Tag: series

Alex Winter is best known for his role in the “Bill and Ted” series.  Alex though has spent most of his career behind the camera, directing and writing.  Alex is directing the upcoming remake of the classic horror film “The Gate”.  Movie Mikes had a chance to talk with Alex about his career and his upcoming work.

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Mike Gencarelli: What was the best part of working on “Bill and Ted” series?
Alex Winter: It was along time ago but the best part was the fact that everybody working on it, me, Keanu, the writers Chris (Matheson) and Ed (Solomon) and both directors had a really friendly relationship.  It was definitely hard work and quite strenuous.  But it was a lot fun.  Everyone just got along and had the kind of same vision. They were both independent movies so there wasn’t a lot of pressure or interference from studios.  We were able to have that free-spiritness that people enjoy, especially kids.  They really dig those movies.  It was just a genuinely good time and I think that came off on-screen.

MG: Which do you prefer more, “Excellent Adventure” or “Bogus Journey”?
AW: It is funny they just screened the movies at the New Beverly in LA, I haven’t watched them all the way through in a long time.  I used to think that “Bogus Journey” was my favorite.  After watching it recently, I started to think that first one was my favorite [laughs].

MG: Prior to “Bill and Ted”, you played Marko in “The Lost Boys”, tell us about working on that film?
AW: It was a real blast.  I was in NYU film school when I made that movie.  It was just great for me to have a job during college for starters.  It was also great to be working with such incredibly talented people.  Michael Chapman, the Cinematographer on the film, was an idol of mine.  He also shot films like “Raging Bull” and all this great stuff.  It was just a lot fun and a great experience.

MG: How was it juggling between directing and acting in “Freaked”?
AW: That was called insanity.  Tom Stern was directing partner on that film.  So luckily, I didn’t have to do all of the chores on my own.  There was no way I would have been able to direct that movie on my own.  Just my makeup alone took like six hours of my day everyday.  It was crazy, it was like four hours to get in and like two hours to get out.  It was one of the best times I have ever had in my life though.  We were just young and completely stupid.  We just put out bodies through a lot.  But overall it was most challenging probably due to the makeup.

MG: Do you prefer directing to acting?
AW: I have mostly been a director my whole life.  I primarily write and direct.  I enjoy acting, I really do.  I stopped acting professionally in 1993 though.  I love what I do, very much.  Will I act again?…Maybe? If the part was right, if it seems interesting.   Certainly my main focus is filmmaking.

MG: What made you get involved with the show “Ben 10”
AW: It was really something I originally did for my kids.  I’ve got three boys and they are all “Ben 10” fanatics.  So I was the expert on “Ben 10”.  A friend of mine worked at Cartoon Network, who I was working with on another movie, he told me I should come in and do something with him.  So I looked at what they were doing and “Ben 10” I knew really well.  I do a lot of commercial work also that is effects orientated.  I have been doing that for long time.  So I pitched them a way to do a live action version of “Ben 10”.  We all jumped in and did it together.  I even got my kids involved with the design process, which was really great.  It was like a “bring your kid to work day” job [laughs].

MG: Tell us upcoming the upcoming remake to “The Gate” which you directed?
AW: It was a really great opportunity.  I have been working on it now for a couple of years just in concept and design.  The script is really great.  Not every movie is right for a remake and not every movie is right for 3D.  For me this movie is a great remake and a great 3D movie.  I was approached by Andras Hamori who produced the original “The Gate”.  This film is all being done with people with a fondness and connection to the original film.  It is not just a cynical rehash.  The idea was really to make the kind of kids movie they really do not make anymore.  Which is what the original “The Gate” was. “Poltergeist” was one of these.  “The Goonies” to some extent was one of these.  Movies that have some scares and some edge and are children friendly.  That is something I have really wanted to do.  It is the kind of movie I would like when I was a kid.  When I was young we had movies that were rated PG but had an edge on them.  “The Gate” was originally rated PG.  You do not see something like that anymore.  Today if they make a movie like that it is “Saw” and rated R.  It is great but not for a certain age group.  The idea was to make something really ballsy, creative, scary, funny, edgy and has the kind of spirit that those movies used to.  The effects are going to be really cool.  We have been working on the 3D design for a long time.  We have great people on our team.  I am really excited about this project.

