Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - HEATHER LANGENKAMP: Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Saved by Wes Craven & Pushing Horror Boundaries

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dream Warriors) joins us this week to share her experience as one of the most iconic scream queens as Nancy in A Nightmare on Elm Street and what her opinion of horror as a genre has turned into. Heather opens up and shares her struggles losing a child to brain cancer, and why Mike Flanagan’s script in Midnight Club resonated so much with her at that time. We also talk about her sacrifice during the making of Dawn of the Dead, what it was like working with a young Johnny Depp, and how Wes Craven saved her multiple times in her career. Thank you to our sponsors: 🚀 Rocket Money: https://rocketmoney.com/inside ❤️ Betterhelp: https://betterhelp.com/inside 🧠Qualia Mind: https://neurohacker.com/iou 🟠 Discover: https://discvr.co/3Cnb1V8 __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou 👕 Inside Of You Merch: https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🤣 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod 🌐 Website: https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Thanks for joining me on this wonderful Tuesday or whatever day you're listening. It means a lot to me that you're listening to the podcast. If you like this one, if you're here for Heather Langencamp, I urge you to support the podcast if you like it so much. And if you like the interview, subscribe, write a review. And also, if you want to join patron, patreon.com slash inside of you really supports the podcast. My patrons are a blessing. Ryan, welcome.

Thank you for having me. yeah i'm really looking forward to this interview of me it was good oh you're not going to oh yeah so ryan oh i bet there'd be a lot of patrons or people who was i brought here under false pretenses maybe we could do an interview with ryan for the patron account just did just do a quick 10 minutes yeah maybe i think that would be fun uh just thrown at you um you could follow us at inside of you podcast on instagram and facebook at inside of you pod on the twitter it really helps write a review it helps tremendously for the podcast um you can go to my Instagram at the Michael Rosenbaum, the link tree, and it has cameo, where I'm going for cons,

all that stuff, my live podcast, which inside of you live, inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum live podcast is going to be at the Regent Theater, October 11th at 8 p.m. I think there's still tickets left, meet and greet tickets with me and my guest, Zach Levi. It's going to be a fun festive night. A lot of my friends are going to be there. I'm going to be there. I hope you come support me. It means a lot. It's my first live show. So if I like it, it goes well. Maybe I'll do more. Right, Ryan? We'll go on the road, man. I'm going to be around a road.

I've been everywhere, man. Get a tour bus. Yeah, I get a tour bus. Inside of you with Michael Rosa Mom tour bus. People are like, get lost. Just drive through Amarillo. Yeah. Drive through Amarillo.

And in the inside of you online store, by the way, tons of great new merch. And the Talkville pod merch, talkville podcast, that, if you want to go for merch, we just right now have a brand new piece of art from the great May charter. She did our last piece of art. 55 prints made signed by me and Tom.

Once they're gone, they're gone. So you might want to jump on there at Talkvillepodcast.com and tons of cool stuff inside of you online. My guest today is someone that I have watched for many years. And she's an icon. And she was brilliant on this podcast. Very open and wonderful forthcoming and just solid. I think you're really going to join this.

I mean, Nightmare in Elm Street. Where is my poster? There it is, right there. Sign by Heather Lane Camp and West Craven. Cool. Can't beat it.

The only thing it's missing is Fred Kruger. Did he not? No, he didn't. I haven't had him signed it. He was a Zoom interview at that time. Oh, that's right. I'm going to have him come in. Yeah.

You should. I should. That'd be fun. Yeah. But she's way more than Nancy. She has got a pretty spectacular story. and life and things to share. So I hope you really enjoy it.

And without further ado, let's get inside of Heather Langenkamp. It's my point of view. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. Hey, folks. Wanted to highlight something important before. today's episode. In case you weren't aware, myself and many of the guests are on strike alongside SAG AFTERNWGA. Today's episode and any we air before the strike ends were recorded

before it began. So this is just a heads up in relation to some for the topics we may discuss. If you want more info on the strike, visit sag afterstrike.org. Now let's get into it. I've had Anez for 20 years. 30 years. You know what? Stop upping me. I want to up you on each on everything. I've worked with West Craven three times.

I like how you start with that. That's perfect. Three times. Well, I mean, jump into that. Well, first of all, I met you at Mike Flanagan, name dropper. Mike Flanagan, who's an amazing director, writer, creator. Who is that again? Mike Flanagan.

Mike Flanagan. He's really good at karaoke. Haunting of Hill House, Midnight club, which you had a big role in midnight club. Big role. I mean, first of all, we met at a karaoke party and I was just kind of, when I get around karaoke, I get kind of, you know, you, you were watching. One track mind. I'm sure you and your husband were like, who is this guy? Well, you're so good at it that we really appreciate when people who are good at karaoke stand up so the people who are bad at karaoke can kind of relax in the background. Yeah, it's kind of like, I want everybody to have fun.

So it's important for everybody to sing. The other. guy was there, the big star, what's his name from Breaking Bad? Aaron, Aaron Paul. Yes. Well, he was, he was petrified to sing, and he got up and I made him sing, and he was great. I know, my husband and I sang, Baby, it's cold outside, which is a really hard song, and I wish we had known what a tough song it was, because it has a lot of syncopation. It's a lot of, like, tradeoff of the lyrics, and you don't know on the karaoke, like, which one is the male lyric, which one is the female lyric? And so we switch. And so we switch. It switched it, which we thought was really cool.

It was, but you know what? I do that with karaoke, too. Like, I will, I think people are like, oh, my God, I love this song. And then once they start singing it, they're like, oh, boy, I don't have that range. I can't. I don't know. They haven't practiced. And.

I'm like, oh, my God. Anybody who sings those songs. You've got to have practice at least a couple of times at home. Yeah. You seem like you have a really good marriage. Like you guys are just like two peas in a pod. I mean, marriage is, it's a hard thing. I mean, it's almost like a horror movie in lots of ways.

You get, you know, you're working through like lots of things all the time. So I attribute my long-lasting marriage to both of us being, we're just really patient, like when things aren't going great or we have, you know, we've had loss in our lives that was really tough. we kind of think we have this football and everyone's allowed to kind of just pass the football off, you know, and then that person takes all the responsibility for a while and then they pass it back to you and then you take over and you're just willing to, you know, you're just willing to pick up the pieces when they all fall apart. But you're always knowing at the end of the day that where you go and know where you're going to stay right there. And if you just commit to that, it's actually, it's kind of easy. Like once you just say there's no,

other options out there. And you cut off all the options, then, you know, you're really excited to be there. Well, my sister, she had options. She's been married four times and divorced four times. Those options weren't always the best options. But it's like, you know, you got to think about that. I always say, like, if you're with someone and then, you know, some people get attracted, especially actors and whenever they get attracted to someone else.

Well, it's just the attraction they're attracted. You know, that's the attraction is the physical. And so they're like, okay, this person has 20. 20% of something that my partner doesn't have. But what about the other 80% that your partner has? Which is the importance of you know what I mean? I never thought I'd say this. But sex really isn't that important.

It is. But it really like it's like, you know, it's like you have sex with someone for a year, five years, 10 years, 20 years. Hey, it's more about connection and being there for each other. And, you know, right? I mean, I think you're exactly. Right. I mean, I do think, you know, sex is really important.

Damn it. No, it is. But the thing I always, I mean, I don't even know. I can't even comment on it because I don't have sex with other people. That's good. I imagine that it's not all that different with other people. Like, my, what I tell myself is it isn't the most important part of your relationship. And if you were really curious and you were going to take those chances, I just don't think it would be worth it. I don't think it would be like, you'd be like, oh my God, I'm so. glad I experienced that because this 33 years of marriage or, you know, boy, I can just throw that

out the window for this one little tiny adventure that's going to last, you know, what, maybe would last a month or two. It would fall apart, you know. It always falls apart. I always think of my, my daughter, like, oh, how would I ever, like, how would I ever have another holiday if I just wrecked everything, you know, if it was, if it was just something I decided to throw out the window, because I treasure all the things that come along with a long marriage, which is like great family events, and you're seeing people from both sides of the family get together. You get to know their family really well.

