Hey Fangirls and boys!  Jessica Dwyer here with some late coming treats post Halloween.

I got the chance to speak with the awesome David Morrissey, the man with the plan AKA The Governor as well as Robert Kirkman, the man who created The Walking Dead.  It was a great chance to learn some of the background behind this new take on the villain of the comic series and to see if Kirkman himself would ever be interested in doing a Marvel Zombies project in the future.  Here’s the three part interview:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

 

Hey Walkers,

Jessica Dwyer here with some goodies for your ears.

I had a chance to chat with Walking Dead star and resident scruffy sexy sheriff Andrew Lincoln and powerhouse producer Gale Anne Hurd recently.  With Season 3 already shaping up to be one of the best seasons of the show (and without question some of the best TV of this year) I was very excited to get to pick their brains (not eat them) in regards to the new season.

Here’s the audio of our conversation which covered the range of what led our heroes through the 7 months that have passed as well as the look of the show this season and weird duality of the good guys being in the darkest, dankest place while the bad guys are in brightly lit alternate Mayberry.

Enjoy!

Walking Dead Audio Part 1

Walking Dead Audio Part 2

Elijah Wood’s new series on FX, Wilfred, premiers Thursday June 23rd at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right before the Season Two premiere of Louie at 10:30. The show is based off an Australian comedy created by co-star Jason Gann about Wilfred, a man in a dog costume who’s really a regular size dog…but the man size alter ego can only be seen by the hapless Ryan (Elijah Wood).

Wilfred isn’t a nice cuddly puppy by any means. He’s crude, rude, and he’s starting to make Ryan doubt his sanity. If this sounds like something you’ve never seen before, you are right. FX has become the home to some pretty daring shows that audiences are amazed and glad to see come to their screens here in the states. Shows like Sons of Anarchy, Justified, and Nip/Tuck are some of the heavy hitters the network has served up that are edgy and have become hits. Wilfred looks to join that family in a leg humping, funny and hillarious way.

Fangirl Magazine’s Danni Stinger joined in on a Q and A with the stars of the show, Elijah Wood and Jason Gann, to discuss the unique series. Here are some of the highlights:
Amy Harrington from PopCulturePassionistas.

A. Harrington: Elijah, we imagine that you get offered a lot of TV roles and we’re wondering why you chose this one?

E. Wood I actually don’t get offered a lot of TV roles. I read a few scripts, mainly dramas. I was just interested in taking a look at television because I really had never seen what was kind of available and what people were making on television. It’s changed so much even in the last five years. I don’t know, I read this script … the last scripts that I was sent, and my manager sent it to me and said it was the funniest thing that she’d ever read. I loved it and it kind of blew my mind. It was unlike anything I’ve read or seen on television. A perfect extreme in funny but also sort of cerebral and strange and difficult to describe, which I think is always a good thing.

Jamie Ruby from Media Blvd.

J. Ruby Can you kind of talk to us about your characters in the show and kind of give us a little bit on them?

E. Wood Yes, Jason, you want to chime in on it?

J. Gann Well “Wilfred” is a dog. The world sees a dog. “Ryan” sees a man in a cheap dog suit who smokes bongs and pretty much terrorizes him. But you know, we sort of think that after a while that maybe “Wilfred” is an angel and a devil on his shoulder, giving him advice and trying to bring him back into the real world. That’s “Wilfred’s” character. Elijah?

E. Wood Yes, “Ryan” is essentially a guy who had followed a path that was ultimately not of his choosing for far too long. He listened to his family, listened to his father, did kind of what he thought everyone else wanted him to do as opposed to following his own interests. As a result of that in this pilot, we find him in a place where he’s hit a wall, essentially, and it’s made him suicidal.

He’s kind of a broken individual. He’s someone that hasn’t really busted out of himself to live freely and to live with confidence and to define himself, and ultimately that’s where “Wilfred” arrives. He arrives sort of in that moment of crisis to push “Ryan” outside of the self-imposed and sort of family-imposed boundaries that have been created around him.

Andrea Towers from VoiceofTV.

A. Towers There’s a huge influx of shows from Europe that have been brought overseas throughout the past few years. Some are successful. Some aren’t so successful. I’m curious to know how you think your show will be received over in the U.S. in terms of—I know it’s darker. It’s probably a little more unconventional than what normal audiences are used to.

J. Gann Despite the fact that the show is called Wilfred, and there’s a dog called “Wilfred” in it, and I’m in the suit playing “Wilfred,” it’s a really different show. Maybe the reason why some of those reboots don’t work is because they’re trying to just translate something from one territory into another and the only thing that’s different is sort of some accents and stuff, whereas this is a completely new show.

David Zuckerman, the show runner, had a completely new vision for it. When he first told me about it he said he saw a different vehicle for this great character that he loved. So I don’t even compare the two shows. This show really stands on its own, and so, look, I’m not worried about any comparisons or failed reboot of the successful show because they’re two different creatures.

Sheldon Wiebe from EclipseMagazine.com

S. Wiebe I, like most of the people on the call today, have never seen the Australian version, and I’m just wondering—now you say this is a totally different animal, Jason. How so?

J. Gann Well originally in November of this year will have been ten years since I wrote the seven-minute short film that won festivals around the world and went to Sundance. So that seven-minute short was already very popular, and so we just set up a premise in essentially a seven-minute short. So for the Australian series, we just used the first seven minutes in the pilot as the first seven minutes of the show.

So we didn’t go into a lot about what the psychology of the show, of the relationship between the guy and the dog. There was no background story for the guy. We didn’t go into his psychology at all. It was really a love triangle between the guy, the dog, and the girl. Whereas this show is, for starters, a buddy comedy more so than—it does have love triangle elements in it, but each episode is about “Ryan.” “Wilfred” kind of drives the stories and the audience is constantly left to argue with each other or with themselves as to whether this is all happening inside “Ryan’s” mind. Are we going crazy? What’s really going on?

In the Australian version, we just sort of said, “The guy can see the dog.” We said it in the first minute of the show, and then we just went on with it. The Australian show had more of a British kind of sensibility and the style of The Young Ones or The Mighty Boosh where things are a bit more abstract and absurdist. So this show goes into the psychology more, and I think it’s smarter … about “Ryan” rather than about a love triangle.

Jim Napier from GeekTyrant.com.

J. Napier So I can really tell that your chemistry on the phone call and from what I’ve seen of the show is amazing, and I’m really excited for the entirety of the season. One thing that sticks out to me when I first thought of this show is the fact that it reminds me of Jimmy Stewart’s Harvey. There’s obviously a big difference between Wilfred and that, but did you pull from any films or life experiences, obviously probably more life experience when crafting this show?

J. Gann Personally it is a role a lot of life experiences that poured into the creation of the Wilfred character, but it’s interesting. The Harvey reference has come up quite a bit. That wasn’t in our minds when we first created the character or the Australian version. But it’s interesting, like I just had a thought then like about like Jimmy Stewart like just how much—what it is I love about him as an actor and how he brings this incredible authenticity to his characters, unique authenticity that we actually as an audience. We’re sort of prompted to believe in him even though we can see that there’s no rabbit. We can see what everyone else is thinking, but we believe in him.

I don’t want to embarrass Elijah, but I think that Elijah brings something really similar and he really makes my job as playing “Wilfred” a lot easier, because seeing through his eyes it’s easier to believe it and so we’re ready, as an audience, hopefully ready to suspend our disbelief.

E. Wood Thanks, Jason. Yes that’s interesting that reference to Harvey. Jason and I immediately thought of that as well. I’m a huge fan of that film. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it, and it was interesting the parallel. I mean the parallel, it’s obviously similar but it’s extremely different, but that notion of our sort of imagined friend is quite similar and I think there’s something kind of beautiful about that.

Daniella Stinger from Fan Girl Magazine.

D. Stinger Elijah, the character of “Ryan” starts out fairly depressed. Do you feel that he’s essentially the straight man in a comedy double act or does he really fit that definition?

E. Wood Do I feel he’s a straight man? Yes, I think he is. I mean ultimately I think “Ryan’s” just trying to get everything together constantly. So he’s essentially reacting to the world around him and to the scenarios that “Wilfred” is trying to put him into and the direction that he’s being pulled constantly. So straight man, yes, but he’s also just in this time of crisis in his life and he’s just trying to hold it all together all the time. Having a genuine relationship with this man in a dog suit and then also trying to balance that relationship with the real people who he knows can’t see that man in a dog suit, and then in the midst of all that trying to rebuild himself and to be the best person that he can be.

Hey Fangirls (and boys)

Your friendly neighborhood editor was interviewed on The Creepture Feature Podcast recently.  Feel free to listen to it as they recount the history of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and then I show up to ramble about writing, Women In Horror, and of course they make me talk about Johnny Depp (such a chore).

Click here

 

Recently I got to sit in on a great conference callwith the awesome Timothy Olyphant to discuss his new season of the badass series Justified.  If ever you doubted that Olyphant was a smooth operator let me tell you…he is.

Below is the Q and A with the man who has one of the sexiest drawls on TV (this was discussed as well during the Q and A, and surprisingly not by me.)   In fact there were arounf 40 or so people on the call and not everyone got to get their question answered.  I in fact DID because I am fast like ninja.

Justified Season 2 started this week on FX.

Question: What have you learned about Raylan, from filming Season 2?

TIMOTHY OLYPHANT: Well, he’s not any taller than he used to be. I’m not sure. You know, I’m terrible at that. I’ve got to be honest with you, I’m just trying to figure out what to do next. But, he seems like he’s got a lot problems, as usual.

What keeps challenging you about playing this character?

OLYPHANT: The character is just a joy to play. It’s more just about the beast of television production and just trying to keep your head above water and stay in front of it, and just remember how much fun it is.

Why do you think people keep tuning in to watch Justified?

OLYPHANT: Well, if they are like me, they think it’s really good. I’m proud of the show. I think it’s good story telling. It starts, first and foremost, with Elmore [Leonard], and I’m a big fan of his. I think Graham [Yost] and the rest of the writers have just really sunk their teeth into it and done a wonderful job. It’s good stuff, and it’s hard to find good stuff.

