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Before the modelling
career and the acting, you were studying art...?
I was 16 and still at school. I was in Rottingdean, a very
small village outside of Brighton. I went to life-study classes on a Saturday
at Brighton Art College (a terrific art college) with a view to pursuing it in
some way. I don’t know how I was going to earn my living but that’s what I
thought I was going to do.One of your very first
roles, albeit a minor role, was in ‘Casino Royale’ (1967) –
It wasn’t a role at all really I was an extra!Well yes, but you did
the chance to witness the greatest actor ever to have played 007 -
Woody Allen! I did, that was amazing sitting on the set and
watching him working. I felt very privileged. I knew nothing about acting I was
pretty green, but to be given the chance to be an extra on the film with all
these fabulous names: Orson Welles,
Peter Sellers and David Niven was just incredible. I asked my director, Val
Guest if I could sit quietly at the side of the set and just watch. He said yes
and that’s just what I did!The Lambs Navy Rum
adverts were a big exposure for you, erm, perhaps that’s not quite the right
expression...?
Well I don’t know I would think it is the right
expression actually! When my dad first saw me on a giant poster in Waterloo
Station he said: “Oh my goodness Caroline!” – he was quite surprised I think. I
suppose for the time it was quite a strong advert the idea of a strong female
character being captain of a ship. The first one was shot in a studio with a
tiny budget, then we moved to Cornwall, then Majorca and Ibiza, and eventually
the last one was shot in Palms Springs, California. No contract though – they
just used to phone up and say would you like to do another one and I’d say ‘Oh
yes please - terrific!’.Unlike with Hammer,
where you got a contract for a year -
I did get a contract; you’ve done your research haven’t you!
I’ve done a bit I have
to say, not least of which has been watching as many of your films in the last
couple of weeks as I could get my hands on.
Oh you poor thing! What
have you subjected yourself too!No, no it’s been an
absolute pleasure! Now, you’ve worked with the horror holy trinity of Price,
Cushing and Lee. Let’s talk about Vincent Price and ‘The Abominable Dr.
Phibes’. You lay in a coffin with him all day I believe?
Yes we did! We had great fun. He was just such an amazing
man to listen to, he had that wonderful voice. And he was just charming. I
wished I’d had some ‘proper’ scenes with him. I was his dead wife – so I didn’t
really have any dialogue!
So continuing with the
holy trinity we then come to Mr Christopher Lee (O.B.E) and ‘Dracula A.D.
1972’. Was he really a pain in the neck? (sorry).
Well he did bite my neck pretty well! I suppose now looking
back I see how lucky I was to have worked with them all. As a young actress I
was quite in awe to work with him and it was a real turning point working with
him. I totally believed that when I saw him for the first time in character as
Dracula he was Dracula. I was a believer;
I thought wow and so I acted accordingly, or rather reacted accordingly. He absolutely embodies
Dracula and for me this is no other Dracula –
I totally agree and I’m just sad he doesn’t really embrace
it because he was just so magnificent.Now I saw you at a
celebration event at the National Film Theatre for Ray Harryhausen, the
stop-motion maestro from such films as ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ and of course
‘The Golden Voyage of Sinbad’.
He is the Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Not only one of
the nicest people you could meet but also a true master of the special effects.
The amount of directors who have been inspired by his work, the likes of Steven
Spielberg and Tim Burton for example. And of course Peter Jackson who brought along
a home movie he made trying to recreate the skeleton fight sequence from Jason
and the Argonauts.
Next up, eggs and
tomatoes thrown at you during ‘Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter’…?
True story! Quite fun, it helped put me in character.And you were told not
to wash your hair for a week!
That’s right, for Kronos the scruffier the better. The film
itself didn’t go over the top with the gore and the bosoms and the usual Hammer
stuff in fact it’s very minimal, and maybe that’s why it didn’t do so well at the
time. In fact I think it was ahead of its time. The dialogue is quite witty and
I think it’s really well done.I completely agree.
And now we come onto the first of our delightful offerings at the Gallery next
Saturday: ‘At the Earth’s Core’. This film features an absolutely wonderful
performance from the third of the horror icons in the trinity: Peter Cushing
(and his duck umbrella!)
Oh yes, what a joy. We worked together for six weeks on that
film. An amazingly funny witty man, and so modest too. Absolutely extraordinary. I have to kick
myself every now and then to think that actually I’m really lucky to have worked
with them all. I feel very blessed. I’ve re-watched the
film recently, you are of course fantastic in the film, although you
disappear for about thirty minutes when you’re kidnapped by Hoojah (“The sly
one”). But you return with a bang when you’re almost burned alive by a gigantic
toad spewing fire!
We had great fun. We did all our own stunts - even though
they had stunt doubles for us - we said we’d be alright. Little did we know how
hot the fire scenes were going to be... No CGI back then!
No CGI – REAL fire. Speaking of CGI, do you know I’m really not
too sure about it these days? In certain things it’s great but in certain
things it’s just not necessary. I completely agree. Then,
having survived all those monsters and fire you get blown up by Roger Moore in
‘The Spy Who Loved Me’! The first female baddy to have been killed on screen by
007.
