Cerina Vincent started her career in TV with “Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy” and got her big screen debut with “Not Another Teen Movie” and “Cabin Fever”. Besides acting Cerina has written screenplays. She is also the co-author of “How To Eat Like a Hot Chick” & “How To Love Like a Hot Chick”. Movie Mikes was able to sit down and talk with Cerina about her career and what’s next for this talented actress and author.

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Mike Gencarelli: You started your career with “Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy”, do you find that you still have a following from this show?
Cerina Vincent: Well, I actually did a few things before the “Power Ranger” series, but it was that kids show that definitely started my fan base. But yes! “Power Ranger” fans are just as loyal and awesome as the horror fans, and I still get quite a few people asking about the show. The kids that grew up with “Power Rangers” seem to always have a special place in their heart for the show and its neat to see that they are still watching it, even though it was over ten years ago! A lot of moms and dads recognize me from the show—as they are forced to watch it with their kids. It’s pretty funny… I’ll be in the grocery store and a mother will walk up to me and say, “I know I know you from somewhere,” and then they say, “Oh yes! I hear your voice every morning…you run around as that little jungle chick and then turn into the yellow ranger!” It was fun to be a part of such a successful kids show when I still was sort of a kid myself.

Mike Gencarelli: Your new film “Complacent” is coming out this year, can you tell us a bit about the movie?
Cerina Vincent: Well, it’s still in festivals right now, in fact on May 5th its screening again at the The Los Angeles United Film Festival. I will be speaking after the screening with writer/director Steven R. Monroe who I just dearly adore. I love this film. It’s a very cool, edgy drama/dark comedy. And the cast is just superb. With the gorgeous Elisa Donovan who’s a dear friend, my bud Joey Kern who was my man in Cabin Fever, Keri Green who I wanted to be from “Goonies” plays my sis, and Kier O’Donnell and Michael Worth are just fantastic in this. Adrienne Barbeau plays my mom and is just soooo good…I could go on and on. Everyone was fabulous and the film really makes you think. Again, I am grateful to Monroe for taking a chance on me. I’ve been dying to play a role like this, and I thank him for letting me bring his words to life.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell me about your experience on the set of “Cabin Fever”? Any memorable moments?
Cerina Vincent: There are too many memorable moments to even count! “Cabin Fever” was a dream to be a part of. And the film changed my life. It was Eli Roth’s first film, and he’s just a fantastic filmmaker, and I am honored to be in such a horror hit. Lauren Moews, our producer, was incredible, and saved the day when the union shut us down, and really brought the film to success with a bidding war at Toronto Film festival. (All of which were crazy days in movie-making and very memorable moments)  Everyone on the set made the experience unforgettable. The whole cast got along famously. We had fun dinners every evening, hot tub nights in the freezing North Carolina Mountains… Eli dressed up as a giant gorilla and scared the S@#! out of me in the middle of the night, deep in the forest on a very cold night shoot. Every day was an adventure on that movie. Shooting the campfire scene sticks out as an incredible memory… the drama with the dog, and of course my leg shaving scene which was a bit complicated to shoot, but so much fun to watch. The editing is perfect, KNB EFX made my bloody legs look creepy, and Eli always knows how to pull out the best performances. The whole shoot was amazing….

MG: You’ve guest starred on various TV shows, most recently “Gary Unmarried”, “Two and a Half Men”, how do you feel that TV differs from movies?
CV: Well, for starters, TV moves really fast. And half-hour comedies (which I love) are shot in front of a live audience. So that changes the dynamic of a set dramatically. You get one (maybe two?) takes and that’s it. Whereas on movies, there are tons of camera set ups and you do scenes over and over. As an actress, I love working in both television and film. TV is great because usually there isn’t much travel involved. It’s nice to be able to get up and go to work from 9 to 5 , (or 8 to 8), like the rest of the world. Whereas movies, you can be on location thousands of miles away from home, for months and months, working fourteen-hour night shoots, which makes for interesting memories and great movies, but they’re all very different experiences. I have a big horror following, but I actually love comedy, and think its one of my strengths as an actress. “Two and a Half Men” and “Gary Unmarried” were some of my most recent guest star roles and sooo much fun. I’ve also done a few half hour pilots that never quite made it to air, but I’d love to do more half hour shows! My first romantic comedy “Everybody Wants to Be Italian” was really cute, “Not Another Teen Movie” was my first studio comedy and it still guest laughs… my books are really funny… I think I do more comedy than most people realize… but it doesn’t really matter, TV or Film, I love it all.

MG: You co-authored “How To Eat Like a Hot Chick” & “How To Love Like a Hot Chick” from Harper Collins with Jodi Lipper, any plans for future books?
CV: Yes! “LIVE Like a Hot Chick” comes out this September! It’s all about how to feel sexy, find confidence and create balance at work and play. Life is hard and stressful for all of us, and we think we all need to have balance, sanity and a bit more fun in life, and this book gives you all the info and inspiration to find that. Plus, we have all sorts of interesting tips, tricks and info on food and body image, exercise, money, how to handle work scenarios, how to have a memorable heyday, and so much more! It really does have it all. We are excited about this 3rd book and our plan is to keep expanding the Hot Chick book series with a book on friendship, a cookbook, a wedding book, the list goes on and on… Plus, we have strong interest in turning this brand into a reality show that’s just as inspiring, sassy, sexy and funny as our books—so that’s been great to explore and develop.

MG: Tell me about your monthly column on The Huffington Post with Jodi Lipper?
CV: We started our column with the release of our first book, “How to Eat Like a Hot Chick”, and we’re still doing it. It’s really great to write about timely things and give our opinions on what’s going on out there in this crazy world on a weekly or monthly basis, or whenever we want. The Huffington Post is fantastic and it’s an honor to be living contributors. We are also guest blogging on popsugar.com for tre`sugar, and we are having a blast with that too! We mostly stick to writing about girlfriend-to-girlfriend advice things… Food, body image, the tabloid world, sex, dating, love, relationships… all the things that drive women (and men) mad…? And we have some fun interviews on there too!

MG: Besides acting and authoring, I hear you also write screenplays, can you tell us about anything you have done?
CV: I’ve written all kinds of things—horror, thriller, comedy, pilots, etc… And I love it! The easiest part is the writing—the toughest part is getting them from screenplays to the screen. One horror I co-wrote with Ben Waller called “ADRENALINE” has been optioned a few times by independent producers, and we keep thinking we’re making it, and then something holds it up. But we own it back again and it looks like that’s the film we’ll make first… It’s a really cool, kick-ass horror that the genre fans will really dig. Fingers crossed…

MG: You won Miss Nevada Teen USA, how did that happen?
CV: Ha! Yep! I did! In 1996 I was Miss Nevada Teen USA, and I finished top 12 at Miss Teen USA. I was born and raised in Las Vegas. And when I was little I used to watch my many beautiful cousins, and my mom’s many dance students in the pageant. It was this huge production in a gorgeous Vegas showroom, it was televised, and I loved the idea of wearing pretty dresses and being a spokesperson for the state. At sixteen, I entered the contest against my parents will (they were pissed) got sponsored, raised money (we didn’t have much), bought myself a pretty gown and to my shock I won the damn thing! It was an eye-opening experience for me. I got to travel around the state and speak to youth about self-esteem and saying no to drugs, I hosted many cool events in Las Vegas, met some fabulous people, and I represented my state at nationals. Although I was from then on hooked and amazed by television production (Miss Teen USA is nothing more than like a giant American Idol episode, but you take a month to shoot it) I realized that pageant life is NOT for me. I am not a beauty queen. I really had nothing in common with most of the other girls, I just wanted to perform, be on stage, have a voice…and wear a pretty dress.

MG: Have you always wanted to be an actor?
CV: My parents have a home video of me at two begging them to plug the camera into the television. I looked up into camera to my mother crying over and over, “I wanna watch myself on TV, I wanna watch myself on TV, put me on the TV…” in a whiny little two-year-old voice. So, that, coupled with the fact that my mom was a ballet teacher and half hour house was a dance studio where I grew up making up skits and plays with my cousins, brother and sister, I’d say, yes! I have always wanted to be an actor. I just didn’t quite believe it was possible. At ten I realized I had a voice and started singing, which lead to me doing musical theatre where I fell in love with acting. Then I started doing local commercials and a bit of modeling. I did a ton of local plays and musicals growing up in Las Vegas with this really cool theater ensemble called Rainbow Company, and another theatre program that puts on giant outdoor productions at a place called Spring Mountain Ranch, out past Red Rock in the serene desert of Vegas. I also did a bunch of plays in high school… and as soon as I got that diploma I packed up my beat up little Geo, headed south on the I 15 to LA, started college, found and agent, and here we are today.

MG: What has been your most challenging production that you have worked on?
CV: Hmmmm…. Wow. Well, all great roles are challenging in a way because you really always want to nail the characters perfectly and genuinely. I did a really cool short with David Lynch called “Darkened Room”. That was challenging because it was so different and edgy and Lynch is such a legend—I was nervous! But I think I have to add that my most challenging roles are films that that I’ve done where the productions were just disasters. It wasn’t the roles that made them challenging, but I’ve been on a couple low-budget indie films with inexperienced producers and directors, and actors with such behavioral problems that made the film shoots utter nightmares. That’s the most challenging part of show biz… but I won’t name names.

MG: You recently were involved with a top-secret short movie? Anything you can spill?
CV: Well, lets see… I can say that someone who I admire greatly in this business directed it. He’s also a dear friend, and someone who has had a hand in making hundreds of the most incredible films look incredible. There are many recognizable faces in this project, all of whom I admire as well, some who I have worked with before. I play a character from a 1950’s horror classic. Horror fans, sci-fi fans, and all fans will enjoy and appreciate it. It’s clever and charming and was a blast to work on…and I think that’s all I can say for now since I didn’t ask for permission form the director.  It was an honor and a pleasure to be a part of and I cant wait for people to see it!

Click here to view Cerina & Jodi’s column on The Huffington Post
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Photo Credit: John McClurg

Ada-Nicole began dancing and singing at age three. She is playing Kevin James’ daughter in “Grown Ups”. Movie Mikes has the chance to talk to Ada-Nicole and she told us about what it was like work on “Grown Ups” and her love for movies.

Click here to purchase “Grown-Ups” on DVD or Blu-Ray

Mike Gencarelli: Have you always wanted to pursue the career of acting?
Ada-Nicole Sanger: I would have to say yes. When I was six I started old classics with Gene Kelly, Julie Garland, Fred Astaire and I loved them. I was singing and dancing ever since I could walk and talk. I just got into it and held on for the ride.

Mike Gencarelli: What was been your inspiration?
Ada-Nicole Sanger: Definitely Drew Barrymore, Julie Andrews, Amy Adams, Will Farrell and Adam Sandler, they are my favorites. I love how comedian are like chameleons they can change into anything.

