Robin Sherwood, circa 1977

Having founded her own company, frecklefarm, she ran it for seven years.  Currently, she is in the process of returning to acting.  House of Horrors spoke with Robin recently to discuss her past, present, and what she hopes to accomplish in the future. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Where were you born and what was your childhood like?

Robin Sherwood:  I was born in Miami Beach, Florida.  I went to the movies often when I was young.  There were malls and one could walk to them, so I did that a lot.  I remember seeing WEST SIDE STORY and thinking that Natalie Wood was so beautiful.   That film made a huge impression on me.  I was really young and I used to read all those fan magazines.  I remember Natalie talking about how hard she really worked on that film, and that at night when the cast would go out to parties, she instead would be working on her script.  From that alone I understood that the life of an actress wasn't all glamour.  I mean, it's work.  You really have to work at it. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Given the nature of film, it is easy for a youngster to look up on the screen and think that everything that they're seeing is all that it took to bring the story to life, and have no idea of what went on behind the scenes.  Nowadays, people have a much better insight into the making of films with DVD documentaries and behind-the-scenes footage.  But back then, when all you really had to rely on was some short documentaries and publicity stills, it was probably easy to believe that moviemaking was a highly glamorous art form.  And the same can be said for television. 

Robin Sherwood:  Yes, absolutely.  I liked television a lot, too.  I feel like I know the Brady Bunch personally!  I loved watching the reruns of "I Love Lucy".  Those were fabulous.  In the 70's I liked "Good Times" and all of those sitcoms, the comedies. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Did you always want to act?

Robin Sherwood:  Yes, I did.  I stayed in Miami Beach until I was 14 and then I went away to school.  I started working at 14, too, and when I was 17 I was working professionally.  I was in the union, and I was working as an actress.  Oleg Cassini (a French-born American fashion designer noted for being chosen by Jacqueline Kennedy to design her state wardrobe in the 1960s - from Wikipedia.com) came down looking for models and I got my big break with him.  He was still a name back then, so lots of models really wanted to work with him.  

Jonathan Stryker:  The IMDB lists THE LOVE BUTCHER as your first film.  This is due for a special edition DVD release in 2009. 

Robin Sherwood:  Yes, I was still in college when I did that.  We had work study, and I went to Hollywood for work study because I was an actress.  I didn't want to go back to school to graduate, but I did.  I did my schooling in three years because I really wanted to get out so I could go to work.  My mother instilled a high work ethic in me when I was young.  She died when I was 10, so it was up to me to do everything on my own.  I come from an entrepreneurial family and we always pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps, you know, we made things happen.  I had a father who would say, "You've got to keep climbing and climbing and reaching higher."  I think that that helped a lot.  You know, to be around that mentality. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Now, what is THE LOVE BUTCHER about? 

Jonathan Stryker:  I love horror films like that, the ones that are trying so hard to be really serious and scary and they turn out to be very campy and silly.  They have a unique charm that is all their own.  I've always been a fan of the Italian horror film genre known as the giallo, and they certainly have their fair share of films that are supposed to be very frightening but turn out to be extremely funny.

Robin Sherwood:  Well, THE LOVE BUTCHER is about a gardener who ends up murdering a lot of his clients.  Naturally, he would do away with them with his gardening tools.  It has become kind of a cult film, which is so funny to me.  In the film, the authorities look at all of the tools and say something like, "Well, there must be a clue here somewhere!"  And it's very funny because it's so obvious.  Of course, the audience already knows who the killer is!  Really, I am nothing short of amazed that the film has the following that it has.  It is wonderful to see it doing so well.  It did not get released when it was made in 1975, but long after the time that I did DEATH WISH II. 

Jonathan Stryker:  LOOSE SHOES is a film that you appeared in as a Skateboarder From Hell, and it's a collection of faux trailers for movies that don't really exist. 

Robin Sherwood:  Yeah, I made that before I did TOURIST TRAP, even though the release year says 1980.  It was closer to 1977. 

