Ruby LaRocca ('Belated by Valentine's Lover', 'Erotic Werewolf in London')

Interview by Andrew Shearer

“If she’s a bitch, I don’t want to know.” That’s what I said to a friend of mine who shot a movie with Ruby LaRocca last summer. Having been a fan of her work for several years, a champion of the goofy erotic spoofs like Sexy Sixth Sense and Erotic Werewolf In London, I couldn’t handle knowing I owned so many DVDs starring some stuck-up diva asshole. As it turned out, not only did she receive high praise from everyone involved with the shoot, but she proved to be much more than just a skilled performer. Not only did she fulfill her obligations as an actor, but she helped the crew pack up the gear and even volunteered to provide transportation at the last minute. With a decade of low-budget film making experience under her belt, it’s no wonder Ruby LaRocca has out-lasted so many of her contemporaries who have vanished. Not just a die-hard, endlessly knowledgeable fan of the horror genre, Ruby is also an enthusiastic and driven student of film and film making in general...

I spoke to her as she was ankle-deep in production on her now-completed directorial debut, a gorgeous and bizarre love potion recipe entitled Belated By Valentine’s Lover that not only stands right alongside any film she’s ever acted in in terms of quality, but surpasses all of them in imagination, creativity and execution.

Ruby directing on Belated Valentine's Lover

AS – Belated By Valentine’s Lover is fucking great. It’s very different.

RL – It was my first time ever attempting to write a script. I had no clue what I was doing. Me and my roommates sat down one day and decided to write something. I had a million questions, I was very lost, but I thought if I could just get something down on paper, then it’ll take on a life of its own.

AS - There’s something about all the women filmmakers I know, they all have such radically new ideas, their approach is always refreshing, and it’s never stuff I would think of myself. At this level of film making, you see a lot of people trying to copy what they’ve seen before.

RL – I just wanted to do something with my friends. We didn’t have any deadlines, shot it all in my house. I’m really fortunate because I live with two filmmakers. They pushed me to set a date for the first shoot. If it wasn’t for them I’d have kept putting it off because I wasn’t ready. I have a really talented network of friends who are willing to work on each others’ projects for nothing. Over the years I’ve met so many people who are ambitious, driven. They want to be creative and want to be working.

More Ruby directing

AS – Are they what inspired you to switch from acting to more behind-the-scenes stuff?

RL – I used to work for Media Blasters, where I was basically associate producer for Flesh for the Beast and Shadow: Dead Riot. I did everything from casting, location scouting, being on set, everything. Even before that, with Factory 2000, there were only four of us. You were kind of forced to do more than just act. But since I’ve been living with Victor [Bonacore] and we started Chainsaw Kiss, being around these people who are constantly creating is the most inspiring thing. We’re constantly pushing ourselves and each other to do more and more.

AS – I spent ten years playing in bands, but I think I found where I belonged once I started making movies. Once you know what’s possible, it makes you want to get in there and write and actually do it no matter what.

RL – It’s fun. There’s something about how bare bones it is. We can afford pizza and a case of beer after we shoot tonight! That’s how Roger Watkins paid his cast. If it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for me.

[Andrew’s Note: Watkins wrote, directed and starred in 70’s grindhouse masterpiece Last House On Dead End Street. A personal friend and inspiration to Ruby, Watkins sadly passed away in 2007.]

The cast of Belated Valentine's Lover

AS – Are all of your projects [with Chainsaw Kiss Films] going to be in the horror genre, or horror-influenced?

RL – I guess you could say horror-influenced. We just finished shooting a film about a child-molesting priest. It’s a very serious subject, and not necessarily the thing people might expect us to do. There more we got into it, the more fucked-up we made it.

AS - I don’t think the audience for underground film is looking to see the dollar-store version of the latest popular horror film. I think they’re looking for an experience that those movies can’t provide. Who are your favorite filmmakers?

RL – Alejandro Jodorowsky, John Waters, Stanley Kubrick, Todd Solondz, Michel Gondry, Jim Van Bebber. I met Van Bebber, he looked like he wanted to fistfight somebody. I thought he was the coolest person on the planet. I should throw in Richard Kern and Nick Zedd too. I love the overtly sexual content in Kern’s films. It’s so beautiful.

AS – Sex is the only thing that still freaks people out, isn’t it?

RL – (Laughs) Totally. Definitely. I’ve lost friends because of the kinds of movies I do. I once had a roommate change the locks when I wasn’t home. I couldn’t get in the house. She told me she was horrified and disgusted by the movies I was doing and the people I was hanging out with.

AS – But if all you made were gory slasher movies where your head got cut off, it would be preferable.

RL – To people like that? Yeah. Violence is okay, nudity isn’t.

