‘I told young people to learn about punk and just get laid’

As John Cameron Mitchell arrives in the UK for a one-off West End performance, he speaks to Louis Chilton about sex, David Bowie, and directing ‘unicorn’ Nicole Kidman

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“To me, sex is a great way to get out of the house,” says John Cameron Mitchell, all wry poise and puckish understatement. “You open the door, meet someone. It doesn’t have to be the be-all and end-all. I have met a lot of wonderful people through something as crass as Grindr, you know.” Grindr, he says again. “Not a name I would’ve chosen.”

As it happens, Mitchell, creator and star of the adored, genderbending queer musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, had “kind of invented Grindr” himself back in 2006, presaging the arrival of the gay hookup app in his transgressive sex dramedy Shortbus. That film - a cult hit, brimming with unsimulated scenes of sex, masturbation, orgies and autofellatio — was Mitchell at his most provocative. Elsewhere, he’s flirted with the mainstream, acting in shows such as Girls, Joe vs Carole (playing Tiger King’s oddball felon Joe Exotic), and Netflix’s The Sandman.

Mitchell, wearing a sleeveless top and with streaks of dyed white zigzagging through his hair, is offloading his thoughts on sex, art, and David Bowie by the window of a north London cafe. The 62-year-old actor, writer, and filmmaker is in London to sing: over the weekend, he performed at Pride; on Tuesday night, he’s on stage at the Adelphi Theatre for a night of Hedwig numbers, Bowie covers, and more. (Guest performers include Boy George, Michael Cerveris and Drag Race’s Divina de Campo.)

Bowie was, creatively speaking, a guiding light for Mitchell. Hedwig, a Tony-winning rock musical (with songs by Stephen Trask) about a German singer coerced into botched gender reassignment surgery, would likely never have existed without the androgynous glam of Ziggy Stardust. Bowie himself was a champion. “He put his money where his mouth was, invested in our LA production - and lost every cent,” Mitchell grins.