Nick Bougas, director of The Goddess Bunny documentary, shared this interview that he did recently with a British magazine. Enjoy!

How did The Goddess Bunny film come about?

Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, I was associating with a select band of counterculture scenesters in the Los Angeles area and beyond…together we forged a kind of anti-art scene, which celebrated darkly mysterious themes awash with images of serial murder and human oddities. I was quite a busy lad during this period, knocking out irreverent illustrations for magazines like Jim Goad’s “ Answer Me “ and cranking out unique film documentaries like the grisly true crime series “ Death Scenes” and the Anton Lavey video bio, “ Speak of the Devil. The Goddess Bunny was essentially a satellite member of our group; a well-known local phenomenon who was forever appearing in clubs and routinely appearing in the underground films of director John Aes-Nihil. Bunny’s first widespread exposure came from an infamous short subject film that everyone simply called “ the tap dance video “. This reel consisted of nothing more than Bunny in a skimpy, frilly costume going through a few standard dance steps while twirling a parasol. Although it was essentially an innocent, almost quaint scene, this video had a tendency to really unnerve first time viewers…it seemed as though the sight of a horribly malformed individual attempting to do something graceful was somehow unbearably appalling to most people. Bunny was also the subject of scads of wild stories that would circulate around Hollywood …tales of wild misadventures and rowdy confrontations. The stories always seemed preposterous given Bunny’s physical condition, yet they always turned out to be true…More and more, I found myself being exposed to Bunny’s bizarre world and, after a while, I began to view the Goddess as a real force of nature…someone who had a truly fascinating personal saga…one that handily eclipsed the screen dramas or live performances in which she appeared. I eventually approached Bunny about being the subject of a documentary and she enthusiastically agreed.


How and when did you first become aware of him?

I had seen her in some of the Aes-Nihil films initially, but didn’t really get the full impact until a group of us went down to watch the Goddess perform at a West Hollywood nightclub…She was wearing a particularly memorable costume …a silver lame gown with these huge square shoulders from which dangled two ghastly pencil thin arms …that coupled with her extreme hairdo and makeup made her look like some kind of scary space alien. Someone was filming that night and I later got hold of the footage and included it in the documentary. As Bunny lumbers down the catwalk you can see her pause as I hand up a ten dollar bill …seated next to me are Sandy, my lovely gal pal of 20 years and Nik Schreck of Radio Werewolf fame.


What exactly does he do? I know that he is a performer, but is he well known/well known in the past? What does his show consist of?

Bunny has had many careers and racked up some impressive credits along the way…she appeared in “Hollywood Vice Squad “, a gritty screen thriller which featured Carrie Fisher, She appeared in a Marilyn Manson video, but, for some indiscernible reason, wasn’t utilized for full shock value…She also posed for a photo with famed photographer, Joel Peter Witkin, which has been displayed in major art exhibits worldwide. Bunny has been an actress, club performer, performance artist, model, singer, dancer and writer … she’s been working on a definitive autobiography book for some time…I suppose it’s hard for the Goddess to wrap up that sizeable endeavor because new inclusion-worthy events and adventures keep happening each week. There really isn’t a typical Bunny show…I’ve seen the Goddess appear in person many times and there’s always a varied format or fresh avenue being explored.


I don't even know what the film is about. I have heard that it is generally about The Goddess Bunny and her search for fame. Other people tell me that it is actually more about The Goddess Bunny showing you round Los Angeles and introducing you to some of her friends and associates. Which of these is more accurate (if either)?

I’d say both assessments are accurate…Bunny is definitely searching for fame throughout the presentation and you do get to visit some odd locales and highly unusual characters throughout…. there’s one sequence which I believe rivals the tap dance clip…it’s a seductive dance by a two and a half foot tall black Thalidomide casualty named Jerome who has twelve inch stumps for legs and a tiny flipper where one arm should be…during his bump and grind number, Bunny relates how she once lived with Jerome and declares that when he’s naked, his huge manhood transforms his lower body into a perfect tripod.


There are three scenes - the tap-dance sequence, the Ma Barker on the Manson's Family Ranch scene and the lip-synching to Sheena Easton - that people consider to be particularly memorable. Is there anything about them that you could tell me? Were they your idea or were they part of TGB's routine or his idea?

