NVF Magazine / New Voices In
Film & Fiction
October - December Issue

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                               NVF Magazine interview

                                             With

                                         Chris Adler

Greetings Chris! Long time, no hear! How have you been?

     It’s great to talk to you again Doc and thanks for asking! I’vebeen doing great! In the past year alone I worked on over 30 projects. Fortunately people really seem to like my work, so this year it・s giving me the opportunity to start picking and choosing my roles more carefully.

I hear from a buddy of mine, Randy Robinson, you were in one of his movies! How was it working with him? And Tom Savini?

     Well actually, it’s a project still in the works. The title’s "Voracious・ and man oh man is it going to be good! You can find out more about it by going to the companies websitehttp://goreillaproductions.com/ Randy is awesome guy and a good friend. He asked me on board his project in the beginning and I・ve been toughing it out with him through every stage. Tom Savini is,well, Tom Savini. He・s got a reputation in the Horror industry after many years and tons of high profile films so it・s really cool to be working with him on this.

I hear you have your own production company now! Tell me all about it!

     Well the company is called "Nightmare Films・ and so far I・ve worked on a number of projects. It・s actually more a collaboration though with another good friend of mine named Kelly Weaver. His company is called ・Terminal 52 Films・. With the two of us together our team has worked on a few movies and two different TV shows. All in the Horror genre of course! One of the shows is called ・To what lies in the dark・ and is a paranormal ghost hunters style reality program,while the other is ・Stories of the Paranormal which features more old school creature feature type stuff. As of right now the website for Nightmare Films isn・t finished yet, but you can find it at http://nightmarefilms.com/.

By the way, I really enjoyed your DVD you sent me, and I must say, you are a force to be reckoned with as far as acting ability. Is it tough to get jobs, though, without having been in big studio productions?

    Yes and no. I have been offered some work in bigger budget films and even have a few slated to hit this year and next. Until they come out though it is a bit tougher then those folks who already have a house hold name in the Horror industry. I’m making progress though by leaps and bounds and am getting recognized by face and name by people all over, so it’s promising.

Tell me, what is it you like about being in an independent film? I get mixed reactions on this one.

     I love the FREEDOM given on an indie. It’s a whole lot easier to have a light hearted set with a $250K film than it is with a $10Mfilm. People aren’t as uptight. On the other hand, it’s a WHOLE LOT easier to have a better produced film (though not always) with $10Mbudgetversus the $250K one. I’d like to say money isn’t important,but it really is. I have a wife and six children. We need to eat and have a roof over our heads. The big productions make it possible for me to focus on just that project for the moment. Whereas while working low budget,the paycheck isn’t there so I have to juggle work. I sure that all around that makes it not my best. Like with anything in life the more attention something is given the better it is.

      It’s something that I’ve always been into. For as long as I can remember Horror has been my thing. I use to watch Scary Movies with my Dad when I was a kid and wanted to carry on that tradition with my kids today, which I have. It seemed logical to me as an actor and person, why not do something I love? I believe this is one of the things that makes me such a strong performer. Don’t get me wrong I will and sometimes do work in other genre’s, but Horror is where my heart is!

Since you are such a horror fan, I have to ask this: what is YOUR favorite horror film? I know that may cover a lot of ground.

      Actually that is a BIG question, but I can answer without hesitation. Dawn of the Dead (1978). George A. Romero is a cinematic genius and I long for the chance to work with him. Aside from the script and cast that・s one of the reasons I was so happy about doing Voracious, getting to work with Tom. I met Ken Foree a couple of years back and he is one of the coolest people in the world! I actually got the copy of the movie I own today from him personally.

Well, truthfully I have two copies of it. One of them sits in the living room with all my other DVDs for family watching. The other is the Dawn of the Dead: Ultimate Edition, that I got from Ken which stays on the shelf in my bedroom. The first time I watched Dawn of the Dead was in 1983 when my Dad brought home a copy on VHS. My brother and I sat and watched it over and over again every single day. In the past 25+ years I must have watched it at least 500 times.

Though I・m sure 300+ times were in the first year when I was a kid.

Anything exciting on the horizon for you right now?

     I have 3 films in Post right now. "Wreak・ which just finished filming, should be through post by June/July. ・Last Remaining Night・ which is also finishing up the final stages of post should be out around the same time and then hopefully ・The Dead Walk・ will be out soon too. I・m set to start shooting on ・Something in the Night・ later this years and ・The Coffin・, hopefully soon after that. We・ve already talked about ・Voracious・ so I guess I・ve plugged enough for now, buthey, at least they・re all Horror films LOL!

