STACIE: Do you enjoy horror movies? Would you consider yourself a fan of the genre?

MARILYN: Oh yeah, when I was a little girl, I used to go on Saturday mornings and watch all the horror movies back-to-back. I’ve always liked ‘em.

M: Oh, I’ve done so much other work but everybody always focuses on the horror!

M: I’ve done the stage…that’s how I was trained. You’d never know it, though. I did Brewster McCloud with Robert Altman and the way I got that was- I was on summer vacation and they were hiring tour guides.

They were shooting Brewster McCloud with Sally Kellerman and the whole Altman crew; they’d just finished M.A.S.H. I decided I needed to be in that movie so I got a job as a tour guide and took my tour right into the set and I got to meet everybody and it was really cool. I got a small part in that.

M: I did Lovin’ Molly- I auditioned for Sidney Lumet and I got a part I the movie with Beau Bridges, Blythe Danner, Anthony Perkins…I was to play this character and I got all excited; then I get a call and they say “Marilyn, there’s this agency in New York and in order to get Beau, Blythe, and Anthony, we have to have this young girl named Susan Sarandon. We’ll give you another small part and then you’re gonna be on the set everyday as the stand-in for 6-foot Blythe Danner and 5’7” Susan Sarandon.” The crew hated me because they had to make apple carts because I’m not…look at me! Can you imagine?

M: Well, that’s when I met Tobe. These guys came on the set when we were eating and the New Yorkers were pissed because they put liquid smoke on the barbecue in Austin…the New Yorkers are going “Liquid smoke! We’re not eating liquid smoke! This sucks!” like this is the crappiest food and they’re all pissed.

Then these two guys come over and they’re trying to eat dinner and they’re watching. Tobe Hooper and Kim (Henkel), the writer and director. They go “You’re not part of the crew! Get outta here!” So they got kicked off the set and I sort of met ‘em that way. They knew I was part of the crew and then I auditioned for Chainsaw and I got it- so that was a good thing. I just remember I really wanted that part.

M: Yeah, she’s reading the horoscope, something’s amiss. Yeah, something’s gonna happen, oh boy! But that was the first time that they all…you know, they did something like that. It’s been done 5,000 times since then- maybe 50,000 times- but you know, the whole beginning sets you up to be scared. The way they focus the camera and the flashes on that specially sculpted dead body. So you know, it was kinda fun.

M: That’s good!

M: I still jump when I watch the movie by myself- it still makes me jump when I’m pushing Franklin (Paul Partain) in the wheelchair and he goes “There’s a light!” and RARR! You know?

M: It just makes me jump, which is surprising ‘cause I shouldn’t have any reaction at all.

M: Oh, God was he annoying! The thing is, that guy’s the nicest guy in the world, but I didn’t know it until 20 years later because he acted like Franklin the whole time, he was like a method actor.

He continued to be just as whiny and horrible when they yelled “cut”. He’d sit in his wheelchair and say “Someone get me a Coke!” and we’d go “Hey, Paul, you’re not crippled. Get up and get it yourself.” Nyah nyah nyah- he’d whine! And I’m sure someone finally got the guy a Coke. It was weird.

I should’ve known he was acting, but…it was 20 years later when I talked to him and he said “I felt so bad being so terrible!” and I’m thinking, “Paul, I thought you WERE terrible.” He was just doing his job, and I mean brilliantly, especially since we were so young then…who would have thought some jerk would stay in character the whole time and be such a terrific guy and you’d not know it until 20 years later?

M: I know right before the flashlight scene, where we fight over it, he said “Paul said this about you” and then he went to Paul and said “Marilyn said this about you”, but it was already set. I mean, the whole shoot was real hard and the more Paul whined as a character the more we went “Oh God!” But it worked good for the film, because we were ready to kill each other.

M: He was so damn…I was…yeah. I mean, I didn’t really think I could push the guy, especially with all the brambles and brush. But it made it all funny later. Ha ha ha. Later.

M: It was a challenging performance, I’d say. The only thing that was good about it was I got to scream…everybody says “Well, why didn’t you lose your voice?” It was my only weapon of attack, to use my voice because I knew they all hated it. It was enough to really piss ‘em off. Even when they yelled “cut” I would keep screaming as long as I could, because that way, for all the jabbing, poking, throwing me on the floor…

M: Like when I fell out of the chair. I was tied to the chair, my hands were tied- I was trying to get away from Ed (Ed Neal, the “Hitch-hiker”). I fell over and the cameraman said, “Shit, she fell out of the shot!” I’m laying on the floor…

M: Yeah! So then I’m still on the floor and they go “Well, we’d might as well go to the next shot, we got enough of that.” I’m on the floor going “Hey!”, but I had the gag in my mouth so really I’m going “Mmmmllggkk!” Finally they were like “Sigh. Will somebody pick up Marilyn?”

M: (laughs) Yeah, really. She’s that irritating little thing over there.

M: What happened…we filmed the very end of the show, where I jump in the pickup truck- which kills you if you ever try to jump from the cement into a pickup truck and you’re my size, and flip over…like that was a stunt I do daily! And your boobs are getting, you know, all parts of you…and who flips over in a truck? I would never flip over in a truck now.

But anyway, when I finally get in the truck and I had to wear all these stupid clothes full of karo syrup and chocolate and shit and then…I mean, the pants stood up! They greeted me at the set! And I thought, “Well, I’ll never have to wear that again!” I mean, your hair sticks to you and everything, bugs and mosquitoes…if I sat on a chair it came with me…and so I thought “I’m through with that”.

M: I don’t know how I did it the first time, I know I was crazy- but the second time, whatever happened there, the girl was just (maniacal cackle) “What are you gonna do to me now? Are we gonna do it tomorrow? Are we gonna do it next week? Are you gonna keep calling me?!” So yeah, everyone talks about how real that was, and…well, yeah, it would have been! I hate to tell everybody sometimes, they go “Gee, where did all that come from?” Well…

M: Right, I was kinda already there.

M: It used to be. I don’t know, I haven’t picked ‘em up to watch them in all these years- that might say something! It’s not difficult, but you have to be satisfied when you want to do better. The worst experience I had- and I love her to death- is Elvira. How would you like to be an insecure actress in Hollywood, you know, and you’re sitting home on a Saturday trying to do your laundry, and you’re watching one of your favorite people, Elvira, ‘cause I love the horror movies (author’s note: See? Marilyn Burns rocks!)…and one of my movies comes on. It’s Kiss Daddy Goodbye (1981), and you know how Elvira stops the footage and comes in…

M: Yeah, the one I particularly liked was, she stops the thing and goes “27? Do you really think she’s 27?” and she kept doing that. I wanted to die! I’m sitting there by myself and I can’t turn it off but I don’t want to see anymore, her making fun of me. And I don’t want to call any friends and have them turn it on, that would be worse- and I don’t want to share that with my family.

But of course now it’s all in fun, it’s a scream- but at the time I thought it was rude! Made fun of on TV…well, thank goodness it’s by Elvira.

M: She’s a kick. You gotta put everything in perspective sometimes, but those are just stupid things we mess ourselves with. At the same time, I did think, “I’ll never work in pictures again!”