Mike Gencarelli: What was it like working on “Grown-Ups”? How was working with the whole cast?
Ada-Nicole Sanger: It was SO amazing! They were all such sweethearts and down to earth. They would always be giving little tips and encouraging you, fist pumps, little smiles, it was such an experience

MG: What was your favorite moment on the set of “Grown-Ups?
AS: There are actually two; one was on the first day of filming. We were getting out of the car and I had twins that played my brother and it was the first time we were meeting Adam (Sandler). We had gift baskets in our trailer the first day. So we got out of the car and saw Adam and he said “Oh thank you Mr. Sandler for the present”. It was funny but we didn’t use that scene. The other was during the big basketball scene on 4th of July, my grandparents were able to be extras in the movie. It was fun because my whole family is from New England and we were filming in Massachusetts. They got to come and visit and enjoy the set.

MG: Who would you love to work with?
AS: Well I already have worked with half my idols on the set of “Grown-Ups”. I love them all. I would probably say one of my female idols like Julie Andrews or Drew Barrymore. I love them.

MG: Do you have any other passions besides acting?
AS: Oh my gosh, I have so many things going on at one time. I love to sing, dance, archery, swimming. I also design my own clothes. I like sketching, art, and writing. Pretty much all the creative things, I love to do.

MG: Do you have any other projects coming up?
AS: Well, I was on an episode of Nickelodeon’s “BrainSurge” last month. It doesn’t air till the summer. It was so much fun and Jeff (Sutphen) was really nice. I watch it at home and get all the questions right and my mom said “You should be on that”. I auditioned and they called me in.

Click here to purchase “Grown-Ups” on DVD or Blu-Ray

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Felissa Rose Esposito Miller is know most for her role as Angela Baker in the 1983 cult classic, Sleepaway Camp.  Movie Mikes has the chance to track down Felissa and get her to answer a few questions about her passions, her career and the future.

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Mike Gencarelli: At the age of 13, you played Angela in “Sleepaway Camp”, how did you get this role and did you know what you were getting yourself into?
Felissa Rose: I had a local manager and they got me an audition with Robert Hiltzik. He said he had a little horror movie he was making and needed a flat chested, 13 year old girl and there I was! I had no idea what this film was all about!!
Mike Gencarelli: What was your most memorable moment work on the film?
Felissa Rose: My most memorable moment on the film was probably meeting Katherine Kamhi because I was a huge fan of hers from All My Children.

Mike Gencarelli: You did not reprise the role of Angela in “Sleepaway Camp 2 & 3”, what was the reason you didn’t return?
Felissa Rose: I didn’t return for 2 and 3 because I decided to go to NYU and get an education. I really wanted to study acting and live with friends in NYC.

MG: You have worked extensively in the horror genre, is that your favorite genre?
FR: I think horror is my favorite genre but I love drama, thrillers and comedies a lot too.

MG: How was it to reprise the role of Angela 25 years after the original in “Return to Sleepaway Camp”, was it like stepping into old shoes?
FR: It was very surreal and exciting. I had so much fun being back at camp and being able to party with everyone.

MG: Are there any plans for another sequel and would you be involved?
FR: There are some exciting plans for a future “SC” but I can’t talk about it until Robert (Hiltzik) is ready to give the go ahead.

MG: You are not a stranger to the stage, how do you feel it differs from movies?
FR:Film and stage are completely different. With film you have all day to do one line and with stage you’re having to deliver everything on the spot. Stage gives you immediate satisfaction with an audience. Both are wonderful.

MG: If you could work with one person who would it be? and why?
FR: Wow, good question. Probably Meryl Streep because I’ve admired her for so long and I’d love to learn from her.

MG: What are your passions besides making movies?
FR: My family is my biggest passion. I love music, travel, anything on the history channel, and hanging with good friends. Suddenly I sound like I’m on e harmony. I’m really passionate about life. Anything that presents itself to me is exciting and inspiring. I live in the moment.

MG: Do you want to tell us about any upcoming films you have planned?
FR: I have “Breath of Hate” coming out from Sean Cain. Just filmed, “Poe” from Francis Xavier and I’m cast in a new remake this summer. I will also work on “The Perfect House” in June so things are busy. Very fun times right now!!

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Grant Cramer is most known from his iconic role in “Killer Klowns From Outer Space”. The film has been such a cult classic over the years and only continues to grow. Since “Killer Klowns”, Grant has been acting, producing, directing and working hard on getting “Killer Klowns 2” made. Movie Mikes had the opportunity to sit down with Grant and he told us about his career starting with “Killer Klowns” and since and also how to not trust his IMDB account for an accurate filmography since he is merged with another “Grant Kramer”.

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Mike Gencarelli: What did you think when you got the role in “Killer Klowns From Outer Space”?
Grant Cramer: I always thought it has potential to be neat, cool, wacky movie. I do not think anyone had any idea that it would going to creep up and become this cult weird sensation that it became. The movie is ten times more popular now then when we made it 20-something years ago

Mike Gencarelli: Can you believe the film has latest over 20 years and become such a cult classic.
Grant Cramer: What’s weird is that as more times goes by the more popular it gets. More people has seem to come up to me and say “Dude man, ‘Killer Klowns’ is my favorite movie”, while reciting lines. This happens more to me now then it did when the film came out. As a matter of fact, some people liked it but most people considered it just to be a silly movie. Now people fanatically love that movie.

Mike Gencarelli: How was it working with the Chiodo Brothers?
Grant Cramer: It was great. Those guys are still really good buddies of mine.

MG: Are there any talks over a “Killer Klowns” sequel? Would you be interested if it ever happens?
GC: As a matter of fact, we have been working very hard the last few years on the sequel for “Killer Klowns”. We are hoping to make it pretty soon. It took a long time to get the rights, then it took a long time to come up with the story we were all happy with. Everything takes a freaking long time. Then it took a little while to get a script done, budget ready, and artwork done. We now feel like we have all of our ducks in a row. Now is the most important thing, we have to get money to make the movie. We are suppose to start our first meetings, basically right away. Our one partner, who in charge of the meetings is in the process of doing that right now. Knock on wood, some executives will bite on. It has a massive fan base but it is a weird industry. We have to find someone that not only has the money actually gets what it is. We are confident about it. You search “Killer Klowns” on Google it comes up with 100,000’s of hits that come up. When it was released on DVD it sold like 700,000 units in the first few weeks, without any publicity. We are armed with some decent numbers and we have a decent script. All the original filmmakers are attached to it, though I am the only original cast member.  We have a brand new story and we really want to keep it in the spirit of the original movie. We don’t want it to become the CGI sequel of “Killer Klowns”. Keep it with the costumes, Keep it with the old school effects. It needs to be an homage with the 1950”s aliens from outer space, blob-esque monster movies.

MG: You starred in soap “The Young and The Restless” for ten years, how does it compare to movies?
GC: When you start out ion acting everything is different for while, but everything becomes the same. In another words, you are just applying techniques that become unconscious. Hitting marks used to be really hard for me, now I really do not think about hitting marks. Acting becomes easier after a while, you are not putting the same focus that you were when you started out.  You also aren’t worrying about all the technical aspects like, How do I find my light? How do I hit the mark? You also have to deliver a performance at the same time. It is so nice when these things become pretty unconscious. I guess the biggest difference with soaps is if your story line is pretty big you got a lot of lines to learn every day. If you are doing the soap all the time, they seem to repeat themselves a lot. The lines are a lot easier to learn then the movies. Half of your lines are “You know, when Bobby killed Judy” and “Right before Stella’s wedding,  I really didn’t like it when you had dinner with Sissy’s brother”. You are basically repeating for the people that missed yesterday’s episode. With a movie you are saying everything for the first time. It’s all just acting.

MG: What is your favorite genre to work in? You’ve done a bit in the horror genre.
GC: No, I like good parts. I like parts that I look at and go “That is going to be fun to play”. I don’t care if it is a drama or a zombie movie. There are certain genres I would like to work.  I would love to be in a western, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. I would like to ride around on a horse and shoot things as a cowboy. I would love to do a real space sci-fi movie. It depends I am like a little kid when it comes to movies and acting. I would want to do things that are fun and that I haven’t done before.

MG: In recent years you’ve switched gears to writing, directing and producing. Can you tell us about anything upcoming? How about “The Fallen”?
GC: There is different stuff. I just finished and editing right now a six episodes of a really cool
cooking show. It is something I produced and directed, called “Cooking is For Play”. A buddy of mine came up to me and told me he wanted to do a cooking show for guys. He said because “All guys love to cook and they pretend it is not a cool thing, but they are all sneaking and looking how to cook from the cooking channel”. The best way to get laid is to be able to cool an amazing meal for a girl.  It has been really fun. I have also got the “Killer Klowns” sequel that I just finished writing and getting ready to do. I’ve got a book, like a drama/romance that I want to direct, called “Chasing Windmills”. It is by the same writer who wrote, “Pay it Forward”. I have also got a movie that I am producing that will probably end up on Sci-Fi Channel movie called “The Fallen”, it stars Dean Cain, Peter Stormare, Mark Dacascos and Tito Ortiz. It has some really good actors and we just had a really cool creature made for it. Lots of different stuff, what ever interests me at the moment is what I get into to.

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Robert Kurtzman began his career when he formed K.N.B. EFX Group, with Gregory Nicotero and Howard Berger. The special effects studio has worked on over 400 film and television projects. After working with special effects for years, Kurtzman turned to directing and producing. His first project was “From Dusk till Dawn”, for which he wrote the original story, served as co-producer, and created the special effects. “The Demolitionist” marked Kurtzman’s directorial debut. He went on to direct Wishmaster. In 2002, Kurtzman left K.N.B. EFX. Kurtzman started his own production company, Precinct 13 Entertainment. “The Rage” was their first in-house, fully-financed, independent feature film. Kurtzman most recently directed the action/thriller film “Deadly Impact”, which is out on DVD April 20th, 2010. Movie Mikes has the chance to talk to Robert about his movies, his move from Hollywood to Ohio, and his very busy future.

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Mike Gencarelli: Out of all the films you worked on with K.N.B. EFX, pick one films that stands out as your favorite?
Robert Kurtzman: It would have to be “From Dusk Till Dawn” and then “Dances with Wolves” as far as the movie itself and the experience. “Dances with Wolves” was such a big movie, won Oscars. It was our first kind of crossover film out of sequel B-horror films and gore films, to something that had more realistic effect in it.

Mike Gencarelli: Do you have a least favorite?
Robert Kurtzman: It would have to be “Doctor Hackenstein”. Which you cannot even find anymore, I doubt it is even available. It was this real small movie we did, kind of really bad and cheesy.

Mike Gencarelli: What was the hardest production you’ve worked ever worked on?
Robert Kurtzman: There has been several but “Army of Darkness” was grueling. We had so much stuff to build in a set period of time. The set was in the desert. We were running puppets every night, with a 15-20 man crew on set. We were digging trenches and having puppeteers in them for the Deadite skeleton army. It was a rough shoot, we have to get in the groove of going to the hotel sleeping, getting right up and going to work. We tried to squeeze in some drinking time after we got off set which was usually six o clock in the morning.

