INTERVIEW: RENA RIFFEL TALKS TO MONDO CELLULOID - PART 2

We continue our interview with actress Rena Riffel at the Paranoia Film Festival premiere of Dark Reel, as well as the trailer for her directorial debut, Trasharella.  Rena continues her discussion of her Mulholland Drive shoot…

Our call time was really early that morning, and I was all showered and made up, and David Lynch walks in and goes, “OH MY GOD! No, she looks way too good! She has to look greasy!” And then they put all this grease on me, and he goes, “NO! She’s gotta look even WORSE!” They kept making me uglier and uglier. He wanted me to look, like, really a mess. So he did it. And he put a bruise on my arm, which some people think…there’s a website where all people talk about is Mulholland Drive (http://www.mulholland-drive.net/studies/theories.htm), they have this thread of things that they’ve discovered, and the bruise on my arm is on the same place that Betty/Naomi Watts was grabbed. So that’s why they’re thinking I’m the same girl, her other life in a different dimension.

Well your character was at Winkies too, right?

Well she was at Pink’s, Pink’s Hot Dogs. And Naomi was at Winkies.

Does Mulholland Drive make sense to you? When you saw it did you “get it,” or do you “get it” now?

See…I can’t remember. No, I guess it still doesn’t make sense to me. It’s been a while - I’d like to watch it again. That one website put a lot of clarity on it, with their theories. They even compared my scene - there’s a red lamp sitting in the background, and there’s a red lamp in her apartment where she’s all strung out. And some people say, that represents Red Light District. There’s so much stuff like that.

IMDB shows your first role as “Teenage Prostitute”.

Oh yeah!! Totally!

Right after that you were “Stripper” in Married with Children. You’ve then famously played strippers in Showgirls and Striptease. When you first set out for parts, how much of that was you going for more provocative roles, versus your agent and casting directors finding these kinds of roles for you?

They put me in those roles. I think it’s just…Hollywood. They have their vision of what strippers look like, what certain characters look like. They have an idea that if you’re playing a mom, you can’t play a stripper too.

Were you ever afraid of becoming typecast?

Yeah, I was. But when I got Showgirls, right before it came out, this one manager was telling me, “You need to find your niche.” And that seems to be the key to Hollywood - find a niche. And so when right after Showgirls I started getting these parts, and people started to say “You’re being typecast!,” I was like, “No - I found my niche!”

And you managed to avoid the permanence of typecasting - you’ve branched out, and now you’ve discovered a new love for horror.

Yeah! I’m surprised I hadn’t done more of the Scream Queen stuff all along! I mean, I’ve done some horror, but I don’t know why I didn’t even think of that, to go in that direction. Now I’m loving it!

You seem to be comfortable being nude on screen, and in roles and films that are extremely sexual in nature.  Actresses like Kate Winslet get a lot of acclaim for that physical fearlessness, but in general, sexuality in film, at least in America, continues to be a big taboo. Why do you think it is that, still today, parents would allow their children to see acts of brutal violence in film and video games, but flip when their children might be exposed to sex or nudity?

Well, you know…I’m actually not comfortable…I can do it, but honestly, every time I have to do nudity, I’m actually uncomfortable. I just do so much of it because they always cast me in those parts!

Wow! Well, do you at least get something out of the challenge of it, as an actress?

Totally. It is a challenge. And like you say, some people look down on it. Some people think, well she must not be a good actress, because she’s doing nudity. But A-Listers do it all the time. But violence…it’s really crazy when you think about it. They won’t let you get naked, on screen, without censoring so much, especially on television, but they can blow someone’s head off. I don’t understand that at all.

Do you think it’s a strictly American thing? The MPAA seems to be guilty of the same irrationality.

I really do think it’s different in Europe. I make movies out there that have a lot of nudity - Czechploitation! - and these girls just walk around the set naked all day, no problem. They help me get uninhibited. I don’t understand that whole concept - they must have established that a long time ago. Maybe it’s a control thing - violence scares us, and nudity and sexuality frees us. Maybe they think if everybody gets too comfortable, they will feel too free. But when I have to do a nude scene, it really is a challenge - you have to be uninhibited. With any scene, you have to be in the moment - you have to forget that the camera’s there.

There always seemed to be apprehension in Penny/Hope’s face throughout Showgirls. Was some of that then your own?

Well, with that role, I almost wish I would have played my character a little bit shyer, with her nudity.

I feel that though. I always felt she was the least comfortable of the group, new to her surroundings, sort of unsure about the players around her. Everyone in that room has an established camaraderie, and they all seem resigned to the world around them, and you sort of step in wide-eyed. Even when you’re onstage, it always felt like your body was going through all the right motions, but your character’s mind was somewhere else. It wasn’t selling what your body was selling.