Jonathan Stryker:  OUTSIDE CHANCE is a TV-movie that you appeared in with Yvette Mimieux in 1978. 

Robin Sherwood:  Yes, that's actually the only TV project than I ever did.  I didn't want to do TV because I wanted to concentrate on film.  But, it was fun to do and if I remember correctly it was the very first TV project for Roger Corman at the time.  It was unusual for an independent filmmaker to be producing a TV-movie that was airing on CBS.

Jonathan Stryker:  My favorite film of yours is TOURIST TRAP, the most frightening movie I think that has ever been made about mannequins.  How did you get the role in this film?

Robin Sherwood:  I had an agent who submitted an image of me with my arm resting on a skateboard.  The photo was taken at my Coldwater Canyon home in Beverly Hills at the time. 

Robin Sherwood: pre-TOURIST TRAP

My agent was a really funny guy as he would measure his clients as if they were racehorses!  You would go up to his office and he would have his clients listed along with the titles of the movie roles that they got.  And it was very funny because I was actually his youngest client.  He had people like Esther Rolle, you know.  Real giants in the field.  And I remember thinking, "Oh, my God, if only that could happen to me!  That would be really great."  And when TOURIST TRAP came around, he told me that he had this little film for me.  Everyone who worked on that film was either the son or daughter of big-name filmmakers.  He told me that it was going to be a lot of fun and that if I got the role it would be a really big break for me.  So I got the script and I worked with my acting coach, Jack Garfein, for about three hours.  The next day I went to the audition and they offered me the part.  Originally, they wanted a blonde, but they ended up hiring me.

Jonathan Stryker:  Do you recall when the movie was filmed? 

Robin Sherwood:  Well, it was hot and it was during late summer, so I want to say sometime in August 1978.  It was shot in Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

Robin as the adventurous Eileen

Jonathan Stryker:  The film was shot with a very low budget.  Were there any re-shoots?

Robin Sherwood:  Yes, there were.  We did re-shoots for about a week.  I don't remember exactly what they were, but we only re-shot pick-ups, not complete scenes.  After that we actually had to go into the dubbing booth.  We also shot in the interior of a very old house in Hollywood, and I doubt that it's still there.  That house was on Hollywood Boulevard.  It was very old at the time. 

TOURIST TRAP

I recall in that scene when I come into the house and I see the mannequins sitting around, I then have to go into the other room and admire myself in the mirror.  The script then calls for the mirror to be smashed, seemingly by itself.  Well, they had someone behind the mirror with a hammer and they had to hit it from behind to smash it.  I was told that it would be fine, that it was not real glass, but Chuck Connors was a pro in the business, and he warned me to look away before the glass was hit.  Well, thank God he told me, because someone screwed up and it turned out to be real glass, and I ended up in the hospital with some shards that had to be removed. 

TOURIST TRAP

Jonathan Stryker:  Jesus.

Robin Sherwood:  If I hadn't looked away, I would have been in worse shape. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Do you recall where the waterfall scene and Slausen's Lost Oasis were filmed?

Robin Sherwood:  The waterfall was done in Malibu.  I was married at the time to a producer, and he knew about moviemaking.  Tanya Roberts, Jocelyn Jones and myself had to get into the water, and my husband made sure that I was fitted with a body suit which was very instrumental in keeping me warm!  He knew that the water was going to be freezing. 

Tanya Roberts, Robin Sherwood, and Jocelyn Jones

If you look closely in that scene, Tanya and Jocelyn have their arms around themselves as they try to keep warm, and you can tell visibly that they are cold.  But, I was in the body suit and didn't suffer the same fate as they did.  Slausen's was way out in Simi Valley.  Chuck Connors was so tall!  He towered over all of us.  I really liked him a lot. 

Jonathan Stryker:  I think he was excellent in that film.  When the film was finished and released, did you go see it in a movie theater with an audience?