MG: What made you want to start your own production company, Precinct 13 Entertainment?
RK: Once I started breaking more directing, I wanted to explore the digital world as well as the creature effects. As a filmmaker I wanted to explore how to integrate those things together. I didn’t want to live in L.A. anymore after twenty something years there, I was burned out. I wanted to get back and really do some grassroots productions, which was “The Rage”. Trying to figure out how to make it on a shoe-string budget and how to pull a team together, kind of like what we did with Evil Dead. I put the financing together and figured out everything about doing a movie just not directing them. I’ve produced and directed but it was in the Hollywood system. They have a lot of people that do things so you aren’t exposed to certain thing, like the nuts and bolts of putting a movie together from the ground up. I wanted to experience that. I couldn’t afford to do what I wanted to do in L.A., I couldn’t have my studio and put a sound stage together. It was too cost prohibitive, it came down to I am going to honker down and leave and setup my studio here in Ohio and that’s what I did.

MG: During the production of “The Rage”, you took on every role possible, Was it hard to juggle all those roles?
RK: Yes and no, we sold the movie to Screen Media and they distributed. We did promote the movie for a good six to eight months prior to selling it to get the genre fans backing it and get it out there. We had a low budget movie and had to make the best out of it. The reason I did everything else on it was out of necessity. I looked at some DP’s and talked to some guys but it just came down to it is going to cost too much and plus I wanted to experience it myself. The whole thing was kind of liberating in some ways to just grab the camera and figure out my shots as I was going. We story boarded very little of the film, just a few sequences with John Bisson. A lot of the movie was prepped by my crew and Gary Jones took over, he was basically the line producer. He had to get the crew all setup and got everything rolling because I was shooting “Buried Alive” in New Mexico. While we were cutting the rough cut of “Buried Alive”, I fell back in OH and two weeks later finished directing the rest of “The Rage”. We shot a week initially and then winter came, so we went into effects prep on part of the film. We planned it again for a summer shoot, and then I got “Buried Alive”, so we pushed it to the end of the summer. The crew got all the effects under way and built all the sets. I just dropped in and started shooting. We didn’t have to follow any normal script development. If we came up with any ideas we just put it in. It was a very organic process.

MG: You worked with Andrew Divoff on “The Rage”, how was it working with him again after “Wishmaster”?
RK: I love working with Andy. He is just one of those guys that I would hopefully be able to work with over and over. I don’t always get my choice depending on the studio and the politics involved as far as casting. Anytime I can work with him, it is a total joy. We kind of have this thing together, we don’t have to talk very hard. We can talk in a short hand and skip some steps. I can take him aside and throw him a few things and he goes “Yeah, Yeah, I got it!” We worked really well together. He has a lot of really great ideas and brings a lot to the table.

MG: Tell me about your upcoming film, “Deadly Impact”?
RK: It comes out April 20th on Fox Home Video, produced by MGM. David Greathouse, who is a producer I worked with on “Buried Alive”, he thought after seeing “The Rage” that I would make a great action director. He said “Hey man, who don’t you take a crack at doing an action/thriller picture”. I was really excited because I am a big action fan and was a good opportunity for me to show something else and do something different. I am known as a horror guy and would be nice to be known for doing any kind of movie. Basically he brought me on and I found out a short time later that the writer, Alex Vesha was from Columbus, OH and he lives like an hour from me. That was cool. It was good to get some guys from Ohio on the project. I got an editor and writer from Ohio, so that was cool.

MG: What challenges did you face in making “Deadly Impact”?
RK: We shot the movie in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We shot it in 24 days and it was pretty fast shoot. Basically, I shot a big studio picture in the same amount of time we shot “The Rage” in. We obviously had more money but still the same challenges, like how do we fit all of this in this movie and shoot it. We were doing a lot of 40 to 60 setups a day and we shot HD with the Viper. So it was no tape right to drives which was how we shot the “The Rage” and it is a very liberating way of shooting HD. Robert Rodriguez shoots that way. You can let the camera roll, let the actors do their things and not break the moment, drop them back to their number 1 positions. You do not have to worry about how much film you are burning, because film is money. On “Wishmaster” on my first day, I had huge setups for the dock sequence. I had like five or six cameras shooting stuff at once and the next day the footage count came in and the bond company was down on day two, saying I burned through too much footage. On HD, I do not have to work about that cost, its hard drive space only. Stopping and doing a take again and again drags down their momentum. It really worked great.

MG: How did you feel to switch gears to an action/thriller?
RK: The process for me is always the same, it doesn’t change. What changes was I didn’t have to concentrate so much on the create effects or makeup effects. That burden of concentrating on that was taken off my shoulders. I was able to concentrate on the action, the characters and the pacing. The process is still the same; I approach it the same way. I still break down the script and figure out my shot list, my overheads, lighting and my basic ideas to convey to the DP and everybody. Especially when you are shooting a movie in 24 days, you do not have time to mess around. You have to know what you want and drive your troops forward. There is no time for indecision; you have to focus on just getting the shots.

MG: How was it working with such an amazing cast on “Deadly Impact”?
RK: The two leads Joey (Pantoliano) and Sean (Patrick Flanery) came out of L.A and New York. They were the only out of state crew, the rest of the actors were from New Mexico and that had to do with the tax incentive package. Working with Joe and Sean was an experience, sometime pleasurable and sometimes not just like any movie. It was great Sean is awesome, he is one of those guys comes it and nails it every time. Joey has this strange method but it works really well to bring out the whacked out evil villain he plays. He is kind of funny in the movie, but at the same time he is so sinister it’s funny. I thought that he brought a lot to this picture. It was rough because it was such a short period of time. Everyone really came to play and it was one of those once in a lifetime experiences for me.

MG: How did you get involved with Midnight Syndicate to compose the music for “The Rage”?
RK: When I came to Ohio, I wanted to get “The Rage” going. I wanted to make it in Ohio with as many Ohioans as I could. I wanted to basically see what type of film community that was here. I didn’t even know it at the time but I had some of their CD’s, that I picked up at conventions. Someone told me that Ed (Douglas) and his partner lived in Cleveland. I called them up and asked them if they wanted to be involved with our independent movie. That is really how the relationship started.

MG: You are actually producing Midnight Syndicate’s first feature film, “The Dead Matter”, what can you tell me about it?
RK: After working on “The Rage” with us, they brought us on to produce their movie. It comes out July 30th, 2010. You can check out their website http://www.midnightsyndicate.com, they have a whole thing about the press. They are doing contests on there as well. It is an independent film we shot in Ohio. Ed directed and wrote it. We put Gary Jones who is my line producer; he basically did the same thing as “The Rage”. He went down put the crews together, and got the whole ball rolling. Even on a low budget, when we do movies here, it is kind of a real production. We had Reggie Bannister on “The Rage” and he thought we he got here that it was going to be working out of a garage and we would all be splitting one trailer, because he is used to that. When we got here we had real trailers and he was like “How did you guys do this?” and I was like “Man, we are in Ohio, that’s the difference”. We outfitted the whole set out of a surplus store that our buddy owns. I got off subject a bit, but it is a different vibe when you get out of a film community like L.A. that is so used to making movies. As you get into a place where they do not make as many movies like in Ohio, it is a new thing for people. They get into it and are really helpful.

MG: Tell me about your upcoming film with Fangoria of their comic adaptation “Bump”? You are working working about with Sean Patrick Flanery?
RK: Fangoria isn’t really involved with that anymore. The comic is at back at Scream Factory. So everything has been reverted back to the artist and the creators. Over the last two year, the whole independent film scene has changed with financing and the banks not loaning money out. We are still in the process of setting that movie up. We are working real hard and I would love to work with the cast again especially Sean (Patrick Flanery) and Tobin Bell, who I worked with on “Buried Alive”. We are out there hustling it, trying to set it up and make it happen.

MG: What else do you have planned for the future?
RK: We are working right now on a movie called “Jinn”, a horror film we are shooting up in Michigan. I am also doing a picture called “Sucker”. We are getting ready to start up another project in Cleveland, that will be announced shortly, a sequel to a very popular film. We just did a movie called RA-One staring India Superstar Shahrukh Khan, which is a big Indian superhero movie. We built all these superhero suits for it, while we were doing that we launched our Creature Corps costume line for the haunted attraction industry. It is all on the new website we just launched which is http://www.creaturecorps.net. We are just trying to keep busy in between movies.

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Jenny Wright made her film debut playing Cushie in “The World According to Garp” in 1982. That same year she appeared in “Pink Floyd The Wall”, playing one of the American groupies. Jenny also appeared in “St. Elmo’s Fire”. In 1987, she starred in the cult horror classic “Near Dark”, which became her most known role. She also was featured in “Young Guns II”, with Emilio Estevez again and also “The Lawnmover Man”. Jenny’s last movie to date was “Enchanted” in 1998. She is recently returning the convention scene after stepping out of the spotlight. Jenny took time to do her FIRST interview, since returning, with Movie Mikes to discuss her work on her well known films.

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Mike Gencarelli: How was working on the film “Pink Floyd: The Wall”?
Jenny Wright: It was great, it was only my second film. I had done “The World According to Garp” after I got my SAG card. I was working on a soap opera called “The Doctor”. “Pink Floyd: The Wall” was really first big movie. Alan Parker met me and hired me right away and sent me to England.

Mike Gencarelli: Did you get to meet the band? Any cool stories?
Jenny Wright: I met the whole band. They were all great, really great. They come to the set and they were very encouraging and enthusiast. Bob Geldof was great. I had so much fun in London. I met a lot of people and went to The Alternative Miss World Contest. It was just so much fun, London is such a great town. “The Wall” might come around again since Roger Waters should be touring with it again this year.

MG: “Near Dark” was overlooked in it’s original release but has since become a classic, how do you feel about the film’s success over the years?
JW: I think the movie was made with the idea of making a good movie, than making a box office hit. Everyone’s part was in the right place and there was really creative element on the set. With Kathryn getting the Oscar, the film might be revisited again, who knows? It is like a lot of good movies they find there audience. The people that know “Near Dark” love it and appreciate it for what it is.

MG: Did you enjoy playing Mae in “Near Dark”?
JW: I loved playing that character. I identified with it a lot. I just got into it and got comfortable with it and kind of let it come alive for itself.

MG: Kathryn Bigelow, just won an Oscar for “The Hurt Locker”. How was she on the set of “Near Dark”?
JW: She was very confident. She co-wrote the script with Eric Red for “Near Dark”. Sometimes there’s conflict between what the writer wants and what the director is going to give them. I think they were in agreement on what the film should be like and she created a very safe, creative environment for her actors. We worked in sort of an ensemble way with each other. Of course Bill Paxton, Lance Hendrickson and Jenette Goldstein have all worked together on “Aliens” again. We were like a little family.

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David H. Lawrence XVII has worked on television and film. He is also works in voice talent, network radio host, is an internet entrepreneur, podcaster, demo producer, teacher and author. Movie Mikes got a chance to talk to David is currently starring in NBC’s “Heroes” as the villain Eric Doyle and told us about a bunch of other projects and plans for the future.

