In 1985, pianist Liberace told Charlie
Rose that his flamboyant style had left him “trapped.”
Liberace is the subject of the film
Behind the Candelabra, which is set to premiere in the United
States on pay cable network HBO on Sunday.
The film, which stars Michael Douglas
as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson, premiered
Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival in France, where it is competing
for the prestigious Palme d'Or award.
In a 1985 appearance on Nightwatch,
Rose asked Liberace, “How important is the flamboyance, the sense
of the Liberace style?”
“Well, I think it's something that I
created very innocently in the beginning by going from a black full
dress suit to a white full dress suit. And of course, now I'm caught
in a trap, so to speak, of having to top myself each time around and
coming up with new surprises and new innovations in my presentation,”
Liberace
responded.
In
an interview with NPR's Fresh Air, director Steven
Soderbergh credited Liberace with inventing “bling.”
“You could make an argument that
Liberace really invented the idea of 'bling.' I mean, nobody was
dressing themselves like this. When you look at the people that have
followed him – whether it's Elvis or Elton John or Cher or Madonna
or Lady Gaga – you know, all these people are sort of building on
something that he began,” Soderbergh said.