Robin Sherwood:  Yes, I went and saw it when it was playing on Hollywood Boulevard.  People in the audience recognized me as one of the actresses in the film.  That's always an odd experience, because people generally don't expect to see that.  But, it was mostly a young crowd, and they really enjoyed the film. 

Jonathan Stryker: After TOURIST TRAP, you appeared in the comedies HERO AT LARGE and SERIAL, and then in what I consider to be Brian DePalma's best film, BLOW OUT. 

Robin Sherwood:  I wanted to move into bigger films.  I deliberately took smaller rolls in bigger films to establish myself.  So, I went in to audition for Brian and it was all improve.  In the scene that I did in the sound booth with the other actress at the studio in Los Angeles, I just remember Brian laughing as we rehearsed it. 

BLOW OUT

Jonathan Stryker:  I love that film.  Along with TOURIST TRAP, BLOW OUT has one of Pino Donaggio's best scores. 

Robin Sherwood:  It's beautiful. 

Jonathan Stryker:  DEATH WISH II was your last film, correct?

Robin Sherwood:  Yes, I was 28 when I made that and I had been working since I was 14, and I decided to move to France.  I really got to know France. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Why did you stop acting?

Robin Sherwood:  I fell in love, and having been well-educated and well-traveled I was really interested in aesthetics.  So, I started to write, then I worked for Sotheby's in Los Angeles.  I did Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis' estate, that was my first estate.  It was a different world and I was surrounded by beautiful pieces. 

Benefex, Jonathan Stryker, and Robin Sherwood at TOURIST TRAP screening at Bryan Norton's - 2008

Jonathan Stryker:  What is the scariest movie you've ever seen?

Robin Sherwood:  THE HAUNTING.  I was a little girl when I saw that and I couldn't sleep for weeks! 

Jonathan Stryker:  My first interview was with Robert Wise and we talked exclusively about this film.  I have to get to Ettington Park in England which doubled as the exterior of Hill House.  The interiors were all shot in a studio.  THE INNOCENTS with Deborah Kerr is another great ghost story in black and white.  

Robin Sherwood:  I haven't seen that. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Tell me about frecklefarm, the company that you have run since 2001. 

Robin Sherwood:  frecklefarm is my on-line home. It is truly a house of spirits. I have a blog and autographed pictures.  During the holidays I sell home accessories, fashion, and personal items in the frecklefarm store.

Jonathan Stryker:  Tell me about your desire to return to acting. 

Robin Sherwood: I just gave an on camera interview for the DVD world-wide release of THE LOVE BUTCHER scheduled for release late this next spring.  It was shot by Bryan Norton who works at the New York Film Academy.  Also I am making my New York debut Guest Appearance at Fangoria on June 5-7, 2009 at the Jacob Javits Center. I am very selective about conventions that I choose to be in. This is only my second one ever in my entire career. I love Fangoria.  It is the best. 

I want to perform on Broadway in dramatic as well as musical comedy shows. I sing and dance and was originally working on stage before I began acting in films. I am going to continue acting in films, although my days of getting killed in films are over.  Whatever Karma I was working out is done.  And this time around, in my comeback years, I want to do quality television. I enjoy having achieved a cult position as an actress, however I want to appeal to a wider audience such as family entertainment. Men know me more than women as an actress. This time I want to do more projects that appeal to women and children...a broader audience. In my life, now there is balance.

            The roles I am paying attention to now are character-driven as before they were mainly part of the plot, even though they were leads. I have the wisdom now, and I want the fans to be able to experience that when they watch me in performance.  That is what is meant by "giving a performance." I want to leave the audience with a gift from me.