Are there actors from westerns or cop shows that influenced your take on Raylan?

OLYPHANT: No. I really didn’t look past the books. After that, I tend to draw inspiration from whatever just floats my boat, for the moment. But, I really spend a lot of time with the source material and I read those books constantly, and spent time with Elmore [Leonard]. And then, I had conversations with Graham [Yost]. And, there were some conversations with U.S. Marshals.

Have you gotten any chance to go to Kentucky and associate with life down there?

OLYPHANT: We are currently filming a great deal of the show out in Santa Clarita. In the summertime, you just head straight towards the sun and, just before you catch on fire, there it is. Our producers and locations managers are doing a hell of a job. They’ve got their work cut out for them. I haven’t actually visited that part of the country. I spent time with people and talked to a lot of people. Over the break, our writers all went down there as a group. A lot of characters that you’ll see this season are based on people they’ve met. I’m thrilled that it feels like we’re capturing it because, Lord knows, we’re giving it the old college try.

Now that you’re a producer this season, what made you want to get involved on that level? How much are you involved, behind the scenes?

OLYPHANT: Last year, I just pretended to be a producer and I rather enjoyed it, so I thought I might as well get the credit. It’s really one of the great joys of the job, and one of the real challenges of the whole thing.

How does it feel to get to play a modern-day cowboy every week? Does it feel like you’re living out childhood games of cowboys and Indians?

OLYPHANT: I can’t take full credit for it. I’m really just saying the words and trying to bring it to life. It’s all cowboys and Indians, when it comes down to it. It’s child’s play, and I get a great deal of fulfillment out it. It just so happens, every now and then, that you put on an actual cowboy hat and it brings it all home. It’s always fun to play cops and robbers and, in this case, it’s more like cops and hillbillies. It’s a blast. It’s a kick to be able to play what they call a drama, but day in and day out, I think we’re making a comedy. It’s a lot of fun.

Raylan can be compared to a modern-day John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, who is rough around the edges and smooth with the ladies, and who has his own set of right and wrong. Have you ever thought about it like that?

OLYPHANT: Not until just now. You know, when I read the books, that was in the ballpark of what I was thinking. The books are great. The character is iconic.

This show is presenting a world that is really terrifying. How do you balance presenting something that we don’t want to see, in a way that makes it compelling, so that we really want to see it?

OLYPHANT: You know, it’s scary out there, and our job is to try to make that entertaining. That’s more or less the deal that we all signed up for. Life moves pretty fast and it’s pretty scary, but at the end of the day, the show’s about a guy who’s trying to do the right thing and get through the day with some sense of his reality intact. I think there’s a certain comfort in that.

How do you enjoy the opportunity to build a character over time in television versus building a character for a film?

OLYPHANT: In a film, you more or less know the beginning, middle and end, and you might have some wiggle room in there. But, this really is a journey and I’ve been very fortunate to be allowed in on a part of that process. That is one of the real challenges for me, that I’ve really enjoyed. I don’t think of it as building a character. I just think of it as telling a story, and I don’t know how it’s going to end. That’s the fun of it. At the end of the day, the same things apply. I’m still trying figure out what is going on, from scene to scene, and basic rules still apply. The tremendous upside here is that it’s such a great character, and it’s really tough to get your hands on a great character.

 

What sort of impact will the relationship between Raylan and Mags Bennett have on Season 2, and how has it been to work with Margo Martindale?

OLYPHANT: The whole bunch of them are just fantastic – both the characters and the actors playing the Bennetts. Margo’s just the real deal. I don’t know what else is on TV, but I’m pretty sure that’s something special. It’s a pleasure to work with her and Jeremy [Davies], and all those guys. They’re just great, and I thought we were onto something special. The inspiration for the character came from Elmore [Leonard]. He had a character in one of his books that was a man, and Graham [Yost] wanted to make the character a woman. Margo is just such a fantastic choice. As far as the families and the history, that’s something that Graham and I were both really interested in exploring this year, in that Hatfield-McCoy kind of culture and styles. It’s been really nice, throughout the season, to keep deepening that history and peeling back the layers. You find out more and more as we go. As the story goes, we come back around and get a little deeper. The world we created this year is just really rich.

How is the Raylan/Boyd relationship changing in Season 2, and what has it been like to work with Walton Goggins this season?

OLYPHANT: Walt’s fantastic. Anytime he’s on the call sheet, I know it’s going to be an easy day for me because I just sit back and let him do all the work. When you’ve got someone who’s going to take things moment to moment and keep you on your toes, it reminds me of my acting teachers saying, “Just work off the other person.” When you’ve got someone like Walt, it makes that real easy to do it. As far as his character goes, it’s really great. We had a lot of fun with him this year. As Elmore [Leonard] has said, he’s one of these guys where I don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth, but I can’t stop listening to him. He just seems like he could be whoever and whatever he needs to be, given the situation. We really had a lot of fun watching him start out lost in the woods, and then regain his footing and find his way, and come back to life. He’s in a completely more dangerous and compelling way this year than last year.

How do you think Raylan sees Boyd?

OLYPHANT: I honestly don’t think he sees him as a friend, in terms of their relationship. All we’ve told you, according to my scripts, is that they have a history. There’s an understanding between them, but beyond that, I think that’s it. Their worlds collide. Given what he does, and given what my character does, they’re going to keep running into each other.

How is the dynamic between Raylan and his ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea) changing this season?

OLYPHANT: Natalie is fantastic. The same things I said about working with Walt Goggins, I’d say about working with her. They’re just great, as is Nick Searcy. He’s just a pro, but he’s not as good-looking as she is, so I’m less interested in that storyline. Graham [Yost] is the one who started the idea of these two getting back together. It was a broken relationship, but there was still some sexual tension. After we shot the stuff, it just seemed like there was a lot more going on there. It was a lot more interesting. So, when Graham and I got together, before we went back to work, that was a relationship that we were both really interested in exploring. I said to Graham, “If one of my buddies comes over to the house and tells me he’s fucking his ex-wife, we might not talk about anything else for the rest of the evening. I’m curious. I want to know how that works. And, if he tells me he’s in love with her, then I’m really interested.” We had a lot of fun with that relationship this year. I think it’s really one of the more interesting things we’ve done.

What are some of the moments that have made you stop and think, “This is great television”?

 

OLYPHANT: I’m not a huge fan of every episode, but there’s not an episode that goes by without me finding something where I’m like, “That’s just good drama. It’s good storytelling.” The examples are countless. This season, where do I start? From an acting standpoint, it’s fun to be in a scene where me asking Mags, “How’s business?,” is both conversational small talk, and yet feels so loaded. That’s part of the brilliance of Elmore Leonard, and it’s very difficult to replicate, week after week. I think our writers just do a fantastic job. Those moments are a blast. I could just go on forever. Honestly, the job is just a joy, day in and day out. I’ve never left that set and not thought to myself, “That was great. That was just a great scene. It was a great moment. It was a great performance.” Not mine, but I’m just talking about the ones around me. I put in long hours on this puppy, but at the end of the day, you just always walk away going, “God, you know, there’s something to be proud of. It was pretty cool.”

Deadwood, and your work on that show, started the whole western coming back again, and now there’s Justified, as well as True Grit. What do you think it is that keeps westerns cool?

OLYPHANT: First of all, I just showed up to work on Deadwood. That was David Milch’s baby. That’s a genius at work, just turning a genre on its head, and it was really something special to be a part of. I read this fantastic interview with Walter Mosley, in the L.A. Times, where he talked about our show. He said that westerns were made during a time where people really believed in America, and that Americans believed in something very clear about good versus evil. And, as that got a little more foggy, the westerns went away. And, he was really curious about this guy, Raylan Givens, who appears to be born maybe 100 years too late, and stuck in a modern world, asking those questions again.

Do you think that Raylan Givens will become one of those iconic TV characters?

OLYPHANT: I really appreciate that. That’s very generous of you. I knew when I read the thing that I had to close the deal before somebody else got a whiff of this thing. I trust that I know a good part when I see one and usually, when I see one, I have to wait for seven people to pass, in order for me to get it. I knew it was a good part. I knew it was good writing. I knew that Elmore [Leonard], when done right, is just something that I love. Beyond that, when I run into people on the street, they have been very generous and complimentary. It’s nice. You’re out there telling stories and you’re hoping to find an audience, and it’s very appreciated.

Every character that you play, whether in this show or in films, just seems completely unique and different. Is that because of your choices as an actor, or is it the quality of scripts that you get offered?

OLYPHANT: I don’t know. I’ve been really lucky, especially the last two years. I’ve been working for a long time and I’ve just really been allowed to work, with very little of the baggage and the pressures that can come with my job. Year after year, for quite some time now, I’ve just been allowed to keep doing it and just get better. When you do it for 10 or 12, or however many years I’ve been doing it, if you’re not good by now, then I think that’s going to be about it. I’ve really realized how much I enjoy the job and, at this point in my life, I show up to work with a real interest and a real commitment and a level of confidence. I’m not looking for answers when I show up to the set. I’m just asking the questions, over and over. I think I’ve been given some great material. In the last couple years, I did a small movie called High Life that went to the Berlin Film Festival, I did A Perfect Getaway, I did The Crazies, and there’s this TV work that I’ve been able to do, like with those guys in Damages. They’ve just been really great roles, and I’ve been able to have a meaningful dialogue and collaboration with the filmmakers on each one of those projects. Each time, it’s led to work that I’m really pleased with and proud of.

Interview By Jessica Dwyer
04/10/05

Tony Timpone has been with Fangoria Magazine for a long time.  He’s been a champion of horror fans and film everywhere.  He’s gone up against the likes of Morton Downey Junior, Geraldo Rivera, and stood his ground defending the love of horror by people like us.  He’s been a hero of mine since I was a young Fangirl in high school, writing my own little cult column in the school newspaper.  So I was very happy when he let me ask him some questions about what Fango has going on nowadays and a little about himself.

::

FG:  Hey Tony.

TT:  Hey there how are you?

FG:  Good, good.

FG:  I’ve been reading about Fangoria Television if you could tell me more about what that is and where we could find it?