Mike Gencarelli: Give us an little insight about the XVII after your name?
David H. Lawrence XVII: If anyone want the complete godawful sheep dog version of this story, send me an email at davidlawrence@gmail.com. Basically when I first started off as an actor, which was about four years ago. I put myself or someone put me up on IMDB and there were several David Lawrence’s that preceded me. So I was the seventeenth David Lawrence. When I had to join the union, SAG, some of those David Lawrence’s were also SAG members and the name David Lawrence was unavailable. I choose XVII and became David H. Lawrence XVII. The problem is IMDB doesn’t let you put roman numeral at the end of your name unless you are Danny Aiello III and then all rules are off. When I put myself, the age popped me over to David H. Lawrence I. So I just can’t catch a break.

Mike Gencarelli: How did you originally get the role on NBC’s “Heroes”
David H. Lawrence XVII: Just another audition, in a series of auditions that month. June of 2008, June 12th to be precise. I had an extra day with the sides so I was to play with it a lot more than another audition. Sometimes you get auditions and its the same day and you have very little time to go over the sides. The issue with not having enough time to review sides is what prompted me to create the app I have for the iPhone called “Rehearsal”. So I can rehearse my lines and my lines and memorize stuff right on my iPhone. It turns out the reason they brought me in was because of a student film I have done a couple of years earlier. That student film by the way, I shot it despite the fact that I got booked for a network television show that much earlier. The show was called “The Clubhouse”. Because I had already committed to the student, I passed on the part. It would have been network part but he couldn’t reschedule the shoot. So fast forward two years later, they see that clip from that film where I am playing a ringmaster. I am all dressed up in stage makeup and what not and they said “Hey if he will do that maybe he will come in for Eric Doyle”.

Mike Gencarelli: Did you enjoy playing the role of the villain, Eric Doyle on “Heroes”?
David H. Lawrence XVII: I did and I continue to, he is not dead yet. Only after the fact how I realized how fun it is to play a villain as suppose to play a good guy. The higher you are on the call sheet the more money you make but in terms of having the good lines. People know me for saying things like “Barbie” and “I just want to be normal”, things like that. The character gave the opportunity to be a villain with a heart. People want to hug me and help me be better so that is kinda nice. Be aware I am only going to disappoint you in the end.

MG: Any cool stories from the set of “Heroes”?
DL: There are hundreds of stories from the set. I spent more of my time working with Hayden Panettiere and with Robert Knepper who played Samuel. Both of them are really amazing actors, in terms of their preparation and attitude, approach and work ethic. I wish I had some horrifying stories to tell you about misbehavior on the set but it just didn’t happen. I have been on a couple of sets in my acting career, probably seven or eight and this one is far and away the most comfortable and amazing and enjoyable. All I can say is that what powers me is bagels and cream cheese. That is about as crazy as I can get.

MG: Your work ranges from comedy to drama, how do you usually prepare for your roles?
DL: I spend a lot of time memorizing my lines and exploring way for the character to interact. It all goes out the window or all comes to play when the cameras start rolling. That is really the time when the magic happens and all the prep work could be thrown out the window if something changes or if the writers come in with a rewrite at the last minute. I was certainly rehearsing how to die in my first episode because I was suppose to die in my first episode and then the writers rewrote the ending after we starting shooting. They decided they didn’t want me to die just yet and they changed it to have Claire hit me over the head with a chair leg. All of the preparation I did on how to die convincingly so far hasn’t had to be called into play. There were all these villains that came out in season three and every single one of them are dead, expect me.

MG: You have done quite a bit a short films? Can you us about anyone’s that stand out? “My Name is Wallace”?
DL: “My Name is Wallace” got into over 100 festivals and won about 40 of them. It was a really nice gentle little film that I loved doing. It was a character I have been doing on radio and on the phone with my buddy Bob Pondillo, who is the director and writer for decades. He started off as a character that was one of the oddest people to ever make a video tape for a dating service. In the movie the character doesn’t quite get what a phone sex service is all about. It’s is an interesting little movie and we are thinking of turning it into a feature. I just finished one called “The New, True, Charlie Wu” and it has been shown all over the country. It has also been in a bunch of festivals. I try to convince people I do shorts for to take the leap and make features. Shorts are weird, you can’t release them in the theaters and you can’t really release them on DVD. You just make them for the love of making films. I have done a lot of that and I really want to concentrate on doing television and studio features. I am actually shooting one right now with Frankie Muniz, Corbin Bernsen, Shelly Long and Diamond Dallas Page from WWE called “Pizza Man”. It is so much fun working with people that you grew up watching on television. Frankie Muniz is half my age but I was watching him as a child actor in “Malcolm in the Middle”. Corbin Bernsen most people know from “Major League” but I know him from “L.A. Law” and Shelly Long from “Troop Beverly Hills” but she is Diane from “Cheers” for me.

MG: You’ve done stand up before, how do you think it differs from movies or TV?
DL: Stand up is something I feel like I have been doing for 30 years on radio. So getting up on stage and doing stand up is no big deal to me, especially when it goes array, when things go bad. I kind of love that because it is a challenge to turn lemons into lemonade. When you can take a crowd who maybe isn’t with you in the beginning and get them with you towards the end, that’s like the best possible situation. It is easy to be a really popular comedian and people will laugh at just about everything you say. It kinda like being a business man and making a horrible mistake but then making it right with the customer, you have that customer for life. I look at my career as a busy and I look at everyone that see a film I am in or a television show I am on or come to a stand up I do as a customer of mine as well as a fan. I do everything I can to make sure that they are completely satisfied and surprised and delighted with what they get. Luckly I have been give that opportunity with some really great projects like “Heroes” and “Lost” and it has been great. I like the idea of being saying, “I had no idea that you were that “David Lawrence”. A lot of people know me from radio or from the world of technology where I worked with AOL, Yahoo and Google for many years and they go “Wait a minute, what are you doing now…What?…Your that guy…Oh my God, Yeah you are”. It always fun to watch that happen.

MG: Tell us out your author work with “10 Quick Steps”?
DL: With “10 Quick Steps”, when you do a talk show on radio, the callers are like records. You can only spend a few minutes with each one. There were certain questions I could answer poorly in 90 seconds or a couple of minutes. So I started to write complete guide on how to do certain things that people were calling in and asking about all the time. Some are “How do you turn cassettes, records, reel to reel into MP3 or CDs?” or “How do you take VHS and make them into DVDs” or “How do you completely backup your computer”. I started writing these guides and at the time, I was on XM satellite radio 24/7. CNET kind of went away in January 2003 and I started writing these in April or May in 2003 and because I was on 24/7 if I mentioned them on the air, they would repeat my shows all the time. They would get sold 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. I would sell them for $20 bucks a piece and you would download them on the computer and there was no shipping or anything. I also did audio version of them.

MG: What do you have planned for the future?
DL: I am appearing at various conventions across the country, I am already booked at Dragon Con, over Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. I am going to be at the Hollywood Show this year. I am booked at the San Diego, Toronto, New York Comic Cons and hopefully they will also book me for Cleveland and Nashville. I grew up in Cleveland and I do a lot of shooting in Nashville. Once you are on “Heroes”, you can easily spend every weekend of your life in some city somewhere meeting fans.

MG: Do you enjoy meeting you fans?
DL: I LOVE…LOVE meeting my fans. I realize they are fans of the show and they very clearly let me know when they are fans of Eric Doyle’s because they know things about him that sometimes I forgotten. It’s like who remembers these things, but the fans do. I am thrilled that fans care that much.

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Berryman is probably best known for his role as Pluto in Wes Craven’s 1977 horror film “The Hills Have Eyes” and the 1985 sequel “The Hills Have Eyes Part II”. He has also made appearances in “Weird Science”(1985), and the Academy Award-winning drama “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975). In 2005, he appeared in Rob Zombie’s “The Devil’s Rejects”. MovieMikes asked Michael a few questions about his career and talked about his favorite genres and his passions besides movies and most importantly his love of craft service on a movie set.

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Mike Gencarelli: “The Hills Have Eyes” was your first major role. Did you have any idea that your were making a film that three decades later still ranks as one of the great horror films of all time?

Michael Berryman: To tell the truth, I didn’t. I was just happy to have another job. When I read the script it was called “Blood Relations,” which was the name of the company. Then it was changed to “The Hills Have Eyes.” And, having talked to Wes (Wes Craven, the writer/director of “The Hills Have Eyes”) about the McBain family and learning that the story was mostly true, I thought “OK, this is not really a monster movie…it’s about two families.” It was hot in the daytime, cold at night. Very physical. A lot of the people in what we called the “White Bread Family”…Dee Wallace….the guy that played Bobby (Robert Houston)….they were a little more citified. Which kind of fit. I mean, everyone on our side, the Hills family, had done Westerns and rough and tumble parts. So it kind of lent itself to a natural selection as far as having the two sides – protagonist and antagonist. No, I had no clue at all that it would be a classic. Wes was just getting going after “Last House on the Left” and, actually, nobody had ever heard of anybody in the cast at all. We all just threw ourselves into it. I wanted to make Pluto as real to life as possible. And we got lucky. It hit. The drive-ins helped. It created some controversy. By today’s standards it’s not very bloody or gory…not a lot of special effects. So I’m very proud that after thirty years it has those other elements to fall back on.

Mike Gencarelli: You appear as a patient in the Oscar winning Best Picture “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Any favorite memory from working on the film?”

Michael Berryman: Many. Many. I worked 127 days on that masterpiece. We had two weeks of rehearsal with camera on the major scenes. Blocking and just trying to get a feel for it. And during the two weeks all of the main actors, including myself, had to spend time with the real patients on different wards (note: the film was shot on location at the Oregon State Mental Hospital, which was open and operational at the time). We even went to the criminally insane ward which was on the third floor. And with a guard at the door looking through the window there were moments where we spent a half hour…up to an hour with the patients. One fellow had been committed because he had, unfortunately, burned down a church. We looked at his art work. It was a very strange place with these individuals whose lives weren’t like yours and mine. But it gave us a nice insight into what really goes on. My father having been a prominent brain surgeon (Dr. Sloan Berryman was a very distinguished neurosurgeon)…that helped also because I had been around doctors and nurses my whole life. And then Jack Nicholson…this is what made him. It got him his first Oscar. He was still pretty well known. And having filmed at a real hospital was kind of cool. We were all hoping that Ken Kesey (author of the novel) would drop by but he was pretty dissatisfied with the screenplay (the script, by Bo Goldman and Laurence Hauben, won the Academy Award) because it wasn’t through the eyes of the Chief (in the book, the story unfolds through the eyes of Chief Bromden). But all in all it was very impressive to me. The hand picked crew…everybody now has a legacy behind them and I was just proud to be a part of it. The days I had off I was still on the set watching so I could learn my craft. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the lighting and the blocking…how you do coverage.

Mike Gencarelli: What did you think about the recent remake of “The Hills Have Eyes?” Have you seen it?