They become your best friends. So I think that the longer you're married, the more chances of you staying are, you know, they're better. I mean, because you have so many benefits of it. Yeah. Are you a cancer? Yeah. I knew it.

I swear to God, I didn't. look it up. I'm a cancer. I knew it. What's your birthday? It's probably July 18th. July 17th. Is it really? You're good. You're good. Yeah. On my mother's life, I did not look that up. Congratulations. It's not here. No, I do exhibit. All the cancerian. Yeah. You're a hermit. I'm a hermit. I'm a nester. Like, I love just knowing that I have a nest that I can always go to and I'd work on it a lot. And I think family's like the most important thing in my life. grew up with dysfunction so yeah everybody did well now what sucks is if i want to see my family i have to go to indiana see my mom i have to go to new york to see my dad i have to go there's all

these put my brother and run right no one talks to anybody and so i'm the single guy so i am responsible for going to see them and going to and it's it's hard it's hard it's hard and you i always in a woman if i'm dating someone i definitely want someone who has a family, someone who is not, someone who's close with their family, that they're not like me, whether it's all scattered and a lot of dysfunction. I look for some normalcy. I try to escape that sort of idea of chaos, which I grew up with. But did you, did you have chaos growing up? You grew up in a farm in Tulsa? Well, no, so we had a, I mean, I had a really, like, white person privileged upbringing. I went to, I went to, I was a, I was,

you know, great school in Tulsa, a little elementary school. I mean, pretty much everyone was white. And I remember it was the Vietnam War. So we had some Vietnamese kids come into the class not knowing any English at all. You know, they were just, they were refugees and they just plopped into our school. They were the only people not white in our school. How hard was it for them? So hard. And Tulsa was a very segregated town. It still is in many ways. So I grew up there, but my dad, who his family was like a third, he was a third generation, Oklahoma, and he had a farm that was outside of town about an hour. And when I was in, you know, elementary school in junior high, every weekend that's just what we did. And so I didn't have like a typical junior high experience because while my friends, they would all go roller skating or they did, you know, went out and had parties and went to movies.

like I just was out there and we were. So you didn't really, you weren't a social butterfly. I wasn't a social butterfly and I really like was envious of my friends and all the, you know, just the normal life they got to lead. But my dad just had us in the pickup truck early Saturday and we would go out and, you know, we would take care of the cows and we would, you know. Do you know how to milk a cow? We didn't have milk cows. We had, you know, beef cattle like Herford said. So we didn't milk cows.

But, you know, you're giving them shots and you're taking care of them and taking them to market. It's always really traumatic because I loved them all, you know. And then you'd have to take the bull or you'd have to take one of the cows to the market. Did you get emotional? Oh, I would cry, big red. Did you say why? Why does this have to happen? Why do we have to eat cows?

But I still was not a vegetarian at that time. Right. But I knew that they were going to be sold for, you know, meat. but it didn't connect to me like I should not eat meat. Right. Now I actually don't eat meat, but it's not, yeah, it's not as a religious thing for me or a philosophical thing. I just feel like for the planet it's really good not to eat meat.

Right. It's amazing how like you got into the acting thing because I know your dad was like into oil and like worked with like the Clinton administration. It's like what the, like he might. You said what? You're going to be an actor? You're not going to embarrass this family. Totally. That was exactly his attitude. No. My dad was, he was a big fish in a little pond of Tulsa and he was an attorney and he, yeah, you know, and he had a lot of stature. And I think that he wanted something bigger. So he applied to work in the Carter administration.

He had friends try to get him a job there and he worked in the Department of Energy. And so we moved to D.C. for four years and that was just such a mind expansive thing. And I met so, I mean, so many interesting people at that time of my life. And at that time, I really thought I'm going to be, I'm going to go into the Foreign Service. I'm going to be in government. I'm going to do something great, you know, in the government because it's a fascinating place, you know, and everything that's being done is really interesting. So that's what I thought I was going to do. And then in that summer between senior year of high school and first year of college, I had gotten into Stanford. So I was like, I'm just going to relax in Tulsa and just like read a lot of books and get ready to go to college.

And then that's when Francis Coppola was there making two films, The Outsiders, and Rumblefish. And so I got I got to be an extra and then I got my sag card. And those things made me take a total left turn. Inside of you is brought to you by Rocket Money. I'm going to speak to you about something that's going to help you save money, period. It's Rocket Money. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.

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Quince.com slash inside of you. But so you're just like being on set, it just changed you. I mean, you were just like, oh my God, this is incredible. I just want to do this. And you saw, you know, you saw, Matt Dillon and C. Thomas Howell and Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze, they're all, they're all, you know, living this life that you just can't believe that this is a job. You can't even believe people can make a living doing it. And this was the time when, you know, teenagers, like the whole movie industry was just geared to making movies about teenagers. You know, John Hughes and everyone just wanted to make movie about young people. And I love that time.

It was a great time and we don't remember that, like, how the focus went really to the youth during the early 80s. And I mean, it's not really that way anymore. No, and it was real. Think about it. I didn't even think about it. But you're talking about John Hughes and Francis Ford Copel in these movies, like Stand By Me that came at.

Also, those kind of movies. Yeah, Breakfast Club, you know. Rob Reiner directed Stand By Me? Yeah, but like these movies where it's coming of age, these, you know, real grounded stories with characters. And it seems like there's none of that. And it's all either superhero or, uh, or what? Um, I mean, no, I'm not saying it's bad.

I'm just saying, well, for me, I just missed that. Yeah. I miss that sort of, it was nice to grow up with that and see, you know, kids my age and like, oh my gosh, look what he's going through. Yeah, it was a coming of age, like rites of passage was, they were always a river's edge. You remember like, what a great movie. Like all these movies, we as teenagers were watching these other teenagers grapple with really hard things.

I mean, you even had like even blue velvet. Like they were young people and they were thrust into like crazy situations. And so that time was such a good time to be in Hollywood as a young person because there was so many great projects always. around, you know. And so the people, you know, 18, 19, 20, if you're in Hollywood in 1982, you just, you're, it's like a feast of incredible movies being made. And so I was like, I want to be there. I want to be part of that. So I went to, I went to college freshmen, you know, in my dorm. And I soon was like getting, you know, itchy fingers. Like, how can I get down to L.A.? And luckily, the casting director for Rumblefish and outsiders Janet Herschinson. She said, come on down and

I'll get you some auditions and we can see. And she helped me get an agent. And this is without like a lot of experience. This is just with my one little extra. And you had not really, you hadn't done a lot of acting. I mean, only high school acting. Yeah, in my high school plays. But were you good? I mean, I hope I was good. She, she had faith in me. That's the thing is that she had a lot of faith. and she was really encouraging. She let me stay in her house. Gosh, a casting director? Yeah.

You never hear that. And not just... Unless it's a man wanting to sleep with you. Yeah, I know. I was so lucky. And so that relationship really led me to getting Nightmare on Elm Street and, you know, several, like, movies at the week and things like that. TV shows and all this stuff. Like, it all started.

