Barbie Wilde is known best for her role as the Female Cenobite in “Hellbound: Hellraiser II”. Barbie also recently wrote a short story entitled ‘Sister Cilice’ for “Hellbound Hearts”. Movie Mikes had a chance to chat with Barbie about her role in the film, as well as what is she currently working on.
Mike Gencarelli: How did you get the role of Female Cenobite in “Hellbound: Hellraiser II”?
Barbie Wilde: At the time, I was working for London Weekend Television’s ‘The Night Network’ as a video film reviewer for a late (very late!) night program called ‘The Small Screen’. My agent called me and asked me if I wanted to go to an audition for ‘Hellraiser II’, as they were looking for people with movement skills for the role of one of the Cenobites. (Part of my skills as an actress involved becoming a classically trained mime artist.) I have to admit, I wasn’t very enthusiastic, as I’d seen the first ‘Hellraiser’ film and it really disturbed me. For some reason, I thought that they wanted me for the part of the Chatterer and I didn’t think that I could take the claustrophobia of that kind of extreme mask work. But I did go (with a little urging from friends) and I was relieved that they wanted me for the part of the Female Cenobite, which thankfully didn’t involve mask work, just “a little” prosthetic make-up.
MG: How long did the makeup process take?
BW: For me, it took four hours for the make-up and thirty minutes to get into the costume. Of course, you also have to figure in the hours of casting my head for the prosthetic pieces and all the time the make-up crew took in designing and then making up new pieces for me every day. The costume was a bit easier, as I was using the costume made for Grace Kirby, who is Clive Barker’s cousin and the Female Cenobite in the first ‘Hellraiser’ film. Maybe that’s another reason why I was cast? I fit the costume!
MG: What happened after “Hellraiser II”, why didn’t reprise you role?
BW: To be frank, although I loved everyone that worked on the film, I wasn’t very happy with the makeup process and I was trying to carve out a career as a TV presenter. (I was much happier being myself than trying to be an actress.) Frankly, I wasn’t asked to participate and I think that since the whole operation moved to LA for the third film, they were keen to create 
new Cenobite characters. And after all, my character was killed off in ‘Hellraiser II’.
MG: Are you generally a fan of the genre?
BW: I love sci-fi horror such as: ‘Alien’ (1979), ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ (1956), ‘The Thing’ (both the 1952 version and John Carpenter’s version)
supernatural horror: ‘The Haunting’ (the 1963 version, not the lame remake), ‘The Innocents’ (1961), ‘Night of the Demon’ (1958), ‘The Exorcist’ (1973), ‘Don’t Look Now’ (1973) and any ‘Dracula’ or vampire film serial killer horror: ‘Psycho’ (1961), ‘Se7en’ (1995). I also liked: ‘Constantine’ (2005), ‘Audition’ (1999) ‘The Ring’ (the 2003 US remake) and ‘Don’t Look Now’ (1973) But I’m not a fan of slasher or zombie movies, although they’re incredibly popular at the moment.
MG: Tell us about your involvement with the ‘Holy Grail of unfinished and unreleased 80’s horror’, “Grizzly II: The Predator”?
BW: The plot of ‘Grizzly II’ was simple. An angry momma bear is rampaging through an American national park, chomping away on innocent folk (like George Clooney, in a very early role) and causing havoc. The park is in financial trouble so the head of administration (Louise Fletcher) decides that it would be a good idea to have a concert in the park to raise funds. I played the drummer of an electronica band who were to be the star attraction for this concert (hence one of other names for this film: ‘Grizzly II: The Concert’). My boyfriend at the time, Richard James Burgess, was producing the music for the film and was also going to play the drummer of the movie band, but was called away to Sweden to produce Adam Ant. He drafted me at the last minute and I had to learn how to be a drummer in a few short lessons. For reasons known only to the producers, the film was made in Hungary and our band sequences were shot in the middle of a state park near Budapest. A concert by the band Nazareth was organized by the producers of the film to lure the youth of Budapest into the park. In the middle of the concert, Nazareth disappeared, then the movie band came on and we did our weird electronica stuff to the utter amazement of the Hungarians, who didn’t really know what was going on. We did a lot of rehearsing for the musical numbers, because we only had one night to shoot our sequences. I believe we did our crazy numbers three times in a row, which must have puzzled our hard rock, Nazareth-loving audience no end. The problems with the film were overwhelming. The Hungarian director (whose name eludes me) had a nervous breakdown. The mechanical bear had movement problems and never got out of the design studio. There were rumors that the film equipment was confiscated by the Hungarian authorities. Sadly, I 
never saw George Clooney or the legendary mechanical bear. The film was never finished, although some clips have surfaced on Youtube. I’ve put up some photos and links to reviews and the Youtube clips on my website. There are some DVDs out there of ‘Grizzly 2’, but supposedly all the scary bear bits are replaced by a black screen, as they never managed to do the mechanical bear shots.
Trivia: The stage choreography of the band and the dancers was done by Bruno Tonioli of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ – ‘Dancing with the Stars’ fame.
MG: How was it revisiting the “Hellraiser” series for your short story entitled ‘Sister Cilice’ for “Hellbound Hearts”.
BW: When Paul Kane, the editor of ‘Hellbound Hearts’, approached me about writing a story for the anthology, I was a bit hesitant. My interest in writing has always been in the criminal arena and I’ve finished a novel about a serial killer that I’m trying to get published at the moment. However, Paul thought it would be interesting to have a female perspective on the world of the Cenobites. Of course, if you go back to Clive Barker’s source novella, ‘The Hellbound Heart’ (which all the writers were required to do for the anthology for legal reasons), the lead Cenobite is female. In the end, I really enjoyed writing ‘Sister Cilice’, especially when I found a way into her mind — sick and twisted as it is. And it was very gratifying to get so many great reviews for the story. (http://www.barbiewilde.com/hellboundhearts.html)
MG: Any more writing projects in the near future?
BW: I’ve just finished a two year project co-writing a screenplay and a stage play for a musical. It’s very dark and edgy and contains my favorite themes of love, violence and obsession. It’s set in post-World War II Marseille. My partner and I are now contemplating writing a musical about wartime journalists, set sometime in the late 80s, early 90s. I also have a novel with a very unusual take on vampires on the back burner.