Michael Berryman: Yes I have. I was at a sneak premiere at a film festival and then I was at the red carpet event in Los Angeles. It was great to see Dee (Wallace) and Wes (Craven) and everybody. I liked the beginning of the film quite a bit. It had a nice feel to it…a nice atmosphere. But after about 20 minutes it became obvious to me that the movie was losing its dramatic impact…the relationship between the two families as individuals dealing with other members of their own family…I thought it fell apart and it turned into a chase film. I thought it basically turned into a video game. And then the second remake…I have no interest in even watching it. I thought they were pretty weak. And I know they were financially successful but I’m an artist first and, while I always want my projects to do well so I can make subsequent films, all in all I was pretty dissatisfied with the remakes. Of course they’re remaking everything these days and some are better than others. I just didn’t care for these remakes. They could have been better.

MG: Your role in “Weird Science” was a change of pace. At first you seem to be your usual villain but, once you’ve been rebuked, you meekly ask “Can we keep this…between us? I’d hate to lose my teaching job.” Was that line in the script or something you and John Hughes came up with on set?

MB: That was actually something John Hughes (writer/director of “Weird Science”) and I came up with on a whim. I was talking to him on set while they were setting up the shot for my close up and he said, “Hey, Michael, I’m going to end with you. What do you think these guys do when they’re not out terrorizing kids on the weekend? So we kind of kicked it around and we thought it would be kind of neat if he was a school teacher. This was sort of his chance, by proxy…because Kelly’s (LeBrock, who plays Lisa, the “doll” the boys create) character zapped us in…it wasn’t our idea…it gave us an opportunity to mess with these kids, which is kind of neat because most school teachers get a lot of razzing…get a lot of grief from high school kids. That’s how that scene came about. And John was just tremendous…tremendous to work with.

MG: Which do you prefer doing, horror films or more mainstream ones?

MB: I don’t really have a preference, honestly. I like it all. I just finished the last couple scenes for the new “Scooby Doo” movie playing a zombie, but I got to sing and dance. So there’s a mixture of comedy – slash – pseudo horror and making it all work. I don’t have a particular preference but I do have to say in my library growing up as a kid, being a big fan of films, I loved the monster films. I loved the Universal Horror classics. I loved the “Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits.” Especially because of their content. They were social commentary about situations that you could hide under the guise of…protagonist – antagonist…situations where your average person has to figure out what choices are most important for them. At an earlier age, of course, I loved Superman. I wanted to have super powers like every other kid. But I really appreciated the misunderstanding of the monsters. Now when you have a monster that pretty much just capitulates, like the one in the Korean film “The Host”. The monster wasn’t one you could have a dialogue with or get a lot of back story. I consider that a monster film in the classic sense. I thought it was a beautiful film, I really liked it. But I don’t have a preference. If somebody waved a magic wand and said you can only do one kind of film…gosh…I’d have to say sci-fi because it embraces all the other elements. But if it’s a good script and its well put together and we have a good crew… as long as there are good craft services catering I’m happy. That’s true. They say an army runs on it’s belly but a production company runs on craft service.

MG: What are your passions besides acting?

MB: My biggest passions? The first one is humanity. I’m huge on the basic theme…if you look at the back of the jacket that I wear all the time. And I wear it for a reason. It’s a Hard Rock Café jacket and the back reads “Love all. Serve all. All is one.” That’s kind of my philosophy of life. That is the most important. And that gives us room for civility to do continued good work. For instance Paul Newman, who I met while I was doing “The Crow,” invited me to get involved with his camp for kids that have their faces and skulls reconstructed and it’s all paid for through his philanthropic organization. I’ve been to his camp a number of times. I also lived at the Wolf Mountain Sanctuary for a number of years. The website is wolfmountainsanctuary.org. There’s also a woman whose been saving the Santa Cruz Island horses off the coast of California. It’s called Sunshine Sanctuary and they work with troubled kids. They let them come up and interact with the horses and they have an opportunity to make a difference. (www.sunshinesanctuary.org) I work with local charities. I’m a reader for blind college students. I’ve volunteered at many drug and alcohol programs through my friends in law enforcement. I think it’s important for the artists in the community to make a difference, especially if you have a recognizable face and/or name. People follow your career and there’s so much more to it than just making a paycheck and telling stories and buying expensive toys. I would love to be a gazillionaire. I would set my family up but I would also take a lot of the money and set it aside. I would be a philanthropist. That would be my ultimate goal. I have horses at home, I’m an avid gardener, I love to cook. I’ll sum it up by saying I can’t live in a world without garlic and chocolate.

MG: Do you enjoy attending conventions and meeting your fans?

MB: Absolutely. I think they’re really cool events. I’ve been splitting it up 50/50 pretty much. Half of the events I go to are film festivals where I do the meet and greet…well, I’m usually out meeting and greeting so I don’t get to see all of the films I would like to. If there were two of me, one would be out at the table (greeting fans) and the other one would be watching every movie being shown. I’ve talked to a couple of people who put the events together and I’ve told them it would be great if they put all of the film submissions in a collectors set so they could be available for the fans. I’ve been to festivals in Indianapolis…Texas…Canada…all over. It’s really exciting to meet people who are just getting their feet wet. The themes and subject matter are usually a lot more varied than what you see from the studios. I really enjoy my fans and I appreciate them very much. And they know that. I also get to meet actors that I’m really keen on…people whose work I’ve watched over the years. I may have never gotten to work with them but it’s nice to meet them…hang out at the hotel and maybe have a drink or a bite to eat. I think the conventions are wonderful. If anyone reading this hasn’t gone to one, I highly recommend it. Get out of the house and go…you’ll have a lot of fun.

MG: What can you tell me about your upcoming role in “Below Zero 3D?” Are you excited to be in 3D?

MB: I’m totally stoked. I just finished up the paperwork. I have a son who’s a serial killer. It’s sort of a “Fargo” esque story where a screenwriter gets locked into a meat locker so he can get into the mood to write his screenplay. It’s a three part story with a couple of nice twists to it. I’ve noticed that 3D is becoming pretty popular and they’re doing it different then before so maybe it will really be fantastic. I like the script a lot. It should be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to going to Canada and shooting it.

MG: Any other projects you have coming up?

MB: A movie called “Stingy Jack.” We’re hoping the project gets green lit soon. I’ll play the title role. I can’t say too much about it…it’s kind of top secret! But it’s a really, really, really cool script. I’m just very grateful to make new contacts. People who are trying to put together their companies and create a library of good work so we can continue doing what we love to do, and that’s entertain…tell stories. It’s one of the oldest art forms in the world and I’m proud to be a part of it. Thanks to (legendary filmmaker) George Pal who gave me my first role. I’m really excited. I just want to pack my bags, head up to Canada and have a great time doing “Below Zero.”

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Chuck has appeared opposite Bruce Campbell in Don Coscarelli’s “Bubba Ho-Tep” and “The Carbon Copy” with Jonathan Breck. Also “Bryan Loves You” with Tony Todd and George Wendt. Chuck has also performed lead roles in “Groom Lake”, “Soultaker”, “Up Against The Eight Ball”, “Double Blast” with Linda Blair as well as countless other films and television shows, including “The Young and the Restless”. He has worked as an assistant director alongside such Hollywood heavyweights as James Cameron, Rob Cohen, Kathryn Bigelow, John Badham, Penelope Spheeris, Jonathan Kaplan, David Fincher, Jim Kouf and a host of others. MovieMikes talked with Chuck about his fantastic career, which shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

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Mike Gencarelli: You’ve starred in numerous low-budget horror films, is that your favorite genre?
Chuck Williams: No, not really, I love all kinds of films….especially romantic comedies. It’s just easier for everyone to raise the money to make horror movies and that seems to be the most kinds of films that filmmakers ask me to be in. I remember in the beginning of my career, my mom would ask me “Are you ever going to star in a movie you don’t die in?”…LOL

Mike Gencarelli: Tell me about your involvement with the show “The Girls Next Door”?
Chuck Williams: I was asked to come on the show and produce a horror movie with Bridget Marquardt. She is an amazing, talented woman. She truly loves horror and scary films. So we developed a movie called “The Telling” that she also starred in with her friend Holly Madison. We had a blast and shot a lot of it at the Playboy Mansion thanks to Hugh Hefner. It now is playing on The Movie Channel.

MG: You’ve taken on many roles, actor, producer, writer, directer, what is your favorite job on the set of a movie?
CW: My favorite is always acting. That is why I came out to Hollywood. But I knew if I learned the craft of making films, I would always work. I want to be in this business for a long time like Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood and they both learned how to make movies!

MG: What was like working the film “Bubba Ho-Tep” and with Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell?
CW: One of the best experiences in my life. I love Don. He is a great writer and director. Bubba Ho-Tep is one of those films like Spinal Tap or Rocky Horror Picture Show…It will live forever. The fans love that movie and so do I. Bruce is the King….while on set in front of the camera or behind, he never broke character. As he would always say, “Thank you, thank you very much….now lets get something to eat boys.”

MG: What was your craziest experience on a film set?
CW: Working as a assistant director on the cult classic movie “Near Dark” directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow. Long and cold nights, great cast and for some reason, we kept blowing up things that would knock out the power in the middle of the night of this small little town in Arizona…LOL They were happy to see us leave…I mean, imagine waking up more than once and finding out your not going to have hot coffee in the morning.

MG: If you have all the means necessary, what would be your dream project?
CW: Well, I have always been an independent filmmaker, which I think that keeps the game interesting. But if I had 200 million dollars to make my dream project, I would make a film that makes people laugh!

If you would like to contact Mr. Williams directly, feel free to send him an email at:
chuckwilliamsfanclub@yahoo.com

www.chuckwilliamsfanclub.com
www.myspace.com/chuckwilliamsfanclub
www.facebook.com/chuckwilliamsfanclub

Click here to purchase Chuck’s movies

Amelia Kinkade, although known for her more prominent role as the Angela Franklin in the horror series “Night of the Demons” and its sequels. That was only the start of Amelia amazing journey. Besides being a champion level dancer, Amelia has written two pet psychic books and she is a practicing animal communicator. Amelia gives lectures, classes and book discussions have all around the world. Thanks to Neal DeConte, who is creating a figurine of Amelia as Angela from “Night of the Demons” for his company, Horror Idols (revealed this July at Famous Monsters Convention), MovieMikes was able to ask Amelia a few questions about her days as an actress and more importantly her current work which is her true passion. During this interview Amelia realized that “There CAN be a lovely cross-over between the horror lovers and the spiritual animal lovers.”

Click here to purchase Amelia’s books
Click here to purchase “Night of the Demons” films

Mike Gencarelli: You majored in dance and was featured in films and rock videos? Is dance still apart of your life?
Amelia Kinkade: If I didn’t still dance, I’d be lying on my back in an insane asylum dancing on the walls with crayons between my toes. I am a champion level salsa dancer, I’m proud to say, after many years of humiliation on the ballroom dance-floor. Salsa is a BLAST and I recommend it to all my students no matter how much they think they can’t dance. Dance is an outlet of joy, release, gratitude, and respect for these amazing bodies God gave us, no matter what shape we think we’re in or how critical we may be of ourselves. I trained all my life as a professional ballerina and jazz dancer, quit for many years after my Demon’s days, went into a horrid depression and realized I couldn’t live without the hope and joy that dance brings into my life. I decided to get my groove back on in my early thirties and and one of the reasons I moved to NYC was because I can still dance like a bat out of hell. I needed the best dance studio in America where I can smoke every nineteen year old Broadway star off the map. I found it. Good times! If I had any shame, I’d feel terrible about this. But I taught for years in Hollywood, and I can still ROCK IT.