AS – That double standard fascinates me.

RL – I don’t understand why people think that way. They think that if a girl takes her clothes off in a movie, she’s automatically dumb, she has nothing important to say and the film has no artistic merit. One of my favorite movies is Catherine Breillat’s Romance. All the sex is real, but it’s not gratuitous at all. There’s a lot of internal dialog about being a woman and being obsessed with sex. I used to hesitate to call myself a feminist because I didn’t want people to like or not like what I do just because I’m a woman. But I love having sex, I don’t mind getting naked in movies, and that doesn’t make me better or worse than anyone else. If a man can use his muscles to intimidate someone, a woman can use her sexuality as power too.

AS – It’s easy to see how the willful repression in this country creates so many creeps. I’m sure in your ten years in the movie business you’ve seen your share.

RL – I could give you some names. There’s been some really bad ones.

AS – That’s another benefit of directing your own movies now. You don’t get as many stalkers being behind the camera.

RL – (Laughs) That’s true!

AS – What would you say are some of your biggest challenges making the transition from acting to directing?

RL – There’s so much more responsibility, so much more pressure. In the weeks leading up to directing [Belated By Valentine’s Lover], I was so filled with anxiety. I thought, am I good enough to do this? Am I actually going to be able to do this? Am I gonna look stupid? The very first thing we shot was a party scene with a lot of people. Trying to get them to listen was so much harder than I imagined because it’s so different when you’re just one of the actors. You don’t realize how intense it could be directing a big scene with so many people in it.

AS – If I were making my first pizza, I’d start off with a tiny one, not try and make one that was ten feet wide.

RL – I thought it would be the easiest part to shoot because there was no dialog, just people hanging out, but I ended up being really overwhelmed. But then suddenly, things just clicked into place. Setting up, I was so nervous, then as soon as I called action, I had to really concentrate on getting it right because I was kind of forced to at that point. I had to do it then.

AS – And you’re acting as well as directing in this one.

RL – I play the girl, the main character.

Ruby 'in character' in Belated Valentine's Lover

AS – What’s the toughest thing you ever had to do in a movie?

RL – I was thrown into a giant pile of dinosaur poop [in Bikini Girls On Dinosaur Planet]. I spent two days digging a ditch and carrying topsoil into the woods, gathering creek water to mix it all together, not knowing my character was the one who was getting thrown into it. If I’d known that, I’d have made them do all the work! I would have told them to call me in two days when they were done. It was July, it was hot as hell, trudging through the woods with 40-pound bags of dirt from Home Depot.

AS – And when you fall in, you hold your breath for a ridiculously long time while the other cave girls poke you with sticks.

RL – I can’t believe you’ve seen that.

AS – I don’t think those early Seduction Cinema films are given enough credit for some of the performances you and the others pulled off. I was often very impressed, and it made a real impact on me.

RL – I was thinking earlier about the nudity and certain films that I’ve done. Some actresses I’ve worked with have since completely turned their back on the movies we did. It’s not like we were out to make a cinematic masterpiece, we were having fun making those movies! We were in a field with cheap costumes, wielding plastic swords and getting naked. It was fun and they’re supposed to be fun to watch. What’s wrong with that? Those were good times.

AS – If you can be funny in a sex scene, that’s pretty much ultimate.

RL – That’s probably the hardest part of doing a movie like that, the parts right before a sex scene when you have to say bad dialog like, “I’m so horny”. There’s no way I’m going to be able to make that believable.

AS – For a new filmmaker, you’re certainly bringing a lot of experience with you. Are there mistakes you’ve seen other directors make that you want to make sure you don’t repeat?

RL – I think it’s important to cast people who are actual horror movie fans. Actresses will say they don’t mind doing nudity or getting bloody, but when it’s actually happening and it’s a lot worse than they’d imagined, there’s a lot of freak-outs. When you’re directing, you have to stick to your guns and not let people lead you away from what your vision is.

AS – So what’s next for you after Belated By Valentine’s Lover?

RL – We’re already writing another script. It’s about a Satanic cult, but in a fun, family kind of way. They’re the heroes of the story. The opening scene is some really horrible dialog between a mother and a daughter, and it’s actually taken from a girl I was friends with in sixth grade. Conversations I overheard, things her mother told the both of us. She would stagger in, drunk, and say, “Girls, don’t ever have anal sex. It hurts”. Then she’d pass out on the couch. We were like, “What’s anal sex?”

Belated By Valentine’s Lover will premiere in New York City at the Anthology Film Archives on June 27th, 2009 as part of an evening of short films by presented by Chainsaw Kiss Films. The event will be hosted by legendary cult actress Linnea Quigley.