Gina Gershon is an icon of ours for many different roles. Yes, of course, there’s Showgirls’ Crystal Connors, but there’s also Bound’s Corky, Prey For Rock & Roll’s Jacki, Ugly Betty’s Fabia, The House of Versace’s Donatella and many others. And now there’s one more role to add to the list – Angela in Inconceivable alongside Faye Dunaway(!) and Nic Cage. We caught up with Gina to discuss some of our favourite cinematic Gershon moments.

Inconceivable is in a similar vein to The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and Fatal Attraction – so needless to say we loved it. And we don’t feel it’s a spoiler by saying there’s a bitch fight brewing right from the get-go. What was filming that like?
I approached it like I approach everything really. I knew the scene was coming. It was interesting though as everyone thought I was going to play a different character, not Angela – she’s a little softer than characters I usually play. But I wanted to try something different. It was great to work with Nic Cage again as we hadn’t done that since Face/Off and obviously having Faye Dunaway as your mother-in-law is a fun experience.

There is a lot of talk about women only being offered roles as parents as they get older. Are you finding this to be true?
Well, you know these things happen. You get older, the parts you look at change, the parts you want to play change. At least I’m not a grandma yet.

From Showgirls’ Crystal Connors to Bound’s Corky to Prey for Rock & Roll’s Jacki to your work with the Naked Angels. You are a complete gay icon. When did you first begin to notice you had this kind of audience?
When it comes to my career a lot of people focus on the sexual stuff that I’ve done but I guess I am blind to it or something. I don’t see it. I’ve done a lot of comedy, a lot of different stuff that doesn’t revolve around sex. I’ve done a lot of comedy and next year I want to do a bunch of foreign films! With Corky, she came just after Showgirls at a time when I wanted to take off all of Crystal’s wigs, nails, lashes and do something else.

It was almost like going from a drag queen to a drag king.
Well Corky’s not a drag king…although when the film was presented to the studios they wanted her to be a man. But I really believed in the Wachowskis, their vision. I wanted to play a female character that saved the girl.

What were your thoughts when Showgirls got the initial reaction that it did?
Oh my God, I could write a book on Showgirls. But ultimately when it was presented to me it was very different to how it ended up. They really pushed the 17 certificate on it which meant that that the cinemas were only half full. I mean those critiques hurt at the time. You can’t always just brush these things off and be like, ‘Whatever.’ But those same people that panned the film, are the ones who want to talk to me about it all this time later.

You’ve had a lot of memorable quotes in your career from ‘Did I Stutter?’ in The House of Versace to several in Showgirls to…
Oh my God, please can every question not be about Showgirls? I mean I get it. But there’s a lot to talk about and people want to discuss Showgirls but it just gets a little…you know.

That’s fine, I understand. It’s just that for the gay community it’s a big deal. But let’s talk about Donatella. You’ve played a Donatella, or a Donatella type, a few times. Do you know what she thinks?
Only once in The House of Versace. Ugly Betty was not Donatella. Fabia was based more on Jeff Koons’ ex-girlfriend Cicciolina. Although I love Donatella. I don’t know what she thinks per se. I’ve never met her. But I know some of her friends who say I did a good job, so you know, I’m happy with that.

Rose McGowan is currently speaking up about sexism within the film industry. What’s been your experience?
Well, there was one time when I came to initial talks about a role. I was talking to the producer and our views differed slightly. Not enormously but it was clearly enough that he wanted me off the project. But whatever I didn’t want to work with an idiot anyway.

Inconceivable is out on VOD, Digital HD and DVD from 28th August.