And it really just... It happened quickly. It happened really quickly. I mean, things when you're young, things just, you know, if you're lucky, I was never the kind of person that was like leaving one job to go fly to the next one. It was always like six months, even a year between jobs. Unfortunately, I always felt like I was like never getting on that, you know, the train of like super success. And so like once I had that TV series, just the 10 of us, you know, you just think, oh, something's going to happen. But I always felt like, oh, there's like a roadblocker, oh, I, something's in the way, like, I'm not, it's not flowing, you know, and I often would get very demoralized and just think like, okay, if things don't, by my 25th birthday, if I don't have another part, I'm just going to, you know, do something else. I'll go to graduate school or something. And then I'd always, like, get something. And, and, and, and, but Wes Craven, you know, meeting him, literally, like, almost every time I was about to throw in the towel and quit,

I always got a call from Wes, and it would be like, I'm thinking of doing Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3, and they've asked me to write the script. Would you be interested? Yeah, Dream Warriors. I have an idea for you to be in it. And I was like, thank you, Wes. Thank you so much. And same thing happened with Wes Craven's new nightmare. I was, I just had a baby. And I couldn't get an audition to save my life. I remember going out for, it was like technician number three for, you know, a TV series of, about things that didn't even have names. Like I finally told my agent, if the part doesn't have a name, I don't wanna even go, you know? I just don't, I don't get it because I remember watching Nightmare in Elm Street and your performance was so, like I was just talking to Michael Bean, you know, Michael Bean?

Yeah. And I was talking to him and I was like, I remember certain actors, the movie stars, where their performances were so subtle and real and not trying and they just seemed like a real person. And when I watched you in Nightmare, it just was, you brought this grounded, if it weren't for you as the lead. I mean, West really knocked it out of the park because it was like if you would have got some known actress or it could have been completely. But the fact that this is innocence, girl next door kind of, but real like an actor.

Like I really felt like you weren't trying. You were just being. What a compliment. Thank you. Well, I swear. I mean, I think everyone thought that. I think that's why it still ranks as one of the best movies ever. I mean, Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the best ever. That's why it's right across from you. And that's not intentional. Well, Wes, you know, wrote such a great script because I don't know how he had this ability, but he was probably 40 at the time maybe when he did Nightmare on Elm Street. And he just had this way of getting the lingo and the way that kids talk to each other. It wasn't perfect because there were some lines. I remember we were. rolled our eyes like oh come on Wes kids don't talk this way but in general there was this casual back and forth that was really you know great that's why it was such a good writer and a lot of his movies you can same with dream warriors there's this casualness between the patients in the hospital

that it's real and and I think that's why that movie too is so popular with kids I think that's the second best one of all yeah don't you yeah it really is people aren't trying to get out information you're not trying and so as an actor you just you know i was as close to nancy as i possibly could have been you know and and i have a feeling west saw that in me and he he's like well let's just match this girl who seems to be just like nancy and and we were very similar people how many how many auditions did you have for that um i think two one with west yeah one just a reading and then one with west i mean they didn't have a budget, man. They didn't have any money. So I think that it was just like, we're going to

pick 10 girls and then Wes will come in and he'll pick the lead. It wasn't true. Let's move on. Let's move on. You know, we're not going to be laborless. I remember it was only two weeks like from the first audition to getting the part. But I remember, but my point was about saying how grounded you were and how subtle and it just felt like a movie star. I just like I'm shocked that like the offers weren't flooding. I don't I don't understand that at all. I do think that it wasn't a genre that people went to go see on their own if they weren't already fans of horror. I do think the audience was, you know, 16 to 24. I think all the money they made was from that age group, people across the country that wasn't executives in the

C-suite. I mean, like, I would often be told to take it off my resume, like before I went to parts, yeah. There didn't want, there was just a big stigma still attached. being in a horror movie. And nobody can really understand it now because we've flipped 100 percent. But it wasn't something that my agents talked about. You know, they didn't want to let everybody know that this was. So, I mean, I went out for like killer clowns from outer space. Like I would have auditions for genre movies because they had seen it and liked it. So I did have a lot of more genre movie. But did you want to do that? I wanted to do anything. But, but You really just wanted to act.

But I didn't really want to take another horror movie part because I've always known ever since that none are ever as good. Like there's never as good a part as Nancy. It would be hard to do that. It'd be like, you know, having like this great meal with everything there and then you go and have a Taco Bell burrito. It's like, why do that, you know? Or it could be the second godfather, which some arguably will say. It's a better one. Yeah.

So, I mean, I would always, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And if it was a West Craven, like we talked about with cursed, like he asked me to do a part in that. And of course, I said yes. But in terms of being another final girl part or a very similar part in kind of a similar genre movie, I never felt that that would have been an advantage. And I was, I now was, you know, interested in doing all sorts of things. Did you ever deal with anxiety or depression while you were, you know, in your career? I mean, because like, I obviously, you know, we talk about on the podcast, but did you ever deal with a time where you were like all of a sudden getting anxious about things? You were like, you didn't know why. You went to therapy. Did you have to deal with all that stuff? Or were you just old school? Kind of old school, but I do, I do recognize like when I'm having anxiety. I mean, I'm the kind of person that my heart starts to beat really, really fast, you know, and I can really feel it like I almost think I can see my shirt, you know, moving with my heartbeat. But I find,

that those feelings are coming from I mean not so much about my career much more about like I'm like getting older time is time is coming to an end like life doesn't last forever like those kinds of things will give me a sense of anxiety like why am I not like forging a stronger path forward with what I want to do like those are the things that give me anxiety so in the end I always go back and think to myself, well, why aren't I doing? Why aren't I making that hard phone call? Why aren't I calling this person that can help me? And then I have to really, you know, figure that out. Inside you is brought to you by Rocket Money. If you want to save money, then listen to me because I use this. Ryan uses as so many people use Rocket Money. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions. Crazy, right? How cool is that? monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings and you know what's great it works it really works ryan rocket money will even try to negotiate lowering your bills for you

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Swing by a gas station and get an O'Henry today. Oh, Henry. Yeah, you know, they did a study or something where they asked all these people that were on their dying beds or whatever. They were old people that were just at the end of their life. And they said, what do you regret? And they're like, you know, I regret that I work too hard. I regret that I cared too much.

I regret that I was always trying to please everybody else and not myself going my own way, doing what I wanted to do. And, you know, I think that's so important to have other passions. but you found a passion that you probably didn't ever think you would get into, which was effects and makeup and all these amazing things, right? Well, I mean, it's interesting. Like, I kind of think it goes back to the question of marriage that I realized that because my husband was on the road a lot when, you know, earlier in his career.

Oscar award winner. Yeah, he's won a couple Oscars. And he was always on the road in these really great locations, like, Austria or he'd be in New York for a few months. And then he had this job to do Dawn of the Dead with Zach Snyder in Toronto. And I thought to myself, oh, my God, he's going to go on the road again and have these two kids and I'm going to just do this all again and be at home alone and it's not going to be any fun. And then I said, why don't I just like find a job for myself in your office, like managing the budget or helping with the producers or being a liaison

for you so that you can just do Donna the Dead, which was super challenging when we had hundreds of zombies that he was going to be making. And so we figured out, like, I will work in the office. I'll do all the ordering and I'll get all the employees and I'll do all of that stuff and you just design zombies and do all that. And so we did that. That was like two, that was like the year 2000. You go design zombies. You go design zombies. It had to be fast-moving zombies, right? The new style of zombie. And that zombie has to look like Bert Reynolds or something. Yeah. And so he, you know, having that division of labor at, in his makeup effects lab at that point in time really helped him. And so I started learning everything I could about, you know,

doing that job. And so we went up to Canada and I did it. And I probably didn't do a great job, but at least he could do a great job. And it wasn't that I just loved special effects makeup so much. It's just I just didn't want to be apart and have him every day going 15 hours, 16 hours being on the set and not being there. So you didn't really love it. I didn't really love it. I mean, I love watching him do it. I love all the people that he's working with. But in terms of like, oh my God, I just love that effect. No, I've never been that person. Really? I always thought maybe of what I've read. It was like, this is something you loved. It was your passion. But really, it was to be... To have a family, like, and be together. Wow. And so... That's sacrifice. I mean, that's also like... But nobody was

calling me for work either. So it was, it was a hard time when you're about, you know, gosh, you know, 38, an actress in L.A., you know, it's tumbleweeds sometimes. It's just nothing is happening. So I wasn't losing out, and I was winning that whole time because we all went to, you know, we all went to Vancouver. We lived right along the lake there in a beautiful neighborhood, and my kids went to school at the little elementary school, and I went to work every day with Dave, And it was, and we made this incredible movie. I mean, Donna of the Dead, Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, I think is so good. It's amazing.