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Dee Wallace is a movie legend.  She has appeared is so many great films such as “Cujo”, “The Howling”, “The Hills Have Eyes” and “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.  She is an author, a teacher, a healer and radio host.  Dee does it all and does it really well.  Movie Mikes had a chance to chat with Dee about her amazing career and how she does everything she does.

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Mike Gencarelli: Have you always been a fan of the horror genre?
Dee Wallace: At the risk of blowing my cover, I am a real fan of doing them. Not so much of watching them. Seriously, since I was little they have scared the shit out of me. As an actress though, you get to go on a great ride and get to play a really great arc.

Mike Gencarelli: After starting your career with intense horror films like “The Howling” and “The Hills Have Eyes”, how was it taking an extreme 360 to “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial”?
Dee Wallace: Acting is acting, dude. You want to get a good part and hopefully a good project with good people and good director. I have been been really lucky and able to create that in my career. Who would not want to say that they worked starred in “E.T”? You would have to be nuts! It is really the two sides of who I am. Most of my fans know I am deep into the healing work. I have my own radio show on Voice America. I have my third book on healing coming out in April. “E.T” was a healing movie, it was a heart movie. It was all about getting about getting home and love. Then their is the other part of Dee, which is horror, screaming, sci-fi conventions and raunchiness. It is all part of who I am, depending on what I am called to do in the moment.

Mike Gencarelli: Then you went right back to horror with “Cujo” which was such an intense role, was it a difficult film to work on?
Dee Wallace: It was the most difficult film I have ever done. They actually treated me for exhaustion after that film. It was relentless. We shot it Northern California. It looks like we were dying of the heat but we were freezing. They actually had to put heater in the car. I was working with a four year old kid and a dog. I got to be “on” every single moment and every single take. It was a highly emotional role. It was just really physical and emotional difficult but it is the thing I am the most proud of.

MG: You always seem to put in 110% into each project, how do you prepare for each role?
DW: I studied with my mentor Charles Conrad. His technique is very specified and actually a lot more people like are starting to work with it now. It gets your energy very high.  So high in fact, that it actually passes your conscience mind. What it does is that it opens you up as a channel, so you can channel the character or channel information. The best way to enchance that is not to work on a part. The technique is very specific but part of the challenge is you want to play it safe, do a lot of work and make a lot of choices. But if you do it limits a lot of the possibilities where you can emotionally go. A lot of people go “Well, how hell can you be a real actor if you do not prepare?”. It is a different technique that makes acting joyful, easy, simple and trusting in the moment. But you have to be really disipline to stay out of your fear and allow yourself to go on that ride.

MG: You act, you teach acting, your always out meeting fans at conventions, tell us how do you find time to do everything?
DW: I do not know dude, seriously. I wonder myself. I really do attribute it to the healing work that I do.  I have cleared out so much stress in my life. I have more energy now than I did ten years ago, lots more. Today I taught acting for five hours, I had a business meeting, then I rushed home and we are talking now. Every day is really different and I am just tap dancing around a lot of really great things, that I love. When you love things it is not work, it feeds your energy.

MG: Tell us about some of your upcoming projects you are working on?
DW: If there is such a thing as a poetic zombie film, this is it. It is called “Exit Humanity”, I am shooting in October. I am also doing a little family film that I am also shooting in October as well. I will be at several of the sci-fi conventions coming up. My next is Rock and Shock in mid-October with my dude Rob Zombie. I am also working on my third book which like I said will be out in April, called “Bright Light: Spritual Lessons From An Actor’s Journey”, which is awesome she says humblely. This is all just from the month of October. All this stuff is up at my website http://www.officialdeewallace.com.