Lesleh Donaldson

Following her feature film debut as Michael Douglas' daughter in the Canadian drama RUNNING, Lesleh performed in four consecutive low-budget Canadian horror films starting in the late 1970's and into the early 1980's that have fans the world over.  She began with FUNERAL HOME, an atmospheric tale of strange goings-on in rural Canada that featured an eccentric performance by Kay Hawtry.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME featured Lesleh as a student who is dispatched early-on in this revenge thriller starring "Little House on the Prairie's" Melissa Sue Anderson and released by Columbia Pictures.  DEADLY EYES followed, a strange yarn about giant rats invading Toronto.  Her last foray into horror was in this scribe's personal favorite, CURTAINS, the Jensen Farley flick about six actresses all hoping to audition for a film director who is casting his new film, AUDRA, and needs to find the perfect woman to portray her in all her beautiful madness.

Although she does not consider herself to be a strictly horror-based actress, Lesleh possesses an affinity for the horror films of the 1960's which helped shape her direction in the acting world.  Coming on the heels of Canadian genre favorites, Lesleh received critical acclaim in several television productions and has done considerable stage work in her native Canada.  Having left Canada in the late 1990's, Lesleh now lives in New York City with her husband and two children and is looking to act again.  It would be wonderful to see Lesleh in a stage production as New York is the best place to showcase one's thespian talents. 

House of Horrors spent some time with Lesleh to discuss her work and love of movies. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Tell me a little bit about your background and your experiences growing up as a movie-lover in Canada.

Lesleh Donaldson:  I loved watching the Hammer horror films when I was a kid.  My Aunt Sheila loved them and she took me to see those when I was about seven or eight; I would sneak off with her!  I was raised by my mother and my aunt.  I was also very close to my grandmother.  My mother was a schoolteacher, and I was an only child.  When I was about nine I started taking modeling classes and getting booked for modeling gigs and then I went on to do commercials and television and that led to the film and the theater.  I had a pretty normal childhood. 

Hammer Horror

Jonathan Stryker:  Were you an avid filmgoer when you were young?

Lesleh Donaldson:  Yes, most definitely.  My mother grew up watching all of these wonderful film musicals.  She loved the Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney films about Andy Hardy, etc.  So I pretty much grew up watching that stuff when I was young.  When I was about eight I went to see OLIVER! and I just fell completely in love with it. 

I must've seen it about 10 times in the movie theater.  And even though I went to the movies a lot, I didn't have any real plans of wanting to become an actress.  I never thought to myself, Oh, I can really do that.  I just loved how you could get lost in a movie theater.  Some of the movies made you think, some of them were really entertaining and I just loved it.  I'd love the idea of just going to the theater and watching a movie and getting lost for two hours.  It was a lot of fun, and was a big part of my life. 

Jonathan Stryker:  What are the earliest memories you have of going to the movies?  Did you ever go to drive-ins?

Lesleh Donaldson:  I don't recall going to drive-ins, I just remember the theaters.  I was raised in Toronto.  I would go to the movies very frequently, and the theaters were huge.  Today they're these little Cineplex things.  But, when I was a kid they had big theaters, like the Ziegfeld-style theaters.  So, when you went to the movies, it was a big deal.  But, I don't recall going to the drive-ins much.

Jonathan Stryker: Do recall the very first movie you ever saw in a theater?

Lesleh Donaldson:  I believe that it was THE SOUND OF MUSIC. 

I have images in my mind of the movies that made the biggest impact on me, the films that affected me the most.  I'm thinking of OLIVER! and LITTLE WOMEN.  And I think I saw MARY POPPINS as well.  I think kids probably see these movies today too, but they see them on home video, certainly not in the big movie theaters that I grew up going to.  For me personally, it was the horror films that really started to pique my interest.

Jonathan Stryker:  Do you recall the names of the movie theaters that you went to? 

Lesleh Donaldson:  Yes, they were the Odeon Carlton, the Danforth, and the Fairlawn. There was another one on Bloor Street that they tore down.  It's now a multiplex.  Most of the theaters were named after the studios, you know, like the Paramount, etc.  I remember another one was the Mount Pleasant Cinema. 

Jonathan Stryker:  What were your career ambitions as a teenager?  Were you thinking about acting at by this point?

