The Flashback Interview: Barbie Wilde
My first exposure to my next interview, Barbie Wilde, came when I saw Death Wish 3 during one of its’ many airings on syndicated television. She played the role of Fraker’s (Gavan O’Herlihy) punk girlfriend, and although her role was small, it was memorable. As my fascination with 80s culture continued to grow, I would learn more about Barbie Wilde’s career, and I would be impressed by her multiple professional lives, from actress to mime to dancer to writer. We discussed all that and more on Monday, May 7th, 2018, and I hope you all enjoy getting to know her.
Say hello to Barbie Wilde!
Barbie: Hello?
Johnny: Hi, Barbie. Johnny Caps here, calling for the interview.
Barbie: Oh, hi, Johnny. How are you doing?
Johnny: I’m good. Thank you for taking the time to do this, especially as I know you have to be leaving soon.
Barbie: That’s okay. Not a problem.
Johnny: I have my questions ready to go, starting with this one: You started out as a mime. What did being a mime teach you that would help you during your career as an entertainer?
Barbie: Well, I was always interested in all forms of movement when I was younger. I’d gone to the UK to study drama. A friend of mine had done some classes at the Dance Centre at Covent Garden in London and she particularly recommended the mime class. She said it was wonderful — a very different kind of discipline. It was more about control, being grounded, almost like the suspension of movement rather than dancing and jigging about on stage. I did one class and I met Tim Dry, the man who would end up being my partner (professionally and personally) for the next four years. We were both members of the mime group SILENTS, then we formed our own mime act called Drawing in Space, and finally we joined another group called Shock, which was a mixture of mime, dance and music. Of course, we went to see Marcel Marceau performing his one man show at the Old Vic Theatre and the things that he brought alive without sound and with pure movement were quite extraordinary. He was a great inspiration for our work at the time.
Johnny: Alright. When it comes to Shock, you played in some of the most entertaining London clubs ever written about. What’s the craziest story you can recall from Shock’s club performances?
Barbie: We had a single out at the time called “Angel Face” on RCA Records and we were performing at The Playboy Club in London. The choreography for “Angel Face” required me to dance with a flaming sword. The nightclub had (laughing) very low ceilings. The owners were really concerned, but they let us do the number anyway — in a nightclub full of people! I was so worried that I decided dance my whole routine in a weird crouching position, because I had to keep the flame low enough so it wouldn’t come anywhere near the sprinkler system. It would’ve been fun if I set that off in a crowded nightclub. As it was, my flaming sword melted the ceiling a bit!
One of the craziest things that happened to Shock wasn’t during a performance. We were doing a gig in Wales. Even though I’d told our driver to fill up the tank before driving us home, he forgot and our van ran out of gas on a Welsh mountain – in a snowstorm – at 3 AM in the morning. Not a pleasant experience, let me tell you. We huddled together for warmth and then I spotted a car coming in the rear view mirror. I jumped out and tried to wave the car down. They stopped briefly and then swung around us and roared off. I was really incensed and then I realized what I looked like: at the time I had enormous 80s blue hair and I was wearing a red and black harlequin jumpsuit. I must have looked like an alien to those people. Anyway, we eventually got rescued, but what a night!
Certainly the highlights for Shock’s career were three gigs: one was supporting Ultravox at the Rainbox Theatre; we supported Gary Numan for three nights at Wembley, which was incredible and had a big crowd; and finally Shock did a week-long residency at the Ritz Club in New York City.
Johnny: Alright. When it comes to your musical output, I think one of the most underrated dance tracks of the 80s would have to be your song “Phantom Lady”. It had a very danceable sound to it, and I loved the lyrics. What was the inspiration behind that song?
Barbie: Wow, thank you! What a lovely thing to say. It never got a proper release, sadly. I was close to signing with EMI, but at the time, they said “we already have a solo female artist: Bonnie Tyler”. Of course, she’s got an amazing voice, but I think those were the times when opportunities for female singers were…well, not limited, because the great ones always get through, but let’s just say it was challenging, especially if you were trying to do something a little different.