TT:  Well if you have HDTV and INHD service we begin airing the first of the Fangoria TV programs, Ghost Stories EVP this month.

FG:  Oh great!

TT:  The dates for the show are April 8^th. And it’s actually on in demand, INHD on demand service.  And the dates for the show, Ghost Stories EVP are April 8^th, 11^th, 14^th, 20^th, 24^th, and the 27^th.  And that’s a reality show that follows paranormal investigators who follow spirits and try to record them using special electronic equipment.

FG:  Like White Noise?

TT:  Yeah exactly.  The whole White Noise thing.  That’s the first of our shows, and we are actually looking for cable providers to carry the entire Fangoria TV slate.  Right now we are teasing people with it, trying to build interest.  And eventually we’ll be out there in full force with out own network.

FG:  Oh that’ll be great.  I know they are doing The Scream Channel and The Horror Channel.  I don’t think they have gotten on the air yet.

TT:  No, unfortunately not.  And Fangoria TV was actually the reaction to that.  The others weren’t making it happen.  And the company that owns Fangoria TV is actually, the creative group is actually the east coasts largest post production house.   They have the equipment, they have the cameras, and they have the studio to create original programming.  Instead of going out and licensing other people’s movies and old TV shows, they decided “Hey, let’s go out and produce the stuff ourselves and get our own network.  Pretty much what they are doing, building it step by step.

FG:  That is really great.

TT:  Yeah, it’s very exciting.

FG:  I wanted to get your opinion of the PG13 horror films coming out recently.  It seems like they are coming out as PG13 at the theater and then going unrated on DVD.  Do you find that trend to be a little disturbing?

TT:  Well, one good thing about the whole PG13 horror craze is that it’s widened the audience to teenage girls who were never really into horror before.  The success of Buffy The Vampire Slayer on TV which really empowered young girls kinda spilled over into the movies with films like The Ring, The Grudge, and The Ring 2.  And well, the PG13 are really making a lot of money.  The Grudge and The Ring made a lot at the box office. But R-rated films are still making a lot of money too.  Hide and Seek was rated R that made 50 million dollars, The Exorcist Prequel from last summer was a success at 40 million.  So uhm, it’s a marketing thing.  The way I look at it, I can wait to get the unrated DVD.  And if it means more people are going to horror films, even to see a watered down version, you know I can wait.  I can tolerate it.  It’s a marketing decision, it’s all about money.  You know what can you do?  We might as well just take what we can get.  I saw the R rated version of Cursed and they ended up releasing a real watered down to theaters and I would say it wasn’t that great of a movie to begin with, but at least the R rated version had some you know, some gore to sustain interest, where as the PG13 version was like a porno without the sex scenes.

FG:  (laugh) it was lacking in certain areas and died pretty quick too.

TT:  Yes.

FG:  Where do you see horror heading in the future, particularly the American horror film? Since we seem to be doing more and more remakes of overseas films and Americanizing them?

TT:  Well, I see…I think the Japanese remake craze is going to peter out at this point.  I mean, there’s probably going to be a Ring 3 and a Grudge 2.  But eventually over the next 2 or 3 years that whole mini craze will have dried up.  I’ll be curious to see how The Devil’s Rejects does this summer.  Because it’s a real extreme, R-rated horror film that really hits you in the gut.  Uhm…I’ll be curious to see if the audience supports that, and I hope they do because it’s a really good film.  But it’s the perfect antidote to all the PG13 horror films.  As far as future horror films, I think George Romero’s Land of the Dead will probably be the final word on the whole zombie craze.  And I’m excited to see the new version of King Kong, and some of the other remakes too, like The Fog. As to other themes and trends to come…I’m not really sure.  I’d like to see some of the Spanish movie makers come over to the states and do some stuff.  Like Jaume Balagueró who did Darkness, I’d like to see him do an R-rated horror film. I think there will be some good stuff in the years ahead.

FG:  I saw Sin City on opening day and what Robert Rodriguez did with that and that tying in…it’s not so much a horror film, but it’s got some heavy effects and quite a bit of gore. I think that will tie in well with The Devil’s Rejects coming along and spicing things up a bit.

FG:  What do you consider the best horror movie to come out in the past 10 years?

TT:  Oh in the past 10 years…Oh gee…let me think about that.  Ask me another one and I’ll mull that over.

FG:  That’s a toughie I know.   I know that Fango has its own films coming out, with movies like The Last Horror Show.  What can we expect from you guys coming up?

TT:  We have a film that comes out next week called Skinned Deep.  On Fangoria’s Gore Zone label.  After that we have a Japanese horror film coming out called Hiruko The Goblin. Then after that we have an Irish zombie film called Dead Meat.

FG:  An Irish zombie film?

TT:  Yeah, the first one.

FG:  That sounds awesome.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one.  I know we have the Brit one with Shaun of the Dead.

TT:  Yeah, this is an Irish zombie films.  This one owes a lot more to Night of the Living Dead than more of the recent zombie films.  Oh, and I would say going back to the best horror film of the last 10 years.  I would have to say 28 Days Later is my favorite.  That one really hit me in the gut.  I thought it was scary, I liked the characters, I thought it was really it really got into the whole SARS thing.  I just found it really exhilarating that film.  So I would say that was my favorite.  And a close second to that was Ginger Snaps.  That film had a great subtext to it and I love horror films that have a great subtext.  Multi layers and that you can watch again and again.

FG:  I loved Ginger Snaps.  It was just a really neat take on the werewolf genre and really really good acting.

TT:  Yes.

FG:  Okay, well we saw the 100 scariest movie moments on Bravo with Jaws taking the top spot.  So what’s your personal number one?

TT:  Well, I don’t know if you knew I was the producer on that show?

FG:  Yes I did (laugh)

TT:  Well actually I think Psycho or The Exorcist should have been number one.  But I was leaning towards Psycho for number one.

FG:  It influenced so much. I was actually surprised that The Exorcist didn’t take the top spot because I’m still psychologically scarred from that film.

TT:  I think the reason for that is Bravo is owned by Universal and Jaws was the Universal movie. (laugh)

FG:  Ah I see (laugh)

FG:  With the number of horror related action figures being released lately, what would you like to see done that hasn’t been done yet?  I actually just got a Darkman figure which I never thought I’d see in a million years be made.

TT:  I always like the classics…I like monsters.  I’m not really a collector but the two McFarlane toys I have are Pumpkinhead and The Fly.  I love all the Alien creatures, the queen I think those are really cool.  But ones that haven’t been done…I think that just about everything has been done.  I don’t think anyone has done a Crypt Keeper yet.

FG:  Actually…I think I have, I used to have a doll of him that talked.  But I don’t think they’ve done a really good diorama of the crypt yet.

FG:  So can we expect more Fangoria conventions coming up this year and next?

TT:  We have a show in LA, Burbank June 4^th and 5^th and that’s going to be one of our biggest shows ever.  You’ll be the first to know that Rob Zombie is coming to our show in Burbank.

FG:  Oh that’s awesome!

TT:  Yeah we are really excited to have him there.

FG:  I know he’s working on the LA holiday parade this year with Bloody Disgusting so I can’t wait to see what a Christmas Parade by Rob Zombie is like.

FG:  So my last question is what kind of advice do you have for an up and coming webzine like Fangirl?

TT:  I would say report the facts.  The problem with a lot of horror websites is they print rumors and they steal from other websites and don’t credit them. So that just makes them seem very unprofessional and Fanboyish.  My advice to you would be just be as professional as possible and report the facts. Don’t print rumors and with a lot of other websites, people just like knocking the other guys and the big boys and you know…just throwing mud around.  Just be above that, stick to the facts and stick to reporting what you enjoy and credit people when you take from other websites.  A lot of horror websites they are always taking listings from Fangoria and our Chopping List and not crediting the information which is kind of annoying.

FG:  When I take anything like that, when I use a story I always put the name of the website and a link to it.

TT:  And that’s the way it should be.

FG:  I know I’m not doing this for profit. I do this for the fact that I love the stuff and it’s a great outlet.  And it gives me the opportunity to do what I love to do and write.  So I think it’s only fair that you give that to the other people that have scooped it first.  Well thank you so much for your time Tony I really appreciate it.

TT:  Thank you it was a pleasure.

TO LIVE AND FUZZ IN L.A. Bright eyed and bushy-tailed (nearly) with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright

Interview by Nic Campos

Frost, Wright, Pegg – Ready for action!

The long wait, fuzzballs, is nearly over – after waiting patiently when the UK (if we’re honest, rightfully) got their dose first, and following two release date bumps to best position it before the big damn summer onslaught, Hot Fuzz – Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s brilliant follow-up to Shaun of the Dead – is released April 20th. Just as lovingly as they sent up the zombie genre with Shaun, the lads have had their wicked way with cop/action films resulting in hands down, the funniest – and in all likelihood, ass-kicking-est – film you’re going to see all year. (And you bet your sweet bippy, we’re a little biased – if it weren’t for the guys’ generosity and taking a chance on some little po-dunk website, Fangirl wouldn’t have gotten off to such a great start two years ago. Plus – full disclosure – I’m a moderator on this most outstanding Simon Pegg forum. Sue me. ;) ) What in the hell is geekery about, though, if you can’t toot the horn of the ones you love? Now back up, ’cause I’m going to blast this trumpet in your face like Mr. Fabulous…

Earlier this month, during their LA pit stop on the five-week promotional US tour for the film – which has included a ragingly successful spate of “Hot Fuzztivals” during which the guys have appeared to do Q&A’s as well as screen the film along with cop genre classics that inspired it – we sat in on the online press junket at the Four Seasons in LA. Mmm, round table junkets at 9 a.m. – always a dodgy prospect, even when our subjects are as bad-assed as these three. And given how hard they’ve been working for weeks pushing the film, it’s a pretty safe bet it’s not their favorite scenario either – the tenacity with which Edgar’s clinging to his coffee when he walks in the room first (Simon and Nick did their round table separately) is palpable. Still, true to form, the guys are entertaining, thoughtful and exceptional interview subjects even in the face of many of the same stale, tired, boring-assed questions they’ve heard on every junket stop so far. (Not that we’re beyond asking questions that have been asked before here at Fangirl – we’re not psychic, after all – but I think I tried to inject something interesting into the mix to keep them on their toes. Then again, my coffee hadn’t kicked in yet, either…)