Have you seen it, Ryan? No. What? Oh my gosh. All the zombies. So any zombie that you see post 2002 or two or three whenever we made that movie are David Anderson zombies. I mean, even I really feel like he created kind of a zombie with the deteriorated skin that looks like it's been kind of, you know, Three months of...

Sort of the Walking Dead feel. Yeah, way before Walking Dead. Yeah. So... Wow. I think that was about Zach Snyder wanting to create like an ultra-real, ultra-realistic zombie as if your skin had deteriorated for this entire period where you're just looking to eat brains, you know. And your skin is still decomposing at the same rate as it would as if you were, you know, just laying on the ground, getting eaten by,

maggots. So that, so that kind of timeline. Thanks for the description. It's very, very, uh, thorough. But that's why you'll see like all the, the purple, the oozing pus, like all of that stuff. You know, my husband Dave has to look at so many references of the most disgusting things. And, um, do you love that I like that part? Do you love horror? Um, I love, I love certain aspects of horror. I really do love this idea that people, want to be as disgusting and gross as possible to kind of like go into where is the limit for that and I do think we're reaching the limit maybe not it seems like things are grosser than they've ever been so I don't know where people are going to go I think working for Ryan Murphy

for six years on American Horror Story like let me really watch in real time how just breaking the tab out taboos breaking the taboos pushing pushing like what's the grossest thing we can do like how many like really vile actions can we show on tv and shock people with certain things like watching that process was really fascinating from like a societal point of view and you know our society i don't know if it's benefiting from it but yeah they're almost like people love it they're numb to it you know and there's a certain kind of person that I have met over my career who really loves horror and I I can't say that they're a

type but I know them when I see them it's like I think that horror is some kind of a it's a medicine for some kinds of people and I do think it makes them feel like the they belong. It's like a, it's like a club. It's like a club. It's a club. It's a, it's a club, but it's also kind of a, um, it's a defiance of mortality. Like, like, I'm, I'm, I'm vulnerable and weak. We're just people. We just have skin protecting us. But there's something about watching horror that makes me feel a little bit either okay in my weakness or like somehow buffered against you know I've never heard that that's awesome I mean I kind of feel like I'm in that club I think I'm in that club too like I'm so weak I'm like such a little nothing that when I see somebody getting

you know mutilated and devoured it just kind of reinforces that feeling and then I'm like but I'm still here like it's okay I love that your husband day it's beautiful the way you said it's just I feel I feel the same way I don't know what it is I have a horror group We watch horror movies every Tuesday night. It's me and the guys, and we dissect them, and we always feel like there's not many good horror movies anymore, and we go through so much shit where the boys always leave every night going, well, there's always next week. And Rotten Tomato says 95% and they're pieces of shit. So I don't know what that's about. And we always gravitate towards going back and watch a return of a living dad or a Jaws or a nightmare at Elm Street or the ones that just stand the test of time.

and they just don't make them like they used to. And they're just like, you know, I thought, I feel like in the 80s, 70s and 80s, these movies were well thought out. Like, this is a good story. These are good characters. Now it's sort of how, let's do, it just seems like it's, it's, we don't care about character. We don't care if you like people. We're just going to.

And the best thing about Nightmare and I'm straight is you like these people. You're with Nancy. You like her. If you don't like you, movie doesn't work. So true. I think, yeah, I mean, I just don't know if the, I think the movies are being made a lot quicker than they used to be made. Exactly.

So that even the actors don't even know each other that well. I mean, I've even been on sets where you don't even know the person. They just come that day and do their part and they leave. And you've never even had a cup of coffee with them, you know. So how are you going to have any kind of relationship on screen? but also I think people don't want to spend so much time like developing the character

so even in the latest Halloween which I really liked actually they really spent a long time to get us to know like these new people in the story that love story in the beginning and a lot of people complained about it like God dang it you know

spending too much time we didn't don't care about those people you know so I think they're going to die anyway you know i mean it's kind of like people are just setting up little people to get killed and they and there's almost like a video game quality to it like how many of these folks are going to die by the end of it and they kill count and everything whereas i mean a scary story actually really tries to get into your brain about what we're really afraid of in the world yeah and i just don't think they do that i don't think they're nothing's

scary anymore the very few movies or everything is scary. You know, God, I mean, I was just talking to my daughter. She's really scared about our kid going to a school. Okay, that's scary. Like, that's really scary. Yeah. So make a movie about that. Yeah. I mean, figure it out because nobody... Figure it out. But nobody wants... Nobody wants to be reminded that their real life is scary because then everyone's really scared all the time. Like, remember that game, the movie War Games came out? Oh, I loved War Games. Like, yeah, we love that movie because we were all really worried. Do you want to play a game? We are so worried about nuclear annihilation. Thermonuclear. Thermonuclear. But now it doesn't seem like they want to

actually talk about what we're really scared of. Yeah. I can't believe your husband proposed to you on the set of Pet Cemetery. What the fuck? Well, it wasn't on the set. We went away for the weekend to the beautiful Acadia National Park. Okay. So it wasn't on the set. of pet cemetery. No, no, not. You got Fred Gwynne. No, my husband's so romantic. He had, you know, bought, he bought a ring, you know, and he was looking for a time and a place.

And so we went away for the weekend up to the National Park. And we never actually, he wanted to like propose to me at sunrise, which is the first place that the sunrises in America is at Acadia National Park, Cadillac Mountain. What? It's the easternmost park in America. Didn't know that. And so he had this huge plan, but like all plans. It didn't come to fruition because he just couldn't bear to wait that long. So he actually proposed to me like four hours after we'd left, you know, Ellsworth, Maine.

And that's where they shot Pet Cemetery in Ellsworth, which... Did you, by the way, I know I'm jumping around, but I'm thinking of Mike Flanagan and Midnight Club, and which is available on Netflix. Did you, how many times did you audition for that? Or he just offered you the part. He just offered me the part. See? I mean, that really picked me up out of a really, I mean, there's this, yeah, I wasn't in a funk,

but I just didn't think anything like that was going to happen. So you just got a call one day or your agent said, hey, Mike Flanagan wants to talk to you? Well, yeah, my manager called and said, there's a casting director, casting director. up here in Vancouver who has contacted me. Mike Flanagan has a new show and they would like to have you read this part. And I said, great, you know, send it over. I'm thinking it's like a one episode thing and really excited about it. But then I got the sides and the opening speech of this character. It was like one speech and you kind of get to know Dr. Georgina Stanton. Basically, her son has died of cancer

and she's opened up a hospice for kids with cancer who are terminal and this is like it was just her opening speech where she's welcoming a new patient into this hospice and I

get the, I'm like literally on the 101 freeway getting off at Las Virginus Canyon Road and I decided to pull into the gas station just to read the sides because I had to do the audition the next morning on my iPhone and I just wanted to like

go over it in my head while I'm driving my long little windy road over Malibu Canyon. So I sit there and I'm reading the sides and I just burst into tears because her story is not my exact story, but I lost my son to brain cancer five years ago. And so this whole idea that she was this woman who'd lost her son and had decided to open a hospice for kids with cancer was something that just really struck a nerve in me. And so after I, you know, cried for several minutes, then I just started, like, memorizing the lines, like, okay, I'm going to just get this in me. And so over my windy road, and then the next morning I had to get up and do an audition.