The inspiration for the title of “Phantom Lady” was actually taken from Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 novel of the same name. (A film adaption was made in 1944.) I’ve always had difficulty with finding titles and I thought that particular title fitted the concept of the song, which was about an immortal prostitute endlessly searching for love. In the video, I’m playing the character of a woman who is looking for love in all the wrong places, as well as an abused girl, which was the back story to our heroine. That was the spirit and atmosphere of the song.
Johnny: …And a terrific song it was.
Barbie: Oh, thank you.
Johnny: Oh, no problem. You were a presenter on British television in the 80s, showcasing things like music videos and movies. Did you ever cross paths with Jimmy Savile, or did you manage to dodge that bullet?
Barbie: (Deep breath) My boyfriend at the time, Richard Burgess, was a record producer and he was the lead singer in a band called Landscape. In 1981, Landscape had a top 5 hit in the UK called “Einstein A Go-Go”, which Shock had used for their opening number in nightclubs all over the UK for six months before the song was released, so in many ways, we were the advance guard for the song.
Landscape’s second release that year was called “My Name Is Norman Bates”. They did the most amazing pop video, shot in black and white, that was a brilliant take on Psycho. Unfortunately, someone at RCA fell asleep at the wheel. The song got to Number 12 and the producers of the hit TV show, Top of the Pops, insisted that the band play “live” on Top of the Pops, which was a shame because the video would have a much better presentation of the song.
Anyway, Jimmy Savile was hosting that particular show. He’s on stage, and I’m in the audience with my blue hair to give moral support to my boyfriend. Savile spotted me. I was not a teenybopper or anything, but I still looked quite young for my age. I have to tell you: the way he looked at me? Yuk. Cold, icy and with a lot of speculation, if you know what I mean.
When I first came to the UK, I could never understand why Savile was a star. To me, he just screamed super creep. He was so creepy-looking in his tiny little running shorts (he was always doing races for charity) and I just thought, “Why is this man so famous? Why is he so popular? Can’t they see he’s got “creep” tattooed on his forehead?” I realize that I’m using the word “creep” a lot in describing him, but honestly, I can’t think of another word that describes the “crawling flesh” feeling that I got when he looked at me.
Johnny: Yeah. Of course, we’re dealing with that in America with Bill Cosby now.
Barbie: I grew up listening to Bill Cosby records, you know? I watched I Spy, and I was a huge fan. He was a breakthrough. He is African-American and he was starring on a hit TV show in the 60s. He seemed so charming, and he turns out to be this… He has been found guilty, hasn’t he?
Johnny: Uh huh. Three counts of aggravated indecent assault…
Barbie: Yeah. I don’t have to say allegedly. He’s a sexual predator. It just goes to show how some people can hide their inner nature so well. A real wolf in sheep’s clothing there…
Johnny: Well, to move away from real-life sleazes into fictional ones (Barbie laughs), probably my first exposure to your work, before I even knew your name, would have to be Death Wish 3. You’re the second person I’ve interviewed from that movie, the first being Marina Sirtis, whom I interviewed via e-mail in 2015. What’s your favorite memory of working on Death Wish 3?
Barbie: Oh, gosh. Well, it was a strange experience because we shot it in London, but we were all supposed to be Americans in New York. My character’s boyfriend, Fraker, was the leader of the horrible pack of nasties who were terrorizing a neighborhood. My favorite memory has to be at the end when Charles Bronson atomizes Fraker with a M72 Law rocket launcher, destroying a wall of the building in the process. I had to scream with horror and the director Michael Winner comes up to me and says, “Okay, Barbie darling. We’ve only got a few takes here. Actually, I’m only going to give you one take. You see the blast, you scream and you run towards the building and your fallen lover.”