Here, then, to spare you the monotony of a straight up transcript (of which you’re likely to find several copies on the web anyway at this point), are the highlights of both round tables, much of which doesn’t really have anything to do with Hot Fuzz (Though if we’ve learned you right by now, you don’t need them to sell you the film and have already bought your tickets. Capice?) It’s also peppered with the kind of detail you’re just not going to get out of….oh, I won’t point fingers. You know who you are. (To quote a fine Kathryn Bigelow film that is NOT Point Break – “It’s a test pattern, man, I’m snoring…”):

::

Spoof is a five letter word. Stop using it, dammit!: Early on in Edgar’s round table, albeit quite cheerfully, he executes a brilliant shoot-down of one of the more loathesome comedy terms applied far to often to films like Hot Fuzz: “Me and Simon we always sort of shy away from using the ‘S’ word, spoof, just because. But it’s definitely got parody elements to it, but…unlike spoofs like Scary Movie and that kind of thing and Epic Movie, like what we saw us do is very much kind of like a celebration. It’s more like an homage or a tribute to those films, a love letter, you know?” Swish! – two points, Wright. Immediately afterward, as well, he nails another reporter (Not me!) for indicating that the word “wanker” appears in the film while discussing translating British slang for American audiences. (It doesn’t*. – “Everybody knows what a cunt is though!”)
* I’ve since been corrected that in fact, wanker DOES appear in the film briefly (though in Paddy Considine’s fine West Country accent, it comes out more like “wanngggerrrrr!” Heh.) That doesn’t account for Edgar’s forgetfulness, though. Knackered!

Simon Pegg assures you that part of this is absolutely true: “The 51st straight day,” Nick Frost points out, after the first question lobbed at him and Simon Pegg in their round table (again, for the record, NOT mine!) is whether or not they’re tired of talking about the film. “No, we never get tired of it,” Simon adds. “We love our film and we love selling it.” And as well they should, it’s clear that the guys are exceedingly proud of the film. Though they look fairly chipper, too – particularly Nick, whom I’ve decided owns the world’s most impressive array of snappy striped polo shirts – we’d imagine that selling it is easier sometimes than others. Anyway, read Harmony Carrigan’s kick ass interview with Simon over on Peggster.net if you want a really great answer about the ups and downs of selling the film.

Good memory, Edgar. And thanks for stumping me!: At Comic Con’s Rogue pictures panel, I’d quizzed Edgar about Hot Fuzz‘s Lethal Weapon references and he’d given us a lovely Shane Black anecdote. When I bring it up again, he breaks into sleepy grin: “Oh yeah, yeah, there’s another reference as well actually! You know, I haven’t spoken [to Shane, but] he came to see it and I’ve got to see him whilst I’m here” Did he tell you he actually didn’t write that, I ask? “Yes, he did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he did. Absolutely. He’s interesting, Shane, because…I think he’s almost too modest in a way. He’s very sort of quick to kind of dismiss pretty much all of his films except Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Monster Squad. That’s the one that he’s really [proud of.] He always says that he never wrote the end of Lethal Weapon like that with the fight in the rain. But there is another reference to Lethal Weapon in the scene with the neighborhood watch when they’re talking about the woman who’s had twins, did you catch it?” Oh, shit…looks like I didn’t. “They say,” Edgar intones, gently… “ ’And the boys are going to be called Martin and Roger’.” Ah, hell, I should have caught that one. Bad geek!

Pressure can be a positive thing. And fuck the Daily Mail: “The pressure was entirely from home though, you know?” Simon explains, when asked if following up Shaun was daunting. “It was from ourselves. We didn’t want to disappoint anybody or come across as being one-trick ponies. We wanted to do it again and do it bigger and better, so that pressure was very much a positive thing.” And are they their own worst critics? “No, Christopher Tookey in The Daily Mail is our worst critic.” HA! – Oh, shit, it’s on.

Even comic geniuses have mad crazy stage mums: Only, in this case, it’s their frequent collaborator and heterosexual life partner: “I feel less responsible for Nick these days,” Simon says. “At first, I felt I introduced him into acting and I felt very protective of him when we were doing Spaced together.” Nick chimes in then with, “I’d catch him off set like that watching in the monitor” – he folds his arms and busts out a huge, beaming grin. Simon chuckles: “But now I don’t need to. Now he’s so …” <beat> “You can say good,” Nick prods. “Grounded,” Simon smirks. “I wouldn’t go that far. No, he’s matured so much as an actor, I can quite happily not be at work when he’s [on] – I don’t feel like I have to protect him anymore. But our working relationship is the same as ever.” And their torrid weekend flings? I didn’t ask, I spent most of that answer stifling giggles at the thought of Simon off-camera mouthing all of Nick’s lines in the style of one of the mums out of Painted Babies.

Edgar Wright is ready to burst with details of his Grindhouse trailer: Or if he’s not, you could have fooled us with the way he suddenly leans forward and begins rattling off some of the 30 or so cast members of his 90 second faux trailer in the Tarantino-Rodriguez opus, which at the time of the interview just about to open the following day. I ask him if I correctly spotted Jason Isaacs and he returns with three: “Yep, Jason Isaacs! Matthew MacFadyen… from Hot Fuzz, Lucy Punch.” Did my little eye spy The League of Gentlemen’s Mark Gatiss, too? Oh, he’s getting into this now – “Mark Gatiss is in there, Stuart Wilson. Who else is in there? MyAnna Buring from The Descent, Michael Smiley from Spaced, Peter Serafinowicz is in there, Simon and Nick are in there.” I ask about the stabby little demon seed child actor who is briefly seen in the clip, and whether or not they cast him because he looks like Danny Lloyd out of The Shining, which draws a cackle. “Yeah, he does look exactly like Danny Lloyd! He’s got the same hair. No, that was the thing. We saw his hair – ‘this guy!’ Who else is in there? There’s a lot of people as well. There’s Nicola Cunningham, who played Mary in Shaun of the Dead is in there. Oh also the best one! – the best one is the voiceover on my trailer is Will Arnett which is great.” Yeah, it hasn’t been driving Edgar nuts to keep this one secret until now. At ALL. ;)

Speaking of secrets, Simon and Nick’s next project is still secret. Kinda: As the lads note, the fans on the ‘net are slowly starting to piece together what it’s about from gathering little nuggets in different interviews. But the film Simon and Nick will, hopefully, begin shooting in the fall gets its casing peeled back slightly today: “I think Edgar isn’t going to direct. I think he might or script supervise or produce or something,” Simon notes. The two will play Brits on a road trip across America, and the script will take into it at least part of the actual road trip the duo made across the States earlier this year. “It was amazing. We picked up a very bright, shiny RV here in LA, and we returned it seven days later fucked…up.” Cue giggles: “Because when you hit loads and loads of snow and stuff, it was knackered. I think the official diagnosis was that its brain had broken.” Nick adds, “The on-board computer had gone down.” To which Simon appends, “But it got so cold that the deodorant froze in bottles and it had gotten down to minus 17!” Ah, there’s no other way to do the States, boys. Trust me. She’s a harsh mistress. And what did they take away from the experience? “That Nevada is big and empty,” Nick replies. “There were two days when we drove across Nevada where we actually felt fairly suicidal because we hadn’t seen – because it’s massive – you don’t see anyone. You drive on one two-lane black top for 80 miles and you can see it stretching and then you’d get to the end of it and there’d be a little hump and you’d think, ‘Ah, great. What’s next?’..” <beat> “Another one!” Simon laughs.

And also? Pegg and Frost should totally sue The Mighty Boosh*: Or at least give them a stern talking to, if you ask me. Because the sitcom they reveal they were dreaming up – no, NOT La Triviata, another one entitled Magnetic Park – sounds like Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt somehow thieved gleaned some of that freakiness for their Zooniverse in the first series. “It was a lost classic, I think,” Nick remarks, and Simon adds that it was probably too expensive. Frosty continues: “It was about two park keepers, who took care of a little park in London – but once you went into the park, it was the size of Snowdonia. It was small.” Pegg pitches in: “There were lots of mythological creatures there, and they had a low-speed chase with a giant tortoise.” Holy crap, when did they write this?! “Yeeears ago,” Simon says, “It was just after Spaced.” Before I imply a Booshy lawsuit, however, Nick indicates that he feels it’s unmakeable: “They told it to R&R when we wrote it about firing a rifle at a tortoise and the bullet bounced off into a tree, and a lion falls out of the tree – they didn’t know how to stage it!” Seriously, dude, have a word with the BBC3 team and see if they can’t come up with something. Betcha they can…

Oh, alriiiiight – back to Hot Fuzz. Sorta: At one point, Edgar gets saddled with the dubious sequel question. Oy, vey. Before I can completely break press gang protocol and berate the guilty journo for clearly NOT getting the essence of the film (Good god, I’m punchy today) – anyway, without further adieu, Edgar’s eloquent answer in its entirety: “I wouldn’t do a sequel to Shaun of the Dead. It would be fun to do a sequel to Hot Fuzz, but the weird thing is…both films, they kind of wrap up. You could do further adventures of Angel and Butterman, but the thing is that Simon’s character has gone on such a journey and he’s changed so much by the end. It would kind of be weird to do a second film where he [starts] in the same mode that he ends up at. You know that’s why the Matrix sequels don’t work.” (Cue yours truly nodding emphatically during this bit) – “When the end of the first film is your character becoming a god, where else can it go? The second one starts with like, “Well, maybe he isn’t a god. Okay, and now he is!” (Cue the room laughing, even the guilty journo.) “So when your character becomes omnipotent by the end of the first film, there is no where else to go.” Yeah, I should have broken protocol and stood up and applauded that one.