Lesleh Donaldson:  Well, yes I was because I was doing it, and I decided that that's what I really wanted to do.  I knew early on that I wanted acting to be my profession. 

Jonathan Stryker:  When you played Michael Douglas's daughter in RUNNING, did that lead to FUNERAL HOME? 

Lesleh Donaldson:  Yes, RUNNING was my first feature film and that opened up the door to allow me to meet with other casting directors.  We shot FUNERAL HOME right after I was done with the 9^th grade.  I was fifteen, and we shot in 1979 during my summer vacation.  We shot that primarily in Markham right outside of Toronto. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Did you have a good rapport with the cast and crew?

Lesleh Donaldson:  Yeah, in fact I became good friends with Kay Hawtrey (who played the woman in the film).   We saw each other for a long time off and on after filming wrapped.  It's funny, because my kids watch "Max and Ruby", a cartoon, and Kay actually does the voice of grandma on it! 

Jonathan Stryker:  Was FUNERAL HOME's ending the original ending, or was the ending different in the script? 

FUNERAL HOME (1980)

Lesleh Donaldson:  Yes, the script was pretty much intact.  Director William Fruet's wife, Ida, wrote the script.  It was all there from the beginning to the end, so we knew who the killer was from the get-go.

Jonathan Stryker:  You're featured in HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.  Is this the extent of what was filmed for the movie, or did you have more footage that was excised? 

Lesleh Donaldson:  No, what you see in the film is what I was involved with.  It was a short scene and I knew that going in. 

Jonathan Stryker: Do you keep in touch with anyone whom you have worked with?

Lesleh Donaldson:  No, not really.  It's hard because I live in New York and so many people I worked with are in the Toronto and surrounding areas.  I wish that I had kept in contact with some of them because they were really cool people. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981)

Jonathan Stryker:  I have spoken to a lot of actors and actresses and they say that that is something that is difficult to do.  Everyone gets onto a film set and believes they are going to stay friends with these people for the rest of their lives, but the reality is that once shooting is over, you're moving on to the next project.

Lesleh Donaldson:  It's true, it's very true.  But at the same time, what's great about it is if I were to get a role in another film with someone I had already worked with before, we could just pick up where we left off, you know? 

Jonathan Stryker:  Can you tell me about your experiences on DEADLY EYES?

Lesleh Donaldson:  Oh, God.  (laughs)  I was told about the role through my agent.  I went in to audition, and I guess because I had done a few movies at that point they felt that I was right for the part and I got the role. 

I knew Lisa Langois, Joe Kelly, and Kevin Fox, and so I guess that because we all knew each other, the agents kind of kept us all together.  We shot at a house in a location in Canada, I really can't remember the exact location.  We shot the party scene there, and then the scene where we go to the movie theater, I think that was in Mount Pleasant.  I was on a high at the time because I was nominated for an award for FUNERAL HOME, so that was kind of neat.  I was sort of on a little high from that.  I also remember the dogs that were forced to wear those over-sized fake rat outfits!  Poor little things.

DEADLY EYES (1982)

Jonathan Stryker:  When was DEADLY EYES filmed?

Lesleh Donaldson:  1982.  Probably after CURTAINS.  Or maybe CURTAINS was still filming!  That seemed like that went on forever!

Jonathan Stryker:  CURTAINS was distributed by Jensen Farley Pictures, Inc., a terrific film company that also distributed PRIVATE LESSON, THE BOOGENS, MADMAN, HOMEWORK, JOYSTICKS, and CHAINED HEAT. 

MADMAN (1982)

CURTAINS has a reputation of being problematic on the production side.  Were you always slated to play Christie Burns? 

Lesleh Donaldson:  Yes, I was playing her from the get-go.  And I do skate, but I do not figure skate.  I've always gotten these roles wherein I play a disabled athlete, and I am just not an athlete!  I played a blind horse rider, I played an epileptic swimmer and a mentally handicapped puppeteer in other productions.  But I never had these skills to begin with.  For CURTAINS I learned how to skate, but I fell and hit my face on the ice, so they had to get a stunt double! 

