Writing about movies, monsters, cinematic events and other wild trips
According to David Black, I’m an Oz Femme Fatale! Makes me want to wear glittery red shoes, click my heels and say “There’s no place like home”. But I think I’m more the Wicked Witch of the West(wood) than Dorothy 
You decide by reading the interview…
In the wee hours of the morning in the mad lead-up to Christmas (02:50 on Thursday 23rd December, to be exact), I joined Trevor Chappell on ABC Overnights in Australia to discuss actors playing against or out of type. And what a hoot that proved to be!
If you’re interested in having a listening, my appearance occurs at approximately the 41-minute mark and goes for around 45 minutes, padded out with help from the callers (including one call that came from inside my house).
Clubhouse winner for film/actor mentions came from the woman who nominated Lucille Ball’s dramatic breakout role as a homeless lady in The Stone Pillow (1985).
Both Jez and I have been involved in Mike White’s The Projection Booth podcast in the past (and I have an appearance slated for next year – to be announced!) so we were thrilled when he approached us to record a Special Report on our book, SECONDS.
Mike gave us the opportunity to talk through the inception of our project, the process of co-writing and the appeal of writing about a generally maligned film in an interview that inches towards an hour in duration. It’s a deep-dive interview into our deep-dive book.
We hope you like it…
Jez and I have been doing the media rounds for our book on SECONDS. The fruits of our labour include this piece that we wrote for the excellent publication, Diabolique Magazine, featuring an interview with the divine Miss Salome Jens that was conducted specifically for the SECONDS book.
She also talks about her noteworthy screen debut in ANGEL BABY (1961, additionally Burt Reynolds’ debut), which is quite the film, if you’re not familiar with it.
I encourage you to read on, and appreciate the mastery of an actor who has never really been appreciated for the full extent of her talents.
Sandra Wollner is an Austrian filmmaker who’s gained some notoriety for creating a film that has been deemed controversial, THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN.
If you don’t know about this controversy, I won’t reveal anything at this point but, instead, let you listen to the interview that I conducted for Triple R’s Primal Screen program. You can hear the interview via the link below at approximately the 6:20-mark.
I’d encourage you to listen to the whole show, especially when Sally Christie, Flick Ford and I discuss THE TROUBLE BEING BORN post-interview and put our spin on this quiet, lonely and philosophical film. As Flick so perfectly articulated, “Representation is not endorsement.”
My dear friend, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, had recently interviewed the highly prolific horror filmmaker and actor Brea Grant for Fangoria. Her radar pinged when the subject turned to one of Brea’s upcoming projects: a graphic novel on the hypothetical adventures of Mary Shelley’s great-great-great-great-great granddaughter and the heavy literary burden such a teenager was likely to have carried on her shoulders.
Something of interest to Emma? Natch.
Given I am currently ensconced in my next book project on THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, Alex saw the opportunity for a professional hook-up. She introduced me to Brea, I interviewed Brea, Diabolique published the resulting article and the rest is history.
You can read the article here but you can also scroll down further to see some stunning artwork from the book that didn’t make it into the Diabolique article.
Continue reading “Mary: The graphic adventures of Brea Grant”
Triple R’s Primal Screen (formerly Plato’s Cave) introduced interviews into the show’s format in 2020, and I was lucky enough to speak with Leigh Whannell about his excellent take on THE INVISIBLE MAN concept.
Care to listen back to the interview? You can do so here…
Or why not enjoy the whole episode, which includes our critical dissection of the film…
As part of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival (MWFF) – in which I spoke on the Delightfully Dark panel – I was interviewed by Critics Lab participant Kate MacDonald about the relationship between women and horror.
My argument is that woman ARE horror, and I think I make a pretty good case of it, as proven by the featured image of myself accompanying this blog post.
Dave K (aka. A Fiend on Film) and I met through Twitter some time back where we shared a meeting of the minds due to our a mutual love of cinema and, in particular, the films of David Cronenberg (download his House of Skin fanzine, in which my writing on Cronenberg’s From the Drain short was included). So I was thrilled when he asked to interview me about THE FLY to run on his blog. Here’s how it panned out…
What do you do in a 10-minute interview with one of the greatest actors of our time? You ask him about his role as private eye Mike Hammer and a lesser known made-for-TV movie from 1974, All the Kind Strangers.
That’s what I did when I spoke to Stacy Keach for Diabolique...
EMMA WESTWOOD 