Mike Gencarelli: You starred as Angela Franklin in the “Night of the Demons” franchise, did you enjoy planning the character?
Amelia Kinkade: Does a bear shit in the woods? Does the Pope eat fish on Friday? I got paid to get possessed and kill everybody. In my early 20’s, I was still doing this on a monthly basis, but not getting paid for it. These movies allowed a rare glimpse of my PMS before I had my monthly dose of Midol.

Mike Gencarelli: Do you have a favorite moment from the set of the films?
Amelia Kinkade: “I was just warming my hands over the fire!”

Mike Gencarelli: How do you feel about the franchise being remade planned for release this Halloween?
Amelia Kinkade: I didn’t know it was! But thanks for telling me! As long as I get my .0000000000002 % maybe I’ll have enough money to buy some cat food for my hilarious funky half-dead ol’ Persian, Doc!

MG: After you starred in “Night at the Demons III”, why did you stop acting?
AK: I got the calling to work with animals and write my first book. Divine Intelligence took over my life and it was time to allow my destiny to be more important than my history–a lesson I now teach in at least 12 countries all over the world every year. Working as an actress was a mindless cake-walk. Working with tigers in Thailand, elephants, cheetah, sacred White Lions, Great White Sharks, penguins, baboons, jaguars and giraffes in Africa as the human monkeys destroy their environment and exploit them off the face of the planet is not a mindless cake-walk. It’s time to take responsibility for our world and the other living creatures on it that we were put here to protect and champion. If my movie career can help position my work as an animal ambassador, I’ll run naked through the streets. What do you think THAT would do for my reputation? Grin You know that saying, “Good girls go to Heaven. Bad girls go everywhere?” Well, it’s true. But maybe this bad girl can get some GOOD things done in this world. If my fans join hands with me, we’ll have a better chance. The movies were “fun.” Rolling around with tigers and diving with Great White sharks is ecstatic. And even if the animals are in pain, and most are, the work is REWARDING, so I can go to sleep every night knowing I made a difference in the world. I’m not the one wearing the fangs anymore. I’m loving the ones with the real fangs, and it’s a LOT more fun than pretending I have fangs of my own.

MG: When did you first realize that you have the ability to hear and speak to animals?
AK: I wrote a book about this called “Straight From the Horse’s Mouth: How to Talk to Animals and Get Answers”. In my Demon days, when I was 24, I took a workshop that was the seed of what I now teach. When it came time to try to actually “do it,” I was convinced I’d be the only person in the entire room who couldn’t do it. But when we were asked to “tune in” to a dog, I started writing pages and pages of notes, crying hysterically. The teacher asked us is the dog we were trying to connect with had ever had puppies. Suddenly the dam burst between me and the dog and I “became” her for a moment. In the vision, I WAS the dog, like being in a movie clip, in holographic 3D. I could see and touch the nose of my great love through a chain link fence. He was a big black doberman mix who lived next door and I was living in a trailer home that had a huge pine tree in front. The human got divorced and took “me” away from the only dog I ever loved. Then she got “me” fixed so that I couldn’t have puppies. Emotionally, I was heart-broken. The level of grief was over-whelming, but I knew I had to be loyal to my human owner. I looked down and saw the huge incision on my belly and felt the agonizing pain. The pain was devastating, both physically and emotionally. Then inside my mind, I heard the dog say, “I couldn’t be a mother myself, so now I take care of all the neighborhood cats.”The woman who owned the dog burst into tears and confirmed everything I said, from the trailer to the pine tree to the big black dog next door. She kept saying, “Tell her I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” And she confirmed this huge pitbull mix herded all the neighborhood cats in the most loving way. That was the beginning of a shocking new career that has taken me all the way to Buckingham Palace to read the Queen’s Horses. I didn’t mean to do it. But God needed it done, so She chose to do it through me, and to tell you honestly, I didn’t have much choice in the matter.

MG: Tell me about the books you have written, “Straight From the Horse’s Mouth: How to Talk to Animals and Get Answers” and “The Language of Miracles: A Celebrated Psychic Teaches You to Talk to Animals”?
AK: It’s this mobility of consciousness that I now teach. Psychic ability is a learned skill, an innate part of our brain chemistry that only needs to be developed in order to function automatically like any of our other motor skills. In every workshop I teach all over the world, one of my first questions is, “How many of you think you’re going to be the only person in the room who CAN’T do this?” and almost every hand goes up. Then, I applaud their courage for coming. By the end of the seminar, almost ALL my students are able to download names: Names of the other animals at home, names of the other people at home, names of the neighbors, names of the animals’ medical conditions, names of the humans and animals in the household who have crossed over into Heaven and details that are absolutely impossible to dismiss. And it is often the most skeptical down-trodden students with the least amount of confidence who come out as the most SHINING professional psychics, because they are so humble and their ego doesn’t get in their way. Plus, if they question themselves constantly, they are all the more likely to push for more detail in their information and they get more accurate data. I’ve poured my heart and soul into my books and I’ve made my life an example of giving everything I’ve got to give in order to restore some peace to this planet and some comfort to Her animals—two and four-legged alike.

MG: You are currently on a world tour, how does it make you feel to be able to spread this gift all over the world?
AK: Tired. I’ve been on a world tour for eight years. I’ve got FOUR more world tours this year. That’s why I’ve chosen to start appearing in Horror Movie conventions here in the states. I’m willing to join forces with my horror fans who are also animal lovers and not have to fly all the way to Switzerland to find like-minded animal lovers who want to talk about Quantum Physics, Interspecies Communication, God, Spirit, life, and the future of the planet. My students in Europe share their inmost secrets with me, dance, and laugh, and cry with me. Maybe my horror fans will do that too, and Dorothy won’t have to fly all the way to Oz to get her rocks off.

MG: Are you excited about your return of the horror convention circuit this July at Famous Monsters Convention in Indianapolis?
AK: With bells on, baby.

MG: How do you feel being about becoming a figurine created by the company Horror Idols?
AK: The only thing my figurine can’t do that I’m doing is JUMP FOR JOY, but maybe we’ll work on that for the NEXT action figure/figurine.

Click here to purchase Amelia’s books
Click here to purchase “Night of the Demons” films

Steven C. Miller wrote, edited, directed and even had a role in his first horror movie, “Automaton Transfusion”. The film made on a no budget but it looks like $5M dollar film. MovieMikes has the ability to ask Steven a few questions about his career so far. Keep an eye on Steven he will be the taking over the horror genre, no question.

Click here to purchase Steven’s movies

Mike Gencarelli: What were the main challenges you faced while making “Automaton Transfusion”?
Steven C. Miller: The biggest were obviously Time and Money. We had next to none of both. Its hard to make any movie in 9 days, but it gets even more challenging when you have less that 20k to do it with. We had to be extremely creative but ultimately I think that’s what gave us a unique little film. Other main challenges included– Locations, Make-up FX, and Exhaustion.

Mike Gencarelli: How did you feel when the film was picked up by Dimension Films?
Steven C. Miller: It was a huge honor for me. I felt like Dimension really brought back horror with the release of “Scream” back in the day and nothing thrilled me more, than to be in that library. They did an amazing job on the box art for the film and the overall marketing was fantastic.

Mike Gencarelli: You career started right out of film school, tell us about your road to success?
Well, I by no means think I am a success yet. I still see myself as learning and trying to perfect my craft. Anyway, I came to Hollywood right after film school (sleeping in my car/on friends sofas) and started Editing a few low budget horror films. I finally just got sick of all the crap I was seeing. It wasn’t necessarily the film makers fault, gotta pay the bills, but I always felt like there was no heart in those pictures. I wanted to make something that felt like “Evil Dead”. Something that had heart and showed a love for the genre. I gathered my friends Mark Thalman and William Clevinger and explained to them what I felt like we needed to do. They both agreed and we immediately contacted our film school. The school was on board and we were off to the races. Once “Automaton Transfusion” was finished, the journey of getting it bought seemed long, but eventually it landed at film festivals and ultimately at Dimension. It was an amazing time in my life and I will never forget it.

MG: Are you planning a follow-up to “Automaton”, if so can you tell us about it?
SM: I am. Its been in the works for a while now. Its the movie that ties up any loose ends or questions from the first film and leads into a whole new world for the third. It picks up where our characters were left for a brief moment before being thrust 5 years into the future. I can’t say too much because the script is just too exciting to spoil, but it will mix genres like nothing before. The biggest issue with the movie is the financing. It needs… well.. deserves a bigger budget than the first and that is always about timing. Its not a film I am going to just make for half a million bucks and hope it turns out good. Its something that I consider my Empire Strikes Back and I take it very seriously.

MG: Has horror movies always been your favorite genre? Do you see yourself ever making romantic comedy?
SM: I love all kinds. My favorite is really action. I always felt “Automaton Transfusion” was an action movie with horror elements. I also do love comedy. Horror and Comedy are very similar, its all about the timing. I would definitely do a romantic comedy if it was R rated and felt like something out of the 80s.

MG: Who is your inspiration for wanting to make movies?
SM: My biggest inspiration when I was growing up was Sam Raimi. It was amazing to me that he could be all over the genre map, from “Evil Dead” to “For The Love Of The Game” to “Spider-Man”.

MG: If you had any means necessary, what would be your dream project?
SM: I have a werewolf bank heist film called “Bad Moon Rising”, that if I had the chance, I would make in a instant.

MG: Tell me about your involvement with the proposed remake of “Motel Hell”?
SM: I was hired by MGM and Craig Perry to be the Director of the remake. There is a really fun script and Craig Perry has some killer ideas. The problem is that It’s at a stand still while MGM figures out there money situation. Its unfortunate that the movie hasn’t just been made. Its a great title and one of my favorite 80s flicks. Hopefully soon!

MG: What other projects do you have in development that you want to talk about?
SM: I’m in post production on my next feature for After Dark Films called “Scream of the Banshee”, which stars Lauren Holly and Lance Hendrickson. Its a fun little monster movie meets “The Ring”. It’s slated for a October theatrical release. I’m also working on a few things with various producers and Writers. I try to throw as many things as I can at the wall because eventually something will stick!

Click here to purchase Steven’s movies

Dante Tomaselli’s first film was a 23-minute short called, “Desecration”, which was expanded to feature length. The film received acclaim for its nightmarish visuals and became a cult horror classic. His second was a sequel titled, “Horror”, The film earned rave reviews in the horror world. Tomaselli third feature, “Satan’s Playground” was released in 2006 and featured an amazing group of cult-horror icons. MovieMikes has the opportunity to talk to Dante about his films and his what is in stop for the future.