They actually tried to give me some backstory.  Peter Simpson, the producer, went out to some college with me and I had a scene where I had an altercation with a teacher that I was having an affair with.  Or he might have been a coach.  I don't remember.   But, the script was changed a lot and as the film progresses you're not really sure what's going on, you know, it gets a little muddied. 

Jonathan Stryker:  CURTAINS has a truly creepy scene of a mysterious figure wearing a mask skating towards you in slow motion wielding a sickle. 

Lesleh Donaldson:  Yes, that scene was one of the most memorable in the film. 

CURTAINS (1983)

Jonathan Stryker:  Did you become friends with any members of the cast?

Lesleh Donaldson:  I was good friends with Annie Ditchburn (who played the dancer).  I was doing the skating, and she would come with me to the lessons and since she was a ballet dancer she would help me with the choreography.  I also spent time with Sandee Currie and Michael Wincott.  I didn't know Linda Thorson or Samantha Eggar. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Wincott's role is very small.  Was his role larger originally? 

Lesleh Donaldson:  I think it was.  In the film he's the director's son, and they wanted to intimate that he was the killer.  But, for whatever reason, his role was reduced. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Do you have any idea who designed that scary doll and that face mask?

CURTAINS (1983)

Lesleh Donaldson:  Wow, no, I don't. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Lesleh, you're killing me!  I want those props!  (laughs)

Lesleh Donaldson:  I suppose if you could get a hold of Roy Forge Smith, the production designer, maybe he would know. 

Jonathan Stryker:  He worked on FUNERAL HOME, too. 

Lesleh Donaldson:  Yes, he did. 

Jonathan Stryker:  A different ending of CURTAINS is shown in stills depicting Lynne Griffin onstage with all the murdered women who vied for the role of Audra.  Was this a scene that was actually filmed?

CURTAINS (1983) - Alternate Ending?

Lesleh Donaldson:  Not with me.  At least I don't remember doing it.  Perhaps I buried it deep down in my mind!  (laughs)  I cannot imagine it being traumatic for me, because I remember shooting the ending of HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, I remember that quite vividly.

Jonathan Stryker:  Do you watch your films? 

Lesleh Donaldson:  I do now.  I hated to at the time.  Back then I always felt that I was too fat, or I hated my voice, you know.  If I made a movie now I probably wouldn't want to watch it!  (laughs)  When I watch my films now, I can actually get involved in the story.  Back then I was so self conscious that it was impossible to be objective.

Jonathan Stryker:  How long have you lived in New York?

Lesleh Donaldson:  Thirteen years.  I came down here briefly in the late '80's for a few months. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Do you still act?

Lesleh Donaldson:  I have a commercial agent now and I am slowly going on auditions, but I have kids now and I don't have the investment in it that I once had.  We'll see how it goes!

House of Horrors caught up with Michael at the Monster Mania 11 convention to discuss where he has been and where he sees himself going.  Michael is an extremely personable and approachable person and is not at all bothered to be discussing silver spheres after nearly 30 years.  

Michael Baldwin - 2008

Jonathan Stryker: Where were you born and where did you grow up?

Michael Baldwin: I was born and raised in Los Angeles and lived there into my twenties. I grew up in Tujunga, which is the northeast section of LA in the foothills.  I do own a home in LA now, and I also live in Austin and Miami.  I grew up in an entertainment family.  My parents were both in the business.  I began working professionally when I was seven years-old.  My father, Gerard Baldwin, is a pretty well-known animator/producer/director.  He has won Emmy Awards for his work.  In the old days, he was a director on "Rocky and Bullwinkle" and "The Smurfs".  He had a fifty-year career in animation. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Were you a big movie fan during your early childhood years? 