There was no rehearsal. I was sitting there, pretending to be cool as a cucumber since my boyfriend was supposedly dealing with Chuck in the building, but I was furiously thinking that I had to get it right the first time. I couldn’t even do a practice scream. The pressure! There was the pure terror of getting it wrong because Michael Winner did not suffer fools gladly, and if you blew it, he’d scream at you like there was no tomorrow. So when the time came, I thought: “This is your big moment. Don’t blow it.” And I really did scream my lungs out. I’ve actually put the scene up on YouTube. Yes, I gave “good scream” in Death Wish 3, however, my true motivation was the abject terror of failing my director. Sometimes fear of one’s director can motivate actors more than sense memory or any of the other tricks, although it’s not a very pleasant way of working.
Johnny: I can see that. I’ve asked quite a few of my previous interview subjects this, and now I’d like to ask it of you as well. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the heads of Cannon and the producers of Death Wish 3, have a mixed reputation among the talents I’ve interviewed. What did you think of them?
Barbie: Well, you know what? The reason why they were so popular with the studios and why they made so many films, is that they were always under time and under budget. I think maybe, to be generous (laughing), quality may have suffered because of that, but that’s why they kept getting the funds to make movies. It’s called the bottom line, and in the end, it was an efficient operation. Can you call it high art? It’s not, but so many people have come up to me and said, “Death Wish 3 is my favorite of the franchise”.
Golan and Globus had a specific market. They knew their targets and their demographics, and they figured out how they could do it under budget. That was the positive thing, I think, as far as the producers were concerned. As far as actors and artists, maybe they suffered. Personally, as far as the producers go, I never met them, so I can’t say if they’re horrible people, or nice people, or anything. It was the 70s and 80s, and I’d like to think that things are different now, but, hey, maybe they’re not.
It’s all about business. There are filmmakers out there who concentrate on the art, doing something creative, unusual and different, but then look at the current crop of movies that are playing at the moment. I enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok, and it was entertaining, but it’s not going to change your life, and it would be nice if people concentrated a bit more on working on original stories, but that’s risky. I think that’s the thing about Golan and Globus. They never took those kinds of risks. They calculated things very tightly.
Johnny: Alright. To move to another notable credit, we have a lot of horror fans who read Pop Geeks, and they would know you from your role as the Female Cenobite in Hellbound: Hellraiser II. Had you seen the first Hellraiser before signing on for the sequel, and what’s your favorite memory of Hellbound?
Barbie: When Hellraiser came out in 1987, everybody wanted to see it because Clive Barker had been touted by no less of a legend as Stephen King as the new future of the horror genre. The atmosphere surrounding the film was very exciting.
British horror was coming back as it had been in a bit of the doldrums in the 70s, and there was a lot of anticipation around the film. I went to see it with a friend. To be honest, I prefer sci-fi horror from the 50s and 60s. Visceral horror? I’ve got enough of that kind of horror in my head, if you know what I mean, especially as I write it now. I was a bit nervous, but I had seen Halloween and John Carpenter’s The Thing and Alien, of course.
So we went to see Hellraiser and it was a very unusual horror movie. I often say when I’m doing convention panels that there are monsters who chase their victims (who always seemed to be fetching females in boob tubes and stilettos) through the forest with a machete or chainsaw. But the monsters in Hellraiser are Cenobites – mysterious beings that talk to you and will negotiate and explain. They were just so chilling. Clive had invented a completely different kind of monster. (Along with the human ones like Julia and Uncle Frank.)
And then there was The Lament Configuration. What an extraordinary concept it was! A puzzle box that opened up the Schism to allow the Order Of The Gash entrance into our dimension.
So we have these two unique elements, and then, of course, you have the three powerful female characters in the film. First there’s Julia, who metamorphoses from mousy housewife to hammer-wielding diva, killing guys to get their skin so she can feed their essence to her skinless lover. Wow, that’s what I call dedication! Next, there’s our heroine, Kirsty, a very powerful female character, and finally the Female Cenobite.
