Interview with Lee Daniels

Lee Daniels shares his excitement about his new movie Tennessee starring Mariah Carey, the legacy he wants to leave behind and what he thinks of the color yellow. Here is Lee Daniels:

Is there any inside dish you want to share about your new movie Tennessee, starring Mariah Carey?

The dish is that Mariah Carey is wonderful. I just decided that I love her to bits. I wasn't expecting to love her as much as I did. She's a diva, in the greatest sense of the word.

Sometimes you equate diva with b****, but she makes fun of it all. It was a party working with her from beginning to end.

So she's your new favorite diva now?

For the moment. [laughs] No, no... she's my good friend and I love her.

Who's your favorite diva of all time?

I think my favorite diva of all time would be the psychotic Sylvia Miles. She is the one. Then there is Patti LaBelle, Mariah Carey and Catherine Bell.

What's Lee Daniels like on set?

My director was interviewed by somebody while we were on the set [of Tennessee]. All three of us were there—me, Mariah and the director. The interviewer asked Aaron [Woodley] what it was like working with a diva. And he said, 'Well, Lee Daniels is not as difficult as as they say that he is.' I laughed so hard. Mariah and I were on the floor. I'm such a diva on the set.

Who's your favorite gay person in the whole world?

My favorite gay person was this guy named Don who passed away. I lived the whole period when people could have sex unsafely and then [AIDS] came. It got to the point where I was afraid to become friends with anybody. I'm surprised that I'm not HIV [positive] and that I escaped it. It's a miracle and I don't know how. All of my friends, every one of them, has died. There was this one friend of mine named Don. He just embraced his life. He knew it was time for him to go. He laid on the site where he wanted to be buried, looked up at the stars and said, 'This is where I'm going b****, plant me right here!'

Then towards the end we'd come to his apartment and there he was with his IV bag. He'd say, 'Don't pay attention to me, this is just mamma's vodka.'

To me, he was a true hero. Not because he did anything big, necessarily, but because I think of him everyday. He was more worried about the people he was leaving behind than himself. To me that's a hero. I don't know that I could be that selfish if I were sick. I'd be so afraid.

In many ways your friend was leaving behind a legacy. What legacy do you want to leave behind?

I want to be able to let gay kids know that you can be and do what people say you can't.

What's the weirdest thing you've seen on set?

You know, I was working on my last movie. I was minding my own business and I saw from the corner of my eye somebody from the crew impersonating me by switching. Out of the 150 people there I couldn't believe it was somebody on my payroll... and I don't even switch! He was so inappropriate—acting like I was some old queen or something.

I turned and did an exaggerated switch that would've made any of them dolls from Paris Is Burning's heads flip. I switched all the way to the producer's chair and said, 'Now, that's the way you do it, my brother. Now get the f*** off my set!'

You've worked with Halle, Billy Bob, Cuba, Mariah, Mo'Nique... Who's the one person you want to work with that you haven't yet?

Well, Denzel and I are trying to find something together. I'm going to be working with Lenny Kravitz on the next film called Iced.

If you had your chance to build your own gay pride float what would it look like?

It would be leather and sprinkled with nice big chains dangling from the alter. It would have two very hot, hot, hot men dancing to the song in my new film Tennessee.

And what song is that?

I can't tell you yet, but Mariah Carey is in the movie.

So, I'm going to ask you to do some word association. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear these words:

Red: Blood
Orange: Juicy
Yellow: Light
Green: Power
Blue: Peace
Violet: Wild