I recently spoke with Kristina prior to the opening of her latest film, HALLOWEEN which, unless you have been living under a rock for the past year, is based upon John Carpenter’s 1978 film.  Kristina was approachable, self-assured, and eager to speak about her worldly adventures. 

Jonathan Stryker: Where were you born?    

Kristina Klebe: In Manhattan,  Roosevelt Hospital.  (mimicking New York Accent) “New Yawk, all the way, baby.” (laughs)

JS: According to the Internet Movie Database you lived in several other countries.  Was this a result of your parents’ professions? 

KK: No, it wasn’t.  My family lives in Europe: Germany, France and Italy.  The reason I lived abroad was because of them.  I would visit my relatives in all those countries.  I then lived in France for half a year when I was 15.  Then I worked in Paris when I was 18 at a film distribution company during the summer.  Except I’m not 18 anymore, even though I play an 18 year-old in HALLOWEEN!  (laughs)  And then I lived in Siena, Italy for four to five months.  So, I lived there for a short period of time.  I worked on a TV show in Germany later on and lived there for about two months. 

JS: What was life like growing up on the move per se?

KK: I am so lucky because I have lived in so many different places and have been fortunate to have met so many different and interesting people.  I love traveling and I love different cultures and different languages.  You can really draw on those experiences as an actor, as it gives you a broader vision of the world, and this helps me to play different characters and really see how different people behave in different cultures. 

JS: Where would you like to visit that you have yet to visit?  

KK: Oh, so many places!  I would love to drive around Australia and New Zealand…I love diving and I would love to dive into the Great Barrier Reef (in Australia).  I would also like to see Vietnam and Peru and go to Machu Picchu (a symbol of the Inca Empire in Peru).  I really want to go to the Galapagos Islands; that’s a major diving trip!

JS: That would be amazing.  I’ve read that the Galapagos Islands, which is an ecosystem, constitutes some of the largest land left on planet Earth that has yet to be touched by Man.  The National Geographic Channel has some amazing programs on it…

KK: I love animals so much.  I think that if I go to the Galapagos Islands I might never leave!  I just want to become a fake native!  (laughs)  I want to take of all my clothes and run amongst the tortoises and swim with the dolphins!

JS: It’s unlikely that they would object to that. 

KK: (laughs) It would be like THE BLUE LAGOON all over again! 

JS: My favorite band is Rush, and they have a crazy song called “Dog Years” which makes a reference to wanting to be a tortoise from the Galapagos Islands instead of having to be a dog which only lives about 12-15 years (laughs).

KK: Oh, they’re a great band.  I have all their CD’s.

JS: Have you ever seen them live?

KK: No, I haven’t.

JS: They put on an amazing show.  Their most popular song, “Tom Sawyer”, is featured in HALLOWEEN. 

KK: Cool!  I can’t wait to see the finished film.   So, those are some of my top places that I want to get to.  I’d also love to see Asia, you know, China and Japan.  They have such specific cultures there.  I read a lot of Haruki Murakami (Japanese author of “Hear the Wind Sing”, “Pinball”, and “A Wild Sheep Chase”, among others), and I imagine what it’s like to go there, so that’s a place I want to visit. 

JS: Can you tell me your earliest memories of going to the movies?

KK: Well, how funny is this!  The first movie I ever saw was E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL.  I didn’t realize that Dee Wallace played the mother in it.  And she plays Laurie’s (Scout Taylor-Compton) mom in HALLOWEEN!  I grew up speaking German, and I didn’t speak English as well yet because my parents made an effort to teach me the other languages first even though I was living in America.  So, I went for an interview at a school and I didn’t speak English well, and I was told that if I did well in this meeting and speak English, my mom said that she would take me to see E.T.  So, I spoke English the best I could, I got into the school, and I got to see E.T.  I mean, New York City is so crazy, you know, they want to interview you for Kindergarten…

JS: Oh, jeez! 

KK: And since then I’ve seen E.T. so many times.  But, my parents didn’t have a TV.  We didn’t watch TV at home.  I really went to a lot more theater than movies because I grew up doing more theater, as opposed to films. 

JS: Have you ever done any Edward Albee plays?

KK: No, I haven’t. 

JS: How about Sam Shepard or John Patrick Shanley?

KK: I did Shanley’s “The Big Funk”.  I also did a lot of Shakespeare, such as “Romeo and Juliet”.  I’ve also performed in plays by a lot of new playwrights who are Off-Off-Broadway and Off-Broadway.    I did a play by Julian Shepard, I did “The Bourgeois Gentleman” by Molière, I did Eric Overmyer’s “On the Verge”…

JS: Do you go see a lot of plays?