When I got the call for the audition, I thought they wanted me to play the Chatterer, so I nearly didn’t go! For one thing, I hate mask work, and I also found that character too disturbing. Pinhead’s got a lot going for him because he’s eloquent and extraordinary-looking, but the Chatterer was really freaky looking. My agent explained that they wanted me for the role of the Female Cenobite, so I did go along. I think I got the part because of my mime training, because I understand that Clive was fascinated by mime. The Cenobites are very centered and not flailing or running about like most monsters, so mime would be an asset. That was probably one of the plus factors in my favor as to why I got the part.
My favorite memory of Hellbound? It’s not particularly my favorite, but it’s definitely the most memorable. I’d been visiting my family in the States and my plane had been delayed for 24 hours, so I had to take a taxi directly from the airport to Pinewood in the morning. I’d already been up for all night, then I had to sit in the makeup chair for 4 hours and then get fitted into my costume for another hour. I hit the set six hours later, around 6:00 PM in the evening, and by that time I’d been up for almost two days.
We make our first entrance into Channard’s secret room and I’m feeling beyond brain dead. There was dry ice, and I was hearing music, even though there wasn’t any. Tiffany is trying to open the Lament Configuration, but Pinhead stops us with his deathless line: “It is not hands that summon us. It is desire.” I thought, “Wow, what am I in? What an extraordinary set. What an extraordinary moment!” We all looked totally nightmarish. Memory-wise, that was a “clip and keep” moment.
Johnny: Alright. If Cenobites really existed, and you ended up crossing paths with one, what do you think would happen?
Barbie: (Laughing) I have no idea. I’d probably do some fast talking. I’ve actually written three Female Cenobite stories that are in my illustrated short horror story collection, Voices Of The Damned, so I’m quite familiar with their methods. I’d like to think I’d outflank her with some clever negotiation. Somebody else asked me this question, and I said that if the Female Cenobite chased me, I’d just throw down some chocolate. It doesn’t matter if you’re a monster (laughing). If you’re a woman, you’re going to stop and pick it up. (Barbie and Johnny laugh) Even Cenobites have to like chocolate.
Johnny: I’ll ask about the writing in a moment, but before I do, one of the things that Death Wish 3 and Hellraiser 2 have in common is that, in spite of critics trashing them, they retain tremendous audiences and are still being watched to this day. What do you think has given these two movies their staying power?
Barbie: Well, I think, for Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II, it’s the extraordinary imagination and genius of Clive. Like I said, he created totally unique monsters. There’s a forbidden element of sexual obsession and S&M that’s still present, even though Clive said he was made to cut out a few of the more risqué scenes. The American studio thought these scenes were going to be too much for audiences in the USA, but certainly the British and the European audiences didn’t seem to be bothered.
As mentioned previously, there are a lot of exceptional elements about Hellraiser and Hellbound and that’s what makes the first two films so different from the rest of the bunch. There’s a lot to love, and, most importantly, you really care about these people. You’re almost cheering on Julia: “Yay, get another skin!” And Frank is extraordinary: “All the suffering, the sweet, sweet, suffering.” And of course, you’re rooting for Kirsty all the way. The concept is truly one of a kind, which is why the first two films still resonate today. They were two very low-budget British horror movies. I never thought in a million years that they would become so popular and have this massive franchise that built up around them.
As far as the Death Wish franchise is concerned, the concept of horrible things happening to perfectly nice people is one of the best subject matters ever because of the revenge angle. We all love to see the bad guys get their comeuppances. In Death Wish, you’ve got a mild-mannered guy, an architect, who is just pushed to the limits of his sanity. He doesn’t get the help from the police that he needs, so he takes the law into his own hands. Of course, in America, that’s the history of The Old West when that kind of thing was acceptable. If you get pushed to the limit, you think, “I need to get some kind of vengeance” and that’s an attractive subject matter to any human, I think.