And it took me, like, I'm so bad at home auditions. But they're terrible. I just set up my lights and, you know, get my phone. And it's like, I'm trying to figure it out. And I do, I probably do 40 takes. 40 takes. I went from like 8.30 in the morning when I started. And then my manager's calling me at like 3.30.

Like, where is it? It needs to be in. They want it by 5. And I'm like, it's coming. It's almost ready. I almost have a good one. Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived.

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And I didn't want to make any mistakes I've talked about these Flanagan speeches With other actors that have worked with them They're not easy They do one, he likes one or two takes Yeah And it's just pushing in on you when we're not cutting away.

So it was really nerve-wracking. I didn't know that about Mike when I had the monologue. I just thought, oh, they've chosen a monologue for the audition. And when they do that, there's just really no way to make a mistake. And you have like 20 beats. You know, you're trying to get out in this monologue. And if you miss one, and I'm like, nope, got to do it again. And like 40 takes and you got the one that you said.

Finally, I just like, this one's it. It was like 315. and, you know, you upload it, you get it there. And then the next day, they're like, great, they loved it. Okay, you know, they're going to give you a contract tonight. And then I saw that it was for the series, you know, seven episodes. Were you just jumping around the house screaming? I was jumping around the house screaming.

And I could not believe it. I couldn't believe that my life had taken such a wonderful turn, you know, because I had been kind of in like this funk, like, what am I going to do with myself? and um for someone still sees it you know i mean someone still sees it someone who's a great he's brilliant i will say mike is brilliant and a lot of people will agree and for him to say yep i i see her and then her read you know you still got it i oh i mean i really i worked i worked so hard on that show because there were lots of monologues and i am you know of a certain age where memorizing is not as easy as it was when I was 20. So my daughter who lived in Vancouver at the time

I had her come over. I hired her every day to go over my lines and we went, you know, I would work really, really hard on them so that when I got to the set that day I knew I would do it on the first take. I would never, I would never expect them to have to do a second take for me. And so I really wanted to bring that and, you know, working with such young actors too. I just wanted to said a really good example. How long would it take you to learn a monologue? I would take, you know, it would take like two, three full days, you know, of actually getting it down, Pat, without any mistakes.

Did it drive, were you nervous while you're doing it? You're trying to, like, you could already imagine yourself messing up on set, you know, that feeling we get. I just, yeah, you know. Oh, this is going to happen on set. I'm going to be the laughing stock. That's what goes on in our heads. But I mean, it's my plan again, you know, too.

so it's not just any Joe Schmoe director, you know, and he's, you know, so important to our genre. And I know that the way they work, they have to work so quickly. And it's in the pandemic. So they have to even work more quickly and efficiently because they have all this protocols for, you know, no one can be together and everyone's shifting places all the time. You're not able to hang.

And you can't. So it's just a totally different experience of being in the pandemic with masks. and shields and how you can't eat together you can't it's very lonely it was really lonely yeah yeah it's not yeah i was on set like earlier this year on something or late last year and you know that the protocols and and it just it's just not as fun it's not as fun it's not like what i always love doing and you can't like go over and like you know kid with the focus puller and like ribbon for you know screwing up the last take. You know, you can't develop that rapport. You can't do much anymore.

And we would just be, I mean, there were always, oh, who's? Oh, no worry about it. It's probably delivery or something. I've always enjoyed the relationships that I had with crew members, no matter, you know, what department, all departments. And, you know, you always walk away with meeting great folks, you know. And that was the hardest part is not having. having those, like, opportunity to meet those folks and get to know them really well. But I love that you got the opportunity and you were able to shine, you know. I know. I worked my, I worked really, really hard. And Mike, you know, we didn't know how the show, the arcs of the show. And he would come in, he only directed the first two. And then

he was off working on Fall of the House of Usher. So unfortunately, we didn't get to hang with Mike as much as I had hoped after make the first couple of months. But, I did get to, I get to know him, I think, really well. And I just really admire everything about how he's approached his career and what he does. He knows what his strengths are. And he just does that. You know, you brought up, like, you got the part it just was meant to be. It was a woman who lost their child and it was something you connected to.

And you were like, I have to have this. And nobody knew this role better than you. Yeah. And Mike didn't even know that I had that experience. So that's what was really, when I finally got to meet him face to face, I said, you know, you know, my son Atticus died of brain cancer five years ago. And he just was like, what? You know, and I said, yeah. That's why this is so weird that we're sitting here face to face is that there's something else. Like, I really feel made this part so special for me. How do you, I mean, look, people deal with loss. And you, you know, all my father lost my sister and my half sister passed away like two years. ago and I've never heard him cry and to hear that was just devastating like whoa and you always hear that losing your child is the worst thing possibly that you can imagine and um I mean how do you

how do you deal with it how do you deal with it how do you deal with it now how did you deal with it then yeah I don't even know how I did I mean I just I just knew that my my my son had this incredibly charmed life. He had so many friends. And, you know, he was so smart. He went to Stanford. He, you know, worked really hard. And he had the whole world in front of him, literally. And then this devastating news that he has brain cancer. And so it was about seven years before the diagnosis until he passed away. And, you know, he never told anybody that he was sick. He never let anybody know that he had this, you know, this devastating diagnosis. And just watching him, like, rally and just be there for everybody and all of his friends be there for him, I kind of felt like I have to, I have to follow

his lead in terms of, like, just acknowledging that these really horrible things just happen. And we can't say, poor me. We just can't. We just have to say, you know, we're here. got to take all the advantage of it while we're here. And then when we're not here, we have to know that we've lived the very best life that we could live. So what I always remind myself of is that we don't even know what comes next, right? Like it could be the minute that you die. You're just right there with all the people that, you know, have passed before you. It could be that. I hope so. You know, and so I comfort myself with that idea. And then, you know, the sadness when it comes in and comes out. You just let it wash. You just let yourself be washed by it and then you come out of it.

And it's a process. Like it happens, you know, probably once a day. I mean, it's not. You break down frequently? I used to, but now I just, you know, I have like certain little habits that I do. I have little pictures that I look at or I have a little shrine that I address and talk out loud. all of those things help just you realize that they're here you know I just really feel like he is with me all the time and as as if I feel like I'm going to believe that then it is true because belief and truth are you know very closely related and talking about them and talking about you know not just like that's the elephant yeah and I would tell anybody who like yeah who knows somebody who's lost somebody dear it's like the more that that person can tell you

a great story about them or oh remember that time when we all did this like that is like so refreshing and um the people in my life who really didn't were painful to be around were the people who just didn't want to go there and like they always like avoided the topic and I'll like you know I would eventually avoid them because I'd like people who can just say oh remember when we all went on that picnic or well you know he was such a good guitar player remember when he did that you know, a song for everybody. Because you want to hear it, don't you? You want to.

Like, that's, all you've got is the memories, so. It's all we have. Right. And, like, I found a picture. I went through some, my dad actually also passed away last month, and I've been going through a lot of his photos. But, you know, you'll find one that you've never seen before, and you're like, oh, thank goodness, I found this, because it just brings back this other entire, like, piece of

the pie of memories that might be gone. and I'm constantly just trying to reconstitute memories like, okay, we went to Hawaii, okay, that was so much fun. And we went to see that waterfall. Okay, remember we got lost and then, you know, we got all muddy and then it started raining. And, you know, you're just constantly trying to reconstitute these really important memories. And that also helps kind of bolster your sense of security that, you know, you had this life. You had it. It was wonderful. And we don't all get to have dessert, you know, all year long you just sometimes get it once it's such a honestly like a beautiful perspective that i don't think a lot of people have that um or can deal with i think you know it's i think

a lot of it has to do with like maturity and a certain like i don't know what it is that you have that you have this innate sort of i don't understand or sort of just like i i don't know what What I'm trying to say is I couldn't handle. I couldn't handle. You could, though, probably. But like, I'm just saying, like, I'm not saying you could handle it. I'm saying that, like, I don't know. Like, I imagine if something happened, I would just fall apart.