Michael Baldwin:  Yes, definitely.  I love Woody Allen movies, I'm a big fan of his stuff.  I remember being in the sixth grade and seeing SLEEPER with my friend Adam Bernstein and falling out of my seat from laughing so hard.  I just thought it was the funniest movie I had ever seen.  It may not be the funniest movie of all-time, but when I was in the sixth grade, I never saw anything funnier than that film.  I noticed that Keir Dullea is here with us this weekend, and my dad used to take me to see 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY every year, without fail, at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Wow.  2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is the best movie I have ever seen. 

Michael Baldwin:  So, it would be an event for us to see that movie.  Those were the movies that I really dug from my childhood.  And, to meet Keir earlier today was great.  I know that I am in this business and I am supposed to be too cool for words and not be affected by all of this stuff, but there are certain movies and certain people that I am just a fan of, like anybody else.  Keir is one of those guys where I thought, Oh, my God - I cannot wait to meet him!    

Jonathan Stryker:  Did you ever see BLACK CHRISTMAS?

Michael Baldwin:  No.

Jonathan Stryker:  Keir is in it, and it's one of the scariest movies ever made.       

Michael Baldwin:  Really? 

Jonathan Stryker:  Yes, you should see it.  Do you remember the first movie you saw in a theater?

Michael Baldwin:  I do!  It was DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE, with Sean Connery. 

Jonathan Stryker:  And Janet Munro!  (smiling internally)

Michael Baldwin:  It was a Disney movie, of course.  And the second movie I saw was THX 1138.  It made a distinct impression on me.  I guess that I was seven or eight when I saw it.  I never, ever forgot that film.  And when I saw it again as an adult, I was amazed at what a stunningly beautiful movie it is.  It's a lovely, lovely film.

Jonathan Stryker:  I saw it on television in 1978 after STAR WARS was a huge hit, and I was confused by it, to be perfectly honest.  2001 was confusing, too, and I saw that on TV, which is really not seeing it at all!  But after seeing it at the Ziegfeld, it's, like I said, the best movie I have seen to date. 

Michael Baldwin:  Yeah, you really have to see those films in a theater. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Did you go to drive-ins?

Michael Baldwin:  Oh, sure!  I saw a double-bill of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and HAROLD AND MAUDE.  HAROLD AND MAUDE is still a fabulous movie that easily stands the test of time.  THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE not so much, but it's a pretty good movie still.

Jonathan Stryker:  I loved all of that Irwin Allen stuff as a kid, seeing THE TOWERING INFERNO and EARTHQUAKE. 

Michael Baldwin:  Yeah, and I saw that double-feature I just mentioned with my friend Danny Peterson and his whole family in a giant station wagon at a real drive-in. 

Jonathan Stryker:  What are some of your favorite movies?

Michael Baldwin:  I think that it's unfair to have a list of favorites because movies are so different and so varied, but if you were to ask my top favorite movies, in no special order, would be 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, THE WIZARD OF OZ, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, THE GODFATHER, CITIZEN KANE, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, and I would probably throw PHANTASM in there just because.  (laughs)

Jonathan Stryker:  I was wondering if that was on there.

Michael Baldwin:  Yeah, I'm a huge, huge movie fan.  There are a lot of films that I love, so it's hard to narrow it down to a few.

Jonathan Stryker:  Was there anything else that you wanted to be when you were a child, or was acting always it?

Michael Baldwin: No, when I was a kid I always wanted to be an actor.  That was it.  I told my parents that this was what I wanted to do, and I got an agent and that was it.

Jonathan Stryker:  KENNY AND COMPANY is one of just a handful of the best films that I have seen made about children and childhood, and it takes place during my favorite decade, the 1970's.  It's quirky and it comes straight from the heart.  Along with Francois Truffaut's L'ARGENT DE POCHE (1976) from the same year, KENNY AND COMPANY, which has an obvious American sensibility about it, beautifully captures life in America for kids during that time.  Although I have never lived in France, one gets the feeling that Truffaut achieved the same thing for French children with his film, because KENNY AND COMPANY does have dramatic moments and scenes of great poignancy that I have not seen in any other film. 