All the elements you just mentioned were pre-existing film clips from various projects that took place before I began putting together the documentary…The tap dance video did a great deal to make Bunny familiar to the public at large…the Ma Barker feature is a film by Aes-Nihil which was partially filmed at the Barker ranch in Death Valley …it was the remote sandy hideout of the Charles Manson family following the Sharon Tate murders…in fact, it’s where they were eventually captured by authorities. John had this clever idea to film his Barker story, which starred Bunny as “ Ma”, at the Barker ranch …it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare though, as the film ‘s cast and crew began immediately encountering spooky injuries and obstacles during filming…we included a sequence where a “ Ma Barker “cast member severely dislocates his shoulder during a fight scene and had to be driven through forty miles of rocky desert to the nearest hospital. The Sheena Easton lip synch sequence is a clip from a performance in the fabled Mondo Video parking lot, a once hallowed stage for many cult entertainers like G.G. Allin and Harvey Sid Fisher. The Goddess had quite a body of work floating around on tape already, so my documentary is primarily exclusive interview segments inter-cut with the best of these classic performance bits …some of the most delicious moments are the bitchy catfights we captured between Bunny and her chief drag queen rival, Cosmic Danielle.


I have found her described as an anorexic, midget, transsexual, ex-prostitute with polio. And yet I am not sure about this at all. I am guessing that the polio references are accurate, but I don't feel confident about the anorexic comments. Some people refer to him as having worked as a prostitute in Los Angeles. Do you know if that is true? Also, is he a drag queen rather than a transsexual?

More often than not, you’ll hear me refer to Bunny as “she” as I’m referring to the gender of The Goddess character rather than the individual who plays her…actually, Bunny is a male named Johnny Baima , who was stricken with polio at birth and left with the twisted, shriveled form that you see in detail throughout the film. Although he most often dresses as a female, he still has his male genitalia, thus he’s a transvestite rather than transsexual. He’s not anorexic and not actually a midget, either…his growth was restricted by an ill-fated early attempt by physicians to strengthen his spine with a steel rod. The rod was bolted at the top and bottom of the spinal column when he was quite young and never removed or adjusted, so Johnny’s posture and natural growth were adversely affected. As far as the prostitute business goes, I suppose that would be a subject best debated by an international conclave of investigators and researchers….In one segment of the film, you’ll hear how Bunny and Cosmic Danielle actually came to blows over cross accusations of who had kept company with the most skeezy street hustlers. I can say that on more than one occasion, when I arrived at Bunny’s hotel door to pick her up for a day’s filming, I had to wait while she and a buff, impossibly handsome young man scrambled for their clothing. Somehow, Bunny makes out better with the young fellows than many Angel-faced, perfectly formed females.


How did you feel when you first met TGB?

Any initial uneasiness I may have felt about Bunny’s physical condition eventually gave way to genuine admiration for her indomitable spirit and happy-go-lucky nature. These were precisely the attributes that I hoped would shine through all the weird imagery and settings in the documentary and according to the testimony of many viewers, that mission was accomplished.


What happened to the film? It seems to have all the ingredients to be an enormous cult hit and yet from what I can find out, it never seems to have happened. Is there a reason for that that you know of?

Sadly, the Goddess Bunny project met with a severe hammer blow from fate, which crippled its intended wide release. The Wavelength company that made the film was actually just a tiny studio inhabited by two persons: myself , who handled the technical duties and made all the creative decisions and my partner Ray Atherton, who handled all the business…neither one of us was remotely capable of doing the other fellows work, so we plodded along in this manner, an army of two, with me churning out and he promoting our growing stable of odd products …Ray was an amazing character … very bombastic and comical…if you’ve ever seen the film ‘Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer”, Ray plays that big abrasive stolen goods merchant that the killers do in by smashing a television set over his noggin. Ray was obese, very driven, loved his booze and didn’t have the healthiest eating habits, so just when Bunny was on the launching pad, poised for release, he suddenly died of a massive heart attack, throwing the whole business into an abyss. Most of the current interest in the title is born of my having quietly sold it for years on internet sales sites.


Did you keep in touch with TGB? Do you know what has happened in his life since the film?

I moved some 3000 miles from Hollywood around four years ago and haven’t a clue what Bunny is doing these days, but I’d wager it’s interesting. I know she “married” a just released ex-con named Rocky shortly after the film wrapped and was living in a trailer with Rocky’s Christian fanatic mother. They somehow convinced the mom than Bunny was a real woman …the charade ended unhappily when Rocky’s drinking led to some serious domestic abuse and Bunny hit the road again. It was always hard keeping track of Bunny, even when you lived in the same town…due to her eccentric life style and bizarre friends, Bunny doesn’t seem to be welcome at any one spot for too long. In fact, the contact info that appears at the end of the film was invalid before the first video copies were distributed.