       Stay Scared and be sure to keep watching!

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The Dead Walk

Simon Bamford, actor, writer, and director graduated from Mountview Theatre School in 1981.

He has recently been filming in Edinburgh on Clive Barker's 'Book of Blood' which is due for release in December 2008. Simon plays the Character of Derek in the movie, the film has a UK cast including Sophie Ward, 'Robin Hood's' Jonas Armstrong, and Doug Bradley. As Principal filming has now finished the film is in post production. More details can be found here http://www.clivebarker.info/newsbobjournal.html

His first film appearance was in The Who's Quadrophenia with Sting, Toyah Wilcox, Michael Elphick, Ray Winstone, Leslie Ash, Phil Daniels and Timothy Spall.

He created the role of 'Butterball' in Clive Barkers cult movie 'Hellraiser' and it's sequel 'Hellbound', working with Claire Higgins, Oliver Parker, Doug Bradley and Kenneth Cranham. http://www.clivebarker.com/html/visions/bib/movie/hellraiser/hell1.htm

Playing the ill-fated 'Ohnaka' in 'Nightbreed' gave Simon the chance to work with Craig Sheffer and David Cronenberg. http://www.clivebarker.com/html/visions/bib/movie/nightbreed/night.htm

Simon can also be seen in Boogeymen:The Killer Compilation with 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre's' Gunnar Hansen and 'Nightmare on Elm Street's' Robert Englund.

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                                 NVF Magazine Interview With

                                                   Simon Bamford

Good day to you, Simon. How are we today?

       I’m alright thanks! A little hungry as always, to get the most out of life…food…work…stimulation…sex, all the pleasures.

I hear you have been filming BOOK OF BLOOD  in Edinburgh. Now, it is based on Clive’s book{s} of the same title?

      When ‘The Dog Company’ (a UK theatre company that produced Clive Barker’s stage work, with actors such as Hellraiser’s ‘Doug Bradley’ Movie director ‘Oliver Parker’ and myself) disbanded in the early 80’s, Clive negotiated a deal with Sphere books to publish a range of short stories collectively named ‘Books of Blood.’ The very first story in the first book deals with a young man called ‘Simon McNeal’ whose journey creates the flesh for the rest of the stories…you’ll have to read them to find out more…as I can’t give too much away. Other stories in the series have led to the movies ‘Candyman’, ‘Hellraiser’ and the soon to be released and much anticipated ‘Midnight Meat Train.’

The launch party for the original Book of Blood ‘volume one’ was an exciting time back in 1984 as it was the first glimmer of commercial success for Clive.

He later admitted that when writing the central character of Simon McNeal he was thinking of me and signed my first edition copy “To Simon, the McNeal boy par excellence”

So here we are 24 years later and the filming of that original story has recently wrapped in Edinburgh and yes I was fortunate enough to be involved. Everyone involved was excited about the rushes and I hope to see some of the footage when I visit Clive in LA next week.

 : I remember you, of course, as the Butterball Cenobite in Hellraisers 1 and 2.  Were those a lot of fun to make? What’s it like working with Clive Barker?

       It’s rare to meet someone with such an inspirational intellect. As Clive is also a writer he has a wonderful talent for soaking up any details, events and minutia from everything he comes in contact with be it, locations, music, experiences or people, which gives him a very genuine and warm interest in everybody he meets.

The original Hellraiser film came out of the blue for me. A chance phone call to Clive resulted in an offer for the part of the ‘Fat Cenobite’ as it was originally named. Clive was keen to let me know that there may be a little makeup involved. We filmed in ‘Cricklewood production village’ and Clive was key to every stage of development, encouraging all departments’ to raise their game by emerging themselves in this new, dark, disturbing world.

The results surprised everyone, including the American producers who on seeing early rushes, asked Clive to tweak the ending so that they could set up a sequel. The initial budget was very low which makes the finished product even more impressive. To be honest I was not really aware of much that was happening during filming, as the makeup was it’s own Hell.

With my eyes and ears completely covered, and false dentures glued onto my own teeth, I was immersed in sensory deprivation for 12 hours a day, never seeing the set, cast, crew, director…on more than one occasion I broke down with the isolation but because of the makeup nobody knew!

When ‘Hellraiser II Hellbound’ was in pre-production I managed to negotiate creating small holes in the eyes of the mask, which made the experience easier.

I should have asked this first; what prompted you to get into acting?

