The Flashback Interview: Brooke Bundy

Last year, I interviewed Tiffany Helm about her life and career. The interview went well, and I’ve kept in touch with Tiffany since then. One day, I asked if she could put in a good word for me with her mother. Who is Tiffany’s mother? She’s actress Brooke Bundy, who 80s horror fans will remember from her role as Elaine Parker in A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, but who also has a career going back to the 1960s. Tiffany connected us, and earlier this month, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brooke about her long and diverse career. I hope you all enjoy getting to know her.

Say hello to Brooke Bundy!

Brooke: Hi, Johnny.

Johnny: Hello, Brooke. How are you?

Brooke: I’m fine. How are you?

Johnny: I’m doing good. I have my questions ready to go. Before anything, I want to thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to speak to me.

Brooke: My pleasure.

Johnny: Let’s start it off. Some of your earliest work was done as the character of JoAnn on The Donna Reed Show. What did working alongside the Oscar-winning Ms. Reed teach you that would apply to your later acting?

Brooke: I don’t think I had any scenes with Donna Reed, and I think it was the first thing I’d ever done for television, so I was sort of a little out of it. It was sort of an overwhelming situation, but if there was any takeaway from her, it would be relax. Just relax and have a good time. Be professional, know your lines, be there on time, and relax. That would be my only takeaway as I don’t really remember any conversations with her, per se.

Johnny: Alright. To go to my next question, IMDB credits you as a dialogue coach for the 1962 drama Lad: A Dog. Was that one of your credits, or did IMDB mix you up with another Brooke Bundy?

Brooke: That’s another Brooke Bundy. Yes, there is another one because I never did that kind of work.

Johnny: Alright. Well, switching gears, you appeared in episodes of both Bonanza and Gunsmoke. Which of the two shows did you prefer guest-starring on?

Brooke: Oh, they’re both so different. Mostly, Gunsmoke was inside on a soundstage at CBS’ Valley location, and Jim Arness was just wonderful. Bonanza was outside most of the time, and I got to know the stars. They were always so happy to see me. They’d say, “Brooke is back!”. I used to do one a year, playing all different characters.

Johnny: Alright. Speaking of westerns, you played Leah in the movie Firecreek. A movie with a loaded cast of stars, what stood out the most to you about working on that movie?

Brooke: Well, it’s kind of a long story, but Jimmy Stewart was just an absolute prince. I mean, he was just amazing. I was involved in a court situation, and I had to be in a downtown Los Angeles county court to file a situation. I hadn’t told anybody about it except my makeup artist, and it turns out I had to work the same day, so I thought, “My god, what am I going to do?”.

We were sitting in the buckboard, waiting to shoot, and Jimmy came up to me and said, “What are you doing here?”. I said, “I’m in the scene”, and he said, “Yeah, but what are you doing *here*? Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere else?”. I said, “Oh, yeah. Actually. I’m supposed to be in court”. He said, “Okay. Change your clothes”, as I was in my costume. “I’ve got a car for you, and they’re going to take you to downtown L.A.”.

They used my body double for the buckboard scene. All you saw was her back. I was so moved by that. I mean, here was this huge star for decades telling me to get going, and he had a car for me and everything. I was able to make the court date and take care of what I had to take care of.

Johnny: That was very nice. By most accounts, he was one of the nicest men in Hollywood.

Brooke: Oh, absolutely. Just a lovely, lovely man. I think his son was killed in Vietnam. It was right around that time, and Firecreek was kind of an anti-war movie in a very subtle way.

Johnny: Right. Well, going back to you, you played Shelley Allen in the movie The Young Runaways. As you were only a few years older than the teenager character you were playing, how close did The Young Runaways come to your own coming-of-age experiences in the 1960s?

Brooke: Not at all. In the 60s, I was working and getting married, and my daughter was born in 1964, but I saw what was going on with young people, and how tragic it was that they were running away from home because of abuse or other causes. I was aware of it, but it wasn’t impactful in my personal life.