Yeah! Well, I had that in mind when I was playing it, but I kind of felt…I wonder if I’m enjoying this pole dance scene with Elizabeth too much. Cuz I was! I was like, I wouldn’t be trying to dance so good, but maybe I would have been trying too hard. Actually, a lot of my numbers were cut. The one dance to “319″, where I’m crawling….there were so many other shots, I actually had an entire choreographed routine to that entire song, and all that ended up was a quick turn, and me crawling on the floor.

How much physical training was involved with the choreography?

Well I’m a dancer, so I was already totally dancing. I danced in Marguerite Derricks’ dance class before, with Elizabeth when we were teens! We were always dancing together at Tremaine Dance Center, in the Valley - she was doing Saved by the Bell at the time.

Would you say most people recognize you from Showgirls?

Totally. Seriously, I was gonna change my name to “Penny/Hope From Showgirls,” because nobody knows Rena Riffel! I gotta get people to know my name!

Tell us about Princess Of The Mid-State Fair.

Oh brother!! Where did you read that!? Wow…Princess of the Mid-State Fair. I’m from Atascadero, in the San Luis Obispo County, and we get a lot of big name entertainment up there, it’s a really big fair! That year…I think it was late 80’s…we had Huey Luis and the News, I think The Commodores. Dolly Parton. I had big hair! Now we have all the modern acts. But the year I was there…yeah, Lionel Ritchie was there. I’d been doing a lot of dance contests up there, and the prize was you’d win a part in a movie! It was called Stardancer. You had to pay to compete, so I entered, and I won! So I thought, I won the lead in a dance movie! I was stoked! Of course it was a scam, and this guy was going around everywhere doing the Stardancer thing. So then they called me up to be Miss Atascadero, and there was a bikini contest too, but then they had me do the big question, and I was like, I don’t want to do the stupid question!

Do you remember the question?

Oh my God! Yeah! My question was, “If you would want to know one thing about the future, what would it be?” And I wanted to say, “Am I gonna win this contest!?” Because, I don’t even want to be doing this, so I better friggin’ win! But I answered, “If there was one thing I could know about the future, it would be - When would the world be at peace? Because it’s really important that we are. Thank you.” When I said “Because…” I was gonna come up with some great reason why we should be at peace, but I was a teenager, and so naive - I didn’t know any politics, or who was at war. But then what happened was, there was this girl who wanted to be in the pageant, and she thought I was illegally put in the contest, so she started this whole big scandal, in this small town.

That’s like something out of a movie!

I’m surprised she didn’t kill me, right? Or shave my head or something! But it made me and the competition look really bad, and I didn’t even do anything - they were calling my house and asking me why I snuck into the back door of the competition. It got really ugly. But I did it anyway, and I ended up winning First Runner-Up. And I have this theory that I actually won, but they couldn’t let me win.

But you were the Princess Of The Mid-State Fair!

The Princess! - I wasn’t the Queen!!

Yeah, well where’s she now??

Exactly!

Do you want to talk about The Gertrude Stein Mystery?

Yeah! That’s director Philippe Mora - he actually did Art Deco Detective, one of my first movies. It’s a mockumentary. It’s…what if Gertrude Stein didn’t actually die? And she went through changing the course of history? She was involved with so many of the key players of art. It’s a crazy comedy. I’m associate producer, and I’m in it as well.

You’re busy!

Yeah! And I’m doing a documentary about exploitation filmmaking! It starts with Trasharella - the first 15 minutes are on the 2-disc set, but I’m gonna keep going with it. Exploitation, nunsploitation - the list goes on forever. And I want to direct another movie, but I’m not sure how I want to structure it. I’m not sure if I want a decent budget, where everything scheduled, or do it like Trasharella where I call someone and go, “Hey, can you come over tonight?” Like, Count Smokula is a real, great vaudevillian performer - I gave him lines, but he could really improvise. When he would do improv, he’d come up with brilliant stuff. But then in the editing room, you’d have this brilliant ten-minute long rant, and it’s so hard - you have to cut out these gems. It’s heart-wrenching to lose these brilliant moments.

Rena Riffel and Count Smokula at the Paranoia Film Festival

What else do you have coming up?

I have a movie called Sickle that I’m doing in April, with Tiffany Shepis who’s in Dark Reel. And with Josh (Eisenstadt) I’m doing Inner Balance - it’s gonna be really big. We start that in May! I also want to do a fundraiser to raise money for Vampira’s headstone - she’s buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery now, but she has no headstone! Maybe we could put that on together! Vampira was a big influence on Trasharella. I also want to do a workout video - a Dance/Burlesque workout video. I’m hoping it all goes through - it’s a lot of work!

Dark Reel producers Jenapher and David Forline, actress Rena Riffel, and director Josh Eisenstadt

Rena and I at the Paranoia Film Festival’s premiere of Dark Reel

Visit RenaRiffelFilms.com to buy Trasharella today!

Dark Reel is now available for rent or purchase!

Interview and photos taken at Queen Mary’s Promenade Cafe - 03-15-09
-Logan Crow