Nothing – absolutely nothing – beats going to work to play cops and robbers: Okay, this might be more your standard Q, and indeed, A. But it cannot be underlined the giddy glint in the eye that Simon and Nick get while talking about what it was like to be the Fuzz on set. “Oh, it was a daily joy to come into work and jump off things, shooting. It doesn’t get more fun than that….Firing off two .9′s while sleeping through the day,” Simon explains. I ask them when they’re doing an action sequence, what music plays through their head? “Well, from now on it’ll be the theme from Hot Fuzz which is amazing. David Arnold’s music is just great…For me, it’s sort of John Williams style, big orchestra, dramatic sort of music.” Nick’s approach is slightly different: “Mine is hard house. Very…hard… house music. I kind of have a penchant for it.”

Sometimes, there is a reason for sticking the titles at the end…: …beyond merely it being the thing to do since Tarantino made it shit-cool! “You know that’s why the title of the film comes right at the end is because it hasn’t become Hot Fuzz until the end credits,” Edgar explains. “It’s taken two hours to become Hot Fuzz. At the start it was just Lukewarm Fuzz and then it kind of ramps itself up in the last half an hour!”

---

You know, as lovely an analogy as that is, Edgar, I’d be inclined to disagree. I’d stay it actually starts off at Hot Fuzz, segues into Blistering Fuzz, takes a slight detour into Sub-Nuclear Fuzz, and winds up just west of Hotter Than Satan’s Armpit On An August Afternoon Fuzz. But that’s me. As noted, we dont hide our biases around here. ;) DO NOT let that stop you, though, readers, from beating a path to see Hot Fuzz on April 20th! We may be biased, but we’re also right!

Read Jessica’s Hot Fuzz review!

* Of course they shouldn’t sue The Mighty Boosh. I love The Mighty Boosh! It’s an odd coincidence is all, I’m sure. Nothing to do with that shaman the Boosh keep around gleaning details off them with his big book of black magic, nooooo…

Interview By Jessica Dwyer
3/3/05

Welcome to my interview with the very talented Simon Pegg.  He was kind enough to agree to an interview and is quite the chatter; we discussed everything from his newest film he’s writing along with partner in crime Edgar Wright (director of the oh-so- wonderful Shaun of the Dead), to Buffy The Vampire Slayer to Mystery Science Theater 3000.  We also get a bit of insight to what his part in the new Doctor Who is.  Yes, I get shamelessly girlie a bit here and there. But hey…I’m a Fangirl.  I’m allowed.

::

SP:  Hello, Jessica.

FG:  Hey Simon, how are you?

SP:  Not too bad.  Me and Edgar are busy writing the latest film, but we’ve been sort of procrastinating watching Chuck Norris movies and pretending that’s inspiration.

FG:  Oh, Chuck Norris is very inspirational.

SP: I’ve never seen someone with so little charisma.

FG:  Oh yeah, there you go.  Walker, Texas Ranger all the way. Well, let me start off by not making you rehash all the stuff you’ve been asked before.  What is the question you are most tired of being asked?

SP:  “How did you come up with the idea of Shaun of the Dead?”

FG:  Really?  I was betting on “Is there going to be a 3rd series of Spaced?”

SP:  That used to be the one.  We’d get asked that a lot, but it’s sort of been overtaken.  We’ve done so much press for Shaun that it was always the first question in every interview, “Where did you get that idea from?”  The third series of Spaced – weirdly there is this graffiti artist in London that is going around spray painting “Spaced Series 3” everywhere.  And it’s making everyone think we are doing some kind of viral marketing campaign.

FG:  (laugh) That’s going to get you busted.

SP:  (laugh)  Yeah, I know.

FG:  That’s really nice of him.

SP:  I think it’s pretty cool, actually.

FG:  It is pretty cool, but one day your going to get a knock at your door and it’s going to be the police.

SP:  (laugh)  I know.

FG:  Yeah, thanks buddy. The next question.  The Shaun action figures I’d heard rumored about.  Are those happening and who’s making them?

SP:  There was some talk of it some time ago.  There is definitely a Shaun of the Dead comic coming out.  We just received the covers of it the other day and it looks really good. But the action figures are something we’ve discussed.  There are like two or three companies that want to make them.  We were just touched about making Spaced figures recently.

FG:  Really?  That’d be wonderful.

SP:  Yeah.  See, the action figure industry today is people who were kids back in the 70’s when the first action figures came out and they are wanting to reignite their passion for it in their adulthood. So you get action figures for things like My Dinner With Andre.

FG:  I know that McFarlane is doing some awesome stuff.

SP:  Yeah, and hopefully it’s ripe for doing.  There was talk about doing Shaun, Ed and a zombie.  But I can’t say anything definite.

FG:  That would be very cool.

SP:  Yeah I think it would be fantastic.

FG:  Then I could make movies with my Bruce Campbell action figure and have him and Shaun battling the undead.

SP:  Yes, you could make my dreams come true.   I’d be in a movie with Bruce.

FG:  (laugh)  Exactly.  I know there’s a company in California that can make your own for $3500.00 dollars.

SP:  Wow, that’s cool…

FG: They actually get a box and everything for you and give you little accessories if you want.

SP:  When they did our signings in LA there was a guy who came along, I think he was one of the guys who sent me something for my birthday, Robb I think.  He made two little action figures of Shaun and Ed.
FG:  I saw the pictures, those are really cool.

SP:  It was very cool.

Fanboy for life: Simon Pegg also does the voice of Johnny Alpha of 2000 AD fame for BBC Radio, as well as appearing in the Doctor Who audio “Invaders From Mars”

FG:  I know you were talking about Hot Fuzz, is that what you are writing right now?

SP:  Yeah.

FG:  It sounds really great, seeing you guys as cops would be wonderful.  It sounds hilarious.

SP:  Yeah (laugh)

FG:  Is it going to be more of an homage to the British gangster movies?

SP:  No, if anything it’s a reaction against them.  It’s kind of like, um… it seems that one of the main staples of British movie making recently has been the glamorizing of the London gangster scene, and we want to get away from that and make it about the police, about the opposite thing.  Because I think it was Britain saying “We want to be as bad as America.” With all these films about…like The Godfather and the American criminal fraternity.  We were feeling left out a bit and all of a sudden we’ve built our own little romantic gangster scene.  Which does exist but not quite as stylistically.

FG:  Not with all the Mini Coopers running around.

SP:  NO.  But I am exposed to films like Get Carter – the original film – and The Italian Job will have an influence on it, yeah.

FG:  That ‘s going to be cool.  Okay, so speaking of films.  What is your opinion of the massive rehash of re-do’s and re-makes that Hollywood is doing, including Evil Dead. Which just confuses the heck out of me, since Evil Dead 2 was the remake.

SP:  I know, and that’s kind of weird though.  I’m surprised…I know Sam Raimi has an argument and Bruce Campbell is defensive of it, saying there is a whole generation of kids who haven’t seen it.  My advice is go to video store, you know? It really gets on my nerves. It represents this apocalyptic death of ideas.  It’s like come on, surely there must be some new stuff out there.  It’s all about brand names, recognizable terms. The reason they remade Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the film title.  Most people had heard of it, but little people had seen [it].  It’s the idea of, if we get Starsky and Hutch or Miami Vice or The Brady Bunch, we get names that people will know and they’ll go see.  It’s lazy.

FG:  I think it’s a copout.

SP:  It’s a huge copout, I think they should stop immediately.

FG:  I did a rant on my website about it, because I’m just so frustrated.  And they are doing Amityville Horror now too.

SP:  I know, and that’s the weird thing, ’cause that’s not even a very good film to begin with! It’s good in a kind of 80’s shlockish, fun way, but it’s not a particularly great movie.  The only thing is… the title has passed into mythology thanks to the video boom in the 80’s and they are like “Oh, we’ll do that because people will recognize the name.”

FG:  Exactly!  Well I do have a bit of good news on the Evil Dead one.  I read somewhere that Bruce Campbell has said “That’s fine, okay do it.  But nobody in it can be named Ash.”

SP:  That’s a good thing.

FG:  Yes.

SP:  We all know who the real Ash is.

FG:  There’s only one king.

SP:  Exactly.

FG:  Well, let’s go to something happier.

SP:  Okay, yes don’t get me on a rant.

FG:  With the reception of Final Demand do yourself doing more dramatic stuff, or more comedy in the future.  Would you like to do more drama?

SP:  Well, I don’t really sort of distinguish in a way because I think acting is acting.  Comedy… there are kinds of comedy that are sort of clowning around.  Shaun of the Dead, we wanted that to be underpinned by quite realistic performances, whether what we were saying was funny or not, you know.  Yeah, I wouldn’t mind doing something that was more straight with less jokes in it.  I enjoy acting, it would be fun. As far as Final Demand, it was really serious stuff, there was hardly any comedy in it. If there was a funny character in it, it was me, ’cause I was this slightly countrified yokel that was… cheated on.  I wouldn’t mind doing that kind of stuff.

FG:  That’s good.  I’d like to see you in more…well I’d like to see you in more stuff period. You were so amazing in Shaun…you cry really well.

SP:  (Laugh)  Well that’s really funny.  Cause we you know, he’s going through all this stuff.  When I see people crying in films I think they’re trying to get an Oscar. But you know, he can’t go through all this…he’s only a shop boy.  He’s watching his family die all around him, he would be a cry baby.

FG:  I think anybody would.

SP:  They’d have to be.

FG:  That kind of leads in to what I was going to ask.  How hard is it to get yourself into that frame of mind?  Especially the “Mom” scene, I mean, man…that was your Oscar moment.

SP:  (laugh)  I know…By that time we were all so tired.  We’d been shooting for a long time, that set was very hot.  You know we were up against time and emotions were running high.  Jesus, the crew were crying, let alone me.  So you know…me and Nick both had moments were we just had to sort of you know go out and have a bit of a cry just because we were just that tired.  So it wasn’t too difficult.  You know, Penelope – Penelope Wilton, who plays Barbara – is actually very similar looking to my own mum.  She’s a lot taller than my mum, but she does look like her…so having to do that…She’s such a great actress, so having to kinda cradle her in my arms while she shivered and shook and said goodbye, you know it was very difficult to do anyway.

FG:  Awww…Oh man I bet that was hard. Kinda of a follow up to that – I think Shaun had some of the best acting I saw last year…

SP:  Bless you Jessica.

FG:  Oh it was an awesome, awesome film.  I mean look at how much I’ve been inspired by it.