Johnny: Alright. Well, jumping back to TV, you played Rebecca North on several seasons of Days Of Our Lives, and then you spent several seasons as Diana Taylor on General Hospital. As an actor always learns something from every project they work on, how did working on a soap opera expand your acting pallette?

Brooke: Great question. Working on a soap opera, a lot of people do soaps, and then their storyline ends and they go right to another soap. Soaps are difficult. Once you get into the zone of memorizing lines and stuff like that, you’re good to go, but one soap usually leads to another and leads to another. I was actually offered another soap after General Hospital, but it’s very, very stressful work.

You become a member of a family, like the General Hospital family. You hang out together, but it is very stressful when you hear those numbers. “5, 4, 3, 2, action!” (laughing). You’re thinking, “Will I remember my lines? Will I have to use the cue cards?”. We tried never to use the cue cards, but we did. You have to be very professional, and absolutely on time…Early, in fact, to get settled and get all your stuff together.

It’s really a different kind of profession than just regular acting. You have all kinds of help around you, but you’re kind of doing it alone, although you can rehearse lines with your scene partners. They’re doing it now in two blocks, a morning session and an afternoon session, but we just did it all day long. We’d be there at 4:00 for a 6:00 or 7:00 call in the morning, and it was like, “Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!”. It was makeup, hair, costumes, whatever, and you’d roll home at 6:30 or 7:00 at night. It was a 12-hour day…

Johnny: Ooh!

Brooke: …But you’re paid well, and you don’t work every day, except for the Ericas and other main characters. They usually work an average of three days a week.

Johnny: Alright. As it’s not uncommon for soap opera veterans to return to their shows years, or even decades, later to reprise their characters, have you ever been asked back for return appearances on either Days Of Our Lives or General Hospital?

Brooke: No, and I wish I had. In fact, what I did was I suggested to the producer that I come back as my vengeful twin on General Hospital to find out who murdered me. I thought that would just be such a good storyline, but they nixed it because, I think, I was so tied to Ricky Dean Anderson, who was off the show at that point, that they didn’t care about another storyline that involved my character.

Johnny: I see. Well, to go back to the big screen, you had a small role as a science teacher in the movie Explorers. What do you recall the most about working on that movie?

Brooke: Oh, I’ll tell you what happened. You know those mineral tables that you have to remember as a kid, and you have to remember the formulas and stuff like that?

Johnny: Yeah.

Brooke: That was never my strong suit as a kid, but I had to memorize a bunch of different equations, and one of them was for Nickel. The director, Joe Dante, used to do something where he wouldn’t say “cut” when the scene was over. It was up to the actor to keep going (Brooke and Johnny laugh), so I finished my little speech on Nickel, and I didn’t hear the word “cut”. I went, “Oh, no. No, no, no!”. I started talking about Nickel, and I finally said, “And two of them make a dime!”, and he said “cut”.

The kids who were in it rose to stardom. It was a really fun set. I worked two or three days on it, but I got really good residuals. I think my agent was against me doing it because the part was so small, but I just thought, “I want to work for Joe Dante. He’s an incredible director”, even though he has that streak of not saying “cut” (laughing).

Johnny: Alright. Staying on the big screen, you played Mrs. Polk in the comedy Stewardess School, which I found to be a very fun movie. You’re the second talent from that film that I’ve interviewed, the first being Sandahl Bergman, so as I asked her, do you have any good memories of working on that movie?

Brooke: Oh, we had so much fun. I mean, making up these characters, we were always in pink, and we read really deep novels like…TV Guide, and we would just laugh at this dynasty of stewardesses, the three of us. We just had so much fun. Not a lot to say, but we just laughed and laughed and laughed, and had the best time.

Johnny: Fantastic. Switching gears from comedy to horror, you made an impression on a generation of horror fans with your role as Elaine Parker in A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. What made those movies so special to work on?