Johnny: Absolutely. In addition to your on-screen pursuits, you’re also an accomplished writer. What has writing provided for you that performing has not?
Barbie: I’ve always loved performing. I’ve always enjoyed the collaborative process of working with actors and directors. However, when you’re writing, you’re creating your own world. You’re writing the dialogue, you’re creating the characters, and maybe it’s just a power trip, but it’s fun. There’s a freedom to it, a liberation. As an actor, you can create your interpretations of a character up to a point, but they’re still interpretations of another writer’s work.
When we were in Shock, we created our own dance routines and wrote a lot of our musical material. That also had a lot of creativity and liberation to it, but writing my stories and exploring the dark corners of my fetid imagination is, in a strange way, comparable to acting. You create a character, and you have to live in that character’s skin, so your creation has to ring true. Your audience has to suspend their disbelief, as the Catherine Trammell character says in Basic Instinct. They have to follow you on this journey. To me, it’s also the challenge of constructing my own mythologies and my own characters that will hopefully resonate with people and be memorable.
Johnny: They definitely are (Barbie laughs), and one of your most noted works as a writer is The Venus Complex, easily one of the darkest horror novels of all time. When writing it, did you ever scare yourself entering the mind of a serial killer, albeit a fictional one?
Barbie: (Laughing) Thank you so much. That’s really a great compliment. The thing is, I’m not a serial killer, you’ll be relieved to hear. However, I’ve always been fascinated by their motivations and that’s why I wanted to explore the sexual mindscape and fantasies of one.
A friend of mine was a notorious dominatrix in New York and she also had a Master’s Degree in Human Sexuality. She once confessed to me that her greatest fantasy was to have sexual relations with a serial killer. I said, “Oh my God, that’s really sick”, but then that night I had a very disturbing dream and I woke up knowing I had to write this book. I was fascinated by what makes these people tick, and I did my research thoroughly to make sure that everything in the book was accurate and believable.
In a weird way, not to get you worried, I thought it quite liberating writing as a villain and writing from the male viewpoint. I could write anything I wanted to because of Michael Friday’s car accident, since his brain injury caused a lack of impulse control, which include his rants about politics and society, as he’s building up to his Venus Project.
I created the character of Michael and got into his head and while I didn’t particularly scare myself, there were some weird moments. Bret Easton Ellis said that when he was writing American Psycho, he sometimes lost time, which I take to mean that you would sink so deeply into the character that you get lost inside their head. The book took me a long while to write because while I never was repelled by Michael (I actually think he’s got a pretty good sense of humour about the world), there were times when I said to myself, “I’ve got to take a break from this”. It wasn’t an easy book for me to write. It took me a long time to find the right ending and I was wondering, “Where is this going to go?”
[Spoiler Alert.] However, I knew that to find the ending, to remain truthful to the fact that so many of these types of individuals escape, Michael had to get away. So there is going to be a sequel (laughing).
However, I have to admit to being a bit embarrassed when I was writing some of the more hair-raising sex scenes. Sometimes my partner would walk into the room and say, “You’re writing a sex scene, aren’t you?” It was obvious because I’d have very pink cheeks from embarrassing myself while writing some pretty heavy erotica. There’s still a little part of me going, “Where did this dark stuff come from?” That’s the part of me I should be scared of, I guess. To be kind to myself, I guess you could say that I’ve got a very overactive imagination!
Johnny: Alright. The Venus Complex will be an audiobook soon, narrated by Hellraiser star Doug Bradley, but if the book were to be turned into a movie, who would you choose to play Michael Friday?
Barbie: Oh, God. I’ve been asked this question, and I don’t know. It’s almost as if it would be good if it was somebody who wasn’t that well-known. One description of Michael in the book was “intriguingly nondescript”. There’s so many pretty male stars out there, it’s hard to find that particular type.