SP:  I know it’s great, it’s fantastic.  We’re very thrilled by the response we’re getting from it.

FG:  Well you know the PeggLeggs, we love you.

SP:  (laugh)  I’m still amazed by that website.  I saw it and…uh jeez, it’s just brilliant.  I’ve never seen so many pictures of myself in one place, I was just shocked.  Harmony, it’s really excellent! I’m very flattered. [Ed. note: Harmony runs www.peggster.net, and it's awesome!]

FG:  You’re worth it.  You’re one of the best actors I’ve seen in a long time.

SP:  Aw thank you.

FG:  How do you feel…and I just want to congratulate you for the award, winning the NME Award for best picture.

SP:  Yeah!

FG:  How do you feel about the short shaft genre television and film – particularly like Buffy with the Emmy’s, having never won one – how do you feel in the way it seems we still have to fight for what respect that those films and TV get?

SP:  Yeah, I think it’s because…These award things are always presided over by panels and people, and if they don’t consider…quite often genre television and comedy, and it’s kind of understandable, but they are considered non-serious.

FG:  Right.

SP:  I mean we were the only comedy film really nominated in the entire BAFTA line up, the sort of British Oscars.  Shaun was the only comedy in all of that.  Because people don’t…and horror, people don’t really consider it serious. People make jokes about films that win Oscars are always about people with disabilities or hardship things. It’s kinda true, you know, a lot of awards and panels will pick up on human concerns and see genre stuff as being less worthy, in a way.  Which is a shame, but maybe that’s why it has such a fierce and loyal following. And Buffy, particularly “The Body” and “Hush”, were two episodes that should have had awards heaped upon them because they changed television.  You know Joss Whedon is a great writer and an extraordinarily innovative sort of artist and he absolutely deserved Emmy’s coming out of his arse it was such a great show.

FG:  Oh, especially “The Body.”

SP:   Yeah, it was shocking.

FG:  Sarah Michelle Gellar, with her work in Scooby Doo (laugh)…you know, the acting she did in that was just amazing.

SP:  I know, but it’s a horrible truth about the world…in that more people have seen Sarah Michelle Gellar, you know, mincing around as Daphne than any who have seen her act in that episode as Buffy.  And everybody should have seen that episode of Buffy.

FG:  Yeah, I mean the fact that there was no, up until the very tail end, there was no supernatural aspects.  That was just amazing.

SP:  Yeah, and when it happened you kinda went “Oh yeah, this is Buffy.”

FG:  (laugh)  Oh yeah, there are vampires in there!

FG:  Okay I’m kind of going on to the geek questions now.

SP:  Bring ‘em on.

FG:  Of all the filmmakers you’ve seen lately, who do you want to see more from, less from, and who do you want to shut the fuck up and fall off a cliff?

SP:  (laugh)  Oh dear, that’s quite hard.  Well I’d love to see more Edgar Wright films.

FG:  I think we all would.

SP:  We were watching a bit of Kill Bill today and it reminded me how much I love Tarantino.  I think he’s such a great filmmaker.  He’s got such a, you know, he’s got such a lot of love going into what he does.

FG:  Did you know he’s doing the season finale of CSI?

SP:  I heard he was doing some TV but I didn’t know it was CSI, that’s cool.

FG:  He’s actually writing and directing it.

SP:  Oh wow, I think he’s brilliant, you know I could never get enough of him.  I’d like to see more Wes Anderson.  I love his kind of stuff.  You know, I love his sort of quirky.  His style of direction is sort of beguiling.  Sometimes the films are sort of…the last one, The Life Aquatic was sort of meandering, but was so full of nice things to look at so you forgive him for that.

FG:  And Bill Murray is just great.

SP:  Right…I love Bill Murray.  Who would I like to see less of…I don’t know, I don’t like to bitch you know?

FG:  Feel free to bitch (laugh)

SP:  (laugh)  Those kind of films like Alien vs. Predator you know, films that the studios can’t commit to being proper big horrors like Alien or even Aliens was.  It’s got be sort of bloodless.  Has to be some sort of popcorn entertainment.

FG:  The PG-13 horror films now, I just want to kill someone.

SP:  I could stand seeing less video game to movie transfers.  I want to see more Robert Rodriguez.  I can’t wait to see Sin City.

FG:  Oh gosh, that’s funny!  That’s one of my other questions I was gonna ask you.  What do you think of the Sin City trailer?

SP:  I haven’t seen it yet!  I mean I’m a massive Frank Miller fan and we hung out with Robert when we were in Austin and of course Greg Nicotero did all the, from KNB Effects, did a lot of the special make-up for the film.  He’s a great friend of ours from going out on Shaun and then Land of the Dead.  So I know a lot about the film and I’m really excited about it

FG:  Did you know Frank Miller is in it?

SP:  Yeah, and Robert Rodriguez is sharing credit with him as a director, and that’s causing lots of problems because he’s not in the union or something and there was a lot of fuss about it.  So Robert Rodriguez said well he virtually took Frank’s comic book as the storyboard so he deserves the credit, which I think is really good.

FG:  That’s awesome.  I didn’t know that, that’s great.  It looks amazing, so if you get a chance you should see it.

SP:  I’ll log on as soon as I get home and watch it.

FG:  It’s just beautiful, it’s just beautiful looking.

FG:  As an actor, what character from any comic book, graphic novel would you most like to play, and as a writer what one would you most like a crack at adapting for film?

SP: It’s funny actually, the last time I said this it got me into trouble, because I said Rorschach from The Watchmen and then suddenly it’s all over the net that I’m playing him.  I met Lloyd Levin the producer of the film and I mentioned it to him, that if it comes up to think about me.  But uhm, I guess the, from comic book characters…there’s actually a character named Johnny Alpha from 2000 AD.

FG:  I’ve heard the audio things you’ve done and they’re great.

SP:  Well, and I got to play him and he’s one of my real comic hero’s you know.  And he’s got cool eyes.  But I’ve already played him.  Well you know I’d like to be on the Simpsons right? (laugh)

FG:  (laugh) I’ve actually got over 230 signatures for that petition now.

SP:  (laugh)  REALLY?  That’s great!  That’s crazy!

FG:  I’m gonna send that off to Fox by the way.

SP:  Oh you should, and Greg knows someone there at Fox, he’s gonna have a word too.

FG:  Well what was funny was that somebody put on there…there’s been two really good quotes.  Someone said “I’m gonna cut somebody’s nuts off if you don’t do this.” And then someone said “I’ll eat my own ass.”

SP:  (LAUGH)  Oh that’s good, I like that kind of support.

FG:  Yeah you’ve got…well someone from Israel got on there too.

SP:  That’s crazy…

FG:  It’s amazing, you’re worldwide.

SP:  Fantastic.  I find that very surprising.  I don’t know, in terms of adapting I’ve always been a huge Batman fan. I’d like to have taken control of the last three Star Wars films and written those for George.  All the best Star Wars media now, which is basically the games, are written by fans.  Cause the stuff he writes is no good.

FG:  Oh yeah, well no doubt.  He’s Jabba…he’s Jabba in plaid.

SP:  Exactly.

FG:  They’re talking about Kevin Smith doing a TV series.

SP:  I heard about this…yeah.

FG:  And they are talking about having Mark Hamill in it too.

SP:  He’d do a good job too I’m sure.

FG:  Oh yeah …Kevin is a big time Star Wars fan too.

SP:  Oh yeah definitely.  I think he’s over in the UK this month.  I might try to say hello.

FG:  Get yourself on the show, be a Jedi.

SP:  That’d be cool…I do have a light saber.  I bought one of those master replica light sabers.  I had a big pitch battle with a friend of mine the other night, and all the neighbors came out.

FG:  (LAUGH)  That’s awesome.  I actually did that in the middle of a Wal-Mart once.

SP:  That’s fantastic.  I think it’s always good to do it in a very public places.

FG:  I got chased down by a guard.

SP:  Good for you.

FG:  And the other guy was trying to beat me with a plunger that he’d found.

SP:  (LAUGH)  You’re crazy, Jessica.

FG:  Since you said you’re a Batman fan, I’ve got to ask this, Adam West or Michael Keaton, that you would pick as the best?

SP:  Ah, that’s kind of a hard one, cause there’s a place for the kind of camp Batman.  It’s not mine really, because I prefer Frank Miller’s Batman.  But I’ve always thought that the best kind of Batman would be a beefed up Clint Eastwood.

FG:  Ohh the older kind.

SP:  Yeah cause he kinda has to be big, Bruce Wayne is a giant.  Bruce Wayne is big.

FG:  Kinda like the cartoon.

SP:  Yeah, he’s like a big guy.  It’s like his true self is Batman and he’s his..uhm like Batman is his secret identity.  You know, it’s the opposite of what you think it is.

FG:  Exactly.

SP:  When he’s Batman, it’s like Batman is his natural costume.

FG:  You know, I never thought of it before, but after you saying Clint Eastwood.  If they ever make, and I wish they would, Kingdom Come as a movie.  He would be great.

SP:  Yeah, I think he looks like Gregory Peck in that.

FG:  He does!  And Linda Carter still looks like Wonder Woman enough.

SP:  Yeah yeah, she’d be great.  I love the ending when they are asking him to be godfather.

FG:  (laugh)  He just looks at them and says you’re pregnant.  He knows, he knows everything cause he’s Batman.  That was an amazing comic, it’s one of my faves.

SP:  It’s fantastic.

FG:  Okay, another geek question.  Who would you want on your side fighting minions of darkness, Buffy or Ash?

SP:  Awww…that’s tough.

FG:  There’s perks with both.

SP:  Oh, I dunno…I’d just have to say both.  Just because Ash for the wisecracks and Buffy for the eye candy (laugh).

FG:  So you’d have to both.

SP:  Yeah.

FG:  That would be a fanboy’s dream right there.  Really, you have no idea.

SP:  Absolutely.

FG:  Preferred method of interstellar travel:  Millennium Falcon, TARDIS, or Enterprise?

SP:  Oh the Falcon.

FG:  I was gonna say, it was a giveaway but I thought I’d ask.