      My school’s headmaster ‘Harry Frost’ was very keen on theatre and encouraged us to create original productions. This became an obsession for me and eventually I gained part time work (whilst still at school) at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre working with a very talented director Robin Midgeley.

From there it was the usual route of Drama College at ‘Mountview’ in North London.

It was whilst there that Clive Barker spotted me playing ‘The Fool’ in Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ and invited me to join his theatre company on graduation.

I understand you were also in the Who’s Quadrophenia. I bet that was really a lot of fun, wasn’t it?

       Awe inspiring, I was only 16, yet to go to Drama College and incredibly naïve and star struck. I had just one scene set in a nightclub in Brighton. It seems odd now looking back but most of the cast were unknown at the time, but it launched the careers of Sting, Toyah Wilcox, Ray Winstone, Phil Davies, Timothy Spall, Michael Elphick and of course Phil Daniels. Long before the days of digital image manipulation, we spent several days in a club in London (standing in for Brighton) dressed as Mods, in a swirling mist of smoke, with one song played over and over and over again. I still hear it clearly.

  You have also done theatre work as well. One of them being THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Have you ever done anything like Shakespeare?

      Stage work is instantly rewarding (provided you get it right) with the audience feeding back spontaneously. I played Seymour Krelbourn in both the first UK tour of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and again in rep. We had some beautifully crafted ‘Audrey 2’s’ with one hydraulic vast plant which when eating us raised up 20 feet into the air then shot to the front of the stage and thrust its pod over the first 6 rows of the auditorium and sent bursts of gas into the audience. Very exciting.

Since then I have been involve in many shows and indeed was lucky enough to be involved in an international tour of ‘The complete works of William Shakespeare’ which allowed me to play Othello, Juliet, Gertrude, Tybalt and dozens of other characters from Shakespeare’s plays albeit in a tongue in cheek fashion.

The show had some audience participation and during one sequence, whilst playing in Cairo, I threatened to kill a member of the audience (in Character). As I did so everyone around this gentlemen gasped and I was aware of a peculiar tension in the theatre. It wasn’t until later that I was told I had threatened to kill the prince of Egypt. Thankfully he took it in good spirit.

I later went on to become associate director of the international touring company ‘Richmond Productions’ and last year took a production of ‘Educating Rita’ to Kuala Lumpur.

I have been lucky enough to work all over the world and won the ‘Best Actor award’ for ‘Pip’ in ‘Great Expectations’ at the Vassa theatre in Stockholm.

You were also included in the book BOOGEYMEN. I would definitely consider that an honor. How about you?

       Actually it’s the movie BOOGEYMEN which includes work from ‘Texas Chainsaw massacre’s’ ‘Gunnar Hansen’ and ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’s’ ‘Robert Englund’ among other Horror icons. Yes, strange to think of yourself in such prestigious company.

How about horror cinema? What is your favorite film? Book?

       Difficult to pinpoint one film or book from what is a constantly evolving medium. However I enjoyed ‘David Lynch’s’ Eraserhead as it broke new ground and was beautifully surreal. As for books, I devour anything by ‘Stephen King’ ‘HP Lovecraft’ ‘Peter Straub’ ‘Dean Koontz’ ‘James Herbert’ and of course ‘Clive Barker’. As a teenager I used to smuggle copies of ‘Fangoria’ from the local newsagents and was fascinating by their dark graphic content.

  Do you have any projects in the works to tell us about?

      I  run my own production company ‘Captain Carrot’ which has been producing theatre work for the past 2 years.

The ‘Book of Blood’ movie is now in postproduction.

I’m visiting LA next week to talk through another film as well as having a meeting with the casting director in London…

But I cannot reveal any more at the moment…sorry

   It’s cool. Well Simon, I want to thank you for being here, and please, feel free to drop by again, okay?

        Hey! My pleasure, good luck with the magazine.

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Filmography:

Quadrophenia Dancer Universal Pictures, 1979, Franc Roddam

Hellraiser, Butterball, New World Pictures, 1987, Clive Barker

Hellbound, Butterball, 20th Century Fox, 1988, Tony Randell

Nightbreed, Ohnaka, 20th Century Fox, 1999, Clive Barker

Lost in the Labyrinth, 2000, Christian Levatino and Victor Mendoza

Ressurection, 2000, Christian Levatino and Victor Mendoza

Bogeymen Butterball Universal Video, 2001, Clive Barker

Book of Blood, Derek, Seraphim/Plum/Matador Films, 2008, John Harrison