There is no end to the number of labels one could place on Lea DeLaria, though she seems particularly fond of her self-made brand as a “raging butch dyke.” She’s best known as an actress, especially for her role as inmate Carrie “Big Boo” Black on the smash-hit Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. She’s also carved out a comedy career, where she became the first openly queer comic to perform on broadcast television with her appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1993.
But many casual fans would be shocked to learn that DeLaria is also a singer; in fact, the 60-year-old star is an accomplished jazz performer. Now, the star is combining her talents into her stage show, which she will bring to the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College on Saturday, March 9. “There’s tons of comedy, anybody who likes the comedy won’t be disappointed. But the focus is more on the music than it used to be,” she says.
DeLaria says that she began singing publicly in the 1980s as a way to soften her edgy stand-up act. “People could only take it for like five minutes, and then they’d be like ‘Mommy, make it stop,’” she says, cackling to herself. “I would basically lull people into a false sense of security with my songs, and then I would just start screaming ‘dyke’ and ‘fuck’ and ‘c–t’ at them again.”
Everything changed with Orange Is the New Black. After a stage career and in smaller parts in film and television, she landed the role of the sharp-tongued fan favorite, Big Boo. As the show recently wrapped production on its final season, DeLaria says she’s comforted knowing how meaningful it has been. “I am actually a part of entertainment history now,” she says. “I think people will talk about Orange in the way that they talk about other shows that have changed the face of television. It’s kind of amazing to be a part of that.”
Orange may be concluding, but DeLaria has her own Big Boo spinoff ready to go, should the show’s producers be interested: “She gets out of prison, opens up a dyke bar in Cleveland and Alex Vause falls madly in love with her,” she says, referencing the fact that she will be taking over as the owner of the Pied Bar, a famous lesbian club in Provincetown, MA, and turning it into a high-end performance space called The Club.
Ahead of her jazz show, Billboard quizzed DeLaria on everything from her biggest guilty pleasure (“testosterone movies”) to her first celebrity crush.
Last song you listened to: That new Jonas Brothers song. I think it’s called “Smooth?” “Sucker,” that’s it! There’s something about it, it’s really fun, I keep listening to it.
Guilty pleasure: Testosterone movies. Like, Die Hard is my favorite Christmas movie. I run don’t walk to those kinds of movies in a way where my feminist friends are like, “You’re going to see what?”
Song you associate with coming out: Personally, for me, it would have to be “We Are Family” (by Sister Sledge). But for just the coming out song of all time, it would have to be “I Am What I Am” (from the musical La Cage Aux Folles, made famous by Gloria Gaynor).
First celebrity crush: My age is about to show. June Lockhart; she played the mother on Lassie and was in a show called Lost in Space. It’s interesting that I went with her, rather than the younger girls. That may be indicative of my mother being kind of hard [laughs].
First album you bought: “Tapestry” by Carole King.
Favorite on-set memory: There was one time, during the bed bugs episode in season 3 of Orange, when Natasha [Lyonne] and I had a scene together. I refused to wear these big blue jumpsuit things, so I was in my granny panties and sports bra. She says her first line, and I pull my panties up so high, that I had a camel toe like you have never seen. I did that, and said my line, and she just howled. We cut, and I left my panties up like that. So we start again, we get through the scene, and as it’s ending, I turn around and just ad-lib, “Hey, Nichols, do these pants make my ass look fat? Or is it my ass that makes my ass look fat?” [laughs] It was a fucking trainwreck, the producers had to stop us. I loved it.
Best advice you ever received: Jerry Zaks, when he was directing me in a play, said, “If they’re laughing, stop talking. If they’re not laughing, talk faster.” [laughs] Nobody has ever put it more succinctly.
Biggest pet peeve: Oh, there’s a few. First of all, “irregardless.” And then, “literally.” And then pineapple on pizza, or as I call it, “frankenfood.”
Lyrics you live by: There is one lyric from the very last line Carmen McRae‘s “Get It Straight,” which is a love letter to Thelonious Monk, that just says “Now is the time.” That is my life’s motto — I try to be present every second on this planet. I just got it tattooed on my arm!
Dream collaborator: Oh, Marc Shaiman and Scotty Whitman! They get me and they are musical theater geniuses. I want them to write a show with me downstage center belting a D sharp. I wanna work with them like I wanna fuck Natalie Portman.