FG:  Do you really hate the Timewarp?

SP:  I’m not huge fan of Rocky Horror but I, but Richard O’Brien who wrote it was really nice and let us use that in Spaced.  We spoke to him in person.   I watched it on TV the other night, it’s not so much the…the show and the film are really innovative and funny.  And I went and saw this band, their not massive in the States yet, but this band called Scissor Sisters who are American from New York, and I saw them on Halloween and they all dressed up as Rocky Horror.  And I must admit, it was more the people around me that got on my nerves, it wasn’t the film.

FG:  Their kinda psychotic aren’t they?  They’re a little bit psycho (Editors Note:  No offense to the Rocky Fans, I’ve had some bad experiences :) ).

SP:  They think they are doing something really risky liking it.

FG:  The Scissor Sisters are great.  I was going to ask you if you knew that Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) is from like 45 minutes from where I live?

SP:  No way!

FG:  Salem Oregon.  I found that out the other day and thought that was pretty funny.

SP:  I bumped into him in LA at the beginning of the year when we were up there doing press for Shaun.  My agent had me go to this casting call because I hadn’t done any in the States yet and I was casting with him.  It was quite strange.

FG:  Oh what were you casting for?

SP:  It was for some Will Ferrell movie.  Neither of us got it, but it was quite fun to do.

FG:  You’re probably better off after having seen the Bewitched trailer.

SP:  (laugh)

FG:  Okay, favorite villain of all time?

SP:  Favorite villain of all time….probably Darth Vader.

FG:  Vader, even after you know he was Jake Lloyd?

SP:  Even though he’s got bad hair.  Even though he had a bowl haircut when he was a kid.  I don’t acknowledge that.  I just remember him from when I was a kid.  I actually got bought for my birthday a Darth Vader helmet.

FG:  Oh was it the voice changer?

SP:  I don’t think so, it’s just a plastic helmet.  My friend, you know…oh now I can’t remember.

FG:  (laugh)

SP:  It was bought for me by a famous person, but I’m not going to say because it would be a really big name drop.  It was bought for me by Darth Vader himself.

FG:  Really?  Are you serious because so many people would fall over right now if you said you were friends with James Earl Jones.

SP:  I’m friends with Darth himself (laugh)

FG:  You know I’ve been thinking….I saw that big Vanity Fair picture…

SP:  Oh yeah.

FG:  And I looked at it…and I saw Christopher Lee there, and I thought what would have made this just so cool is if Peter Cushing were still around…

SP:  Yeah, I’m surprised that George just didn’t fucking put him in there, didn’t CGI him in there.

FG:  He does everything else!   I’m a Hammer fan too so I would have been like AAH!

Simon as the baddie from the new Doctor Who, living the Fanboy Dream

FG:  Okay, so who is your favorite Doctor Who?

SP:  Tom Baker.

FG:  Everybody says Baker.

SP:  Yeah, he was my Doctor growing up.  It was enormous fun for me when I just did the new series.  To say, to call him the Doctor to say to him “You won’t escape from here Doctor!”  It was incredible rite of passage having grown up with that show and to have the Doctor in manacles in front of me.

FG:  Oh that’s awesome!

SP:  It was so great, it was a dream come true.

FG:  I would be giddy…I would be so giddy.

SP:  You know it was a funny year for that, because I ended up being in a George Romero film and being a villain in Doctor Who, its like how many dreams can come true?  And that was in the space of like two months.

FG:  How much did you hate Alien vs. Predator?

SP:  Well to be honest, me and Edgar were in uhm…somewhere in Seattle when it came out, and we went to see Garden State, which we loved and then we snuck in to Alien vs. Predator after because they were playing the Shaun of the Dead trailer with it.  Then we sat and we watched just about 15 min’s of it and Edgar fell asleep, so I said we’re going home. So I actually haven’t seen it.

FG:  (laugh)

SP:  So we’ve seen the first bit, but it seemed kinda like…eh.

FG:  Spare yourself, don’t see it.  I actually did a review of it where I called it the death of film.

SP:  NICE.

FG:  Oh…I was so pissed after I walked out of the theater because I went a midnight showing of it and had to go to work the next day.

SP:  Yeah, that’s when we went, that time of night when we went.  But it was just so boring.

FG:  Oh, well they totally screwed the time frame too.  They made Lance Henriksen’s character who was alive in Alien 3, suddenly he was alive in the 2000’s.

SP:  Yeah, it was such a needless cash-in really.

FG:  Well I’ve got one more question and I’ll wrap this up since I think I went over with my time.

SP:  Oh, nah…ask your questions. I can hear Edgar in the next room watching bad films so…

FG:  So I’m kind of sparing you?

SP:  Yeah.

FG:  (laugh)  Okay, Shaun had its gory bits for sure, especially David’s death.  Have you ever had a movie that actually made you queasy?

SP:  I don’t find films… the more realistic stuff makes me queasy.  I mean, I watch The Thing and love every second of it, but when he cuts his thumb to get the blood for the blood test, that’s the bit that makes me go HUH…  The bit in Rocky where he cuts his eye.  Usually gore doesn’t really get me.  Most gore, especially in horror films, is done with a certain amount of glee. Uh..stuff that’s slightly more gritty or real.  That film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

FG:  Oh yeah, that’s awful.  The thing that gets me is Saving Private Ryan.

SP:  Yes, the first part of that film is so visceral

FG:  The part at the end when the Nazi kills the Jewish solider.

SP:  Adam Goldberg…yeah.

FG:  I can’t watch it.

SP:  Especially when he’s doing that “SHHHH…”

FG:  And it’s so slow…

SP:  Yeah, it’s terrible.

FP:  Ugh…Okay…Have you seen Mystery Science Theater 3000?

SP:  OH YEAH!  I LOVE THAT SHOW!

FG:  And if you have, which is apparently the case.  And if you haven’t seen it Manos the Hands of Fate is the best.  You have to see that one.

SP:  (laugh)

FG:  What movie do you want a crack at MST’ing?

SP:  Well it’s so funny you should say that, it’s quite weird.  I discovered that, it was like over 10 years ago when I was in New York. And I just found it on Comedy Central and thought it was the best thing I’d ever seen. But me and Edgar were watching this film today called Silent Rage.  Which is sorta semi sci-fi Chuck Norris movie, where he goes up against, its pre-Terminator, but he goes up against this supposedly indestructible genetically engineered killing machine.  And because it is so fucking awful, we said today, we said we just Mystery Science Theater’d that film for the whole thing.  We just sat there making silly comments through the whole thing.  So I would have to say that one, because we’ve had a rehearsal.

FG:  (laughing)  That’s hilarious.

SP:  Ain’t that weird?

FG:  (laugh)  So what piece of memorabilia in your collection truly shows your pure fanboy geekness?

SP:  Well I have in my office now the front page of the Southern Globe with the headline “The Dead Walk” which is from the beginning of Day of the Dead.

FG:  The actual one?

SP:  Yep, the actual paper which was a present from Greg Nicotero.  I’m sure there were probably many of them made but it’s a framed page from the film.  And also next to that I have Bugs…I have Bub from Day of the Dead.  And then next to him I’ve got a zombie bunny in a box.

FG: (laugh)  I wonder who gave you that? (Editors note: this was a birthday present that I sent in a box with goodies from the other fangirls for Simon’s birthday in February.)

SP:  I wonder? (laugh)

FG:  The best part was the instructions for feeding on the back.

SP:  (laugh) I know he’s brilliant.  I’ve kept him in the box, he’s too cool.  I also got a Simpsons picture signed by Nancy Cartwright of which I’m very proud of.  I even have a pair of goggles from the Hoth battle sequence in the Empire Strikes Back.

FG:  Oh that’s awesome.  Now I know where to break into if I ever come to London.

SG:  (laugh)

FG:  Okay, the final question.  Who would play you, in the movie version of your life?

SP:  OOH… That’s a good one. Hmmm… Giovanni Ribisi.

FG:  Oh he’s good.  I just caught him in Flight of the Phoenix (Editor’s note: uncanny resemblance to Simon in this as well)

SP:  Yeah, he’s great.  I loved him in the Wonder Years.  But I don’t know who would play a young me.  Not Haley Joel Osmet.

FG:  Not Jake Lloyd.

SP:  (laugh) No.

Going To Pieces is a new documentary based on the book of the same name.  It covers the Slasher Genre as a force to reckon with in the movie industry, its rise and fall, and it’s rebirth of late.  It’s a reminder that the Slasher genre is something that entails far more than blood, guts, and breasts.

The film is produced by Candy Heart Productions Rudy Scalese and Rachel Belofsky.  Rachel is a woman of note in the horror industry, which we Fangirl’s love to see.  She’s behind Screamfest in LA, a huge film festival highlighting the newest in horror films.

Rudy Scalese who’s worked alongside Wes Craven on New Nightmare.  From there he moved on to talent management working with genre faves like Brent Spiner and Devon Sawa and a career as a literary manager for Pierce Gardner (writer of Lost Souls) and Jake Wade Wall (Halloween 9 and When a Stranger Calls).  Rudy is a horror fan to the core and he took some time to answer a few questions for us here at Fangirl.

Paul Lynch (director of Prom Night) Rudy Scalese (producer Going to Pieces) and Bob Clark (director of Black Christmas)

FG: There have been a glut of PG-13 horror films that have become somewhat the norm for horror of late.  These more sedate movies from most fan views don’t have the bite of the original slasher flicks of the 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s.  Was this documentary a sort of reminder of what those films were like and to bring visibility back to that type of horror?

RS: Well the key word in that question is “reminder” and that is the one word that came to mind when I finished the book back in 2003.  The Slasher film was a breed of film that pretty much evolved in the wake of Halloween, Friday the 13th, Prom Night, Terror Train and He Knows You’re Alone.  These movies had a major impact on my life (yes it was a good impact).  When Friday the 13th made 40 million dollars for Paramount, of course, Hollywood took notice of this “type” of film.  They toyed with it, made a lot of money of it, then exploited it and bled it dry, and eventually ran it into the ground.