KK: Yeah, well, when I lived in New York I went to see a play maybe once or twice a week, but now that I live in Los Angeles I don’t see many.  Honestly, they depress me, they’re just showcases.  None of them are real.  Unless you go to a really nice theater in LA, it’s really hard to find really good theater.  Whereas in New York you go to little black boxes of about 50 seats and you can see something great in an intimate environment. 

JS: Yes, you’re right.  I saw Ione Skye and Josh Hamilton in Jonathan Marc Sherman's “Evolution” at the Bleecker Street Theater in New York in October 2002.  That was in a very small theater, and it was nice because I sat next to Frank Whaley, who I liked in PULP FICTION. 

KK: Cool!

JS: Let’s talk about HALLOWEEN.

KK: Let’s! (giggles)

JS: You play Lynda, who was originally played by PJ Soles.  Have you seen John Carpenter’s version? 

KK: I have now, and I started watched it just prior to shooting, right after I learned that I got the role.  But, I stopped watching it when the girls came on because the way that Rob (Zombie) wrote the script was so different than the feel of the movie, so I stopped while we were shooting, and then watched it completely after shooting was over.  And when we were done, people were asking me if I kept saying “Totally!”

JS: That would not have made sense because you never hear that anymore.  Today, the most overused expression is “Awesome!”

KK: Right, I know.  In fact, I say “totally” like twice, and it’s not even how they say it in the original. 

JS: Were you aware of the classic status that has beset the original? 

KK: No, I had no idea.  I didn’t even know what I was auditioning for.  It’s not that I don’t like horror, I’m just really scared of horror films.  I watched A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and had nightmares about it for weeks.  I watched ARACHNOPHOBIA and I thought that spiders were gonna kill me.  I didn’t grow up watching that many horror movies, so I was unaware of the status of the Carpenter version.  I now like watching NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and the older horror films. 

JS: How did you approach your role in Rob Zombie’s film? 

KK: Well, I guess the weird thing is that the role came from the script because Rob wrote Lynda so specifically, and therefore it was easy to play the character.  The character just came naturally.  She’s this kind of tough, bad-ass cheerleader, and I was never a cheerleader, so I had to imagine what that was like and internalize that to become the character. 

JS: How did Rob Zombie direct the film?  Did he stick to the script, or did he use improvisational techniques? 

KK: I love improve and he let me improvise.  There’s a scene where me and my boyfriend get out of his van and walk into the Myers house, and Rob just said, “Make up some dialog.”  We never really changed anything that he wrote, but we added our own little contributions.   I love going by the script and also improvising, so mixing it up is fun. 

JS: You’re in a new film called THE ACCIDENTAL HUSBAND with Isabella Rossellini.  Have you seen BLUE VELVET which also starred Rossellini?

KK: Yes.  I actually made a movie in college.  I have my own 16mm camera and I made a short film about a woman who is raped, and so BLUE VELVET is what I really watched to get the ammo for the filmmaking and the way that the film was shot, just because it was so dark and so sexual. 

JS: Have you seen IRREVERSIBLE? 

KK: No, I haven’t. 

JS: It’s a French film by Gaspar Noe with husband and wife stars Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci.  The film is told in reverse and it details the rape of a woman and how it affects her and her husband.  The rape scene is the most brutal I’ve seen in a major motion picture, and it’s done in one take and runs nearly seven minutes, almost as long as the unbelievably intricate penultimate shot of Michelangelo Antonioni’s THE PASSENGER as the camera passes slowly through window rails and does a 180-degree turn. 

KK: I’ve heard about that film, and if I watched it I would probably be really disturbed by it.  I know I should see it, though. 

JS: What do you have in the pipeline?

KK: I have an independent film that I shot that should be doing the film festival circuit.  But, I’m just right now…I shot a short movie about two weeks ago, and that short is going to the festivals, too.  I am supposed to be shooting a movie now but…Hollywood likes to pit people against each other, and that’s all that I’m gonna say about that. 

JS: What directors would you like to work with?

KK: Christopher Nolan.  I loved MEMENTO.  Martin Scorsese.  Edward Norton isn’t a director, but he’d be great to act with.  Quentin Tarantino.  Stephen Gaghan, he made SYRIANA.  Victor Salva, he made THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR, which is a beautiful film. 

JS: He did the JEEPERS CREEPERS films!

KK: Yeah!  God, if he was still alive, I’d love to work with Stanley Kubrick.

JS: He’s my favorite director, and when he died I was so angry.  I thought we would get at least one more movie out of him. 

KK: I know. 

JS: Have you seen RUN, LOLA RUN?

KK: Yes!  That’s a great movie. 

JS: Good luck with HALLOWEEN, and thank you for taking the time to speak with me. 

KK: Oh, sure, no problem!  Thanks!