I guess that's how you probably felt. You probably thought you were going to just fall apart. I mean, I think, I mean, I don't know what philosopher said this, but there's like, the dead don't know they're dead. And the living, you know, you just have to manage without that person. that's your that's you you have to figure that out for yourself why should you suffer more than you have to because that person wouldn't want you to suffer exactly and so you just have to figure out a new life where that person's not going to be there every day but they really are there more than they were before because you think about say your brother like did you really

think about him today or did you think about him yesterday maybe not but if he was gone you would be thinking about him every day you're right and and so in someone ways they're more present in your life being dead than they are sometimes being alive. And that's something that we think we all need to really contemplate is maybe I should think about these living people a little bit more, you know, because I'm thinking about the dead ones almost every day, you know, and maybe I'm misplacing my ability to focus. And so I have like been much more reaching out to the people that I do care about. I do want to make them more of my present life because now I know, well, once they're gone, they can't do that. And we all do

it. It's the story that's told over and over is like, ah, I wish I would have, I wish I would have more time with him. It's so sad and it's like I'm sitting here going, I could easily do this more. I could easily, you know, oh, but I have this. I can't. I don't have time to make the time. Just fucking make the time and um or don't i mean if you don't really want to be around that person that's also true like don't it's also like being judicious and you know like there's a you don't need to be like great friends with millions of people you know you're just a few people that it it really counts they're there for you do you still keep in touch by the way with people from nightmare and elm street or any of the movies that you worked on well yeah Amanda wiss is really one of my

best friends. And she and I, in fact, we're going to have lunch next week. So we keep really close contact. And then Robert England, of course, I see him a lot at shows. I did a movie with him. Yeah. He's great. So he's, you know, he's, it makes me sad to see all of us getting so much older because I, in my mind, I don't feel like I'm getting older. But when we're all together, we really like talk about it a lot. Like, can you believe 40 years has gone by? You know, it's like so much time. But so Robert is a, is, I consider him a dear friend and his wife Nancy, ironically, Nancy. And then I see J. Su Garcia once in a while. But when we see like Ira Hayden from Nightmare 3, like we are in touch a lot. So Tuesday night, I mean,

she's a good friend. So Lisa Wilcox is a good friend. This group of Nightmare actors. We've been lucky that we've been thrown together a lot going around the country to these conventions. And so our friendships have really blossomed, like Toy New Kirk. I mean, all these people, I feel like are, you know, important friends and could call them for anything. Everybody's always said, like I asked around, of course, and they all said, she's so nice. She's such a good person, you know, Heather. I feel like, is that a curse? Well, no, it's nice to be a around people that are like good, like you hear a lot of asshole stories. By the way, was Johnny Depp a nice guy back then? Such a nice guy. He was. I'm sure he's a nice guy now too.

Did you think he was going to be a big movie star? Honestly, no way. I didn't. I mean, because I didn't tell if I could not tell if he liked acting or not because he seemed kind of tortured by it. The pressure of, I know that he really worked hard to be, you know, Glenn. And it worked very hard on his part. And so I couldn't tell if he was enjoying him. himself, frankly. I mean, because he was always so very dedicated and serious. And, you know, but, you know, we all joked around and cracked smiles

and stuff, but he was a musician. He was a guitar player. I knew he was even a band. I thought, oh, he's just going to go back to that. Because to sit, you know, in a band behind a guitar and play music is, to me, seems so thrilling and like such a great thing to do to be able to play an instrument like that.

I thought, oh, he'll give this up. This won't this won't keep him satisfied or fulfilled. If you're a great musician, you're not going to turn it all in for acting, you know. Yeah. Were you attracted to him? Were you like, ooh, he's cute. He was really cute. You know, he was married when he did night around the street.

Yeah, he was married. How old was he? He was like 19. He had a wife. Oh, my gosh. And I had a really serious boyfriend. But, I mean, he was gorgeous. He was gorgeous.

Right? Yeah, gorgeous, yeah. Wasn't a bad angle. There weren't. Not a bad angle. and yet he just didn't have that ego at all so you didn't really he didn't draw your attention to him himself that way whereas you know I had seen other actors

like I'd been around Matt Dillon and I'd been around you know some of those brat pack guys and they all had this look at me I'm so hot you know they had that confidence because they'd all become incredibly successful by then. And Johnny didn't have that. He was still, like, kind of finding his place and, you know, unsure of himself. So to me, that was way more attractive, of course, because he didn't have that crazy ego that I think Hollywood made some pretty strong egomaniacs back then, too. I would say so. Who do you get starstruck? Who were you starstruck when you met them in your career? The one of anybody. I mean, all of them.

starstruck by you and everybody else out there. Get out of here. I am. That's my, that's my whole, like, Oklahoma upbringing thing. I'm just so, I'm so starstruck by people that my husband laughs at me because he, you know, Russell Crowe, Eddie Murphy, you know, Steve Correll, like everyone he is working and these, their makeup artists, he's working on their face. He's right there with them and they're Jack Lemon. Like, they become buddies, you know. And I mean, he'll say, do you want to come? come to the set today and I'm like, I'll just make a fool of myself, no. You know, and I, you know, super star-struck by Eddie Murphy and Russell Crow, everybody. I just, I just feel like they're so

and you're just, you just stand there and go, hi. And they're like, hi. You know, and then I go, I'm going to get some coffee and then I leave immediately. Like, I just don't want to. Have you ever asked for an autograph? Um, only from William Hurt. I asked him for an autograph. Really? Yeah, because I, I really loved his acting. I always, um, You know, I just really admired him. For some reason, I guess it was like the big chill or something that movie really affected me. And I had a chance to see him. And so my friend will actually, Joanne Willett and I were on the TV series, just the 10 of us.

And we saw that William Hurt was like in the next dressing room like over there. And so we like, let's go get his autograph. So we wrote him a note, wrote him a letter. Like we were on the set next to his and we would love to know if we could, you know, get an autograph. And so he sent it back with this nice note. Like, I'm so busy. You know, I can't really come and meet you, but here you go. Here's an autograph. And so it was on a tiny little piece of paper. And so we cut it in half. And she has half and I have half. To this day. To this day.

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and the true stories behind some of the world's most chilling crimes. Hi, I'm Ben. And I'm Nicole. Together we host Wicked and Grimm, a true crime podcast. that unpacks real-life horrors one case at a time. With deep research, dark storytelling, and the occasional drink to take the edge off, we're here to explore the wicked and reveal the grim. We are wicked and grim.

Follow and listen on your favorite podcast platform. Who has the last name? I do. I think I have the hurt. Yeah, yeah, she has William. I've got the hurt. But it was a long note. It wasn't just like an autograph. It was like, you are so kind to, you.

you know, want to meet me and I'm just so busy over here. Of course, he was lying, I'm sure. But two little girls on like a little sitcom want to go meet, you know, the great Williamsburg. Oh my gosh. I love that. I love that you did that. All right.

This is called shit talking with Heather Lange and Cam. Yeah. What does that mean? It's just like these are these are like, you know, you're shit talking. You're just thrown out any questions. These are from my lovable patrons. Patron.com slash inside of you think. Oh, yay.

Supporting the podcast. Okay. Patron. So this could be rapid fire. Michelle Kay, did you have any Freddie nightmares or was working on set, not scary? Had so many Freddy nightmares. The first ones were like his knives actually would cut into my face like when we were working together. Then later in Nightmare 3, I had this nightmare that we were on the ship and Freddie is like in control of it.