Brooke: Well, first of all, I usually turn down horror movies because I don’t want to be part of something that somebody sees and says, “Ooh, that looks like a good idea. I’ll just go chop up somebody”. I didn’t want to have that kind of karmic background in me, so I kept turning stuff down. I think I auditioned for Nightmare, but my agent said, “Oh, for god’s sake, Brooke, stop. Just take it”. I thank her to this day because it has been great.

I’m actually doing three conventions in the next few months. The conventions are the best, but the thing that really amazed me about A Nightmare On Elm Street is that I was sitting on the set of Nightmare 3, waiting to perform, and I noticed there was a hubbub in one of the corners with the wardrobe person and director. Everything had come to a grinding halt, and I thought, “Wow, I have to know what’s going on”.

I found out what was going on. Freddy’s sweater, that green and red sweater, had been stolen. Someone broke into the studio at night, went into the wardrobe department, and took his sweater. Now, he has a bunch of sweaters, so it isn’t like we had to halt production and find another sweater, but that really affected me because I thought to myself, “Someone is risking jail time, jail time!, to break in and steal Freddy’s sweater. What does that say?”. To me, it says, “This is an important movie”, and lo and behold, it was. The whole franchise made more money for New Line Cinema than any other franchise they had up until that point, so I was in awe of that.

The other story, and one of my favorite stories, is that, on Nightmare 4, I was standing there with Robert, and we were waiting to shoot a scene. I said, “Robert, I don’t understand this. I mean, you killed me in 3. How come I’m back?”, and he looked at me and said, “Brooke?”. I said, “What?”, and he said, “Shut up”. I don’t understand how you die in A Nightmare On Elm Street. It’s been explained to me, but it just makes no sense. Anyway…

Johnny: Well, staying with the franchise, as I asked Jennifer Rubin and Lisa Wilcox when I interviewed them, what do you think fans saw in the Nightmare On Elm Street movies that critics like Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert did not?

Brooke: Well, one of the things about each of our characters is that we all have iconic lines. I didn’t read the reviews from Siskel and Ebert, but I think that’s something that sticks with audiences, and they like to repeat the line as you’re saying it. Whether it’s Jennifer’s line, “I’m beautiful… and bad”, or mine, of course, which is, “Andale, andale” and “Get away from that goddamn house”, we all had iconic lines.

I think, also, Freddy is funny. He’s really funny, albeit a dark funny, but he’s very witty. That’s another thing that changes the texture of a monster to becoming this kind of figure that could do standup. Robert’s like that, too. Robert is very witty. I also think that, as kids, you don’t pay attention to what Siskel and Ebert say. You want to see the movie that all your friends are seeing, so I think there are lots and lots of elements.

I know that when I got decapitated, the audience was absolutely shocked. They couldn’t believe it (laughing). Elaine got decapitated, and that was a tough scene. I mean, those were real razors on his gloves because we did it in one take, and he had to come into the room and rip up the pillows. Robert is wonderful to work with, and he choreographed the whole thing in terms of practicing it over and over again. Because I’m kind of clumsy, he was very careful because those were very sharp.

Johnny: Alright. Well, it’s, again, very memorable work. Those are enjoyable movies, and your work in them is part of why they’re so enjoyable.

Brooke: They were really fun to do.

Johnny: Jumping back onto television, you played Sarah MacDougal in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Naked Now. When it comes to the Star Trek franchise, even for those who only make one or two appearances, some actors view it as a blessing while others view it as a curse. What has your involvement in the Star Trek franchise been for you?

Brooke: Oh, it’s definitely a plus. I was actually supposed to be the new Scotty, and then they decided to go in a very different direction, but it’s definitely a plus. In fact, I sell a lot of those pictures with Captain Picard, Sir Patrick Stewart. It’s one of my favorite memories.

Johnny: Alright. I asked that question of Joanna Cassidy when I interviewed her back in 2020 as she appeared on a few episodes of Enterprise, and she had good things to say about it as well.

