Mary Woronov

The English punk movement was political, at least somewhat. Ours wasn’t political at all. It was about these fairly well off kids from suburbs. It wasn’t sexual either. They were like tribes of puppies, puppies who just flopped together.

    “I had a black TransAm and I had tapes of all these bands. And the fucking car was stolen, with all those tapes. It was the worst thing in the world, because few of them made albums. It was such grunge. You have no idea. There was a band where the guy used to piss on everyone while they were dancing. You didn’t know if you were standing in beer or water. There were so many drugs. It was great. It was maddening. People were tattooing themselves with ball point pens. It was like a second childhood for me. From Warhol to punk rock. It was quite an amazing era, it was just as good as Warhol. That’s why I was in it, it had the same energy, the same vibe, the same hysteria. The bands would arrive, they would be so incredibly hot, the place would be totally destroyed. The cops would come. The night was always over when you saw these little bands of punks running, like little rats everywhere. This would happen again and again. It was insane. I don’t know what happened. It ended. It just stopped. I loved it. It was as great as the 60’s, and I come from Warhol, so I know great. You cannot top it. These people were tuned in, they were thinking differently. I knew Penelope (Spheeris) before she was famous. Her punk movie (THE DECLINE AND FALL OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION) says it. That’s great, it’s hot. It’s the truth about punk music in L.A. She was with Bob Biggs, who put out Slash magazine, Slash Records, and all those people were around him. She did a movie about these suburban kids (SUBURBIA) that was fuckin’ great. Now she’s this mother, I don’t know her now.”

    Paul Bartel’s most successful cult film, EATING RAOUL, took a year and a half to make. He and Mary play Paul and Mary Bland. “He’s directed and acted and I’ve only acted but I am a big functional part of EATING RAOUL, of the aesthetic and everything. And I am not married to the man. He used to say that we were married because he liked the publicity of it. He finally stopped saying that. I wouldn’t do another interview with him until he stopped saying it. He said, ‘OK, I’ll never say we’re married,’ went and did this interview where this woman asked, ‘Are you married?’ and Paul said, ‘No, we’re divorced.’ Which is just as bad! After EATING RAOUL, he did this for about four years. It really pissed me off.” Woronov did marry a California businessman but it only lasted a few years.

    HELLHOLE (85) was co-produced by AIP founder Sam Arkoff. The incredible cast includes Ray Sharkey, Marjoe Gortner, Terry Moore, Edy Williams and Dyanne Thorne. Woronov played Dr. Fletcher, a role originally intended for Britt Ekland. The original director was replaced too. “I thought that was a riot. I had so much fun making that movie. I’m embarrassed to say it, it was probably the worst movie I’ve done but it was so funny to me. I remember that the American crew really hated the fact that a foreign director (Pierre De Moro) was doing it because he had no sense of camp. He didn’t understand it at all. I had the most fun doing it because it was so out of wack, so over the top. I played this woman who ran an insane asylum and she experimented on the patients, who were all young girls between the age of 16 and 18 with giant tits. She was showing these people around the asylum and saying ‘I had the swimming pool removed and sand pits installed because sand is so much more therapeutic.’ Unfortunately they cut out the picture, which was the funniest thing, of all these girls swimming in sand. I loved my part. I was a lethal, horrible, awful woman.”

    TERRORVISION (86), a Charles Band produced sci fi comedy, was set in Las Vegas but was filmed in a Rome studio. “It was very forced, very hard and it was such a hard edged joke against American suburban people that you hated these people. That’s why it wasn’t funny, we should have been more likeable. Everybody was too broad and I think the fact that it was done in Italy was one reason. The Italians think it’s really funny to laugh at Americans but they laugh through some kind of fear or envy or something.” To help promote it, she did an interview that oddly ended up being printed half in Fangoria and half in Starlog.

    In 87 Warhol died. Ondine died in 89. MORTUARY ACADEMY (88) was a necrophilic black comedy teaming Mary with Paul Bartel again. SCENES FROM THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN BEVERLY HILLS (89), by Paul Bartel, reteamed Woronov with Robert Beltran (from EATING RAOUL) and Ray Sharkey (from HELLHOLE). Jackie Bisset was top billed and Woronov had her last major nude scene. In WARLOCK, she was a channeler, shown with big (fake) breasts with eyeballs!