INTERVIEW: RENA RIFFEL TALKS TO MONDO CELLULOID - PART 1
Rena Riffel is experiencing the perils of the Red Carpet life firsthand. Looking stunning in a dark ensemble that speaks to both her class and her playfulness, she is realizing that, striking as they may be, the Vic Matie shoes she has been given to wear do not get along with her feet… Calling me to explain that this is why she is a few minutes late to her interview - a gracious gesture virtually unheard of - she promises she’ll come shuffling along shortly. Moments thereafter, Rena makes her entrance to the Queen Mary’s Promenade Cafe, radiant as a screen goddess, and with the carefully planned short steps of a young girl in her mother’s high heeled shoes. She lets out a hearty laugh that rocks the room and communicates that she is loving every minute of it.
Tonight the Queen Mary hosts the Paranoia Film Festival (http://www.paranoiafest.com/), which closes with the big screen premiere of Rena’s new filmDark Reel, as well as a trailer of her upcoming directorial debut Trasharella . I met with Rena Riffel over clam chowder and Shirley Temples to discuss these films, her aspirations to be a Scream Queen, and the enduring cult legacy of the film that made her a cult icon.
Tell us about Dark Reel.
It’s a gory slasher comedy!
Is it more of a comedy, or a horror film? Is it genuinely scary?
There are some scary parts, and definitely some gory parts - like, brutal murders. Lots of blood, people getting chopped up. Which is cool, but like, for me - I love horror movies, but it is hard to watch.
So “brutal” - like, torture scenes?
Not so much, no. Just a lot of murders. Like, that Hostel film - I hadn’t seen it, and I finally decided to watch it, so I rented it and - I couldn’t even watch it. It has to be a perfect balance of entertainment - you need to be able to go “WOO HOO!” Someone to cheer for. You need someone like Candyman - sitting, right over there!
Rena points to actor Tony Todd, sitting a few tables away. He smiles and raises a glass at her, she smiles and waives back.
He’s back from out of the mirror! That’s funny - Josh (director Josh Eisenstadt) and I were talking earlier today about how Tony Todd was going to be here, and I was like “I’m not scared now!”, and then he started saying “Candyman” five times and I was like, “DON’T DO THAT!” I can’t really do that, although I’m totally friends with him.
So Dark Reel - horror slasher comedy.
Yeah, it’s a funny film in the sense that all of the characters are very quirky, and we all have really weird relationships. There are some very strange characters - every character is sort of left-of-center. I play Detective LaRue - I’m not a scream queen in this movie. Though I’m aspiring to be one - I love this genre.
Rena and I stop to discuss the evolving film scene in Long Beach, from the Paranoia Film Festival to the rebirth of the Art Theatre. We discuss my midnight series and its upcoming films, and she excitedly tells me that she took a picture with The Toxic Avenger at an AFM event. She then acknowledges that although it probably wasn’t the Toxic Avenger behind that mask, she can believe it was, and that makes it just as cool and exciting.
Trasharella is the first film you’ve directed. How’d that go for you?
I’m addicted to it now. I loved it. It was really hard - it wasn’t easy, and there were times where…it wasn’t really fun, but it was something I got a passion for. I had to finish it - I had to complete it. And the way we shot it - we didn’t have a shot list. It was sort of disorganized.
Did you have a lot of support on this shoot, or were you sort of on your own?
I felt on my own. I had two people who really supported me - one was Josh, and one was my other friend Dave Edwards. He came over a lot to help shoot it - and he’s a still photographer! But he has a lot of style, and he had a feeling of what it was I wanted to see.
The film is done now, so that’s got to be exciting! How much did the finished product reflect your vision when you first stepped on set?
It totally matches up. It’s great. It was a really unconventional shoot - the whole movie was. At first I was going to do a webisode, I had a basis of a webisode - Sex Goddesses in the Summertime! It was going to be more dreamy, less punchy-campy. But then my vision started to…adjust. I started writing new scenes. There was some improv.
When will the film be released?
It’s being considered by distributors, but it’s actually available now at www.renariffelfilms.com.
Did you cast the film yourself?
I did. I did everything.
But there’s a blessing in there too I’m sure - when you’re doing something new, sure it’s nice to have help, but at the same time it’s probably great to not have too many hands involved.
That’s so true. Yes. Because then your vision may completely not turn out right. Creative control! I wanted to mold it myself. Josh was a great help in the sound, and sound levels. And even then I was a total control freak. At some level, I was trying to make…to make the worst movie ever, but good. You want to watch it, but it has to be all messed up. I went in with an All Messed Up! vibe to make the most of what I was given.
Which sort of brings us to Showgirls. If someone were to ask me, “Do you love it?”, I’d say “Absolutely!” But ask me if it’s a “Good Movie” - not so much… But I love it! It’s consummately watchable. As far as you could tell - when you were making that movie, was the environment and attitude on set that of a serious film, or did everyone have their tongues in their cheeks?
Well, that’s cool that you put it that way - “tongues in their cheeks.” Some people were trying to play straight comedy - I played my character with comedy, I was hoping to get a laugh - but no one was acting with tongues in cheeks. I know that everyone went into it thinking it would be like Basic Instinct. But then some actors saw the turn this film was taking. They were questioning some of their dialogue. It was dawning on them.