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Adrienne Barbeau is known best for her roles in films such as “The Fog”, “Creepshow”, “Swamp Thing” and “Escape from New York”.  Besides acting Adrienne is also a author.  She has written a memoir “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” and just finished a second novel “Love Bites”, a sequel to her first novel “Vampyres in Hollywood”.  Movie Mikes had a chance to talk with Adrienne about her books and her movies.

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Mike Gencarelli: What was your inspiration for your novel “Vampyres in Hollywood”?
Adrienne Barbeau: I was approached by the man that became my co-author on it, Michael Scott.  He has many books published in the UK and Ireland about Irish mythology, vampires, sci-fi, horror and all that.  He also had a background in marketing and book sales.  I had just written by memoir which made the L.A Times bestseller list.  He came to me and said “I think you wrote the wrong book.  I think you should right a book for your horror genre fan base.”  So I guess you could say the inspiration was money [laughs].  I love writing a memoir, I had such a good time. I was so excited by the response it got.  I never considered writing a novel though.  My first hesitation was that there is a big difference in writing fiction and non-fiction.  I wasn’t sure if I was a storyteller.  I can write the characters, the dialogue and the scenes but wasn’t sure if I could do it.  So Michael said that he would help me.  We sat down and I came up with a character that is pretty much like most of the women I have played over the years [laughs].  She is a scream queen but also happens to be a vampire, which gave me the opportunity to write a really strong woman’s character.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell about about its follow-up “Love Bites”?
Adrienne Barbeau: I wrote that one by myself.  Michael was working on other projects.  When we sold “Vampires of Hollywood”, we sold a two book deal.  It is a sequel but it can be read as a stand-alone novel. I have been getting great reviews from romance magazines, which is great.  But I never thought of it as that.  It is a mystery, its funny (I hope), sexy and romantic [laughs].  “Love Bites” is a very contemporary vampire novel, in the style of Christopher Moore.  It is about the scream queen who is head of a film studio, think Roger Corman, that produces low budget horror films.  She is also happens to be a head of clan of vampires, most of whom are A-list actors.

Mike Gencarelli: Would you ever consider making this into a movie?
Adrienne Barbeau: You know we had an offer for “Vampires of Hollywood” but it wasn’t the way I wanted to go with it.  So we turned it down.  We have got Charlie Chaplin in there, Orson Welles, Mary Bickford who is dressed up as Cindy Lauper.  It would definitely be visual.  The problem is some of my villains are agents so [laughs] I am not sure how they are going to feel.

MG: Since your career was built from the horror/sci-fi genre, were you always a fan?
AB: You are making the assumption I am a fan of horror [laughing]. I am a fan of acting in them.  I have had a wonderful career doing horror films and I love every character I have portrayed.  And I love doing them, they give an actor an opporutnity to go places chick flicks don’t.  As an audience member I do not like to be scared.  I like action-adventure, espionage, sci-fi but I do not want things jumping out at me.

MG: How do you feel that most of the movies that started your career are being remade i.e “The Fog” and possibly “Escape from New York”?
AB: If they are remade well it wouldn’t bother me at all [laughs]. If the reason why in fact they were remade was to make them better and not just cash in on the original, that would be fine too.  But so many of them do not bring anything new to the screen.

MG: Tell me about your recent role on “General Hospital”?
AB: I tend to be identified with strong women and she is a strong woman. I playing an ex-journalist who was so disturbed with the explotation of children, she founded a charity called ‘The Alliance to Save Exploited Children’.  She has hired a character on the show, Brenda Barrett to be the spokesperson for the charity.  Because of her work, she has a lot of people that want to put her “out of business”.  I am there to protect her, be her mentor and guide her.  I am having a good time so far.

MG: Do you have any further plans to do anymore writing?
AB: I am tossing some ideas around in my head.  Since I started on “GH”, it has taken all of my time.  In my mind, I will settle down in late October and give it some serious thought.

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