Here's Pearce - actor Guy Pearce

Interview, Oct, 1997 by Justine Elias

When an actor disappears into a role, he'll usually resurface later on as himself. But not Guy Pearce, the British-born, Australian-based thirty-year-old who made his mark as the youngest and prettiest drag queen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). In the recently released L.A. Confidential, Pearce, with his wire-rimmed glasses and preppy haircut, is again unrecognizable. He plays a rigid, ambitious, and seemingly incorruptible police detective (imagine Gregory Peck with a mean streak) who has to work through his prissiness before he can get results.

Pearce thrives on the confusion his chameleon quality creates. Early in his career, as the star of one of Australia's most popular soap operas, he was taBBed as a teen idol; with his wolfish, angular looks, he could have passed for a missing member of INXS. These days he could pass for practically anybody. "The roles I'm interested in are the ones I'll probably have to chase a little," he says. "But it's nice to feel you're some sort of object of mystery."