Oh, no, Chuck Russell's in control of the ship. And all of us actors are like almost going overboard and I have to like rescue. Patricia Arquette from this ship capsizing. There's a lot of symbols, a lot of symbolism in that dream. That's crazy. Jammin, Jenny, met you at a horror convention with the rest of the Elm Street. Oh, geez, and you were really nice. What's the weirdest thing a fan has asked you to do?

There's so many examples of that. But, you know, when, I mean, I think, like, signing machetes and things like that, I think, that's weird. But you do it. Or the knives. The knives are okay because they're Freddie, but you know, the machete, it doesn't have anything to do with Freddie, right? It just, yeah. I sign people's, you know, signing someone's body for a tattoo is kind of weird. I don't like, I don't like, sign your signature or sign this quote. I'm like, do you really want to do that to yourself? I wouldn't. I don't. And not with me, not with my name. That's what I keep saying. Raj, did you have, do you have family or friends that question your decision to pursue an acting career?

If so, how did you work through that? Well, like, we talked earlier. Like, my dad just wasn't that excited about it. And my mom wasn't either. But you know what? I just kept doing it. You know, that's the thing. Because you loved it.

I just never made excuses. I just said, this is what I've chosen to do. And I'm sorry that it, you know, I'm not a lawyer. I'm sorry. Were they proud of you, though? Yes. They are very proud of me. And my dad, before he died, because he was too old to kind of watch it on Netflix,

he doesn't even know how to use the TV practically. So he went to some party and he said that he's like, I was really surprised. People came up to me and told me like, what a good actress you were. After all these years. After all these years, I'm like, thanks, Dad. Thanks, Dad. Take whatever you can get.

That's what I suggest is just, you know, whatever morsels of encouragement you can get, take them. Believe me. But don't expect a lot. Believe me. Yeah, to hear anything from my dad, yeah. It just doesn't happen. Kelly-esque, which movie?

out of Elm Street series, did you love filming the most? Well, probably the first one, right? I think I loved filming, I loved filming New Nightmare because I knew what other film sets were like. Nightmare was my first film set. So I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it because I was kind of scared, like, the whole time. Was I doing everything right?

You know, I was really worried. Whereas New Nightmare, everything was like three or four notches above. the level, what we did Nightmare on Elm Street. Everything was more luxurious. Everything was a little better. And it was fun. Favorite Freddie quote, by the way. Or favorite Nancy quote.

Oh, I mean, welcome to time. Welcome to prime time, bitch. Is the best Freddie line of all. I also like that moment with Tina where he goes, Tina. And she goes, oh, God, this is God. That's so good that you, that sounds just like him. I worked with them. I would always do that. He's like, shut up. That one is the most, I think, like, iconic. Iconic in terms on a philosophical level, like, especially where Freddie's gone in our culture. That one, to me, is the best quote. But I also like the souls of the children make me stronger.

Yeah. Or make me strong. I don't know if it's. That was Dream Warriors. That was Dream Warriors. Yeah. And he pulls up his shirt and he has like all the little screaming faces on his. You know, obviously West passed it. Were you guys. close. Did you talk to him in the final years or any kind of conversations or not really? You know, I didn't talk to him in the final year of his life. And I think he had, you know, he too had brain cancer. And I do think that he probably deteriorated to a point where his family protected him from too many relationships. It's just too exhausting. But we would exchange a lot of emails. And so when he died, we would talk once a year, probably. But we always exchange. changed emails if he was there and I'd say you know what are you doing how are you doing I heard you you know fell off your bike or you know what I'm sorry well he's so he's so subtle and

I remember on set like him going you know we're talking about horror movies and I'm like amity of a horror he goes well you know that's not real and I go yes it is he goes no it was a whole just it was made up I mean no no it was not made up Wes and we're talking the rolling camera I'm like you can't say this to me before rolling. Anthony Valhara goes, yeah, they made it all up. I go, no, there's a ghost. They took a picture. Anyway, he was so funny.

And he would always say, he was so, he was so, like, rye. I mean, he was like. Oh, yeah. And he would have me like, it was the second time they were filming this movie. So you could tell Christina Ritchie, she was nice, but she didn't want to be there. Nobody wanted to be there. I wanted to be there. And I was bummed that no one else wanted to be there.

Right. And, you know, I had a small part. It was I just want to work with West. But each take he go, do it like Christopher Walken, do it like John Malcovich. Do it like Jack Nicholson. Do it like the guy from silencing. And I went to, I told this story, but I went to the premiere for the movie, cursed, or no, not the premiere of the cast and crew.

And they were showing bloopers and it was all me. And then people are like, who the fuck are you? I go, I just, I came in for like three days. And I'm like, in all the bloopers. And I'm like, yeah, it's funny, isn't it? I'm like, but it was cool. He knew it was going to go on the blooper reel. He was just doing it for that.

Jesus. By the way, and we're almost done. Are you good? I'm good. This has been great. By the way, I just want to know in my hypochondriac mind, I'm thinking like, I just want to know, be educated, like, what are signs of like, are there signs of like brain cancers or like, is there certain symptoms that all of a sudden you go, oh, I have a bad headache and you go into a doctor? Is that what it is? I think a bad headache. I mean, a lot of people have a seizure, like a big seizure. and your brain's like firing all electricity like very angry that this thing is in there and so a seizure will sometimes be the one clue that people have and they go in and get a brain scan also you know

if you like suddenly your language skills like kind of take a dive or you start falling like there's a lot of different ways that you can like your balance starts to get you know off balance but headaches too, I guess. But it was, yeah, I think there's a million different ways, unfortunately. Really? Yeah. But I mean, headaches are probably one of the, probably a big indicator. But yeah, a lot of people don't know, you know, all over your body. You just don't know what you have. You know, that's the trouble. We're not going and getting cat scans and MRIs as a routine. So you just don't know. That's what's so scary. Well, they have that, they have that prenuvo thing that I did, which is a full body scan. Oh, yeah. I want to do that.

Do it. Pernuvo. Use Pernuvo Michael or something. I didn't get any money for this, but I just, I did it. And they detected something in my throat and my larynx that was a, it was in the moderate risk, but they wanted me to get more imaging. So I went to my E&T and he looked at it. He goes, let's get more imaging. And I got more imaging.

And finally it came back and I was, I was okay. Oh, thank goodness. But I was, I mean, it was. But that was because of you got the body scan. But that was the body skin. At least I had to know. And I, did that, they give you a. dye that you drink or something? They gave me a die not in the pernubo scan. That just detects first

stage cancers, everything but I think leukemia. But then when I did extra imaging, they wanted to do the die. So they put the die in to just kind of... I mean, I think as the way medicine is going, I mean, it just seems like these tests are going to be more and more available. But I mean, do you want to know? Maybe yes, maybe no. I mean, that's the thing. It opens the floodgates for other things. Well, there's a minor risk in this. And then there's this. And then you become obsessed with it. And then you're not. living, you know, very well. But I'm not, I'm not obsessed.

I was just worried about that. I wanted to get it looked at and it was fine. I forgot about all the minor things. But that's why your voice is so beautiful. Oh, yeah. It's probably that thing. It's probably that thing in your throat. Why don't I get more?

That cyst. He's got such a sysic throat. The way he talks. I should be doing more voiceover work. Yeah, no, you have a gorgeous voice. Really? Yeah. Thanks.

Yeah. A gorgeous voice. I mean, in these cans, they found sounds nice. In these cans. Anything going on? Anything next? Well, you know, our show got canceled. It was really sad. And so I just did a little part for a friend. And Mark DePaula, he has a film called Stab at Heaven that I got to play the mother of a girl who's wrestling with her boyfriend has, or her fiancee has committed suicide.