I once asked camp cinema programmer and emcee Peaches Christ how he would define “camp” - he said it’s when a movie ends up taking on a comic legacy never intended by its filmmaker. No one who worked on Mommie Dearest, for example, thought that 20 years later people would be filling theatres to shout along and laugh hysterically as a terrified young girl was beaten with a can of Ajax. And yet Showgirls seems like a very controlled film - the craft is there, it’s visually tight, it sounds and looks incredible - if it derailed, what do you think caused that derailment? Verhoeven? Elizabeth Berkeley? Joe Eszterhas?
I don’t really know… I know Elizabeth did an amazing job. It’s revealed in the film that her character is a psychological mess. She was giving us clues to this bipolar personality. I think maybe it came in somehow with her character? Some people that did scenes with her character saw something, noticed something going wrong with the directing of that character. I don’t think we’ll ever really know.
Did you see this cult legacy coming?
No. I went into it thinking it would be a really erotic, serious, shocking expose. People would be sitting on the edge of their seats. Maybe it’s Verhoeven? Have you seen Basic Instinct lately? Even that seems campy now - I watched it last year, it wasn’t the same movie I saw in the 90’s. I think it’s something with European filmmakers. I think - and this is my theory - because I work with Lloyd A. Simandl, and he’s the only one I’ll do sexploitation films for…I don’t even think he realizes that there’s something that European filmmakers have, a punched-up, extreme vibe. Everything’s extreme.
Are you the only person, as for as you know, that has the great distinction of having been in Showgirls and Striptease!
Yeah!! Well…well, they had the same choreographer.
Well that’ doesn’t cout!
It doesn’t!? Yay!! Then yes.
Have a favorite?
Showgirls. It was just more exciting. I love Robert Davi’s lines… It’s all such a dichotomy - I’m realizing this now. I’m getting more into the cult aspect of Showgirls now - I didn’t for a while. I’m becoming one of my own fans now! But the whole movie is a dichotomy. Even the writing… “It’s a class joint.” There can’t be a classy joint! Sometimes the acting goes against what you would imagine the emotions would be, based on the dialogue.
What’s interesting to me is that it’s humorous, but the subject matter is otherwise not at all comic. A troubled young girl being sexually exploited in Vegas - not traditionally comic material. It’s strange that this can end up with such a legacy and effect. And it’s not a “train wreck” either - there’s actually not a dull moment in that movie.
I think the filmmakers were trying to keep Elizabeth’s character from ever being boring. That’s why she’s exploding all the time. She won’t talk about that movie - I really wish she would.
Yeah, I mean, it’s got a legacy now! It’s like David Lynch with Dune - he won’t talk about it. He hates it. But many people love it! Speaking of Lynch, let’s talk about Mulholland Drive - how did you get attached?
Same casting director as Showgirls! I was actually called in for a TV series - they told me at first that my character was going to be really sparse, but it would get built up and my character would have a big reveal. You can only imagine what that would have been!
Yeah, because your character was attached to the Hit Man’s character.
The guy with the Blue Key, yeah.
You could have been an assassin!
Yeah! I have a theory - well, it’s a shared theory on websites - but I think the waitress, Naomi Watts, and my character were all one person - and I was the actual real reality. I was a streetwalker that ended up with this guy. They did pick up shots - I was supposed to be in some of those, to make it into a film. They sent over a bunch of paperwork, but they ended up not doing it. I heard - and this is hearsay - but I heard that Mike (Michael J. Anderson) was supposed to have another scene, and I was going to be in that. But he was busy shooting Snow White. David will never talk about it and never tell. He had actually offered me a part before, in Lost Highway - a scene with Marilyn Manson - but my agents at the time told him no! And I wanted to do it! It would have been fun!
I love the way you reach out for a cigarette in Mulholland Drive, with your hand wide open and palm up. Who reaches for a cigarette that way?? Who’s idea was that?
That’s so cool you noticed that! That was me! What I thought when I did that was - it was a hand out. Like a beggar. I was smoking at the time - I quit now, three years ago thank God - and I didn’t smoke for four days because I really wanted to crave a cigarette for that scene. David was there, chain smoking. I told him that, and he was like, “Oh how cool! How long have you been doing that?” - thinking, like, four hours. I told him four days, and he went, “Oh my God? Are you insane?” And I said, “But I’m trying to be a method actress for you!!”
Click here for Part 2 of our interview with Rena Riffel!
3 Comments on “INTERVIEW: RENA RIFFEL TALKS TO MONDO CELLULOID - PART 1”
Comment:
March 16th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I just love Rena ’s acting .
She brings a brightness and glamour to all the parts she does.
I saw the trailor of ‘Trasharella ‘ I love her singing and her acting is classic .I see the humour in it with an interesting horror .
March 17th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Rena Riffel Penny Hope…WOW…so great to see her. Is this a current picture? She looks exactly the same as she did in Showgirls! I am buying Trasharella…gona have a Trasharella Party, instead of another Showgirl party! Horray!! I love Rena…
March 17th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Yep, current picture! Taken at the Queen Mary after our interview this past Friday.
More pics to come in Part 2!