Click here to purchase Dante’s movies

Mike Gencarelli: “Desecration” started off as a short film, how do you feel the film translated into a full length feature?
Dante Tomaselli: Not bad, considering it cost only $150, 000. “Desecration” was my first feature and I was still in my twenties.  It was 1999 and the genre was just finishing that God-awful cycle of “Scream”-like comedic horrors. My film premiered at the Fantafestival in Rome, Italy and then Image Entertainment picked it up for DVD distribution. It got some good notices in the horror world and art-house arena. Then came the Internet. Lots of press there. Lots of review sites popping up all over the place. That was around the time that the Internet was starting to replace newspapers and magazines as immediate media information and I felt I was riding the wave of something….

Mike Gencarelli: What was the biggest challenge making the full length “Desecration”?
Dante Tomaselli: Getting all the elements together…crew…actors…artists…money. Filmmaking is not like photography or painting. You can’t just have your paint brush and easel and display your vision. I needed to build a whole network of people around me. I’ve always been a mixture of shyness and occasional confidence, so socially, it was rough, but the film pokes through and leads the way. I think people around me understood that I meant business. The visions must be extracted. The film itself speaks and commands…and I’m the vessel, really. It was challenging creating my first feature…at the same time it came so naturally. After “Desecration” was released, I was hooked and deeply in love with making low budget movies….Film is a moving painting, a moving sculpture…a doorway to somewhere else…wow…I definitely felt that this was my destiny and I was on a mission. I wanted…needed…to make creative, intimate horror films.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell me about its follow-up “Horror”, what made you want to continue the story?
Dante Tomaselli: Horror was like a sequel to “Desecration”. It was a continuation of the eternally damned boy’s life. I was honing my craft. Even though I switched cinematographers and production designers from “Desecration”, “Horror” still retained my signature look…and sound. It was important for me to illustrate that I had a voice that was my own. I’m trying to construct a nightmare in which we experience the protagonist’s damnation. More than anything I wanted my films to be different, unique. Possibly I could have made a mainstream horror film…possibly…but instead I went the other way and created something crazier, wilder, and even more non-linear than Desecration”. “Horror”. My imagination was unhinged on “Horror”.

MG: You worked with a great cast in “Satan’s Playground” like Felissa Rose (“Sleepaway Camp”), Ellen Sandwiess (“Evil Dead”) and Edwin Neal (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”). What was it like working with them?
DT: Exhilarating. Looking back, I might have been a little too caught up in the horror fanboy dream of it all. It might have distracted me a bit from the film itself, sometimes. Ultimately, though I forged some actor director relationships that are enduring. Felissa was fun to work with; she really got into the part and put her heart into it. Ellen Sandweiss is a great friend and had one of the best roles in “The Evil Dead”, one of my favorite films. She was terrific…especially when her character’s baby was stolen. “Satan’s Playground” was her comeback after so many years. And Ed Neal, well, I am about to work with him again on my new film. He’s a really gifted performer, very underrated.

MG: Your films have all seem to involve religion undertones? Why?
DT: Well, I grew up in an Italian American Catholic household so it was unescapable. My older siblings all went to Catholic school and I went to Sunday School…or Catechism. And church. My religious grandmothers both lived in Paterson New Jersey, with all the Blessed Virgin Mary statues on the lawns and everything. A staple of Italian neighborhoods. It was a vibe all around me and I picked up on it. I remember, many times, being in church, on my knees, and chanting the prayers and zoning out and marveling at the architecture of the church and the eeriness of the church organ. I’m not a religious person. Spiritual? Yes. I’m more skeptical of organized religion. It causes wars and divides people. Certain religions thinking they know better than the other….It seems to have happened since the beginning of mankind and never stopped. Also, of course, sometimes the hypocrisy, the perversion of religion can be terrifying. I think organized religion could be the death of us. So yea, I fear it. In the end, though, my films are really about family.

MG: What made you want to get into the movie business? Is horror your favorite genre?
DT: Yes! I’m a lifelong horror film fanatic. Good horror films release serotonin in my brain. Growing up, my room was decorated like a Funhouse. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, for as long as I can remember. My notebook in school was filled with horror movie artwork and the titles of the films in their original font. Movies like…”Halloween”, “The Omen”, “Carrie”, “The Shining”, “Rosemary’s Baby”, “Tourist Trap”, “The Fog”, “Burnt Offerings”, “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death”, “The Sentinel”…When I’m inspired or in…the trance…I close my eyes and the images from the film I want to create are as clear as slides projected in my mind. And the sounds. It’s an all-out sensory take-over, like dreaming while wide awake. It’s been happening since I was really young and it’s like a faucet I can’t turn off. I fantasize for a living.   

MG: Your cousin, Alfred Sole, made “Alice, Sweet Alice”, would you ever consider remaking that film with him?
DT: I will be remaking that film. I have the rights from my cousin and he will work on it as well. It’s inevitable that all notable horror films will be remade so we want to beat others to the punch. It’s coming up.

MG: You are having a documentary made about you by filmmaker, Christopher Garetano, titled “The Horror of Dane Tomaselli”.  What can you tell us about this?
DT: You’d really have to talk to Chris about what he has in store because he’s totally in charge of it. He’ll be shooting the conclusion of the documentary soon, possibly next month.  I’ve seen clips and it’s like an out-of-body experience.  For me, it’s intense, hallucinogenic.

MG: What are your plans for the movie “Torture Chamber”?

DT: I’m ready to start shooting. We’re days away. It’s a horror shocker about a demonically possessed boy who escapes from a mental institution and discovers an old abandoned castle with a secret passageway to a cobwebbed torture chamber. It’s the first serious independent horror film in a while that’s in the vein of “The Exorcist”.

Click here to purchase Dante’s movies

Paul Solet is the director of the recent horror film “Grace”. If you haven’t seen it, where have you been living under a rock?! The movie which started off as a short film tells about a pregnant Madeline (Jordan Ladd) which is involved in a car accident and doctors tell Madeline that her unborn child is dead. Madeline, desperate after trying to have a child for years, decides to carry her baby to term anyway. The child, a girl, initially appears stillborn. After a while, though, she seems to revive, and Madeline names her “Grace”. It soon becomes clear something is wrong with the baby and its cravings.

MovieMikes has a chance to ask Paul some questions about the movie and its journey to the big screen. Keep an eye out for Paul he already made a name for himself and its going to be one of Hollywood’s biggest directors very soon!

Click here to purchase Paul Solet’s “Grace” on DVD or Blu-Ray

Mike Gencarelli: How did you originally come up with the idea for the short “Grace”?
Paul Solet: The idea for GRACE comes from actual medical science. I had a conversation in which I learned that when a mother loses her unborn child, unless labor is artificially induced, the mother will often actually carry that baby to term. I just find the inherent drama and terror of that idea so remarkably potent. What better way to explore the power of motherhood and love, than through a physical merger with death?

Mike Gencarelli: Besides the “Grace” short, you were featured on “Fangoria’s Blood Drive 2”, How do you feel that making a short differs from feature?
Paul Solet: It’s the same exact thing at a different scale. You still need to tell a story in a compelling way, and the same concerns are always present. Shorts are wonderful. I really miss making them, but I seem to always be writing these days.

Mike Gencarelli: What was your involvement with Eli Roth and Adam Green while working on “Grace”?
Paul Solet: Adam produced the film, and was a very hands on presence. He and his partner Cory Neal were on set quietly putting out fires before I even knew they existed so we could just focus on the creative. Green has been through this type of run and gun low budget filmmaking four times now, so he understands in his blood what the challenges are, and it’s such a huge value having a producer that is also a director. Not to mention, if you need to drop a shot, Adam can just run a splinter unit and snag it and the day still gets made, and you know it’s going to be good. Eli didn’t work on GRACE, but he’s always an inspiration and an influence for me creatively.

MG: What was the biggest challenge in bringing it to the big screen?
PS: Time. We had 192 scenes to shoot in 17 short days. So, learning to embrace and exploit our limitations was key. It reinforced our allegiance to story and character over spectacle. The films that I love hold to that discipline, no matter how broad their available canvas. I think we’ve been faithful to that principle, with GRACE. I think there’s a tendency for younger filmmakers to become anxious to get something in front of a camera before it’s ready. I see development time as a filmmaker’s principle luxury, so I waited to find a home for the project until the script was as tight as I could get it and I had story boarded and shotlisted the entire project. I didn’t want there to be any questions I couldn’t answer truthfully when asked.

MG: The characters in your film are very intense and well written, how do you feel about the cast you worked with?
PS: I couldn’t have been happier with our cast. My Canadian casting director, Carmen Kotyk really brought in the best talent up there, and of course, Jordan is always wonderful. You always wish you had more time to rehearse, and more takes to shoot, but these guys have such chops they really can work within the confines of a schedule like this and still deliver something really breathtaking.

MG: After playing all over the world in theaters and festivals, anything you would have done differently?
PS: Not a thing. It’s been such wonderful ride for me. I got to got to Korea, and Scotland, and France and Spain, and hang out with some of the best filmmakers of our generation. I’m so immensely grateful for the film’s success and the support we’ve gotten from fans and critics. It’s really been magical.

MG: With one feature film you have made such a name for yourself in this business, how do you feel about that? Any pressure?
PS: There’s always some pressure, but I’ve been writing screenplays very seriously for almost ten years at this point, and making shorts and studying the craft of filmmaking since I was a kid, so it’s not like this happens overnight. I’m a real believer in hard work, and I have no intention of slacking. I’ll keep breaking my ass to give you the best I can give, and however it’s received is up to the universe.

MG: I am sure your fans want to know, what is your planned follow-up project?

PS: We haven’t announced yet, so I can’t say, but it’s going to be fucking terrifying.

Click here to purchase Paul Solet’s “Grace” on DVD or Blu-Ray

Whether or not he would accept the fame (or blame) for these raunchy, mainstream blockbusters, there can be no doubt that what Lloyd Kaufman has achieved is enormous. In 30 years, Kaufman and partner Michael Herz, has built Troma Studios up from a young company struggling to find its voice in a field crowded with competitors to legendary status as a lone survivor, a bastion of true independence, and the world’s greatest concentration of camp. Among Troma Entertainment’s library of over 1,000 movies are the early performances of such stars as Kevin Costner, Billy Bob Thornton, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert DeNiro, Dennis Hopper, Dustin Hoffman, Fergie (Black Eyed Peas) and countless others! As a filmmaker, Lloyd Kaufman has accumulated a remarkable list of credits, as well as a more extraordinary list of debits to loan sharks and pawn shops across New York.

MovieMikes had the pleasure of talking with Lloyd and asked him questions about Toxie, Troma’s career and what’s to come!

Click here to purchase Lloyd’s books and movies

Mike Gencarelli: Looking back on the production of “The Toxic Avenger”, is there anything would you have done differently?
Lloyd Kaufman: Wow, that is a good question. (Long pause) No I think we did everything that we wanted to originally.  Well I regret doing number 2 and 3.  I got pushed to make them R-Rated, I regret that.  Besides that I think that the original “Toxic Avenger” turned out the way I wanted it to.