Michael Baldwin:  Well, first of all, the fact that you would put KENNY AND COMPANY in the same sentence as Truffaut's film says that you're either an idiot-

Jonathan Stryker:  (Laughs)

Michael Baldwin: - or you have amazingly good taste.  (laughs) I'm not sure which!

Jonathan Stryker:  (Laughs)  So many of us can relate to the shenanigans of the main characters, such as making prank phone calls with the tape recorder and dressing up for Halloween, I mean, what kid during the Seventies didn't do those things?

Michael Baldwin:  When I think about KENNY AND COMPANY, I think about the summer that we shot the film, which was 1975.  I think I was going into the sixth grade, and I was eleven, and it was just a fun, fun summer.  What better way to spend it than to make a movie? 

Jonathan Stryker:  What really makes KENNY AND COMPANY so interesting is that came out during the same year as THE BAD NEWS BEARS, and this was, from what I recall anyway, the first time that kids in American cinema talked the way they did in real life to each other.  Essentially they cursed at each other and were crude, although KENNY AND COMPANY is fairly tame compared to THE BAD NEWS BEARS. 

Michael Baldwin:  Yes, these were real kids in a non-Disney movie.  THE BAD NEWS BEARS was a big hit here in the States, although KENNY AND COMPANY did little business here but was a huge hit in Japan. 

Jonathan Stryker:  In 1979 my friend, Chad O'Connor, was one of only two people I knew who had HBO, and he used to tell me about the movies that he saw on it, like THE BOYS IN COMPANY C, THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, THE CHICKEN CHRONICLES, C.H.O.M.P.S., and KENNY AND COMPANY.  I think it might have also been on Wometco Home Theater, also known as WHT.  It took me another 20 years before I caught up with it on Cinemax and saw it for the first time. 

Michael Baldwin:  Yeah, people have responded really well to it.

Jonathan Stryker:  PHANTASM struck a nerve in me in a way that few films ever have.  What is your reaction to the fans of this film nearly 30 years later? 

Michael Baldwin:  Well, it's amazing.  It's shocking and gratifying that it affected people so much. The film hits a certain particular kind of guy, you know?  It's usually a guy who saw that film between twelve and fourteen years of age and they really identified with Mike who was this alienated kid.  His family is broken up and he is paranoid that his older brother is going to leave him.  People tell me all the time that PHANTASM affected them more than any other film. 

Jonathan Stryker:  I remember when it came out.  I saw ads for it in the newspaper  with the black hand coming out of the ground.  I didn't see it until 1983 when it was on television.  I remember pestering my father to get it for me on the RCA SelectaVision CED home video system we had, and I just watched it over and over again.  

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Michael Baldwin:  Yeah.  The shooting schedule was about a year.  It was such a low budget, and a lot of it was shot on the weekends. 

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Jonathan Stryker:  You run an acting school in Austin TX.  What inspired you to found the school?

Michael Baldwin:  I think that I had something to offer.  I have been in the business for a long, long time.  I have worn many hats over the years, and I just felt that I wanted to offer aspiring actors an easier way to get noticed.  And I think I'm right. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Are you familiar with Michael Imperioli's acting company in New York, Studio Dante?

Michael Baldwin:  Yes, I am. 

Jonathan Stryker:  If someone wanted to get information on your school where would they go?  I Googled a website but couldn't find one.

Michael Baldwin:  That's because our website has been in development for, you know, five years.  (laughs)  It should be up soon. 

Jonathan Stryker:  What would you like to do that you haven't done yet?

Michael Baldwin:  Well, I'm working on a TV show right now called "Time Channel" which I'm pretty excited about.  We're going to be doing a cross-platform web-isode to comic book to gaming promotion with the show.  So, I'll be busy the next few months!