John Cameron Mitchell: Pan-Asian Omakase
Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle
Rachel Belle
4.8 • 730 Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s the 25th anniversary of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, one of host Rachel Belle’s Top 5 Favorite Films of All Time! Today we get to hear from the man who wrote, directed and starred in the film, and played Hedwig on Broadway, John Cameron Mitchell! You may also know John from his roles in Shrill and Girls.
John talks about his fraught relationship with food as a youth, digestive issues that completely vanished after he came out as gay and moved to New York City. He tells Rachel who the Hedwig character was based on, and which parts of the story come from his own life. He shares a bonkers story about a man who cooked and served...his own genitals at a dinner party. And he talks about what he ate to stay strong and energetic during his recent 12-week Broadway run, performing eight shows a week as Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh Mary!
Then we learn a bit about the history of omakase, which was popularized in the U.S. by a Netflix documentary that came out in 2012.
To celebrate 25 years, John Cameron Mitchell is touring the country, June through November, doing Q&As after film screenings of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Tickets are going fast, buy yours here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rachel Bell, and this is your last meal. |
| 0:12.2 | The show where celebrities share stories about the foods they love most, |
| 0:15.5 | and we dig into the history, culture, or science of those meals with experts from around the world. |
| 0:21.6 | Today on the program, John Cameron Mitchell. |
| 0:25.6 | Guys, this is a big one for me. |
| 0:28.6 | John is an award-winning director, writer, actor, and singer, and the creator and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. |
| 0:35.6 | Headwig is one of my top five favorite films of all time. |
| 0:39.2 | But it's so much more than a movie. |
| 0:41.7 | It's this strange, beautiful, smart, funny, poignant piece of art |
| 0:45.4 | with a cult following. |
| 0:47.0 | It was adapted to Broadway and won four Tony Awards. |
| 0:50.4 | And this year is the 25th anniversary of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. |
| 0:54.6 | To celebrate, John is going on tour around The film will be screened around the nation, |
| 1:12.1 | and he'll be there for conversation, a Q&A, and an acoustic performance. |
| 1:16.6 | You might also know John Cameron Mitchell from his roles on shrill and girls, |
| 1:21.0 | and he recently played Mary Todd Lincoln in O'Mary on Broadway. |
| 1:25.6 | Later in the show, we'll learn how the documentary |
| 1:27.8 | Giro Dreams of Sushi changed the American Sushi landscape. |
| 1:32.1 | But first, let's jump into my conversation |
| 1:34.3 | with John Cameron Mitchell. |
| 1:42.9 | Hi. |
| 2:01.5 | I'm so happy to be chatting with you. I'm sure like everybody else says, I'm your biggest fan. It's me. You're finally meeting her. And I flew to New York. I live in Seattle when you were on Broadway with Hedwig in 2015. And I've never had this experience with any other art before. |
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