However the true Slasher film can be found around the years of 1980-1983 and those that have that raw, grainy independent feel to them that studios were never able to reproduce.  Those Slasher films also brought fourth a new type of violence to the screen and that being what terrible way the human body could be disposed off with a sharp weapon, hence the word slash.  And as genre God Adam Rockoff points out in his book “From the moment an arrow shoots up through the neck of Jack (Kevin Bacon) as he lies in bed smoking a joint, the horror film was never the same”.  It was just time to see something like that on screen.  If you watch some of these films today, unfortunately some do appear dated.  However, they are still scary to those who truly grew up on them, like Adam Rockoff and myself, and we have very fond memories of them.  They are just a slice of cinematic history that now can be looked back upon and finally appreciated.

We couldn’t cover everything in the documentary so I urge everyone to go out and buy the book after you have tuned into Starz to watch the documentary of course, and really get the full impact of the Slasher Film and quite Frank, Adam Rockoff has carefully captured the heart & soul of these films that is safely bound between the cover’s of the book.  And nothing beats the title.  So with, as you call it “glut” of successful PG-13 Horror movies that have risen from the depths of Horror genre Hell, (all thanks to the truly successful and well deserved 1996′s Scream, boy that Wes just keeps reinventing the genre doesn’t he?) with films like The Ring, The Boogeyman, When A Stranger Calls (remake) Hollywood has tapped into an even younger audience they can market Horror films too.  Clearly these films feel strained of violence and gore (hence the PG-13 rating) but nonetheless, like the once popular Slasher film, this new breed of Horror film are making money and as long as they continue to make money, you can expect plenty of PG-13 Horror films in the future.

Regardless of what “trend” or what “cycle” Horror films go through, they are just evolving like everything else, and at the end of the day, the Slasher Film has now become fertile roots for which anything can grow from.  Thanks to Starz for making this an original Starz production, now everyone can take a little trip down Slasher lane and hopefully have a new found respect for the genre.  Many people think that Starz only shows movies, but they produce some really cool original programs!!

FG: Remakes are a double edged sword from fan reactions.  How do you as a filmmaker feel about them, and was this covered in the documentary?  If so, what sort of reactions from those interviewed did you receive?

RS: Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to truly cover the area of “remakes” for Slasher film alone.  How do I feel about them? Well one thing for sure is I loved the remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD & THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.  The filmmaker took jumper cables to both of those 70′s classics and boy did their engines ever rev up and made two films they found their way into my Horror DVD collection.  I unfortuantely cannot say the same about some other remakes so quite frankly, yes there are some classics that can make use of a little of today’s cosmetic surgery while other’s should just be left alone.

FG: Was there one universal thought or feeling that came through the interviews that really stood out and was repeated by many of those spoken to?

RS: Pretty much the theme that Horror films are rollercoaster rides.  Everyone pretty much seemed to be in agreement with that.

The late Joseph Stefano (writer of Psycho)

FG: People tend to sell slasher films short when it comes to content.  What do you say to people who consider them throw away films, and what can we expect from the documentary to show that there’s more to these movies than meets the eye?

RS: I would actually hold up my interview in Fangoria Magazine to those who throw away or dismiss Slasher films in anyway, becuase here was a boy who has subscribed to Fangoria since he was 14 and thanks to Slasher films, I produced my first movie on them and made it into the single most coveted magazine within the Horror Genre.  That was a career achievement for me and something that is well respected.  One thing the book does for anyone who is blessed enough to take the time out to read it, is you feel the passion of Adam’s words of someone who took these films seriously.  Hey, they may not be the most respected films in American Cinema, but clearly someone did and that is Adam Rockoff who put into perspective this bastard child of Horror genre and made it a class act.  And the same people who are interviewed in the book, along with some fun surprises, you get that feeling.  Here are a group of people who lent their artistic talents to a certain type of film and they are proud of it, Betsy Palmer, Amy Holden Jones, Paul Lynch, Lilyan Chauvin, and the list goes on.  All of those talented people along with countelss others took the time out and dedicated themselves as artists to create art.  Once again it may not be the most saught after art, but at the end of the day, its art to people like myself, Adam Rockoff and Michael Ruggerio the Starz executive and Starz themselves.

One of the toughest women in Slasher history, Betsey Palmer (AKA Mrs. Voorhees from Friday the 13th) during filming of Going To Pieces

FG: Women in slasher films are, more often than not, the victim.  That became the view of most people and the rule of thumb.  But many seem to forget that the blueprint film for a lot of the slasher killer movies that would be released over the years, Friday the 13^th, the killer was a woman.  How does Going to Pieces show case this, as Betsy Palmer is featured, and can you touch upon how the new wave of horror films have given women a more active role such as Tiffany in Bride of Chucky and Amanda in the Saw series?

RS: Women have and always will have a dominate role in Horror films whether it be an unsuspecting victim who stole $40,000 dollars and decided to step into a shower or have it be a scorned mother whose poor little boy “supposedly” drowned at a day camp because the counselor’s weren’t paying attention.  The documentary brings attention to this when critics like Gene Siskel attacked Slasher films for being “against women” and the killer was typically always a male brandishing knives at women cowering in the he corner.  Well for every Slasher film that had a male killer, there was a female one lurking right around the corner.  For a Halloween (Killer was Michael Myers) there was a Friday the 13th (Killer was Mrs. Voorhees).  For every My Bloody Valentine (Killer was Axel Palmer) there was a Happy Birthday To Me (Killer was Ann Thomerson) and for every Madman (Killer was Madman Marz) there was a Night School (Killer was Eleanor Adjai)  And again times have changed and the Slasher film has evolved right alone with it.  Lets not forget the new breed of Slasher film that popped up and had women killers in Scream 2 & Urban Legends.  Tiffany in Bride & Seed of Chucky you just can’t beat.  I mean it certainly added more flavor to an aging Horror series and turning Amanda in the Saw series from victim to killer status is just one of the many twists that elevates the intelligence behind the Saw series above everyone else.  Anyone who isn’t a fan of Saw or its sequels clearly shouldn’t be watching Horror films.

Interview By Harmony Carrigan
1/7/2006

How excited am I?! My first FanGirl interview and its with the awesomely talented Robert Joy! You may have seen him, most recently, in George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead as Riley’s shadow Charlie. He has also appeared in Atlantic City, Amityville 3D, The Dark Half, and guest-starred in television series like “Star Trek: Voyager”, “Alias”, “Medium”, and “CSI:NY”. Soon he will be appearing in the remake of Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes as Lizard. Keep an eye out for that!

::

FG: I read that George Romero wanted you for the part of Charlie in Land of the Dead, after having worked with you on his film The Dark Half. How was that? Did he just call you up one day and say, “Hey, want to be in my next zombie film”?

RJ: I got the Land of the Dead audition in the normal way, through my agent. When I arrived at the audition, however, George told me that he remembered me from The Dark Half and that I had done something special with that small role. He wanted to see what I could bring to the role of Charlie. My audition, in front of George and a committee of producers, went well. Most of the other candidates for the role were big, lumbering guys, so I guess he cast me “against type”.

“I have bad dreams. Hell, yes. Just look at me, you can tell I have terrible dreams.”  – Charlie, LOTD

FG: Would you ever play a zombie?

RJ: It’s hard to say whether I would ever play a zombie. I’d have to see the script first. Even the role of Big Daddy, the lead zombie in LOTD, has a relatively small emotional range, and the actor had to spend untold hours in the make-up chair, and those contact lenses hurt his eyes. So, that’s the down side. But hey, I had to spend a lot of time in the SFX make-up chair too; and if the pay is right, and the zombie memorable, I’d probably do it.

FG: What’s up with the tv series “E-Ring”? You were in the first episode then, unless I’ve missed you, you haven’t re-appeared since. Are you still part of the cast?

RJ: I loved playing Agent Boskovich in the “E-Ring” pilot. The original plan had been for the character to recur in a multiple-episode “arc”. I was looking forward to that. In the meantime I landed a part on “CSI:NY” (another Jerry Bruckheimer production) as the coroner, and the “CSI:NY” people wanted me to recur in that series too. I, of course, wanted to do both. Bruckheimer’s people, however, didn’t want an actor in two of their series on the same night on two different networks, so they hired me on “CSI:NY” and released me from “E-Ring”. I still hope to reappear on “E-Ring” one of these days. In the meantime, I enjoy playing Sid Hammerback, the coroner on “CSI:NY” (CBS, Wednesdays at 10PM).

FG: One of my favourite performances of yours is as ‘Madison Storm’ in the computer game Goosebumps: Escape From Horrorland. I remember when it came out, I was a Goosebumps fanatic and wanted it so badly (I didn’t even own a computer back then!). I do own the game now, though and occasionally, when I’m really bored, I’ll play it (hey, its hilarious!). How was that to make?

RJ: The Goosebumps game was a unique shoot in my experience. I hadn’t done a game before, and I haven’t done another since. We shot on a sound stage in Studio City, and everything was done in front of green screen, so the CGI visuals could be added in post-production. I was given a lot of leeway in my performance, and encouraged to be outrageous, so it was a lot of fun. Physically, though, I had a bad scare. One day, I spent 18 hours in a big latex foam monster make-up, which was glued to my face and head. The studio was hot, and the make-up became increasingly uncomfortable as the hours passed. When it was finally removed – it was after midnight – my face was covered in pustules, a hideous rash of some kind, in reaction to the combination of latex, adhesive and heat. The producers rushed me to some Beverly Hills dermatologist (whom they rousted out of bed) – I guess they were worried about a law suit. The doc gave me a cortisone shot, and over the next couple of weeks, presided over my recovery, which was blessedly quick and complete.

Joy as Madison Storm in Goosebumps: Escape From Horrorland

FG: Finally, do you have any future films and/or tv appearances that you are looking forward to?

RJ: Upcoming movies include The Hills Have Eyes, which I did in Morocco, playing a cannibalistic villain (more time in SFX make-up); and It’s a Boy Girl Thing, a teen body-switch movie in which I play the girl’s dad. Also, I’m very proud of a small independent movie called Whole New Thing, in which I play another dad. Hopefully it will get a nationwide release. It’s been doing well at festivals.

FG: Thank you so much, Robert, for taking the time to answer my questions!