Brooke: That’s good to know that you interviewed Joanna Cassidy. She’s such a wonderful actress.

Johnny: Returning to you, though, and returning to the horror genre, you played Ms. Colton in Night Visitor. An underrated example of 80s horror, do you wish more people knew about it, or is it a credit you would prefer to keep hidden?

Brooke: No. As a matter of fact, I have very little memory of it. The one person who loves it so much is Tuesday Knight (laughing). She goes on and on and on about it, so it’s really sweet. It’s so cute of her, but like I said, I’m sorry. I have very little recollection. I remember being on set, and my wardrobe, but the actual shooting of it? I kind of went blank.

Johnny: That’s okay. We’ll switch gears to a different aspect of your work. In addition to your own acting, you’ve also spent time as an acting teacher. Which school of acting has been your biggest influence as a teacher?

Brooke: Well, what I try to do is a taste of everything because I taught people who had never acted before in their life. For me to go into a particular school? I don’t think that would be fair to them. That’s their choice later on, but I like to give them a taste of things, and just have fun. I’ll give them a little history of how the schools developed, and some of the actors who applied different schools to their performances, and also things to watch out for so one can say, “She’s using The Method” or “She’s using Meisner”.

Meisner was always the fun one because they are great exercises, and we used to have a fun time with that. With The Method, we would use sense memory, and it would be really interesting because the young people, and a few who were not terribly young, would be really amazed at how their body could respond to something that simply wasn’t there, based on sense memory. It was really fun. I really enjoy doing that, and now I see them on television and in movies, and say, “I remember when they came to me and they didn’t even know how to slate”, which is how you identify yourself to the casting director, so it’s really very rewarding.

Johnny: Fantastic. If you’re okay with doing so in a non-teaching context, what would be the best advice you could give to somebody who’s looking to become an actor?

Brooke: Well, get in class. You’ve got to get into class. That’s crucial. Don’t just hope someone is going to discover you because that doesn’t happen anymore. Get into class, and do lots and lots of scenes because I learned this when I went into class, and I went in late. I’d finished both soaps and went into class, but one of the things I discovered about being in class is that when you pick different characters to portray, very often you’re going to audition for a character who is very much like the character you just portrayed in class. This way, you’ve done all your homework, so you’re good to go.

Class is the most important, and if you’re an actor now and you’re acting, get back into class. It’s a way to really keep your craft fresh in your world. Working on scenes and devoting yourself to something is not easy, and getting more and more difficult because you have to memorize your scene for your audition. You didn’t have to do that before when I was acting. You had to be off-book, kind of, for a callback. It wasn’t mandatory, but now you have to be off-book for your first audition, and that’s asking a lot of people.

Johnny: Alright. Several of my previous interview subjects, like Sondra Currie and Lisa London, have talked about how they still take acting classes, even though they’ve been acting for a long time.

Brooke: Yeah.

Johnny: They talk about the importance of it, and that makes sense.

Brooke: Absolutely.

Johnny: You’ve done a decent amount of conventions over the years. What’s been the most rewarding part of attending conventions for you?

Brooke: The fans. The fans are absolutely outstanding and wonderful and kind and sensitive and respectful. It never ceases to amaze me. I have one fan who was kind of a pain in all these years, and that’s because he wouldn’t wear a mask. It was during the pandemic, and I offered him one because I kept some at my table, and he wouldn’t take it. That was really a problem, but one out of years and years of meeting all these sensational fans that are just sweet and kind…They never cease to amaze me.

Johnny: Alright. A lot of the talents I’ve interviewed over the years who have done conventions have mentioned the fans as the most rewarding part of attending conventions, and I can see that. I mean, you may have to deal with an occasional jerk, but by most accounts, the talents I’ve interviewed who have done conventions really love their fans, all of them, and it’s good to have that connection.