Not very nice, not very gentlemanly was it?I’ll never forgive
Roger Moore for that. But then you bounce back from this minor setback by
kicking and karate chopping almost the entire galaxy in the one and only ‘Star
Crash’ .
Luigi (the director) added
even more ‘stuff’ than was originally in the script. He quite liked the kicking
so I went back and did a bit more!Now I watched Star
Crash again the other night...
Oh no, (Oh yes!), and
with the dubbed voice!Yes, and then there’s
the voice of the robot Elle, dubbed by Hamilton Camp. Am I right in saying your
mother originally favoured the name ‘Stella’ for you?
Mum did always like the name ‘Stella’, possibly after the
character in A Streetcar Named Desire
but my dad liked the name ‘Marilyn’. This was before Marilyn Monroe was well
known, but that could’ve been interesting...although my surname’s spelt the
Scottish way.
As Stella Star you
obviously get into some very tight situations. But you also get into some very
tight costumes!
And there wasn’t a lot to them was there! It was very
uncomfortable.I can understand you
being (un)dressed that way as a slave, but once you’d escaped I though they
could’ve found you some proper clothes!
Yes, I thought I’d get a nice suit a bit like a Star Trek
uniform, but no...I think the director
had at least one eye on the box office returns there...And then, incredibly, Christopher
Plummer is in it!
I don’t know how he was in it. He must have been offered the
role as he was passing by; he was only on the film for a day. But he was
delightful, a lovely man. How difficult for him to say those words –Without laughing you
mean?
I think so yes, we all had to look VERY serious.Was anyone under any
illusions that you were making anything other than what it was?
You mean like Shakespeare? No, I don’t think so. David (Hasselhoff) was very excited and
enthusiastic; it was his first major film. We had terrific fun on that film,
although it was a very long shoot: 3 months. And a lot was left on the cutting
room floor… No need to worry,
there’s still plenty of good stuff left in the restored version.
I do hope people won’t be too bored! How could they be? Not
only do we get Christopher Plummer and ‘The Hoff’, but we also have The Evil
Count Zarth Arn, played by the wonderful Joe Spinell.
Oh Joe. Very charismatic, I was so lucky to work with Joe
three times and each time was a joy. We got on so well, he was a real character
- you can imagine. (I can). We worked
together 3 times: Star Crash, Maniac and The Last Horror Film. Maniac came about by a complete fluke. I
happened to be in New York for a Fangoria convention just as the original
actress Daria Nicolodi (long-term partner
of Dario Argento and mother of Asia) pulled out of the film. You also got to kick Joanna
Lumley about a bit in an episode of ‘The New Avengers’.
I’d just come off Star Crash so I was in quite a kicking
mode! I actually had to play it down a bit as I wasn’t meant to be very good at
it. And then you got to
work with someone who I’m very jealous about, the one and only Dusty Bin (and
his sidekick Ted Rogers) on the quiz show 3, 2, 1!
Oh they were happy times, I think I did about 2 years and
really enjoyed it at the time. I don’t know whether it was a good thing to do
or not now but it was certainly enjoyable. Not that anyone could ever work out
the clues – even we didn’t know!In the film ‘Eldorado’ you played Lilly
the waitress...
I haven’t seen the film so can’t really comment, but what an
amazing cast. Is it that bad, is it a
terrible film?No, I actually think
it’s one of those films that could develop a cult following like ‘Rocky Horror
Picture Show’. Particularly with all the song and dance numbers, including an
Aretha Franklin song performed by your good self...
Oh dear was it that bad? It was lip-syncing and I got it the
night before down in Cornwall and I’m not a dancer. That was so tough and we
worked really hard on it. You can definitely
tell your scene in the ‘diner’ clearly wasn’t filmed in the US! Now, speaking
of music, you’ve also recorded with one of my favourite musicians: Gary Numan.
It’s funny you should mention that. Last week I was at a
charity event last week and a wonderful looking lady came up to me and said
‘’You worked with Gary didn’t you? I’m Gemma, his wife...” He was a sweet man,
I only met him 3 or 4 times when we did the recording at his studios.How do you feel about your fanbase?
I love them. I think if people bother to come along and see
us and they know our work then I just love meeting them! It never ceases to amaze me, and it makes you
feel very humble to know people have actually quite liked some of your stuff –I
find it extraordinary really – particularly after all these years; we’ve been
around a long time.Well true quality and
true star quality never fades out. The major franchises you’ve been involved
in; Hammer and Bond – those films will never be forgotten and they will always
be held in high regard by my generation. And I’ll be showing Hammer films to my
daughter as soon as she’s old enough to appreciate them. I’ve already started
to show her the Sinbad films to pass on the baton to her generation.
And out little Hammer films were made in 4 or 5 weeks with
minuscule budgets and nearly every penny went up there on the screen. We were
all on minimal wages (well I expect Peter and Christopher got a bit more). And just like Count Dracula
himself, those films will be resurrected again and again and never truly die.
_______________
Paul Worts
An Evening with Caroline Munro took place on Saturday 30th
June 2012 at The Misty Moon Gallery.