There are talents like Michael Fassbender, but he’s almost too good-looking. If you really want a name, then I think that Sam Worthington is a possibility. He starred in the Netflix series, Manhunt: Unabomber. He’s not pretty, but he’s good-looking and a very powerful actor. It’s difficult for me to say. When I first started writing the book, I had certain actors in mind, but time has passed. I would love to find an unknown. There was another Netflix TV show called Mindhunter. It featured an actor named Cameron Britton and I thought, “Wow, where did this guy come from?” There’s so many talented actors out there we don’t know about as most of their work is in New York. I think Michael Friday is out there. We just haven’t found him yet.
Johnny: Alright, scary as that sounds.
Barbie: Who would you cast?
Johnny: I would need to revisit the book and reread it, but I’ll get to that in due time. To my next question: As we’re having this conversation, you’re preparing to fly back to England from a convention you appeared at in Texas. As I’ve often asked those who have gone out on the convention circuit, what’s the most rewarding part of attending conventions, and what’s the most unusual item you’ve signed at one of them?
Barbie: (Laughing) Well, I signed my signature on someone’s leg because they were going to put a tattoo of it on there alongside their tattoo of the Female Cenobite.
What’s wonderful about conventions is meeting people. Hellraiser fans show so much love towards the films and the mythology. Also for me, I’m spreading the word about what I’m doing now. Unusually, I sold all my books at this Convention. Sometimes it’s a hard sell because people are concentrating on Hellraiser, but I always mention that I wrote an illustrated short story collection called Voices of the Damned that features three Female Cenobite stories, or I chat about The Venus Complex, which features a serial killer, a genre which most horror fans are interested in.
Of course, Doug narrating the audio book has caused a tremendous amount of interest, and I’m just thrilled that he liked the book enough to want to do it.
Johnny: Alright. Have you ever been to the Chiller Theatre convention in New Jersey?
Barbie: No, I haven’t, (laughing) she said whiningly. No, I haven’t. I’ve heard a lot about it.
Johnny: That’s the main convention I attend. I live in New York and I take a cab to go there. It’s about 45 minutes from where I live. I think you would be a good guest for Chiller, especially with 2018 marking the 30th anniversary of Hellbound. When I send the transcript of this interview your way for corrections, would you be okay with me also sending the Guest Application link for Chiller Theatre?
Barbie: Well, I actually have a manager who handles those things, but yes, send the application and I’ll pass it on to him.
Johnny: Alright. Now I come to my final question: You were born in Canada, raised in America, and currently live in England. Your voice has a mixture of all those dialects, so I guess what I’m asking is not so much of a question, but more of a statement. I know that there are talents who commute between England and America, and because of that, their accents tend to fluctuate between British and American, so how would you identify your own voice?
Barbie: I’m a Ca-Mera-Brit. I have a very strange accent, I know, but I’m terrible at doing English accents. I torture my fellow English Cenobite friends by saying phrases like “Cor blimey, mate” and other Cockney witticisms and I’m just terrible. I tell folks that I went to the Dick Van Dyke School of Cockney Accents. Nobody in the cast would believe it, but I did a pretty good Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady when I lived in the United States.
The thing is, British people have very keen hearing for accents because that’s how they identify where you’re from. You can instantly tell if someone is from Liverpool or Guernsey.
I actually went up for a part in a film in the 80s written and directed by Ray Davies from the Kinks called Waterloo Sunset. He wanted a punky girl with blue hair, but he said, “You’ve got to have a London accent.” I tried, but his face was falling down to his chin because he liked the way I looked, but I just couldn’t do the accent.
There are some people who are brilliant with accents, like Meryl Streep. Actually thinking about accents made me thing of another actor who I think would make a great Michael Friday. His name is Matthew Rhys and he stars in the brilliant TV series The Americans. He has that innocuous look, is a genius at disguise and is totally convincing as a sexy, deadly foreign agent. Have you seen The Americans?
