Cuttings from the press 2010

In Conversation

In Conversation with Dedee Pfeiffer

One of Gorezone editor Bryn Hammond's favourite movies of all time is Vamp. So when he decided that this issue would be dedicated to vampires, he leaped at the chance to track down actress, model and all-round sex icon Dedee Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer played the ditzy blonde in Vamp, setting the screen alight with her comic timing and smoldering looks.

Bryn hooked up with Pfeiffer and spoke all things vampire including the underrated House III, which bizarrely, the actress didn't actually know she had starred in until consulting with her manager.

Dedee, you're one of the most talented scream queens of the eighties. You kick started your foray as a scream queen in Jack Bender's The Midnight Hour.

Scream Queen? That title cracks me up cause it was - and still is - so hard for me to scream like a girl. I'm more of a yeller so it was very hard for me when it came to that part of the movie making.

One of my all-time favourite movies is Vamp, in which you played Amaretto. The character for me echoed early Marilyn Monroe portrayals and really came into her own during the bar fire scene. How did you approach the character?

I approached Amaretto like a girl who was so terribly in love with this guy from school and never got over it, so when they bumped into each other, she was so blinded by love she didn't even notice that the building was on fire and that there were strange people all around her [vampires]. That's where the humour was, I felt, and so did the director. So we'd laugh about her reactions because there are girls like that. Including me at times.

A question you must be asked all the time is, what was it like working with Grace Jones? Is she as temperamental as she comes across on TV?

Well, I don't know if I'd say she was temperamental as much as I would say she's an artist. Grace was, I think, experimenting with lots of stuff that was going on during those days, like everyone else around her. Not that different from now, but it was more out in the open then.

I saw the extras on the 2001 Anchor Bay Entertainment release and she really gets into eating the neck behind the scenes, so much so she leaves the director with a hickey. Would you say that was a method actor? Or just someone with borderline personality disorder?

Was she a method actor or crazy... Well doesn't one need to study method before one would consider one to be a method actor? I will say this, when I first met her I was a little scared but then when I shook her hand, thinking she's gonna take my whole arm off, she had a very soft handshake!

There were some really FX driven scenes in Vamp. Was it freaky filming the end scene with Grace all made up? If she was a method actor, she must have been a bit brutal to you during the filming of the final vamp out.

The end of the movie was a weird experience cause Grace was in makeup so long and we had to shoot. So Chris and I had to give Richard more than a few reactions, cause we had no idea what she was gonna look like. So we had to imaging what we all thought she'd look like, including Richard! It was hysterical! No one knew!

The scene with her was challenging for both of us I think, cause I had been working and studying for a few years, and I'm not sure if she had any training with those kinds of scenes before. I remember my hair being pulled a little harder than I would have liked but that stuff happens all the time.

Did you ever think holy crap, what the hell have I gotten myself into?

My thoughts through the whole movie were,"Oh my God! I'm doing my first starring role and I'm so excited I can't stand myself!!!"

What was the premier for Vamp like?

The premier was cool, from what I can remember - it was a long time ago! It was in New York and I found a dress there that was made out of the same print as Amaretto's coat, which I wore over the dress. Boy did I think that I was cool. During the screening of the premier I remember a certain celebrity showing up with a couple of friends drunk and getting thrown out of the after party. And no, I will not tell you his name cause I have worked with him since and he's a great guy. Shit happens, especially when you're younger and feel like you have the world in your hands. Boy did we all wake up to a rude awakening!

You worked a lot with Chris Makepeace on Vamp. There was not a lot of onscreen chemistry because of the intensity of the horror and backdrop until the final scenes.

I had and have been trained that if the chemistry doesn't work on screen, it won't be in the movie, and the movie won't work!

The pressure put on actors to create this chemistry, if it is not there, is a heavy weight to carry. I learned quickly no matter whom I work with whether I like them or not - and if you don't you'd better find at least one thing you like about them or your job just got a lot harder - that love and hate are the opposite sides of the same coin.

On Vamp, I was lucky because Chris was a very sweet guy.

You joined a long list of lap dancers (Lindsay Lohan being one) that never actually gets their kit off. But later on in your career you stripped for Playboy. Why the change of heart? Didn't you state in your contract for Vamp you wouldn't do nudity?

Ah yes! You are correct. I wasn't in any way shape or form doing nude scenes in Vamp or any other film at that time.

People change and boy did I ever as I grew older. I studied with an amazing coach who became a friend as well, named Roy London. He really helped me embrace my sexuality and own it! I was very insecure when I was younger and its very freeing to let a lot of that go.

Doing Playboy was all about that for me and making a statement at the same time. I was the first woman to not only show her tattoos but the first celeb to show a little more... and what was important to me was to do the pics with a black man. Both of those were firsts. I felt and still do that the world is filled with people of all colours, shapes and sizes. That's the beauty of the world we live in.

What do you think of the recent vampire movies and TV shows? What's your favourite recent vampire movie of TV show?

I'm a huge fan of vampires and always have been. I've read all the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles and as a child would watch the black-and-white TV movies and lay in bed wanting for a vampire to come through my window and take me away, but not before he sucked my neck!

As for what's out there in the vampire world of movies, I really liked Twilight. I thought it was very sexy and God knows I like sexy. And I love my husband's (Kevin J. Ryan) scent like you have no idea, so that part of the movie drove me crazy.

I think Grace Jones kicks Robert Pattinson's (Twilight) butt in the vampire stakes. I don't think he would last a second in a room with her, fangs or no fangs.

Well, I'd love first row seats!

Just recently you completed filming Supernatural. What was it like working on the show? I haven't yet seen the episode in which you starred, "Jump the Shark". What can you tell us about the episode and your character, Kate Milligan? Will your character be returning to the show?

Supernatural was so cool to work on because the cast and crew are awesome and they have a lot of fun. I got to eat - well, start to - one of the lead guys. I was a very tricky ghoul and I highly doubt unfortunately that I will be back, because I was pretty blown away in the end.

How did you get the role in House III?

People have been coming up to me for years saying that they loved me in House III and I have said sorry, I wasn't in that movie, must be another actress who looks like me. So when you brought it up I asked my manager (Jean-Pierre Henraux) why people keep asking me that question and he said, "Because you were in it Dedee." It was renamed [original title: The Horror Show] and I had no idea because life takes its turns, and watching my work is not and never has been top on my list of fun things to do.

Up next you have Mia's Father and The Wilderness Family. Any plans to return to the horror fold?

I would love to do another horror flick! Bring it on OK!

Copyright Gorezone magazine 20100101 -- Interview By Bryn Hammond, Photos by Shelter Entertainment Group and Douglas Kirkland