Adrienne Barbeau is an actress best known in the horror community for her involvement in The Fog, Creepshow, Swamp Thing, and Escape From New York. Barbeau was also married to cult classic film director John Carpenter for a brief period. Adrienne’s first theatrical film appearance was in John Carpenter’s The Fog in 1980, and the film did quite well at the box office. Many of Barbeau’s early films turned into cult classics. Before the wonderful world of horror and Syfy was introduced into Barbeau’s life she was involved in musicals and plays, a notable role she played was the original Rizzo for the Broadway production of Grease.

Time has definitely not stopped this resourceful and beautiful actress in doing what she loves.

Adrienne was very busy at Wizard World greeting fans, taking photos and signing autographs. iHorror was able to speak to Adrienne very briefly about the future of her career within the horror genre.

Enjoy!

iHorror: Do you have anything in the horror genre coming up?

Adrienne Barbeau: Yes, I have several. The first one that will premiere will be Tales of Halloween. You have probably been hearing about that; it’s an anthology.

iH: Tales of Halloween looks awesome, and that is great that you will be a part of it!

AB: I am doing sort of a cameo in it. I did a film last year that is in post, I do not know when it will be out with Tobin Bell, John Savage, and Leslie Andown called In Extremes. I also did a SyFy film with Casper Van Dean and Sean, umm, yes Maher is his last name, he was on a series called Butterfly; anyway that will be out sooner than later. And my novel Love Bites was just purchased by Carolco, and they anticipate to start filming next January.

iH: Are you going to have any involvement?

AB: I co-wrote the screenplay, and I will be playing one of the secondary characters. To old to play the vampire (laughs out loud).

iH: How many novels have you written?

AB: I have written three. It started with Vampires of Hollywood, and I co-wrote that one. And Love Bites is the sequel to that, I wrote that by myself. I also wrote There Are Worst Things That I Can Do, well that is my memoir, the story of all the movies, you know and being married to John [Carpenter]. And Make Me Dead was just released as an e-book on Amazon, so you can get that one for cheap. And actually that takes place in a comic book convention.

iH: Oh wow, that is so appropriate.

Adrienne, thank you very much for speaking to us about your upcoming involvement in horror. We look forward to all your future endeavors!

Whenever I attend a convention, I have a blast! I cannot describe the feeling I get when hundreds of fans that enjoy and have the same type of love and dedication of horror surround me, and Wizard World was no exception. My absolute favorite part are the panels. The panels I believe, really give the fans that unscripted insight to the actor, actress, or whoever is on stage speaking. Adrienne Darbeau was outright amazing; I was glued to her speaking points the entire 45 minutes, which, of course, was not enough. She truly has a love for her fans and enjoys when they approach her and talk about the movies she has involved herself in over the years. I wanted to share a few highlights from the panel at Wizard World.

Who did you have the most fun working with?

“The one that really, really made my life wonderful was Donald Pleasence. Donald Pleasence was one of the funniest men that I have ever worked with.  And he would start on a rift and we would get ready to roll and John [Carpenter] would say okay “Action” and I would say (laughs out loud) ‘Stop I can’t, I can’t give me a second.’ Donald would have said something underneath his breath that would have just set me off. He was hysterical! Just hysterical!”

You had done everything from Escape To New York, to The Fog, Creepshow, etc. If there is a way to touch on, what has been the most memorable experience when it came down to working with Wes Craven?

“Oh with working with Wes. You should know that I have a memoir an autobiography called There Are Worst Things That I Can Do. I pulled the name from the song that I sang in Grease, and there is an entire chapter in there about making Swamp Thing. But what I remember, unfortunately Swamp Thing of all the films that I have done that your audience would know is one of the most difficult because Wes wrote an incredible script, it was just a beautiful script. When we got to South Carolina they just started pulling money out from under him. One day when we came out, well this doesn’t have to do so much with Wes as it does with production. We showed up to work, and there was no makeup trailer because they hadn’t paid the rent, so he really had his hands full making that film as wonderful as it came out to be. So what I really remember about Wes sitting there getting rid of entire scenes. There was one day when I had to do a scene and had to bop someone over the head with a fire extinguisher, and no one had a fire extinguisher. They had to make one out of rubber; you know foam rubber and painted it and we had to pretend that it had some weight and things like that”

“He was wonderful to work with, a lovely, lovely man. You probably if you are fans of Wes know his background he had never even saw a film until he was in his early twenties, he was raised very strict, a Baptist I believe. I can remember some of the stories that he told back then.”

What were you inspirations for your character Stevie Wayne in The Fog, did Carpenter give you any insight?

“He didn’t give me any insight. But he did write the role in hopes that I would play it. But in terms of the DJ voice, there was a disc jockey in Manhattan, in the late 60’s when I was living there named Alyson Steele. She had a radio show, a talk show, not a talk show, music, she was a disc jockey on the radio. And I believe she called herself “The Nightbird”, Alyson Steele “The Nightbird.” My recollection of her was that she had that sort of this Stevie Wayne (says it in the sexy Wayne voice) and so I sort of pulled on that for that part of it. In terms of the character itself John [Carpenter] wrote it for me, he knew me, he knew my sensibilities and the characters that I played. And the only disagreement that we ever had on the set was we were getting ready to film a scene where I’ve got the piece of driftwood, and I am in the lighthouse and the driftwood catches fire or something like that. And John said, ‘Okay sit down let’s go and let’s get started filming!’ I said, ‘sit down?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ I said uh I don’t think she would sit down John, she is too upset and nervous’ He said, ‘Oh, okay stand up and let’s go!’ And that was the only difference of opinion that we ever had.”

 

Want more info on Adrienne & Wizard World?

Check Out The Links Below:

Facebook – Adrienne Barbeau

Twitter – Adrienne Barbeau

Adrienne Barbeau Official Website

Facebook – Wizard World

Twitter – Wizard World

Wizard World Official Website

 

-ABOUT THE AUTHOR-

Ryan Cusick is a writer for ihorror.com and very much enjoys conversation and writing about anything within the horror genre. Horror first sparked his interest after watching the original, The Amityville Horror when he was the tender age of three. Ryan lives in California with his wife and ten-year old daughter, who is also expressing interest in the horror genre. Ryan recently received his Master’s Degree in Psychology and hopes to some day write a novel. Ryan can be followed on twitter @Nytmare112