Johnny: I’ve seen a couple of episodes here and there.
Barbie: Yeah. Rhys plays a Russian agent who is deep undercover with his wife in America. Rhys was born in Wales, but his American accent is flawless.
Unfortunately, I left drama school early because I just wanted to be out there performing, and then I moved over to the music business. My career has been eclectic in the extreme, and so my training isn’t quite at the same level as if I had spent all four years in drama school, learning the correct techniques. At the same time, I was supporting Gary Numan at Wembley and being in Hungary shooting Grizzly 2.
There are some actors like Benedict Cumberbatch who seem to have a “narrative arc” to their careers, and then there are others who are Barbie Wilde (laughing), who do more of a burlesque kind of acting. If you hire me, you basically are hiring my eccentricities.
Johnny: Actually, with the mention of George Clooney, I do have one more question: Grizzly II: The Concert. Will that ever see an official release, or do you think it’s not in the cards?
Barbie: (Laughing) Two people bought my Grizzly II photograph yesterday. I was so thrilled. They said, “Maybe they should finish the movie with hand puppets or something.” Now there’s a concept!
There is a version hanging around out there where they used the bear scenes from the first Grizzly film and edited them into Grizzly 2 so you still see a bear, as opposed to the bootlegs with a black screen where the bear is supposed to be.
There were so many problems with the mechanical bear. It didn’t work. It kept breaking down. I think the director ended up having a nervous breakdown, and then the Hungarian government moved in. At that time, they were still Communist and they said, “You haven’t paid your taxes”, so they confiscated everything: camera, lights, even the bear! Who knows? Maybe the mechanical bear is still in a government vault somewhere.
There is footage on YouTube, so it’s out there, but it would require a fair amount of money to re-master and re-edit it. The footage I’ve seen is pretty muzzy. It’s not high quality. I think it would be highly unlikely for it to ever come out, but I would love to see it, just to see George Clooney getting eaten by a bear. It was obviously the very beginning of his career, along with Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen. It’s got an amazing cast. It does seem strange that there’s been no bright spark that said: “Hey, let’s put $50,000 into it to re-master it and just put it out there.”
Johnny: I know that Brad Jones, who created the character of The Cinema Snob, did a review of Grizzly II as that character, but a copyright claim for the video was filed because of the legal issues mentioned. The official video was taken down, but I heard that he unofficially leaked it, or maybe another source did, so the Cinema Snob review of Grizzly II is still out there on YouTube, just in an unofficial format.
Barbie: Yeah. I think I saw it, actually. It’s very amusing, isn’t it? It’s funny because somebody once called Grizzly 2 “the so-called Holy Grail of unfinished, unreleased horror”.
Johnny: …And maybe it is. That about does it for my questions. I again thank you for taking the time to speak to me, especially with the time crunch you’re under.
Barbie: Thank you very much. It was lovely chatting with you.
Johnny: Likewise. You mention having an eclectic career, and I think that’s worked in your favor. You really are a great talent.
Barbie: Oh, thank you, and thank you for your compliments about my writing. It means a lot to me. Anybody who sees me at a convention and buys a book gets a special “book hug”. It’s so nice to be acknowledged for what you’re doing now. However, I’m so glad that I’ve been a part of an amazing franchise like Hellraiser. If it hadn’t been for Clive and Hellraiser, I wouldn’t be writing horror now, so it’s all part and parcel of life’s rich tapestry (laughing), if that’s the right expression. Thank you.
Johnny: Alright. Safe travels.
Barbie: Thank you very much. Take care.
Johnny: Talk to you soon.
Barbie: Okay. Bye!
Johnny: Bye.
I would again like to thank Barbie Wilde for taking the time out of her schedule to speak to me. If you would like to learn more about Barbie Wilde’s career, you can visit her Facebook fan page and her official website, as well as her Twitter page.
Coming soon to the Flashback Interview will be Pleasant Gehman, another versatile performer with a long and diverse career.