And so it's kind of a not an uplifting movie. It's very, very philosophical and contemplative, but he's a, he's kind of a world-class photographer and he's taken his directorial ambitions into filmmaking. So it's going to look good. It looks so great. And, but I was really nervous about it. You know, again, you just don't feel, sometimes you just don't feel confident and. That's acting.

That's acting. You just sometimes it's on. Sometimes it's not quite there. And sometimes you've got to fake it. So, but I, yeah, that was really fun to do. But I'm looking for. for work and I'm looking everywhere. But also, too, I just, I feel like there's something about it. I just feel like I'm in this waiting mode for some reason. I don't know why, but I feel

like I'm waiting and I'm anticipating something to happen. But like I said, like I just need to pick up the phone more, I think. Well, you know, I mean, you just did a whole season of a show. It didn't get picked up for a second season, but everybody knew about it. Netflix, Mike Flanagan, he loves you. Yeah. You just did that. It's not like, like, oh, it's been six years. I know. You know what I mean? It was like that before.

So I want to, I want to like not let this, this is a thing. I don't want to let just die on the vine. I want to see this, you know, create more opportunities. And that's kind of where I'm sitting right now thinking, what opportunities do I want? Because I do think you can ask for the opportunities you want. Absolutely. You don't want the ones you don't want. And there's nothing wrong with making some calls.

There's nothing wrong with sending some emails. There's nothing wrong with that kind of stuff. There's nothing wrong with working with a first-time director if you like, you know, he's got passion or whatever. Right. So, yeah, this has been a real treat. Well, thank you so much for having me. I really loved it. I mean, I've had Flanagan and I've had Robert England and, you know, yeah, this has been fantastic.

The last thing I'm going to do is afterwards, I'm going to ask you to sign that. If I can get the poster out, I might not be able to get the poster out. Yeah, you might not. Well, it looks like you can. It doesn't look like it's. It's cheap. Just say it. I don't say it's a cheap friend.

It's a cheap friend. It's most of my friend. The Lost Boys is the worst, but it's the only frame I could find that would fit there. Yeah, but you know, like all the posters are different sizes. Like, they're not standardized. I don't know who made that up. Do you have an original Nightmare Numsary Poster? Nope.

I bought it at all posters.com. They're not paying me to say that either. That's an original. By the way, don't look. But what does you mean original? Original poster from like... In 1984. Yes, from the movie theater or whatever.

How do you know? Because, you know, there's ways of looking at it. There's things that you could do. I think that it's all. I know. You know how many people bring me gloves and say this one was an original that was worn in nightmare five. And then I'm like, I'm so happy for you.

I'm so happy for you. Of course, I would never say like, yeah, right. Oh, good one. Yeah, original, huh? Yeah. So many people. Gosh. Do you know the tagline?

Don't look. if Nancy doesn't wake up if Nancy doesn't wake up no I forget what if Nancy doesn't wake up screaming she won't wake up at all that I mean look at that I mean you I know it's such a great great great poster

well that poster artist you know did all the nightmare posters and Matthew oh what's his last name but he just one of the poster companies just released that poster in a much more art house kind of, you know, way. And it's beautiful. But it doesn't even capture the colors that are on that poster, which are...

The old school posters were just amazing. Yeah. They always, yeah. And they, I mean, they worked hard to get all the themes, all the feelings of the movie, you know, they work. That is hard. Yeah, this guy's a genius. Yeah, he's a genius.

He's a genius. And he's a very nice guy, too. Anyway, I thank you for having me. Thank you. This has been a joy. A joy. Next time at the karaoke bar, what will we sing? Endless love.

Ooh, I love that song. What about ain't no mountain high enough? Ain't no mountain high. I think after the first time we sing, we're like, why are we doing this? It's one of those. We're like, oh, boy. That range is way out of our range. Yeah.

What are the good duets are there from the 80s? Islands in the stream. Islands in the stream. What was the one? oh no what's the time of my life well I have the time of my life see he's so much better I never feel like this before

never felt so show see all right we've lost an audience thanks Heather you're awesome great Michael thank you grocery shopping Cho-ching. Ordering food?

Cha-ching. Filling up on gas? Cha-ching. Commuting? Cho-ching. Using streaming services. Cha-cha-cha-cha-chee. With your RBC Ion Plus visa, earn three times the Avion points on groceries, gas, dining, and more.

Cha-ching. Then, redeem your points on gift cards from over 200 brands. Your idea of rewarding happens here. Conditions apply. Visit RBC.com slash Ion cards. Man. I'll tell you, I wish I was as easy going and could just handle things like she did. I mean, dealing with loss, dealing with just facing adversity and just keeps going and working hard and is a wonderful human being at the same time.

Hasn't gotten nasty. She's not nasty. You know, people can get nasty. And I think she's been through it. And she knows who she is. And it was a pleasure having you on the podcast. Heather, thank you. Sorry, it took so long to air it, but it's here.

Hey, just a big shout out again. The live podcast inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum on my podcast is October 11th at the Regent Theater downtown. Tickets are available. Go to Instagram. My Instagram at the Michael Rosenbaum, the link tree, cameo, the live podcast. You can get tickets. They're still for sale. Still for sale.

Zach Levi is the guest and all that stuff. So thanks for listening. I appreciate it. I think without further ado, we need to get into the top tiers. What do you think, Ryan? I think that's a great idea. All right. We're going to read them.

I'm going to read them. I'm going to do bad impressions of people I've never done impressions. Good. And you have to guess who the impression is in the new day. Fair enough. Nancy D. Ligia and Kristen. Little Isa.

U. Kiko. G.E. Brian H. Is this a Christian Bell character? Kind of. How's what I was going for? Nico P. Robert B.

Jason W Sophie M Ross C Was it the prestige Is that with that Maybe I don't know He always talks like this

Now you have to go You have to read it like that Oh like what Joshua D Joshua D Jennifer N Stacey L Jamal F

Janelle B Ashley Ryan Mike E El Dan Suprimo El Dan Suprimo 99 more San Diego M ZW

Lian B Maddie F. Belinda Ann David H I don't know who this is Nobody You said Shilogy I said Shilogy

Oh wasn't great but I did I tried Chilogy Yeah Brad D Ray H Tabith T Tom N

Talia M. Betsy D. Angel M. Riannon C. Corey Kaye. Dev Nixon. Michelle A. Jeremy C. Yours is better Michael Cain. I can't do it. Michael Cain. A brubu the size of a tangerine. That's really good. Yeah. All right. You said Jeremy C. Jeremy C. All right. Well, Brandy D. Johnny M. Joni B. Joey M. Junie B Eugene and Leah Corey Angela F. I can't do this one but that's a very good one for him and you can keep doing it.

Merle S. Christine S. Eric H. Shane R. Andrew M. Amanda R. Jim B. Kevin E. Stephanie K. I remember the first day when Andy came to Joshink. Jarrell J. M. J. Leanne J. Luna R. Mike F. Stone H. Kayla. Kayla, stay Wild Moonchild. Brian L. K. L. K. L. C. C. Gara C. Gara C. F. Mary L. L. S. Maryl. L. L. L. F., Frank B. Gen T. Nicki L.A. R. Derek N. R. Derek N. J. D. D. L. L. And Melissa H. G. D. D. D. D. G. D. D. G. G. G. I love you.

Thanks to all my patrons out there. Patreon.com slash inside of you if you're still here listening. From the Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, California, I'm Michael Rosenbaum. I'm Ryan Danes. All right. A little way to the camera. We love you guys. Be good to yourself.

I'll see you next week. Please come back. Football season is here. Oh, man. Believe has the podcast to enhance your football experience. From the pros One of the most interesting quarterback rooms To college

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