on stage second from right.

Joan Marcus

CC: That’s my next question. “Don't dream it, be it.” What does that personally mean for you and how do you put that into action today, or for the future?
SH: Well, what's beautiful about doing eight shows a week is it can change every night. It should change, meaning not just as a performer, but your dreams are allowed to change. You can really make life what you dream it to be, and the possibilities are endless. The show really makes me think about mortality, and it just feels like Frank is such a beautiful gift to dream bigger for your life. It looks like a lot of different things. It often looks like living in different places, challenging myself to make art that I don't (usually) want to make, and fully embracing who I am.

CC:  There’s a lot of talk about the audience callouts (a staple of the RHS culture), such as when's it right to call out or not in the stage revival. When you went into rehearsals, previews, or even recent performances, what was the advice or instructions when dealing with callouts? The night I attended, I remember your baffled glare when someone yelled the standard callout, “Slut!”
SH: The biggest direct piece of direction that I love from Sam is “Remember that we're all in the room together, so we don't have to pretend like it's not happening.” What's the delicate balance of embracing it while also still being able to make sure we carry the story forward? It's a beautiful little dance. I think now we've all kind of gotten used to it. It changes every night, but we know that our mission is to tell the story. We know there's an engine where we take everybody on a journey, but we also embrace the spontaneity. The callouts are different regionally, so there's just no way that we could possibly plan, but I think we've gotten it. For the ones that we don't know, we’ve found a sweet spot of how to embrace them, enjoy them, and continue forth with a story.

CC: I don't know the regional (or non-standard) callouts. What were some of the ones you've learned along the way?
SH: Yesterday, Rachel Dratch (as the Narrator) says, “They had a flat tire, which was badly in need of some air,” and one of the callouts is “like your neck,” which I don't like because it's kind of mean, but Rachel embraced it and made it funny. But what I loved was the other night someone, instead of saying that, said, “We love you, Rachel.” She said, “Thank you.”

CC: How will you look back on this production and your relationship to RHS? Would you go to one of those midnight screenings?
SH: I hope I get to be 60, 70, 80 years old and see the next revival of Rocky Horror. I think there's a reason why it has lasted this long, 53 years and counting, I think there's something in it that is always going to be joyful, interesting, and mysterious: What exactly are we doing on this little blue dot called Earth and what are the extremities of pleasure that we don't know we have access to? I think that's going to be a question that we have for forever. So I am fully a die-hard Rocky fan.

Stephanie Hsu

Johnny Marlow

CC:  Of all the roles you played, whether stage or television, what role do you relate to the most?
SH: There are always parts of me in everything that I do. On an artistic spirit, the way I work is often very big picture or philosophical, so I feel I will always love Everything Everywhere so much because it not only holds the funny and the tragic, the identity, the queerness, and the Asian daughterness, but it also holds the spirit of philosophy, nihilism, and meaninglessness turned into meaning.

Rocky Horror is very philosophical. It's campy, and it's science fiction, but because it's science fiction, there's a lot of philosophy and expansive ideology inside. There's a documentary called Strange Journey that Richard O'Brien and his son (Linus O'Brien) made, and Richard O'Brien is clearly queer and genderqueer. It seemed like he was working on this at a time in his life where the language that we have to describe gender queerness or fluidity (was not talked) about 53 years ago in the same way (as today). Rocky Horror was coming out from his most inner psyche, so I think that there's actually deep philosophical truths and ideology inside of Rocky Horror that's been really fun to think about the same way that a person would think about nihilism.

CC: When did you find that language?
SH: Maybe in my early 20s, I started to give myself more permission to step into myself, especially when moving to New York. New York gives you that permission to kind of explore and expand who you are, but I think even now I'm still discovering new language that resonates more every day.