Mike Gencarelli: How do you feel about the success of “The Toxic Avenger Musical”? Will we be seeing Troma returning to stage again?
Lloyd Kaufman: It’s been great the fans have really reached out and made “The Toxic Avenger Musical” a real success.  The play was put together by a group of real great people.  The music by Bon Jovi was really great and people really seemed to like it.  It ran for year off-Broadway and it wouldn’t have done that if I was the only person to like it.  There are talks that it might be heading to Broadway in 2011, Bon Jovi and all.  Some producers showed interest and who knows it could happen.

Mike Gencarelli: When you started Troma, when did you stop and say, “This is actually happening” once you hit success.
Lloyd Kaufman: It was actually “Squeeze Play”, when it opened in small theater in Virginia back in ’79.  No other theater would play it due to mix of spoof comedy and raunchy sex.  When it opened, I looked out in the theater and I was really surprised people actually showed up. This was before anything viral, there was no internet sites or online advertising.  This was good old fashion word of mouth.  That was the point I think was realized people might like what we have.

MG: Of all the films you worked on what was the hardest to make during the production? Favorite?
LK: I have to say it was probably “Troma’s War”.  It has a mix of transformations and high tech special effects.  It was not an easy film to make and definitely one of the hardest productions I  have done.  “Poultrygeist” actually tied “Troma’s War” since it has everything above plus more like signing and dancing. “Poultrygeist” is one of my favorite films I have done, it really looks great for a film that cost less than $500,000 dollars.

MG: How do you feel about “Mother’s Day” being remade by Darren Bousman?  Any other Troma remake in the works?
LK: Well I haven’t seen the film but I know it is being done by a group of real talented people.  “Mother’s Day” was actually made my Charlie Kaufman but Troma helped release it and due to that it grew into this amazing film that people love.  As you might know “The Toxic Avenger” was announced officially this week and that is very exciting, there are already rumors going around that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are interested in being a part of the film.  My role on the remakes will be executive producer., besides that they will probably use me for press like they did with the Toxie musical.  My expertise is not in mainstream film making, I am leaving the remake in their hands. The people involved are very talent and one of them has even won an Oscar for their work.

MG: I was on the set of Terror Firmer as an extra and it looked like you were really having fun.  Are you still able to enjoy what you do?
LK: I remember you, that was a hard film to make.  The crew was really difficult to work with and I think we still made a great film.  Yes, I am able to enjoy making films even more since 1999 because we have a really amazing crew that gives there all and really wants to see a good film made. It is really important when your crew work really hard for you because with out them the production could be next to impossible especially when you are working on a low budget.

MG: We’ve seen you at various conventions, do you enjoy meeting you fans?  What is your craziest fan encounter?
LK: I love meeting my fans, I think that is extremely lucky to have the fan base that we have. Troma is a brand name and our fans are the reason why we are around.  Fans go to our website and purchase our home videos at our website for years. They want theses films get made and they support them.  When I meet my fans they are sometimes under the influence of booze or copious types of drugs.  They sometimes based on that display certain behaviors due to the effects of the booze or drugs.  We actually met a girl one time with Troma tattoos all over her body.  She has Toxie, Nuke’em High all over her body.  She even had one where I can’t say.  Since meeting her we started a tattoos section on Troma’s website to showcase these people’s tattoos.

MG: You have written a bunch of books on film making, have you ever considered writing about about Troma’s history and how you have built this company over the last 30 year or so?
LK: Well I did actually do a book “All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger”, which was about some of the history of Troma up to “Tromeo and Juliet” in 1996.  So would I do an update to today’s history, No, not unless a publisher wants me to. Troma’s film has had major impacts on many people. Today’s directors like Eli Roth, Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith have all said that Troma has inspired them over the years. Roth and Tarantino have said that they have each seen “The Toxic Avenger” over 200 times. There is a lot of history and it only keeps growing.

MG: Tell me about the upcoming Tromadance and it’s return to NJ?
LK: We are in our 11th year and we are returning to NJ in Asbury Park.  Trey Parker, Matt Stone and I went to Sundance 12 years ago.  We saw how terrible they treated independent cinemas and how it was a complete disregard.  After that we said we should do an independent festival where you do you have to pay to submit your films. You do not have to pay to see them and there is no VIP section of the event.  Everyone is treated the same and everyone is allowed to participate.  Over the last 12 years, Sundance has improved its position on independent films which was much deserved. This year’s Tromadance returns to NJ and takes place April 16th and 17th.

MG: Tell me about some of your future project? I hear “Toxie 5” is in the works?
LK: Yeah, right now I am in the process of writing the script slowly of “Toxie 5”. Very slowly.  I am not sure where we want to go with it.  I am planning on following the last film so it will focus on the Toxie’s twins but I am not sure the exact path I am looking to take just yet.  I am also doing another film that is sort-of like “Terror Firmer”, in the sense that the director is on a production and it is out of control.  It will be a lot more sub-due and not a crazy as “Terror Firmer”, it will be a lot more serious and less cornball comedy. It is hard for the future because the big studios have control of most of the distribution.  For us getting a film released in not easy but with the help of you Troma fans we have been able to survive and will continue to survive.  We have been more famous than ever most recently and the future is bright for Troma.

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Troy Duffy is the director of “The Boondock Saints” and “The Boondock Saints II: All Saint’s Day”. Both films proved that making movies is not easy but once you have fans behind you anything is possible. Troy has become a major Hollywood player and he is going to make more great films down the line, as he is only getting started. MovieMikes has the opportunity to talks to Troy and discuss “Boondock” and the future.

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Mike Gencarelli: How did you come up with the idea originally to make the film “The Boondock Saints”?
Troy Duffy: My brother and I were living in a real shit hole in California. The story came from a natural concern from crime. I think everyone that watches the news and sees something truly disgusting, a kid getting killed or home invasion where they kill the family. People get that gut reaction that whoever did that deserves to die, even if they do not talk about it, there is that one second when they think it and feels it. I think that is the kind of fantasy that “Boondock” was playing on.

Mike Gencarelli: Your brother and you wrote the scripts on both films?
Troy Duffy: I wrote the script on the first movie and the second one. Taylor (Duffy) worked on the story on the second one and I bounced stuff off of him.

Mike Gencarelli: I remember seeing “The Boondock Saints” as a Blockbuster Exclusive on VHS tape, How did you feel when the film was finally given a proper release?
Troy Duffy: It was actually kind of depressing, when you do an independent film like that you want it to go theatrical. Because of the Columbine incident we were blacklisted from US screens. So when it went to video, it was like a real blow. We were forced to do a video deal, and thank God for Blockbuster. They gave us a much better video deal than normally, they thought it was hard that the film was blacklisted. They also thought that the film was a lot bigger than that and they gave us the title Blockbuster Exclusive. They put a lot of copies per store and that was great.

MG: What were some of challenges you faced in order to bring the sequel to life?
TD: Some of the challenges we faced were that it was for a fan base now. First one we made we didn’t have a fan base. The second one we knew who we were making it for. It was a big responsibility, you have millions of people counting on you to make a great sequel. It was a bit of pressure and also we had the same amount of money to make this one as the first one. It was a much bigger story. In terms of hard work and stretching a dollars, it was pretty daunting but we got it done.

MG: Well you have honestly done your job, the way the fans have reacted to “Boondocks II” is amazing.
TD: The way fans have embraced it, tells me that we did a good job. Sequels themselves almost always suck. We happened to make one of the good ones.

MG: What was it like to reunite with the cast for “All Saints Day”? Did everyone seem to pick up right where they left off 10 years ago?
TD: It was like not a day has passed man, these guys were ready to go from the second they showed up. The funny thing was reporters and friends of mine were like “How did you get Sean (Patrick Flanery), Norman (Reedus) and Billy (Connolly) back?” I was like they never went anywhere. These guys were there the whole time, calling me every couple of months asking “Where do we stand” or “How’s the deal coming”. They waited for those ten years in order to be able to do it. As soon as we got the deal done, they were like “Great! Send me a plane ticket” and it was like a family reunion after that.

MG: “Boondock II” grossed over $10M and only in 524 theaters at its widest release, How do you feel about the films success?
TD: We were in an extremely small amount of theaters and the movie was allowed to platform. It started out in only 67 theaters. Based on the fan base showing up and the amount of money it was making on its own, then platformed out into more and more theaters every week until it was in 524. It is up to I think actually $11M right now, and that is a really remarkable thing. Most theatricals run where the company puts a lot of advertisement and money behind the film and puts in a minimum of 2,000 theaters to start. They go from there and often these movies do not perform that well. “Boondocks” didn’t get any of those luxuries. It got a bare bones release at best and for it to perform like that is out of the box.

MG: Tell me about “The Prayer” used in the films? What made you choose that specific one?
TD: The prayer was made up by me and my father. My dad has a real knowledge of the Bible. I gave him the prayer I wrote. He added to it and took some excerpts from the Bible that he knew. We ended up with this long 36 line prayer that was thrown together from the two of us. I edited it to what it is now and I always thought it was something I would come back to and fix later on more. The brothers (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) said “You can’t change a word of it”. The fan base has really picked up on that prayer and have it memorized and it has seemed to hit home with them.

MG: Besides making films, what else are your passionate for?
TD: I play my guitar every now and then, I am a biker. I ride my motorcycle quite a bit, I’ve got a big old hog. I am also a bit of a wood worker. I got a wood shop in my garage. I made little things for me and my family, like furniture.

MG: What can we expect from the upcoming comic book series of “Boondocks”?
TD: J.B. Love is co-writing them but I am extremely serious about being involved with them. Some people have like a vanity thing and they say you can use my name, I am not doing that. When I looked at the comics, they look really good and I have never been a comic book guy. I think that me not being a comic book guy, actually helps out. It gives a different perspective. But I saw them today and they are going to be really cool.

MG: Now that the pressure is gone to make an amazing sequel, the obvious question, “The Boondock Saints 3”?
TD: Yes, I will make “Boondocks 3”, and it won’t take me another ten years. I would like to get a couple of other films under my belt first. For two reasons: I like to do a movie that is not “The Boondock Saints” that I have written and also part threes are very rarely done well. It is usually the kiss of death, look what happened to “The Godfather Part III”. It is definitely something I am thinking about.

MG: What are some of these other projects you would like to work on?
TD: There are two, the first is a buddy comedy that takes place in the 1500’s that I have written, called “The Good King”. The other one is a serial killer thriller called “The Blood Spoon Council”.

MG: You have developed a heck of a loyal fan base over the years, anything you want to say to the fans?
TD: Thanks a million! I can’t hardly think of a writer/director that is more beholding to his fan base that me. I am standing on a porch in Los Angeles and “Boondocks” has bought me this house. There was a point when my reputation was mud in this town. “Boondock Saints” has put a roof over my head and food in my mouth for a long time. I will keep making good movies and they will keep coming as far as I am concerned.

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