Brooke: Oh, they’re absolutely incredible, and I’m so bad about Facebook. I always forget about it. My daughter says, “Mom, you’ve got all these questions on Facebook! You’ve got to start doing something”. It’s not that I’m ignoring my fans. It’s just that I forget about Facebook. I’m older and I didn’t do Facebook, but I have friends who are very adamant about doing Facebook. I hope the fans are not offended by my lack of Facebook stuff.

Johnny: It’s understandable. It can definitely slip your mind at times, and I don’t mean “your” specifically. I’m talking in generalities, but staying with conventions, what’s been the most wonderful piece of memorabilia you’ve signed at a convention?

Brooke: My head! (Laughing) Somebody actually got my head, and I was surprised it was so little. I thought, “My gosh, it’s that little?”. That’s the head that they used for Nightmare 3. I grabbed it and went running into Robert, who had his own room with his fans, and they just adore him. He spends so much time with them, so I apologized to the fans who were lined up. I said, “I’m so sorry, but I need him to sign this”, and he signed it for me. I know he charges a lot, but he was able to sign it and say, “Here you go”. I think he signed it on the forehead and I signed it on a cheek. When somebody brought that to me, it was like, “What?”.

Johnny: Wow. That’s definitely a fantastic piece.

Brooke: Yeah, it was. It was really sweet.

Johnny: I now come to my final question. When it comes to coronavirus, we’re wavering between getting back to normal, or what passes for it, and feeling like it’s not going to end anytime soon. Where do you stand on that?

Brooke: I think it’s something that we’re going to have to endure, and it will evolve into yet another variant. I have very, very dear friends who are not vaccinated, and as I’m a Buddhist, the only thing I can do is just chant for their protection, but I think if more people were vaccinated, then we would see the end of this. Without vaccinations, like I said, this virus can evolve into another variant, and we just don’t want to go back to being in lockdown. I’m kind of okay with that because I tend to be reclusive (laughing), but I have friends who are very social, and they really had a hard time.

I also have friends who had COVID. One had it for three months. She was home, and it was just awful. It’s a horrible, horrible thing, and then I hear about how another friend had it, and her little girl had it for two days. The little girl is six. The variations of it affect people, and then there’s the long haul. These people are dealing with heart stuff and things like that, so I just want people to be well, and I want this Ukranian thing to be over with. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. There are just no words for it, but I just wish everyone would get vaccinated.

It’s a personal responsibility, a responsibility to your neighbors and community, but that’s not for me to say. I just got vaccinated, boosted, the whole thing, and if I have to do a fourth booster or fourth shot, I’d be more than happy to do it. If it’s every six months, I’ll do it.

Johnny: Yeah. I’m willing to do that, too. That does it for my questions. I again thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to speak to me.

Brooke: My pleasure, Johnny. They were just great questions, and I can’t believe we got them all done.

Johnny: Well, it has been an honor to talk to you. On that note, I’ll definitely be in touch again soon, and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Brooke: Thank you so much, and thank you for this wonderful interview. I thought the questions were just so intelligent and insightful.

Johnny: I’m flattered by your compliments. That definitely means a lot to me.

Brooke: Cool. Well, you take good care of yourself, and be safe.

Johnny: You, too. Be well.

Brooke: I will. Thank you so much.

Johnny: No problem. Bye.

Brooke: Bye.

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I would again like to thank Brooke Bundy for taking the time out of her schedule to speak to me, and I would again like to thank Tiffany Helm for being kind enough to connect us for this interview.

If you would like to meet Brooke at a convention this year, she’ll be at Steel City Con in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from April 8th through April 10th, Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas, Texas from April 29th to May 1st, and Flashback Weekend Chicago Horror Con in Rosemont, Illinois from August 5th through August 7th.

Coming soon to the Flashback Interview is a first-time conversation with Oscar-winning makeup designer Barney Burman and a second interview with Katharine Kramer, following up on our 2016 conversation with discussion of her more recent work.

I’ll talk to you all again soon. Be well, everybody.